The One

Mark your calendars because this is probably never going to happen again. I am officially going on record as saying that Matthew McConaughey is legitimately HOT in that currently annoying Dolce and Gabbana commercial that runs about 50 times a day on television. Yes, he is HOTHOTHOT.

Now you must understand that I have always found him to be goofy, almost greasy looking and he previously repelled me pretty strongly. He always had an air of "dimwitted surfer dude" to him and he always looked filthy and really skanky to me. Ever since I heard that story about him being stoned out of his mind and found in his driveway completely nude and playing bongo drums years ago, well, that cancelled out any appealing qualities for me. Sure, I've noticed his amazing abs over the years but it never made him sexy to me at all. I've even heard stories about him being difficult to do love scenes with for his female co-stars because he eschews the use of deodorant and has deplorable personal grooming habits.

Having heard these tales about him, I found it pretty comical that he was doing Stetson cologne commercials a while back. Now, he is the face of Dolce and Gabbana's men's fragrance "The One". Ironic, isn't it?

So why am I suddenly finding him dreamy? You know, I really can't put my finger on it but every time I hear the slow sexy music on my TV, I immediately look up and see him strutting his stuff toward me in that confident "I am a supah-stah" way of his and I am captivated. When he lands on that luxe couch and his shirt opens gently, I half expect him to clumsily fall off the couch and onto the floor. The look of suprise on his face when the cameras start snapping at him says "shit! you're all here for lil' ole ME?" Part of me would not be surprised to see a half empty bottle of bud light on a table in the background. When I first saw this commercial I thought, wow. This is the guy that rented a camper and hung out with Penelope Cruz in the woods all summer a few years ago? How did he land this gig? His real life persona is the farthest thing from classy that I can imagine. He seems like the kind of guy who would say and do absolutely anything to get into your pants and then simply say "see ya darlin'" the next morning as he strolls out on his merry way, forgetting all he promised you in the heat of the moment.

Maybe I should just stop analyzing and enjoy it. This is just going to have to fall under the realm of unexplained phenomenon for me like why I like Ghost Whisperer, why I need my sheets tucked in around my feet, why beets taste like horrible dirt to me and why I always have a montage of baby pictures of myself on the wall of the bathroom of every place I've ever lived.

That's all for now! :)

First Snow

Yesterday, we got our first significant snow of the year. It was beautiful to look at, but a bear to get through especially when it became a sheet of ice later in the day. The picture featured here is at 122 street and Broadway in Manhattan. It was such a peaceful spot I couldn't resist capturing it. I don't know if I'm going to feel the same way about it if we get more of this on Monday as they are predicting. Observing from your window at home is completely different that trudging through it all day and trying to get a train home when none of them are working. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the quite beauty of it all!

Gotta be In It To Win It

Last week I was at an appointment and the person I had the appointment with was chatting with another employee. They were discussing something that sounded pretty juicy from the little bit that I heard. Naturally, being the nosey person that I am, I asked outright was was being discussed.

Apparently, a former friend of these two individuals had won the most recent lottery drawing. Yes, he won the grand prize which was $11 million dollars. Yes, 11 million. After taxes, this came down to about 3.8 million. Putting this in an ING direct account would pay out about $128,000 PER YEAR in interest alone. We all just sat there and shook our heads. It turns out, the winner is not the nicest guy and his employees are not at all fond of him. His owns a business and his employees actually read about his lottery winning in the local paper. The day after and everyday since he has come to work as usual and not said a word to anyone about it. Before winning he was incredibly wealthy to begin with, as was his wife. They already own a beautiful residence in Manhattan. This is a person who will never have any financial worries for the duration of his life. Just imagining this really boggles the mind, especially in today's state of economic Armageddon.

After taking it all in, we just sat there and wondered aloud as to how this would change our own lives. Travel, paying off debt, buying a beautiful home, etc. The usual things came to mind but then ....what? did you ever let your mind wander like this? It was kind of telling. We all realized that we would still have to have some sort of purpose in life, i.e. work. Of course not for someone else but something on our own. It's funny that it only took a short while for us to come to this conclusion. The temptation to not do anything and just travel, shop and be lazy was there but even with a large amount of money none of us could imagine being satisfied with not having a purpose to get up for in the morning.

My own wish would be to found an organization that would be sort of an "adopt a grandparent" type of program. Through my career experience the saddest thing I see on a daily basis is lonely elderly people. There is a huge need for some sort of social support network. This is evident in all the former patients of mine who still call me to chat long after I have discharged them from therapy. My own Aunt is a prime example of this. She is pretty much alone and wishes for someone to do things with. To fill this void she goes shopping on a weekly basis with her sister. That shopping is something that doesn't fulfill her and actually hurts her financially in the end. I am convinced that if she had a person who wanted to spend time with her the shopping would not be such a big part of her life. (I feel this way with shopping in general anyway, shop a lot=filling a void).

Anyway, after this mental exercise we all came to the conclusion that it shouldn't take winning the lottery to really live your life and be a better person. Real life makes a lot of things very hard and not as feasible as it would be if there were unlimited funds available but the principle should be the same. Why wait for good fortune to really live? Even coming up with one goal, a reachable one like losing weight and exercising regularly for better health, or calling someone you haven't spoken to in a long time just to say you are thinking about them. Those are achievable and have great value if done with sincerity and consistently.

That said, I'm still going to spend $1 a week and keep my fingers crossed!

That's all for now! :)

Nothing says Christmas like a......

.........well, you know. In the spirit of the holidays I wanted to post my favorite Christmas song for you. From the late 80's R&B "Color Me Badd" vibe to the step by step instructions for the fellas on how to create your own gift for your special lady. This is the song that made me love Justin Timberlake and see Andy Samberg in a totally different light. Crank this baby up and bake some cookies to get in the mood....

Sexy Salt

If salt could be sexy, this would be that salt. These Pics are taken from Marxfoods.com. Thanks to a comment from Emily on my last entry here, I mosied over to marxfoods.com and took a peek at these gorgeous accoutrement's. WOW. Did I say WOW? I had previously mentioned my love for truffle salt and now I am on a full blown salt exploratory mission. Thankfully I have low blood pressure and I do not have to limit myself from salt or this would be really killing me to look at from afar. The salts being offered here are from a company called Ritrovo and they are: truffle salt, a saffron salt, a fennel salt, a "sweet and salt" (a melange of diff flavors, fruit, spices, vanilla, chocolate), a fiore and salt (an aromatic blend, chamomile, poppy, mallow, marigold, lime, hawthorn, yarrow, wild orange peel, flower pollen, heather and lavender ), a sea and salt (citrus , tomato, cardamom), and a limited edition Italian salt. The thing about flavored salt is that you only need a tiny bit to make a difference in your food. I plan on investigating these in the near future. I entered the contest, but have just about as much of a chance of winning that as I do of winning the megamillions lottery drawing.

I never win anything. Oh, except the time I won an ashtray. Yeah, I know. I was 10 at the time. It was the biggest letdown of my life at that point. I was at a baby shower (WTF??) and there was a grab bag prize and my number was picked. I was so thrilled my little self was shaking with excitement. I reached into the bag in front of everyone and pulled out a box at random and opened it and there it was. An ashtray! It was the 70's and I guess smoking wasn't as shunned or gross as it is now. Even our incoming president has the good sense to hide his nasty habit from us, many people do not even know that he smokes he concealed it so well. Anyway, it was the era of Virginia Slims and the "you've come a long way baby" commercials in all the women's magazines. Remember those? It was always a glamorous woman in a gorgeous dress, fully done up and defiantly puffing on her ugly ciggie. No one offered to let me pick anything else so I gave it to my Mom who smoked L&M's at the time. I was pretty pissed for the rest of that stupid shower and acted bratty and asked to go home about 23 times until we finally did.

Aaaaaaanyhoo...back to the salt. I picked up some porcini salt last night in case on the very off chance that I won this contest I would have the others and I can say that it is extremely porcini-ish and really delicious. I plan on using it in something today. I had it on leftover pasta last night and it was a wonderful flavor booster. If I do win the salts I will happily review all here. If not I will probably try a few of the ones that I will use the most and discuss here over time.


As a "what will we be paying for the used to be free next" side note, can you believe we are buying things like salt and bottled water for the prices we are now being charged for them? There are even oxygen "bars" where you can pay for air too if you are so inclined. Of course, this salt is supersonic sexy out of this world salt so that kinda doesn't apply here but it tickles me to imagine that if you woke up my Grandma who died in 1936 and showed her bottled water and fancy salt with the price tags attached she would probably choke and die another death all over again from the shock of it all. Of course the smell of any one of these fabulous salts would have surely revived her again. That said, I am dying to try these goodies and eventually I will try some and report back here to you! I could smell the saffron and truffle ones through the jars last night at the store so I am sure these are definitely something special.

That's all for now!

Holiday Cheer

Isn't this lovely? It's the Xmas tree outside of Le Cirque restaurant here in Manhattan. I walk past it a few times a week and I always stop to look at it. It's a calming oasis in the midst of all the holiday craziness. Tourists cramming the streets, wild traffic, deafening noise....and there, right in between two buildings with nothing else around, is this sight. It's so placid and calm. There is never anyone taking it in, I am usually the only person standing there enjoying it whenever I pass. It's a nice little pick me up that I will miss when it disappears.

I also want to add that in the spirit of the holidays I unearthed my George Winston classic CD "December". If you want something really soothing and relaxing to listen to this would be it. I was listening to it with someone last week and he put his head on my shoulder and said...wow, this is the most relaxing thing I've ever heard. I think he was right. The icing on the cake was my annual purchasing of the pannetone. As usual, I picked up my favorite brand, Tre Marie. This is the brand that made me like pannetone. Before that I hated it. This is moist, fresh, flavorful and just perfect. I like the one with custard in it. It is amazing! Even the big palooka at my local Italian Import store said as I bought it, "that one is the top of the line!"

Oh and one more little factoid.....I realize that I am sounding like Oprah here preening on and on about my "favorite things" but I just tried another brand of truffle salt and it was totally inferior to the original one I raved about. Not only that but I just found out that it is available in two strengths, 5% and 10%. I have 5 and I am definitely going to try some 10 to see if it is even more fabulous. The brand I like the best so far is called "Selezione Tartufi". I tried another and it was too salty. I know that sounds crazy to say a salt is too salty but it was compared to the other. It wasn't as balanced and the truffle flavor was too weak. If I had tried the one I'm not nuts about first I never would have thought it was as great as I do. So lesson to be learned if you're thinking of trying that glorious stuff!

Elegance in a nutshell

Elegance, it's the only word that really pops into my head when I see Diane from my favorite perfume boutique, Caron in NYC. Look at her, isn't she just beckoning out to you to step in and take a load off? (See post below for details). Caron is a beautiful place that hearkens back to another place and time when people used words like "hearkens" and gingerly in sentences with a straight look on their faces. They would also say things like..."gee it was grand of you to come and see me!" Gay meant happy and ladies wore white gloves and hats and powdered their noses. Speaking of powder, Caron makes the finest face powder in the world. There is a heavier foundation powder and a lighter setting powder and shimmer powder with a beautiful glow and the finest texture I've ever experienced. The powders smell like roses and violets which really adds to the glam of it and the huge down powder puffs for sale at Caron really make a gal feel like Queen for a day or at least for as long as it takes to apply your face powder! I have been through so many containers of this powder over the years that I have lost track, and I rarely rebuy anything, it's THAT good! There is only one Caron boutique in this country and some of the fragrances are very,very old and beautiful. They are complex and rich and just breathtaking. I feel lucky to get to visit this place on a regular basis. Believe me, it looks intimidating and it may sound snooty to you, but it is a very warm welcoming place and if you are in NYC and in the market for perfume or face powder please stop by and say hello to Diane. She is perched above the Phyto universe on 58th Street and Lexington avenue and she would be more than happy to introduce you to these finer things in life!

The way every bad day should end

Look at this picture. It looks like pure fancy schmantzy indulgence doesn't it? It is. It is a stunningly huge Baccarat Urn full of pure french parfum being decanted into a smaller bottle for yours truly to take home in her hot little hands. If I didn't do this today I would have gone completely insane.

Last Saturday, I went on an all day excursion looking for new snow boots. My very good friends invited me to go to the outlets, which is something we do yearly during holiday sales. It always starts with a text message that says merely "You in"?. Then I know, we're on. This year, in my effort to simplify my life and stop shopping for things I do not need, I knew that I had a mission. It was to buy some sensible boots for rain/snow inclement weather. My previous boots were removed from my foot after breaking my ankle. Removing them involved cutting them which left me with no more waterproof boots. After many, many hours of searching, I was completely defeated and nearly gave up. I cannot believe how many snow boots are not waterproof! I even went to the Uggs outlet ,despite hating them, and I was shocked to find out that the entire store only had one pair of boots that was water RESISTANT. They weren't even waterproof. I do a lot of walking and trudging in bad weather, and there is nothing worse than wet feet. I was determined to find something, anything short of covering my feet in Ziploc baggies that would truly make my feet the dry little ovens that I need to be walking around with during cold, wet weather. FINALLY I hit pay dirt at the venerable Bass outlet. I am happy to say that they now have quite a few stylish pieces and they have moved away from the Grandma in New England look. You can still look like Grandma there but there are some pretty stylish items too that are a great mix of comfort and functionality that I am not totally embarrassed to be wearing. The sale was unbelievable, 70 percent off and another 10% off from a coupon I had. My boots were practically free! They are totally cute, completely waterproof and warm and I now feel ready to face the snow and slush.

I also hit the Lindt chocolate outlet (full report to follow) and the Victoria's Secret outlet to pick up a couple of gifts. I do not like Victoria's Secret at all, but they had a slew of high end makeup for 75% off and I managed to get some gifts out of the way pretty easily. I must say that the glitter mascara that was there for about $3 on clearance is EXACTLY like Guerlains fairy mascara from a few years ago if you like that sort of thing. The best part of the experience was the free Spice Girls CD that was the "gift of the day". I scoffed at first but after coming home and listening to it I have to admit, it was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined it would be. I would never ever spend money on it but for a freebie it was pretty hot and toe tapping.

Everything sounds good so far right? Guess again because it was at that peaceful happy moment that (to be said in foreboding Dateline announcer voice) SOMETHING WENT HORRIBLY WRONG.I showered and got into bed after that long tiring day of shopping. There I was, laying there in my warm comfy bed, completely surrendering to sleep when at 1 am it suddenly began to rain in my bedroom . Yes, rain. Pretty hard. On me. On my face, my bed, down the side of my wall. I jumped up, I screamed. I yelled. there was hooting, and there was hollering. This did no good. After about 4 minutes, it stopped. I managed to change my sheets and go back to sleep with one eye and ear open and I called my landlord in the AM. He came over and determined that it was the sink of the person above me. Then came the statement that has a place in my worst nightmare. "I'm sorry but we are going to have to open up your ceiling". I shrieked "WHAT?". He said it again. I shrieked again. And maybe again. And then I set to the horrendous task of cleaning UNDER THE BED. You see, under the bed needed to be totally cleaned out because that space was exactly where he needed to put his ladder to cut my roof open. That was how I spent Sunday. I also went to the dollar store and bought about 8 plastic shower curtain liners to cover everything else in my bedroom in preparation for the onslaught of drilling and whatever other god awful activities were about to occur in my gentle oasis from the world. My snow boot/Spice Girl high was long destroyed by this ugly turn of events. Hours later it was done, the area was completely vacant. My mattress was in my kitchen. I waited anxiously for him to come back and commence. It took him an extra day to get supplies and guess what? He managed to do it from above, ripping apart the floor of the poor soul above me and leaving my ceiling intact. All my the stress was for nothing! I now have a clean dry bedroom again and a lot less clutter so some good did come from it after all.

After dealing with this turbulence in my placid little world, I tutted off to the plush but not overly ostentatious glory that is the Caron boutique on 58th and lex today after a Dr appt and finally, FINALLY got a giant bottle of delicious parfum to split with my very good friend! This purchase had been planned for about a year and a half and it was on sale this week for 20% off! GOOD TIMES! So the ladylike hand you see above was a sight for this girls sore eyes. Here's to being dry and smelling good!

That's all for now! :)