Adventured.net

Wandering Around the Waldorf Astoria

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | Fun, Photography | 4 Comments

Last Tuesday, Thao invited me to attend the Project ALS gala held at the Waldorf Astoria. Since she works for Viacom, sometimes these random opportunities appear out of the blue. Ben Stiller was hosting and it sounded like a good time plus we both got to get dressed up!

Though the subject matter was quite sad, Ben Stiller and Sarah Silverman were hilarious, the food was good, and the wine flowed unceasingly. After the event, Thao and I wandered the halls of the Waldorf Astoria, literally, and took a bunch of photos. I hope you enjoy the photos of our drunken wanderings as much as we enjoyed taking them!

Tags: Friends, Fun, Photography, project ALS gala

4th Anniversary - Roundtrip to Polanda via Vienna

Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | Adventure, Family, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

As some of you already know, Justin surprised me with a trip to Poland for our fourth anniversary.  While we did things tourists are typically expected to do, such as visiting Castle Wawel and snapping photos in Rynek Glowny (the grand square) in Krakow, and strolling through Stephansplatz and along the Danube Canal in Vienna, the primariy purpose of our visit was so that I could experience, first hand, the land of my ancestors.

For a time I’ve been working on a family website based on research my great aunt,

Sister Mary Elizabeth Jupe, did that traced the roots of my father’s family all the way back to the 1600’s in Silesia, Prussia in Germany (when our last name still had both its p’s: Juppe).  That region has since become part of Poland. For our trip, Justin and I had one night in Nysa, one night in Krakow, and one night in Vienna.  Nysa is, consequently, the region where my ancestors are from.  The towns that are significant follow: Deutsch Wette, Neissa/Nysa and Lindewiese/Lipowa - German and Polish names respectively for the areas that are still in existence.

It was definitely an interesting experience, though I wish we’d had longer than 3 days!  I also wish the weather had been more agreeable and that I spoke a little Polish.  :)  It was surreal to step foot into a church that some of my relatives were married in and another was christened in more than 2 centuries ago.  It was also sad, because there is practically no German influence left in the area.  I say practically, because there were still one or two German inscriptions adorning plaques within the beautiful church.  Check out our seemingly endless supply of photos from Poland and Vienna.

Tags: Adventure, austria, europe, Family, heritage, krakow, life, Lipowa, Nysa, Photography, poland, travel, vienna

Montana Photos & Random Writing

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | Photography, Writing | 3 Comments

First of all, check out my photos from Montana including my brief stopover in Denver.  Warning: too many self-portraits.  There are some lovely scenic shots though. ;)

This morning I wanted to spend some time writing but I was uninspired so I just decided to describe a bit of mine and Justin’s journey home from Brooklyn last night.

Last Night

We stumbled every few steps over the uneven sidewalk, scarred as it was with thick bands of wild grass, broken and even shattered to bits in some areas from neglect…  The streetlights became soft orbs of light in the humid night air. On a bridge in the distance, the line of lights was distorted so everything glowed, seemingly uniform.  To our east, a fair distance beyond the nearest buildings and the river, the city was entirely obscured by the thick, hazy moisture.  All we could tell of the city was a strange purple glow, refusing to acknowledge the presence of a sunless sky – ignoring the notion of twinkling stars above.

An impressive cemetery stretched out along the western side of the street.  All the stones were black, slate, grey.  Towering obelisks and massive crosses crowded together, interspersed with hulking sepulchers.  As crowded in life as in death in this city of ours.  We could’ve been in New Orleans – my imagination readily allowed.  My companion snickered as we clambered passed the Best Western City View Hotel.  All of the windows facing the cemetery were frosted.  I suppose this was out of concern for their customers rather than deference toward the dead. It would’ve disappointed me had I stayed there.  The cemetery was really quite lovely, and at sunset, I imagine it would be breathtaking to behold filled with warm golden light.

We walked into a more residential neighborhood where the sidewalks notably improved.  Spanish voices serenaded our march as a mother ushered in her little children at 10PM – their playground an empty street with one lone Latin bar.  I suspected that the bar was completely abandoned, though the loud music emanating from within suggested otherwise.

A few minutes later we came to the corner of a couple of streets flanked by tall, red brick apartment buildings and spotted a small yellow cab.  It was one of the new, more energy-efficient hybrid models.  We were lucky to flag it down easily.  Upon climbing in I was surprised to discover that the safety glass I’d become accustom to which separated driver from patron was non-existent in this state-of-the-art vehicle.  I wonder if it speaks to the current safety of New York city streets or something else entirely that has yet to occur to me.  I gave the driver our address and we sped quickly home.

Tags: Photography, Writing

Wild About Montana’s Beauty

Monday, September 15th, 2008 | Fun, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

What a lucky gal am I?  Justin flew all the way from New York City to Billings, Montana just to spend Saturday with me!  He arrived at 10:30 pm on Friday night, and I dropped him at the airport at noon on Sunday.  I could not have asked for a better time together, though I may have asked for it to be longer!

At first, Saturday morning was dreary and rainy.  I was disappointed because I’d hoped Justin and I would make our way to Red Lodge and to the Beartooth Mountains.  I knew there was hiking around and supposedly Red Lodge was a cute little town.  Everyone told us to go there on our first trip to Montana in June, though the pass was still closed due to snow.

Despite the weather, we decided to head toward Red Lodge anyway.  We had a delicious lunch at a pizzeria in Red Lodge.  Slowly but surely, the day began to improve!  We browsed in the local shops and Justin tried on, decided to buy, and then deciding not to buy a coat from an antique store.  The store also had a really rad German hat from WWII but it was super tiny and wouldn’t fit my gigantic head, so I didn’t get it.  We noticed intermittent patches of sunlight and decided to continue on our way to Beartooth Highway and the Beartooth Pass. I’d heard it was beautiful, but words could not express the truth of the beauty of this place.  Check it out for yourself - captions and photo notes accompany the images: Photos of Snow, Hiking, Chipmunks and Kisses>>

After a lovely day of exploring a new town, a scenic drive and a bit of hiking, Justin and I relaxed in the hotel room, watched some TV, and noshed on hamburgers at Fuddruckers for dinner.  We also played a hunting video game where we shot moose - that was a blast!  Justin won (but I still killed more turkeys on the bonus round!).  I love you, sweetheart.  Thanks for coming out to Montana and showing me one heck of a good time. :)

Tags: Fun, Justin, Montana, Photography, travel, Vanessa

Housewarming in Austin, the Ride Back to NYC, Anonymity

Monday, August 4th, 2008 | Family, Photography, Puppies, Travel | 3 Comments

Justin and I enjoyed Texas! We went to Sheila and Justin R’s housewarming party (which was actually also a birthday party, though we hadn’t realized that beforehand - our bad! Sorry Justin R!!!). It was cool to see them, their friends, and some of my relatives again. I must say, they also fed us some DELICIOUS BBQ and sides. Yummy! Aunt Sha Sha, Uncle Wayne, and Aunt Debbie all came up. Aunt Linda and Leanne (my 1st cousin) were in attendance as well, and ended up spending the night, which turned out to be very cool because we were able to sit around and talk this morning (photos of puppies new haircuts and the morning at Sheila and Justin’s). One takeaway - I definitely need to visit Leanna in Longview. She’ll be out of school before I know it, and I’d really like to see her in her college element, visit her apartment, and be a part of this brief, though significant period in her life.

It was also a really good onslaught of socialization for the puppies as Leanne brought her chihuahua, Pixie; the neighbors brought their poodle, Apricot and their labradoodle, Pinky; a gigantic chocolate lab was there (I don’t recall his name) and of course, Sheila and Justin’s very own Brodie was running around. Ruby and Eve got lots of sniffs from the other dogs and petting from the people. :)

On a random side note, one very pretty, well-dressed girl with expertly curled blonde hair told me that she really liked my hair and thought I looked like a certain actress. I was actually taken by surprise as I never expected a compliment at all (been spending too much time in NYC!). Now, waaaay back when, I was told frequently that I looked like this actress and once, upon entering a Chili’s, the hostess refused to believe that I wasn’t this actress…. Hello, I was in Chili’s in San Antonio, for crying out loud. I personally have never thought this actress was attractive, but the gal that paid me the compliment last night thinks she is very pretty and sexy, so I am taking it in a positive manner. ;) I am sure you’re wondering about this actress. *sigh* She’s the goofy girl from Scary Movie: Anna Faris.

Sheila drove Justin and I to the airport and Linda, Leanne, and Pixie rode along. It was amazingly nice to be surrounded by good conversation (though somewhat heavy subject matter) and loving goodbyes and hugs as we departed. As we were hugging goodbye, we ran into Shelley from JetBlue and got to hang out with her a little pre and post flight, which was awesome.

On our flight back to NYC this afternoon, I had the good fortune of sitting next to a fascinating woman. I want to say her name was Rebecca, but I am terrible with names, so I am probably wrong. She is originally from Ireland, though lived and worked in NYC for a long, long time. She majored in fashion and spent 2 years working for Geoffrey Beene and another 8 years working for Ralph Lauren at which point she decided to ditch her fashion career entirely and backpack around the world for 3 years. Did you catch that? Yeah, she backpacked ALONE around THE WORLD for THREE YEARS! She ended this backpacking stint in Madrid, where she spent six months learning Spanish and subsequently met her husband as he was enrolled in the same language program. Well, not only did they meet, but the program placed them as roommates in the same apartment. Was it fate? He was an engineer/international business major from Austin, Texas that decided to take some time off and spent half the year learning French in France and half the year learning Spanish in Spain. Hmm… Sounds like a great idea to me. I don’t know his career history or anything, but they both sound like super interesting people. Now, they spend half their summers primarily in New York (Westchester) and winters in Austin. I like their setup. They’ve also started their own business, which is doing pretty well I gather. Anyway, of course I know most of this because I asked her loads of questions, but it was really fun getting to know her. It turns out we were both in Madrid at the same time - when the trains were bombed! What are the chances?! I hope our paths cross again sometime, because she was a nice, fascinating lady and I’d love to hear more of her stories. She recommended I watch a show on the National Geographic channel called “Locked Up Abroad.” It sounds interesting, but so depressing judging by reading a couple of the summaries.

On a side note, Val! sent me an article today that got me thinking “How public do I want to be with my life?” A lot of recruiters, and certainly the last few of my employers are testaments to the truth of this statement, Google you and look you up on MySpace to see if they can find any dirt, legitimate or not, to disqualify you as a potential job candidate. Now I need to decide between entirely censoring myself (mmhmm) or maybe just posting elsewhere with a nom de plume. Not sure yet.

For randomness’s sake, I’m dredging up a post I wrote on this very same day last year that was published on my MySpace. I will probably be going back through and censoring old posts on this site and elsewhere, so enjoy the freedom of writing while you can. ;) “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” and all that rot.

Feel free to fill this out for yourself if you’d like -

August 3, 2007 - Ten (10) random things about me:

1) I over analyze almost everything and place situations side by side (relationships, work, etc) comparing past to present almost constantly. It’s maddening.
2) Adults are just like little kids. The most important thing is having people be legitimately pleased and proud of something you’ve done. This applies to me.
3) Money is important to me, but it’s far less important than the strange and magical sense that there is so much more in the world, like literature, and understanding, and human contact and the passion that comes with that.
4) I must have a puppy.
5) I miss TeXaS!!!!
6) I know I am not happy with my life when I am lethargic, which I have been lately. I also have an upset stomach almost every day that I go to work.
7) I haven’t written anything for my novel in 3 months. I think it has a lot to do with the fact I have no moral, and it feels empty. Speaking of writing, I am constantly blown off by the one place I was published that actually paid me. I told them to remove me from their list. Now I hope they fail.
8) Hence, I must have a mean streak. I constantly have to tell myself I am a good person. Half the time I believe it.
9) I will always be skeptical of people. I am usually always right. My wariness makes people think I am a bitch. They are almost always wrong.
10) Justin and I are in the same building almost 100% of the time.

Tags: Family, my past, Photography, Texas, travel, Vanessa

Breakfast with My Grandma

Friday, July 11th, 2008 | Family, Photography | 5 Comments

Nanny looking hot in one of Val’s wigs. ooh lala

Tags: Family, Nanny, Photography, Texas, Vanessa