This is Lady. Lady is a beautiful pit bull I get to hang out with during the week.  She’s a pain to walk because she pulls crazy hard on the leash and is super strong but hey, I can handle it.

New York City ain’t home to just shihtzus and puggles, y’all.

One day I dropped Lady off and her owner was home. We got to talking and this is the exact conversation we had.

“Lady was great today! She did all her business, 1 and 2! Twice!” (Yes, I must report all doggie bowel movements).

“Oh, that’s so great. Thank you so much Sarah. Lady just loves spending time with you.”

“I love spending time with her! She’s my favorite. It’s like we’re soul sisters.” Yeah, I know that’s a weird thing to say. And what?

“That’s too cute. Hey, you know we have a house in the Catskills. You should take her up there sometime!”

“Sure! Why not?” What?

“You can take our car, it’s about two and a half hours from here.”

“Okay!” 

“Bring your friends!”

“Sure!” What is happening?

So…. That’s basically how this happened:

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is called living the dream.

The original plan was to go up, spend the weekend and go skiing but since there’s been almost no snow this winter the trails weren’t looking too good. So instead, we hung out around the house and did some hiking on their 100 acres of property. Again, what?!

Here are some more photos from my super awesome weekend in the Catskills!

I'm just leaning on this tree. In the Catskills.

Doing my best Thoreau

Gah! I love this dog!

nature

Who am I? Katniss Everdeen?

Walking in the Catskills

After spending the day hiking… I got a call from Lady’s owner who said, “Hope you’re having fun! Help yourself to a bottle of red wine!”

Is she not the cooooooolest dog owner ever!?!?!?!?!?!?

So me and Lady got a fire going and spent some QUALITY. TIME. together.

Red wine. Fireplace. Puppy.

boop.

"Do whatever you want, but I hear Hudson the Retriever has quite the reputation."

"I know that's not what you wanted to hear."

"Well, It wasn't me! You're the one who ate an animal carcass today!"

Both nights, Lady came in and shared the bed with me. She took up most of the bed and slept on my feet but I didn’t mind. It was a special weekend for the both of us.

It’s all about the give and take, people.

XOXO Lady!

Hey Fans!

Whew… I am still recovering from binging on candy hearts and Valium (no, Lindsay Lohan, those are not the same thing!) but I wanted to take a quick moment and share with y’all photos from my special Valentine’s Day!!!  Sadly, there are no photos of me with my boyfriend Ryan Gosling mainly because we have never met.

YET.

Anyway, I know many of you are wondering what an acclaimed international superstar does on the most romantic day of the year. Drink pink champagne in a fancy white limo? Feign embarrassment when George Clooney sends yet another bouquet of flowers to your movie trailer? Or does one sit in a penthouse hotel suite, alone, pondering the sad reality of being the romantic ideal to millions around the world?

Or….

BUY JUNK FOOD/BEER AND GO SEE THE VOW ON 42ND STREET TIMES SQUARE????????

Pffft. As if you even have to guess!

I went with Heineken because it matched my sweatshirt.

It's funny because chimpanzees don't wear tutus.

So excited!!!

I don't understand what Inspired By means

Also, this is happening.

While The Vow is a movie I’d never see again, I enjoyed it for what it was: A movie for Rachel McAdams be pretty in and a reason for Channing Tatum to show us his butt outside of the strip club.

Sometimes I wonder if The Love Theme from the movie soundtrack Love Actually played in Kate Middleton’s head the first time she kissed Prince William. Because in my mind, it totally did.

P.S. I originally wanted to use this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXSe017RqgQ but youtube wouldn’t let me embed it. Stupid. Anyway, it’s the same song set to clips from the movie Pride and Prejudice and if you’re having the sort of day where the only kind of love worth having is a fictional romance set in old-timey England featuring a plucky ahead-of-her-time young female and a brooding yet sensitive and misunderstood stud (and that is every day for me) then this is for you!

P.P.S. Gah! The moment at 1:10 gets me every time! HE WAS GOING TO KISS HER IN THE RAIN AND THEN TURNS AND LEAVES HER. ALONE. IN THE RAIN. NOT KISSED.

Why you gotta be so complicated and mysterious, Mr. Darcy?

Can you believe it? Queen Beyonce has finally given birth. Paging Auntie Gwenyth Paltrow! Just think about all the attention and GLORY the first child spawned from Beyonce’s uterus is going to get.

Suri Cruise, watch out!

Let’s review Blue Ivy’s first week of being alive.

• She shut down Lenox Hill Hospital. Impressive, no doubt. But she also had the incredible timing of being the first baby born into the hospital’s newly renovated executive suite. It costs 800 dollars a night and is nicer than my entire apartment.

Blue Ivy prefers a neutral color scheme

• She was christened the 100 percent original name Blue Ivy. This is probably the least remarkable achievement on the list. You know how celebrities are about traditional names. THEY ARE FOR POOR PEOPLE. 

Somewhere a MY LITTLE PONY cries.

*Sniffle* I guess I'll settle for the name Blue Misty. *Sniffle*

• In between sleeping 18 hours a day and suckling on her mama’s teet (just kidding! you know she’s being bottle fed) Blue Ivy also scheduled some time to make her debut on the BillBoard music charts… at four days old.

Can we go ahead and agree that B.I.C is a killer MC name?

Also, in trying-to-turn-a-quick-profit-from a-celebrity-baby news, an LA pot shop has introduced a strain of Marijuana named after her.

I like the font on the marijuana jar label. Suggests a classic upscale brand of grass.

• And finally, in this whirlwind of a week, Us Weekly reports Blue Ivy already has an arch nemesis: Harper Seven Beckham.

Wait... what?

Incredible. Tabloid magazines pitting babies against each other. BABIES. Ugh, can we agree as a somewhat advanced society to just not do that?

That being said, TEAM SURI CRUISE!

Hello All!

Just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who donated to my “Meet Me on the Bridge” walk which raised money for Women for Women, an organization that helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives. The fundraiser took place on March 8th and I was grateful to be able to join hundreds of other New Yorkers in walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

This was my first time participating in a fundraiser like this. In the past, I have been hesitant to sign up for these kinds of events, mostly because I am shy when it comes to asking people for money, regardless of the cause.

So believe me, I was beyond thrilled (and a little shocked) when in less than 48 hours, I not only reached my goal but surpassed it by 30 dollars! Whoo-hoo!

Here are some photos from the march.

Everyone who was participating in the fundraiser gathered on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. When we checked in, we were given a scarf that was crafted by a woman in Rwanda.

Rwandan scarf

One of the coolest things about the NYC march was that Zainab Salbi was there to join us! Zainab is the founder of Women for Women and she is a rock star.

Seriously, I got so star struck when I saw her there! Of course, I had to sneak into the press tent to take this photo. Gaaaaaaahhh!!!

Walking over the bridge

Check out these great views of Manhattan!!!

Photo Credit: Anahi Decanio

After we crossed into Manhattan, we continued down to City Hall and listened to speakers Lauren Bush and Russell Simmons, both who are active in supporting the rights of women worldwide.

March 8th was an exciting and meaningful day for me. I am so proud and thankful of my friends, family, and fans who supported me through this fundraiser.

If you are interested in finding out more about Women for Women, check them out here.

http://www.womenforwomen.org/

Lately, a priority of mine has been to make decisions based on improving the quality of my life (or my QOL as I will now refer to it on this blog) instead of detracting from it. This has manifested itself in 2 ways: quitting my restaurant job and becoming a dog walker and by joining a local farm share where I receive fresh veggies every week.

My roommate Kirsten suggested this to me one day about two months ago and I said, “Yeah, that sounds cool.”

But then we never signed up.

Ugh. How many times has that happened in your life? A super cool opportunity comes along and for whatever reason you choose not to participate, postponing it for another more “convenient” day, instead of just doing whatever it is you need to do to increase your QOL.

And guess what?

*Spoiler Alert That Really Isn’t a Spoiler Alert Because Everyone Already Knows This*

That more convenient day never happens.

The idea of receiving fresh food from a farm upstate intrigued me. While I love frozen pizza-from-a-box, I wanted to expand my dinner selection away from the gourmet kitchen of Stouffer’s. What would it be like to eat food directly from a farm upstate?

I’ll tell you what.

IT’S FREAKING AWESOME.

Kirsten and I decided to split the medium share. This means we receive 9-10 items for 12 bucks a week. I didn’t really understand what that meant until we picked up our first batch of food.

It basically means you get a lot of food for not that much money.

Example: Here is a photo from our last visit to the farm. We have two stalks of Brussel Sprouts, two poblano peppers, a bag of potatoes, 2 spaghetti squash, acorn squash, Tuscan kale, APPLES, and shallots.

The vegetables take up the whole counter!

The best part about the food is it comes included with dirt and bugs.

I LOVE DIRT AND BUGS IN MY FOOD!!!!!!!!

Some weeks, we get things that we don’t know what to do with. Like tomatillos. And corn. So much corn. Beets, too. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeets.

One week we got a pumpkin.

Baby Pumpkin

And when life hands you a pumpkin, you make pumpkin pie. Or something like that.

I found this recipe at  http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php It sounded easy enough, but I’ve never baked a pie from an actual pumpkin, so… yeah. This could go either way.

I started by cutting this pumpkin in half, and as I expected, it took a good couple of minutes to get through the skin.

pumpkin guts

I microwaved it (which was weird to me, but hey) to soften it and then I baked the pumpkin pieces in the oven. After that was done, I did some mixing and splattered some pumpkin on the walls. No big deal.

Because our kitchen entire apartment is on a slant I had to be extra careful pouring this pie-soup into the crust (and yeah, I bought a premade crust, what?).

POW! One hour later, I got myself 2 pies that were (for realz y’all) really tasty.

I feel like my 8th grade Home Ec teacher, Mrs. Rumbaugh, would be proud.

If you’re coming to read my pumpkin pie baking adventure that I promised I’d have up by Wednesday…. it’s…. still…. baking? In my mind? Okay, I was really tired last night and didn’t finish it but I have at least loaded the photos onto my desktop.

Soon, my friends. Soon.

Like Kanye West and other celebrities, I decided to visit the Occupy Wall Street protests last weekend. I wanted to show the protesters that even though I am a future one percenter, I care. And what better way to do that than show up in the middle of the afternoon on a warm October day, walk around, avoid talking to anyone, and then peace out when things get too real?

AMERICA!

Anyway, I love me a good protest. Any time people want to get angry about something and express that anger through a drum/dance circle, I’m there. I also love shanty towns.

Cut to Zuccotti Park Liberty Square.

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived. It sounded like this thing was a big deal. Bloomberg was threatening to shut it down. The NYPD was getting feisty with their pepper spray. But what I wanted to know, and I think this is the most important question to ask… Would Liberty Square have cookies? Preferably the homemade Oatmeal Raisin kind.

When you first get there, there are a lot of people hanging around the perimeter of the park, which isn’t really a park but more like a bi-level plaza with a handful of trees. These people have a lot of feelings and are expressing them loudly. Like I do, every time I see that stupid Jennifer Lopez Fiat commercial. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PLAY ON MY TV EVERY FIVE SECONDS!!! WHO EVEN DRIVES A FIAT?!?!?

*Pounds fist into forehead*

Then you descend into the chaos and enter Liberty Square. It smells exactly like the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant.

Liberty Square, October 9th 2011

But really, once you get down into it, you see more of an “organized chaos” than actual chaos. There is a library, kitchen, altar, comfort station where you can get sleeping bags, sweaters or hugs, and a basic schedule and routine for each day. To me, that was what was most remarkable about it, the way they’ve created a self sustaining environment. They are completely set to occupy Liberty Square for as long as they want.

Rising up!

Silent Circle by the Tree of Life and Altar. And no, that's not the title of Terrence Malick's next film.

This is exactly what it looks like.

Hang around long enough and you’ll find yourself wondering where you can get a sleeping bag or how many days you can really go without showering.

Jamming and occupying, one day at a time.

There is even an Occupied Wall Street Journal that has been printed.

So these are some of the photos I took. I’d like to go back at night, possibly even sleep there just to see how things change when the sun goes down. But realistically, it’s October and my feet get cold easy. But who knows, maybe?

I said goodbye to Liberty Square and headed back uptown to my apartment because I had a REAL PUMPKIN I was going to try and turn into a pie.

Baby Pumpkin, Imma gonna bake you.

I got this pumpkin from a farm and I didn’t know what to do with it. I thought these things came in a can.

So I embarked on my first pumpkin pie attempt. Photos to come on Wednesday. Don’t miss it, y’all!

Also, Tuesday night PBS at 10PM is showing part 2 of the series Women, War and Peace. The women of Liberia will be featured and their story is incredible. Here is a trailer for the five part series below.