Getting By, Dreaming Big

Many of you (hahaha – I humor myself to think there are many readers!) may have noticed that I changed the look of the blog. It just felt time for something different. I’ve been contemplating what direction my blog should move in. It started out as a way to talk about living in NYC and all my NYC experiences and involved to a catch all. I have found that without structure I find it difficult to come up with what to write about and I feel that my blog was kind of all over the place in subject matter.

I have been pondering how to change the format so that I have something to post about everyday thus engaging readers who are checking me out for the first time or those that know and love me and just read because they want to hear my perspective on things or what I’ve been up to. So here are my thoughts…

I came up with five categories one for each day. They encompass all the things that I love, love to talk about and share so here they are: Monday Bookworms, Tuesday Travels, Recipe Wednesdays, Entertainment Thursdays, Favorite Fridays and Casual Weekends. Each day I’ll talk about the corresponding topic. That way I can blog about all of the things that I love (which was essentially what I was doing) in a more structured easy to follow way.

Thoughts on this anyone, anyone???

So part of the reason I haven’t been as busy on the blog is because my new job actually requires me to do work…I know, I know…can you believe it? Last Monday, we had our biggest fundraising event of the year – our Annual Golf Invitational. It raises over $1.8 million for the Foundation that I work for. We get about 300 golfers and 300 dinner guests – all in all it’s a great day and a great event.

I have to say though as the only Special Events person on a staff of 4 people total I forgot how exhausting it can be when you don’t have people to help you do all the stuff that needs to get done! I haven’t been so physically & mentally exhausted in a long while. It really affected how I spent my days…I haven’t been reading as much (*gasp*)…I haven’t been exercising as much…I haven’t been doing a lot of things as much, except watching TV because that’s all my little brain could handle.

The event was on the 16th and it was a huge success. The weather held off until dinner and while it did get a little crazy during dinner (picture NYC’s wealthiest under a tent, with the lights going out, the ground flooding and the tent shaking…yeah, I was a little concerned) we moved everything indoors and it all went off well!

So now I’m trying to reclaim my life back…get back to my crazy reading schedule….get back out pounding the pavement…get back out blogging in cyberspace….just get back out there! I mean it’s summer for goodness sake!

And I need to figure out a way to not let it affect me so much moving forward, because we have 6 events coming up this fall…and to be honest I didn’t like losing myself over the past couple of months (especially to work)! Once I come up with a plan…I’ll share it with all you hardworking peeps out there:)

Hey Everyone -miss me? That’s if I haven’t lost all my readers and by “readers” I mean you Dad:) hehehehe!

So I haven’t been bloggin’ in awhile – that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy doing lots of fun & exciting things (because I have) – more that I wasn’t in a writing mood. Writing is not my natural being at all…but I realized I do miss it so I need to get back at it. So if you’re still out there…happy reading!

What have I been up to you ask? Why lots of fun stuff. My favorite band Pat McGee Band did a 10-week residency here in NYC at the Canal Rooms. They played every Monday and then switched to Tuesdays for 10 weeks. I went to 7 shows! And no it does not get old – they were some of the best PMB shows I have seen. The best part about it was that it was like watching them in my living room (OK my living room isn’t that big – but my point is that it was a small intimate space). The other best part is that I introduced some of my new New York friends to PMB and they loved it, I also brought some of my HC friends back to their shows and they renewed their love of PMB. I have to say there is nothing better than seeing live performances whether it be music, theater, dance, whatever, if it’s LIVE it rules! It was the most relaxing way to spend a weeknight (regardless of how tired I was the next day.)

I’ve also caught some other LIVE performances such as: the band LIVE at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey (that was a special gift for my DH!), a performace of “A Chorus Line”, a performace of “Kiss Me Kate” and a performance of “Prisoner of the Crown” (at the Irish Rep Theater). I’ve also seen some LIVE sports such as: our beloved Red Sox beating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Jon and mine’s 4 year anniversary!

We’ve done some fun things around NYC – but I’ll save that for another post. Unfortunately I also found myself watching a little too much TV (netflix while seriously one of my favorite things – is so addicting!) so I’m trying to break myself of that bad habit and get back to writing, reading, cooking and doing all the things I love.

Speaking of which – I recently joined a Beach Volleyball league – so every Tuesday night we’re over playing on Long Island City with the most ridiculous view of the Manhattan Skyline. I’ll take a picture next time and post it – it’s unreal. I’m much more of an indoor girl when it comes to vball but playing beach is fun!

On top of it all – work is really busy – which is great – but takes away from my usual blogging time

Alright so that’s that – I’m back – with more Beth adventures from NYC! Watch for my next post coming soon….:)

OK, so I’m a month late with this post literally to the day! But even though I was so bogged down with posts about Italy that I got a little behind I still want to touch on this subject.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? I do! For the past however many years they usually focus on something health related, I’m going to eat better, I’m going to excercise more, etc, etc. Now, not that that isn’t important but I’ve decided that this year’s New Year’s Resolutions weren’t going to be all about that.

Health (as well as all my resolutions) is something I should be working on regardless of the New Year! So here are mine, feel free to share yours, as I love to hear about people’s goals in life:

1 – Find religion and spirituality again. As well as, go to church more frequently. Religion, church and that community were all a huge part of my life growing up yet right now they are inconsistent at best. I’d like that to change…so I’m going to work on it.

2 – Reconnect with people! I feel like email is a great way to touch base, it’s quick and easy and especially with my generation a lot of times it’s the easiest way to communicate. However, I miss talking on the phone. One day when I was home sick in early January I talked on the phone with three different people that day for over an hour each! Now, I don’t often have time for that, but my goal this year is to be better about picking up the phone. I’ll let you know how that goes.

3 – The “year of the classics”. As you all know by now I love love love to read! I’m constantly amazed though at how many of the “classics” I have yet to pick up. So this year, I’m going to focus on the classics. I’m going to read other things as well, but I want to read more classic literature than I normally would in a year…for instance, War & Peace anyone…?

Those are my three big ones! Since it’s a month later I will let you know how some are going. After shopping around Jon and I have found a church that we like, we’ve been two weekends in a row and last week attended a young persons gathering after mass. We met about 20 other 20-30 something’s and that was refreshing to feel a sense of community. So I think we’re going to keep going back. Now I just need to focus on the spirituality of it all.

As for the classics, I did read one in the month of January and I have two lined up for February so I’m doing well with that.

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this up for not just the year but as part of my life going forward, isn’t that the point of resolutions?

Aside from the Red Sox post season the other reason that I was MIA on my blog is because of my newish job! I started at The Bachmann Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation back in September and it has been non-stop since I started. In the two months that I’ve been there we’ve had 6 events!!!! Which has been great because it’s kept me busy and I’m just kind of learning by fire.

In the past two weeks though the hours were long because we had a two-day scientific conference. Now normally, I wouldn’t blog about work, but the conference really struck me and I wanted to just say a few words about it.

The conference brought together scientists from all over the world to discuss the research they have been doing on mostly dystonia. Dystonia is a neuro-muscular disease that affects an estimated 500,000 Americans each year. 1/3 of all dystonia patients are children. Dystonia is a disease that is difficult to diagnosis and often times goes years before being diagnosed properly. At the conference I met a couple whose son was just diagnosed after 4 years. To sit in the room and listen to all these scientists talking about their research and what it means for treatments for dystonia was pretty inspiring. I may not have understood everything that was being said (because I am not a scientist) but I did understand the passion and the enthusiasm that was buzzing around the room and to be on that side of the door and see people actually trying to do something about solving a disease was pretty amazing.

It makes going to work have that much more of a purpose. I’m planning events to raise money to give grants to scientists such as the ones that I met who are actively working year round to try and find treatments and ultimately hopefully a cure for a disease.

On top of that, after the two-day conference we had a reunion of dystonia patients who had been treated by DBS (deep brain stimulation surgery). Meeting the people, adults and children, who were suffering and are still suffering from this disease and see the improvement in them from when they were originally diagnosed because of the treatments now available was truly amazing! I could go on and on about these people and the adversities they’ve overcome…but that would make this blog way too long!

All I know is that between those three events – if that doesn’t motivate me to get up and go to work then I don’t know what possibly could! I’m so lucky to have found a good fit for me in NYC!