One year Anniversary!

Hi guys,
So today marks the one year anniversary of Keith and I moving to Hell's Kitchen!
It's amazing how fast this year has come and gone!
I love living here and I have to say I was not so keen on the move at first but am very happy we did!
Hell's Kitchen has so many great restaurants,bars and local convenience stores to make even the most miserable person happy!
I love the charm of the neighborhood. We have friends that live here and you learn to know everyone in the neighborhood including our great mailman Al (who is the best by far and has been  delivering mail on this ave for 33 years!He honks his horn on his mail cart while doing his route,and let me tell you it truly makes you smile when you hear it!)
Now the last ten years have been the improvement years for Hell's Kitchen but it really did live up to  it's name from as early as the 30's through the 90's!
This is when the Irish gangs and later the mob ran 9th ave. You can read crazy stories about it in a book called "The Westies" or look it up online!
Trash bags put out weren't just filled with garbage..let's just leave it at that!
Now back to the happy parts and not the body parts!(that's all I'm saying!)
 There are some of the best restaurants on ninth ave. such as Room Service,Jing, Pietrasanta's, and most importantly Rachel's!
When Keith and I go see a show we can literally leave our apartment 15 minutes before it starts and have plenty of time to spare! Our friend got us tickets for Priscilla Queen of the desert next Tuesday!
And did I mention I'm 3 blocks from work?! Which is great since I am the General Manager there (makes my job so much more convenient at times!)
I will say you do get spoiled living here. During the winter storms this year the 3 blocks still seemed so far away!
But they are a far cry from living in Astoria,Queens! Commuting 2-3 hours during the storms and taking a half hour to walk home on a five minute walk from the station.
We have a rooftop access and during the summer it's so nice to go up there and just look at the city at night!
The  breathtakingly beautiful scenery of the city is something most people only see in pictures.
The central location of the Hell's Kitchen is so perfect, and during spring through fall I love to walk to SoHo, Chelsea, the upper west side and Central Park (where you can just walk the park or take a horse drawn carriage ride.) It's not the same Central Park your parents warned you about anymore...it even has a zoo now!
Also if I had not lived here I would have never met the wonderfully sweet homeless woman on 8th ave. named Sarah. I have not seen her for nearly two months and I'm hoping and praying it's because someone was able to get her off  of the streets! She really helped me this year look at what was important as I am sure she did to many others!
However,I will warn you we don't go two blocks up to Times Square very much because it is CRAZY there!
Only when family and friends come to visit or we need to go to Walgreen's!
Times Square is where the ball drops on New Year's Eve and where millions of tourists visit on a weekly basis.Also it's center of all of the broadway shows.
What I love most importantly about Hell's Kitchen is the community here!
You really know a lot of your neighbors along with the shop and restaurant owners!
This place really is the best place to live in the city and if you come for a visit let me know and i'll give you a tour!
So here's to another great year of Living In The Kitchen!!
I'm looking forward to the warm weather coming so I can go out more and share with you my little adventures here in the city!
Til next time...Bon Apetit'!

My Winter in New York (I'm pretending it's over!) Part 1

Hi guys!
I have had so many things I wanted to write about..but could not decide which ones to talk about,so I decided to categorize them under things I did here in the winter.
 I love to go out and walk this incredible city but not in the cold! So I have stayed  local here in Hell's Kitchen and have enjoyed every bit of it!
First up is my new favorite restaurant, Uncle Nick's (9th ave between 50th and 51st st.)
 This great Mediterranean restaurant has incredible Tapas, delicious sangria and an amazing waitress named Evie (hope i spelled that right!)
Our friends Dan and Kenny found this place and so we joined them one night on a double date.Knowing they have been here many times we let them tell us what we had to order. There were three things they suggested right off the bat. The first was SAGANAKI-TIRI (sharp cheddar cheese baked in lemon and butter then set on fire at your table.) Think Brie cheese but even better...it was incredible!!
The second thing was the octopus (which i was not wanting to try..but they cut it up for me) and that too was delicious!
and lastly they suggested the Sangria (both red and white.).Both delicious but the red was the best!!
And boy do you feel it after...Let's just say you can tell when someone has had sangria at Uncle Nick's!
The rest of the food we ordered was amazing... especially the Baklava for desert!
All in all with the great service,incredible food and wonderful company it gets my highest rating!
(5 Jefferson's)
This winter I also saw "Memphis" the broadway musical.And no it's not about Elvis..LOL.
It's actually an interracial love story set in the 50's in Memphis. The music was incredible,inspiring,moving and fun!
I am a big fan of gospel,soul and R&B... and I got it all and more!The lead actress Montego Glover was not only a great actress but also had pipes like a little Patti Labelle!
This was a show that you got everything from. The music,dancing,acting and story were what a musical should be, but nowadays are hard to find!
I listen to the soundtrack at least once a day(thanks Tiffany for the CD!)
This also gets 5 Jefferson's!
Now before I leave I will tell you more about the winter here..COLD and SNOWY!! That's about it!
But seriously,when the snow first comes down it is such a glorious sight to see here.

This city is beautiful the first night it comes down.. the next week is very ugly with all the black ice,dirty snow and very narrow paths on the sidewalk to share with all the other pedestrians. A usual 10 minute walk will take you 30 minutes til it has all melted.
But it is better living in Manhattan than in Queens because at least here they plow and shovel.
In my next blog I'll share with you the rest of the winter here! Spring has got to be coming soon! 
And if ever you have any places you could suggest for me to go or questions about this wonderful city please feel free to ask me!
Til then stay warm and Bon Appetit'

2011 is going to be a great year!!

welcome back to my blog! It's been about 6 months since my last one and a lot has happened over the course of that time! I know for myself and most that 2010 was a hard year and that is why I titled this "2011 is going to be a great year!!"

We all go through tough times personally and feel so overwhelmed by everyday pressures but in the end we have to check ourselves and fix ourselves,I'm on that path right now myself and so far it's a great journey with a great therapist!

The worries of finances and everyday stresses can make you lose track on what's truly important.

We have to be grateful for our health,family,friends and loved ones.These are truly the most important things in life.

Fortunately I have been able to see these things more clearly recently!

For example,As a New Yorker (technically,it has been six years) we see people on the streets looking for hand outs and most of the time if you don't give them anything they respond to you with some not so colorful words.usually that means they are just angry at the world and you because they can't get their next bottle of vodka fast enough!

Then you have the ones out there that just try and run a scam but own or make far more than you.

But every now and then you run across someone who is an exception.I recently did.

There's a sweet woman  who is outside on 8th ave between 46th and 47th street.She's young, probably no more than her late 20's and everytime I see her she is covered up in her blanket,leaning against a construction wall and always has a smile on her when you say hi.

The first time I saw her I was in my total walking mode(oblivious to the world) and she said something but I didn't realize she was talking to me so I kept walking. After I was a few blocks away I felt like I should have stopped to give her something but by this point I thought it was too late and next time I would.

The next night I saw her again and was determined to stop and give her a dollar this time.As I did she told me she saw me the night beforehand and said she really loved my hair but wasn't sure if i had heard her.

As I thanked her and was walking away she said "thank you and have a great night sweetheart"

WOW..Just her voice and the way she said it made me feel so good inside.She sounded so genuine.

But it also made me think that I have forgotten that I have so much to be thankful for! I have a wonderful husband,an incredible family,wonderful friends, two amazing dogs, health, a job I love and a roof over my head!

We all have it hard  at times but as I always believed before and was recently reminded,we have to remember what truly matters and that there are others out there who have it much worse!

So now I make it a routine to go past this very sweet woman a couple of times a week because she really touched my heart!

Just remember that life is not always easy,we may feel overwhelmed at times,we may even feel defeated and broken but we get through these things and become stronger from them!

I'll see you next week when I resume telling you the best places to eat and have fun at here in New York!

Here is to a beautiful year for everyone...may it bring you all the best of everything!!

God Bless!