Adventured.net

September 16, 2009

Camping Out in Taconic State Park

Filed under: Adventure, Friends, Fun, Positivity, Puppies, Travel — Tags: , , , , — Vanessa @ 4:04 am

Camping in Taconic State Park

The Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Justin and I loaded up our two pups and headed north with the intent to camp.  Naturally, we made no campsite reservations what with it being one of the busiest camping days of the year and all.  We hoped to grab a spot at Taconic State Park.  Oddly enough, luck was on our side!  Not only did we receive the last available dog-friendly spot, our neighbors never showed up!  We ended up having a fairly private campsite at the far end of the park near the singular puppy friendly hiking trail. Yay!

Check out our photos and videos >>

View Justin’s video – The Running of the Pups! YouTube | Vimeo

Should you go, this stuff is definitely worth checking out:

  • The now abandoned Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center which has been purchased with the intent to transform the property into The Knolls of Dover (I found video and photos inside the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center).
  • Rosemary’s Texas Tacos – This woman has bright purple hair and zany makeup!  The tacos were okay, the sweet tea was delicious, and the interior decor was other worldly.  Check out Rosemary’s Myspace for fun images and general insanity.
  • Justin and Pups at Bash Bish FallsBash Bish Falls State Park – super beautiful falls!  This park was a perfect stop for us because we were able to take the puppies on a little hike before driving all the way back to NYC.  Check out the park’s website or read an article about it if you’re up for it.
  • Taconic State Park – of course! It was nice and peaceful, and I expect we’ll head back someday!  Check out the park’s Wikipedia entry. :)

September 6, 2009

The Julie/Julia Movie

Filed under: Thoughts — Tags: , , — Vanessa @ 6:05 am

So I saw Julie and Julia.  I can’t actually say I liked the movie.  There were parts I liked.  I probably would’ve preferred the movie to just be Meryl Streep’s rendition of Julia Child, but the modern Julie story had some good points to it.  When Julia was describing how happy she was to get up at 5:30 in the morning to head to cooking school I practically burst into a crying fit because I wish that’s how I felt about *my* life.  Maybe one day.

Anyhow, because I am a curious (or obsessive?) person, I came home to google the movie and see if I could find Julie’s original blog.  (I did – feel free to read it here.)  After her blogging project was complete, she wrote the book Julie and Julia, on which the film is based.  I think they probably made the character in the movie a little more likable and normal.  The actual blogger was a snake owning atheist.  Not quite the same wholesome character.  Although, being that she was born and raised in Austin, you have to give her a little credit.  Also, I don’t feel like I can form a fully educated opinion on the woman being that I’ve only read a week’s worth of her blog posts so far.  And anyway, I like this line: “I had never in my nearly thirty years of life eaten an egg, but I ate one today. So that’s where I am. In a week of this experiment, I have cooked 14 recipes, but mostly I ate my first egg.”

The length and detail of the blog posts really hearken back to an earlier time in blogging history, before we all had ADD and, certainly, before Facebook and Twitter.  Off to bed with me now.  Much more to read at a later date. :)

PS: Can you imagine this scene in Park Slope nowadays?  I feel like things must’ve been different 7 years ago!

I suppose I should be feeling at peace with the world standing in a long grocery line standing behind a skinhead mother buying organic fruit leather for her adorably dreadlocked son and in front of a couple with matching blue hair buying soy milk and Rao’s marinara sauce, but instead I feel mostly like climbing the walls.

September 2, 2009

Not Dead Yet

Filed under: Thoughts — Tags: , , — Vanessa @ 4:06 am

No, we are not dead yet — though you may think it judging by the lengthy absence. Sadly, you’d be wrong to believe this update would bear much substance.

BigP and Roger with Ruby and Eve

BigP and Roger with Ruby and Eve

I’ve been work a lot at my new job as a web producer which is much more project management than plain web production.  I am still figuring things out.  Not much more to report there.

My friends from Switzerland, BigP and Roger, visited us for two weeks just recently. It was very nice to have them here. I so hope they come back before too much time passes.  Hopefully I’ll get around to making a photo gallery of their visit soon.

Justin recently lost his job at JetBlue – total bummer.  It makes being in NY far less positive, I think.  The only consolation is the gentle tug of Autumn which has been lingering around the edges of the early morning or late evening hours…

Nothing is concrete.

May 8, 2009

Time Flies! 1 Year Already

Filed under: Positivity — Tags: , , , — Vanessa @ 10:28 pm

Wow, it’s really hard to believe Justin and I have already been engaged for a whole year!
Justin surprised me today with a pair of earrings to mark the occasion (What a sweetheart!).  They’re not any old earrings, either.  They’re Swarovski earrings that perfectly match my engagement ring.  Super awesome!

Maybe we’ll actually plan a wedding… one of these days…

Let’s recap the year:

  • May - Engaged on the River Walk in San Antonio!
  • Val! and I went out to celebrate the engagement
  • June - Justin and I started off the summer right with a picnic in Flushing Park (photos)
  • We headed to Montana (photos and more photos) for my work and spent a day in Denver, which was a lot of fun (photos from Denver)
  • Justin, Mom, Val!, (Joey), and I had a misadventure while hiking in the Catskills which resulted in stitches for me (photos)
  • July – We had a great trip to Puerto Rico with Marisa and Alex (photos)
  • Justin, Val! and I all turned 28
  • August – Justin and I were stressed because Ruby developed Cherry Eye… but we got it fixed and she’s been great since!
  • I got to see Sheila’s new house and Justin and I spent time with lots of family and friends in August (photos)
  • September – I was back in Montana for work and Justin visited me for one amazing weekend (photos)
  • JetBlue was completing work on T5 and Justin and I went to the Chili Pepper Fiesta in Brooklyn (photos)
  • October – Justin and I celebrated our 4th anniversary by taking a vacation to Poland (with a stop in Vienna)! (photos)
  • We met up with Jenny and Cody in Vieques, Puerto Rico! (photos)
  • We celebrated Halloween properly by having a Pumpkin Carving Party (photos) and heading to a Halloween Party (photos).  The puppies also got in on the action (photos)
  • We took a day trip to Maine to check out fall foliage (one photo)
  • November – Justin and I took off for two weeks in Australia, including Thanskgiving!
  • December – We returned from Australia to enjoy snowy weather in NY and Christmas in Texas (photos)
  • We drove our car alllll the way from San Antonio to New York! (photos)
  • January – Not my favorite start to the new year.  Justin and I found out I was being laid off from my job.
  • February – I left for a week in Switzerland to visit Val! and BigP (photos)
  • We visited Eric in LA (photos) and had a lot of fun with friends here in NY
  • March – Sheila’s baby shower was this month (photos)
  • Our friend Thao got baptized (photos)
  • We went to Puerto Rico (El Yunque and Fajardo photos and Culebra photos) with Alex, Marisa, Tom, Niki, and Emily.  Fun times!
  • April – Brennan, Sheila’s baby, was born (photos)
  • We took Alex and Marisa to Texas for the weekend (photos)
  • May - Ruby and Eve, our puppies, turned 2 years old (photos)

April 10, 2009

Overcoming Sleeplessness by Journaling

Filed under: Thoughts, Writing — Tags: , , , , , , — Vanessa @ 5:17 am

Everything devolves. Everything trends toward decay.

We are living in the petri dish of our own halfway point.  The organizing, cleaning, exercise, and motivation has ceased.  We wait to see what will happen.  If anything will grow.

Ambition has ground to a halt.  Projects have paused midstream.  They often do.  Everything is on hiatus.  When left to its own devices, nature breaks things down – rot, weakness, crumbling, oblivion are inevitable.

Is there beauty in dystopia?  We used to think so. We were children (”We are all just foolish children, searching desperately for ourselves, and in that struggle, we are lost.” – Me circa 1995/1996) and everything we thought or wept meant so much.  It was never “Now what?” but always “What’s next?”  The world was rife with beauty, sorrow, loneliness, and possibilities – even in the futile sameness I perceived was out there.  My isolated, questioning tears seemed so significant.

We write things off as “the angst of youth.”  For us, it was a time of self-centered importance, to be sure, but also of analysis, of well thought out arguments lasting into the early morning hours.  Of ideas that created stories, self-published magazines, performances, and, yes, philosophical movements.  It was a time of possibility and action. Not, as now, of taking things at face value.  Accepting and not questioning.  Taking what is offered without striving for personal goals and growth.

These are the thoughts preventing my sleep tonight, probably because I’ve got a meeting with a tech recruiter tomorrow which has made me introspective.  In my dreams last night I was a super hero, graced with exceptional speed and the power to manipulate objects with my mind, but I was unable to achieve my desired transformation – to dissolve into a billion particles and disperse.  To escape the evil pursuers attempting to capture me and obtain the information I was privy to. (I don’t recall what this was.)  I wonder if we’ll ever understand the significance of dreams…

Is this odd, in-between place really where true change occurs?  Is the past gone forever?  Or, more importantly, are those people that we were gone forever?

March 13, 2009

Note About the Weather

Filed under: Thoughts — Tags: , , , — Vanessa @ 4:52 pm

I woke up at half past 7 AM (central time) to the sound of a distant rumble followed a few minutes later by a flash.  A good old fashioned Texas thunderstorm was moving off.  Staring out the window I noticed the sky lightening and listened to the sound of slow rain, coyotes faintly howling in the distance, and the whistle of artificial heat from the vents above my bed.  It’s nice to be home.

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