Drinks and the Fortune Teller

After sharing a bottle of Cabernet Sauvingon and then sipping down another glass over dinner, my friend Stef and I giddily decided to go get our palms read on Saturday night.

There's a place on the corner of my street that I've passed for the last two years but had never gone in. I often look at the people inside, the many little kids that the palm reader always seems to be watching, plus at the cute black cat that stares at me as I walk by. The woman & co. obviously live behind/above the store front which has a tacky neon palm sign on its window.

Anyway as I sat down on the leather chair, she took my hand and told me in a soft voice that I am good at making friends with lots of types of people. She also said that I have a long life line and have many past lives (I've often been told by spiritual friends that I'm an old soul, so that wasn't new to hear) and saw me previously as a lawyer, photographer and a teacher (all professions that I've been interested in). Meanwhile she didn't mention to my friend her past lives during her reading that followed. She also said that I'm a creative person and that she sees a lot of paperwork in my future for the month of June (great!). She then asked if I had a creative job and I said yes, I work in PR and write a lot. She then said, still holding my palm that she sees that I'm at peace with the choices I've been making lately and that my aura is very light and lavender right now. Also out of the blue she says that she sees the West Coast as a positive place for me and that someone with an M in their name will be a good influence career wise out there. No bells rang on that, but the idea of moving has been on my mind. She also said the years 2000 and 2003 were difficult years for me--the first year yes the latter no.

My friends' reading had a very opposite take and focused more on relationships, but was also pretty accurate on some points especially over the fact that she'll be making a career change and that the guy that she has been sort of seeing isn't her soul mate. I swear I would have paid the woman to have said that to her, thankfully I didn't have to ;) She also focused more on her energy but didn't mention the colors. I just thought it was interesting, true or not, the different and eerily relevant readings she gave for us.

Three Turtle Doves
A few weeks ago when there was actually sun and not all this rain, I went out onto my balcony (fire escape) for some rays. As I was lying on my back, I spotted upside down a pretty beige dove laying on a nest underneath the iron fire escape step. I guess NYC birds have to settle for fire escapes instead of trees. Usually they nest underneath air conditioners too.

I've been leaving bread out for her these last couple of weeks but she'd always look at me so cautiously that I'd try to do it as silently and as unobtrusive as possible. Today though when I went out on to the escape there were two baby doves next to mommy dove. They look pretty big already too and they can't be more than a week old. Here's a birds eye view of them, yes I love using puns.



Hmm what should I name them? I wonder how long they will stay there.

Link: You can check out the beauty products that When Tara Met Blog voted for in Glam.com's beauty awards and vote for your favorite hair, makeup and beauty products here. Go Mac makeup!

You Scratch My Blog...
Don't you just love networking? I don't mean in the salesy or fake type of way, I mean just meeting people of similar interests and introducing yourself to strangers at social gatherings and learning about each others professions and passions. Well, I do. I always find it thrilling to meet new people in general even if it's just for a night.

Let me explain the reason for my above tangent. Last night I went to a launch party for Coutorture, (cute name, but I get tongue tied trying to say it) a new fashion blog. The party was sponsored by Glam and held at the unpretentious Lucky Jacks bar on the Lower East Side, but in the downstairs room where the bartender was serving Peanut Butter and Jelly Martini's, pretty weird no?

While there I spoke with Lesley Scott of Fashion Tribes who I heard speak in a panel back in February at the Blogging is the New Black breakfast. She was super friendly. She also has podcasts that can be downloaded on iTunes, which I plan to start loading and listening to while on the subway to work.

I also ran into Pamela, the very cute founder of Bag Trends who happens to be the very same person who sent me my kick ass Kooba bag and she remembered. In fact, she said it killed her having to send the bag away, but I said hey, at least she got to see it again since I was wearing it that night. Oh and another thing we had in common is that we both studied journalism at NYU and are now doing PR and blogging. It's a small media world after all.

Being a fashion event, every one of course was dressed very chic. I was complemented on my necklace several times and given the sources it made me even more elated.

The party also allowed for me to be introduced to a new blog Clothes Pin and its writer Karen whose site's motto is "hanging style out to dry for the whole neighborhood to see." She features emerging fashion talent and was very nice to meet. As was another woman, Conlyn that I met who is a lawyer by day and an image consultant on the side, which means she remakes straight men. I'd like that job but I doubt I'd be very good at it.

There were of course a few people there who were working the crowd a bit too hard, but that's with any networking event, right? So that was my night, well that and then watching the Will & Grace finale on my DVR. Check out the Boston Globe article Series finale had plenty of will, lacked grace.

News: Blogs now have a world of influence

Panties in a Twist
Nope not mine, my friends. See, I have several girl friends who hate hearing the word panties being said by others. I find this so weird since it doesn't bother me.

When I think of panties I think of pretty frilly ones, what else can you say, underwear? Underwear makes me think of what you wear when no one's going to see them or those thick banded CK ones.

I was watching a rerun of Will & Grace last night and Will mentioned that Grace doesn't like the word panties either. Who knew there was such widespread detest? Does it bother you?

Speaking of under garments you should check out Danae, a fellow Glam blogger's site Knickers Blog for some great lingerie reviews, coupons and trends.

PS: I posted a corporate blog update about the Revelon Run/Walk that I participated in with my office last week at Caring about Cancer.

Call Me Irresponsible
So over the last three days I managed to lose $70+ and I don't mean I spent the money on useless stuff or gambled it away, I literally got swindled ... twice.

Here's how I lost the first ten. After a seven dollar cab ride back to my apartment I gave the driver a twenty and asked for $11 back. He handed me two bills with a one on top and I didn't bother to really check until I was out of the cab, yes in hindsight stupid but after three years in the city I never had a problem before. So after making sure I had my bag, I hastily exited to allow the couple waiting outside in to find upon entering the market next to my apartment to buy some milk that he only gave me two one dollar bills.

How I lost the rest: Two days later and still fuming over the stupid ten with every new purchase I made. When buying a sandwich I chose not to get chips thinking, well if I had that extra ten I could buy like eight bags. Stupid how we dwell on such things or try to rationalize stuff. After a wonderful Saturday night dinner at Superfine (don't you love the fun name?) eating fresh food and hearing blues music I let my gold clutch. fall out of my coat pocket at the York Street subway. Yet, I managed to hold onto my cheap umbrella, grr.

The thing is I usually carry a house sized purse around but I chose a less cumbersome cutesy & stylish clutch for the evening and even crammed my phone, license, credit card, lipstick and $60 inside it. I didn't realize it was gone until I went above ground at Times Square. Don't you hate that feeling when you realize you did something so stupid and careless like that? You can sort of feel the punch in the gut as your blood drains from your face. And it's not the first time I've done something like this. Feel free to read my hoboken story from last year.

I've been incredibly careless with my possessions having lost an umbrella, cell phone, scarf and several pairs of gloves over the years. It's like I can't have nice things because this is what happens, I go all flighty with them. Anyway, yes, I've been yelling at myself for some time now, but I was hoping Karma was on my side since just last week I mailed someone a folder of important documents that I found in a cab and I didn't even provide my return address.

I then mentally went through a list of all the repercussions losing my clutch meant like having to go to Connecticut during the week to get a new license, cancel my card, locate all my friends' contact information to store in new phone, get a new phone (which is also my land line) etc. First I canceled my credit card and right after I did my mother called my friends' phone saying that the York Street ticket booth called saying they had my phone and clutch. Thank goodness I had programed her number as my ICE (in case of an emergency) contact in my phone after reading about the idea in Newsweek.

So I gleefully traveled back to Brooklyn, repeatedly thanking Karma, the person who found my purse and whatever miracle was at play and hoping everything would be ok. I obviously wasn't worried about my phone since they had that or my credit card since I canceled that, but my license and deniro. Everything was there except the money. The woman behind the booth said a man gave it to her, so apparently he took did a semi decent thing and I obviously couldn't't be too upset since it was my own damn fault and at least I had my other items returned. Although the woman at the ticket booth could have taken it too, who knows? I just feel like I got beat up this weekend is all. At least I wasn't mugged, right? And at least I had a somewhat happy ending, after all a little bit is better than nada.

New Film Review: Friends with Money

Video: The Evolution of Dance. Man you forget how many weird dances that are out there and I've done more than several, lol.