We have a home!

After searching high and low, up and down, 'round the corner and back again, Justin and I have found our new home! We signed the papers this week and are so excited! It is simply beautiful.

Please, step through the front door and hang up your coat in the closet....

During chilly months and holidays, you can warm yourself by the wood-burning fireplace and snuggle in to watch a good movie with us...

Hungry? Let's whip up some precious little delights in the kitchen and then put the dishes in the dishwasher...ah modern appliances!!

Then we can walk through the hallway into our bedroom...(passing two more closets)...

And marvel that the bedroom is larger than the living room.

Home Sweet Home.

As Charlotte says to Lizzy in Pride & Prejudice, "It is such a pleasure to run my own home."

I can't wait! I move in mid-May and Justin will join me after the wedding!

I think we'll be exceedingly happy.

We can't wait for you to come visit us!

Wedding dress, Part One

How cute is my Daddy?

My mama is cute too--she's taking the photo!  

My wedding dress is all packed up, warm and safe, into this box.  The skirt is getting smushed!  It's crying, "let me out!"  Soon, baby girl, soon.  I'll see you next week.

So my amazing dress is now on it's way to me here in New York.  Travel safely, darling!

In other magicalness, my wedding dress is in the newest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings!  I squealed out loud when I saw this!  

From this week's New Yorker

How in the world did the cartoonist know this is my current nightly prayer too?

To the Queen Mother:

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

If I was there I would go here:

To get you this:

but I am here:

and you are here:

so instead I say:

I hope you had a fantastic day and the flowers are beautiful!! Just like YOU!

I love love love you!!!

I feel like I'm in a J.Crew ad. I love it!

Ok, guys and dolls.  Here are the pictures from yesterday's Central Park photo shoot.  

These are my favorites.  I've numbered them for ease of ranking.  All are crop-able and once we pick, Ty, our amazing photographer, will touch it all up and punch up the colors.

Please let me know which ones you like!!!

1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

The rest of the photos can be viewed here.

I love being engaged....

I got to live a New York dream-come-true:  I had my engagement photos taken this morning with my handsome groom-to-be at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.  

It was so much fun!  

The weather was gorgeous, Justin and I got to be together (which after nearly two weeks apart was a treat unto itself), and many passers-by noticed and offered congratulations and best wishes.  

It was simply fabulous.  

Check back soon for the pictures!!

Oh, and P.S...

One more hooray:  today it is 3 months to our wedding!

This post by Orangette made me cry.  You'll have to scroll pretty far down.  I'm talking about the part when she advises all to simply feast and party and enjoy and dance...I just can't wait.  For all of it!!!

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise

Three cheers for today.

Spring, it is safe to say, has officially sprung in the city. Popcorn is popping on the apricot tree. Justin comes home tomorrow. I am getting a tax refund. My beautiful fabulous perfect wedding dress is being shipped to the tailor. I got my jeans hemmed. I am going to Central Park on Saturday. I ate a salad for lunch today and I am still full. Justin comes home tomorrow. (Did I mention that already? Silly me...I am that excited.)

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!

In a moment of weakness today, I ate two brownie bites. What will Madame Paulette say??

If not even the Salvation Army, then who??

So. For those in the know, my current living situation is slightly less than perfection. And the last few months I've managed to keep mum on the topic because it was very kindly suggested to me by ones who love me that everyone might not be so interested. As if. (Although, perhaps my silent complaining has reached a few ears. Perhaps it's not been so silent. Perhaps, at times, it's been of the crying and yelling and screaming variety. I'm not saying this has happened. It just might have happened.) But today, the curtain of silence has been lifted.

At the end of January I had to move. This happened for a reason that will remain un-addressed. Because, as the saying goes, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. And I most definitely have nothing nice to say on the subject. And while there have been some silver linings to the situation I mostly find the whole deal wildly infuriating. No windows, no air, no cell reception, bad laundry, blah blah blah. I'm continually encouraged by the ones who love me to make the best of it and I try, I honestly do. But today....erhggg.

Over the weekend, I was oh-so productive and cleaned out my room and was oh-so proud of myself and called the Salvation Army to pickup my donation. Today, I got a call from the Salvation Army.

Him: "Hello ma'am? This is Joe from the Salvation Army. I'm the dispatcher and, ma'am, I'm just calling to let you know that we're not going to pick up your donation today."

Me: "Why not?"

Him: "Well ma'am, my driver tried to get down your street but his truck can't make the turn and the street seems to be too narrow."

Me: "Please, sir, I know it's a narrow street but I know if he tries again, he could make it."

Him: "Well, I'll ask him to try but he says the street is too narrow and he really doesn't want to."

Even the Salvation Army doesn't want to come here!

Ok. The silence curtain is now closed.

Weekend Round Up

Had a very nice weekend!

I:

- took myself on a date to the movies. Saw "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" and highly recommend. It's sweet, funny, and heartwarming. Isn't that how we always want to feel after a date?
- slept in on Saturday and Sunday. So delicious.
- ran! I get so proud of myself when I'm able to add minutes to my running program. Am currently running to Kanye West's "Stronger" because it makes me feel, well, strong and like kicking some serious butt.
- cleaned out my room and gathered lots of items to donate to the Salvation Army. Then I called SA and arranged a pickup. So efficient am I....
- welcomed Justin home with lots of kisses! Then we went to an all-night diner and ate eggs. So fun.
- watched General Conference. It was incredibly uplifitng and I felt very blessed and grateful for our new President, Thomas S. Monson.
- did Justin's laundry. The poor kiddo was only in town for 37 hours, most of them spent at the office, so for the price of a "please", a "thank you", two chocolates and lots of kisses, we negotiated a deal.
- had dinner with friends. Very good, very old friends. We've been friends since I was 12. They're both married to the greatest girls ever and have the happiest baby I've ever met in my life. Thanks, guys! Can't wait for next time!
- said goodbye to Justin. Sigh. I think I saw him for a collected 4 hours in two weeks, and he's gone again. I miss him. But he does such an awesome job and works very hard. He makes me proud.

Bon anniversaire, ma cherie!

To the snickerdoodliest Princess:

You, Jessica, my little sis, are the awesomest girl I know. You are beautiful, smart, funny, and have great hair, great skin AND great teeth--you have it all!

It's your grand and glorious 22nd birthday today and I wish you all the love and happiness and joy in the world!

Love,

Emi

Alexander and Me

Sometimes we have a bad day. All of us have experienced it--those maddening, hair-rippingly, infuriating days when everything is wrong and nothing is right and you've just had it. I believe Alexander calls it the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

That was my Monday. Justin was away, work kicked my butt, several little wedding details unraveled, I forgot to eat lunch, and before I knew it, I was spiraling. I needed an outlet. A release. A purging of this nonsense.

I found it in a boxing class. Yup. My gym offers a boxing class once a week, and luckily, it was Monday nights. Couldn't be more perfect. I went home, changed into gym clothes, and stomped over to my gym.

My fiance is a big tough manly man who boxed quite seriously in high school. And I love Rocky. So I assumed that because Justin and Rocky could do it, I was going to be a natural. A pro.

Well, class started off a bit rough--we jump-roped to get started and, you know, to be honest, I don't remember jump-roping being so dang hard! I kept garrotting myself on my rope and smacking the back of neck with it. Fun times. My rage only increased. After 5 minutes of jumping torture, we started sparring. Yeah, baby! This is where it's at. 50 minutes of beating into boxing mitts as hard as possible is fun. And exhausting. By the end of class, my arms were shaking and my fingers numb.

Cut to the next morning. Ehh...getting out of bed...not so easy! Taking a shower and washing my hair....not so easy! Walking down the subway stairs? Downright laughable.

Cut to the second morning. Complete fossilization has occurred. Cannot move more than 1 mph and can barely sit down. Torture!

But you better believe that come next Monday--if I am recovered, which at this point is a big IF--I will be back. And if I ever meet Alexander, I will pass along my new discovery for bad-day management.

Maybe I will get a pair of pink gloves, like these to maintain my ladylike daintyness. What would Rocky do??

Punching things feels good.

The To Do List

I'm a big list maker. I just love the efficiency and clarity of getting myself organized and then getting things done and crossing them firmly off the list.

This is my current list of to dos. Interesting that the two items on the left are my work-related ones and the one on the right, the Wedding one, is by far the longest. One step at a time. Rome was not built in a day. Neither were the pyramids. Or the Eiffel tower.

A charming moment

Last night I experienced as close to perfection as is possibly possible on a New York City street. I got my sweet little Mac laptop back on her feet (hooray for the cute techies at the Apple Genius Bar), which pleased me to no end. I was primed for some love.

Two hours earlier I had battled my way up Fifth Avenue to the Apple Store, through a never-ending throng of European tourists and middle school girls soccer teams on Spring Break. When I stepped outside the plexiglass box that is the store, I braced myself to bob and weave through the crowd again. But something miraculous happened.

The street and sidewalk were charmingly free of people. There were no cars whizzing past, honking and barking at one another. Only a few people walked sedately past me. And the air was warm and the sky was in that marvelous romantic dusky time.

I love New York with all the ferver my little heart can muster. BUT. Sometimes it can get noisy and crowded and frustrating. These quiet moments soothe me and must be savored. I walked past the newly renovated Plaza Hotel, admiring the new facade and remembering fun memories. (Martha? Giggling on the bed in the biggest suite we've ever been in?) I then walked past the sweet, tired horsies pulling carriages. Past the southeast corner of Central Park, where, just over the pond, tiny purple buds are beginning to form on the tree tops.

Then I entered the subway station, which was also remarkably empty and calm. A train pulled up. I transfered at Times Square. This station as well--which is really amazing--was quiet as could be. And someone was wearing tuberose perfume. Which is one my most favoritest smells ever.

Sometimes you just feel complete. For some, it might be eating a spectacular meal or accomplishing something great at work or whatever. I like those things too. But in this moment last night, I was incandesantly happy. Because of a little quietness and some tuberose perfume.

Wedding Round-up

Wedding planning is fun. A little unwieldy, a bit overwhelming and a pinch stressful, yes. But then all of a sudden you realize that you've picked a date, booked a venue, purchased a dress, hired a photographer, contracted a florist, boogied with a DJ, settled on beautiful shades of colors, worded invitations, reworded and then reworded them again, registered for all sorts of fabulous items and paid for tickets to a tropical isle. Looking at that completed list, it all seems so easy. Why did I get so flustered in the middle of all this? (For those of you stifling hoots of laughter, please, I can hear you.)

I don't have a good answer for that. But what I know for sure is that I'm so excited to be marrying my darling Justin, and I'm so excited for this wedding. I love planning every precious little detail and savoring each delicious moment of being a bride.

There are still 58965214578 things to do. But I have lots of help and lots of love and lots of excitement. And as we are so fond of quoting in my house, "Justin is wonderful and brilliant and we're getting married!!"

xoxo

Gasp! So much fun

I just found the most amazing new blog, via one of my favorite blogs.

Enter, The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Yummy recipes and pretty photos with great commentary. What a great combo.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's March Madness!

It's just so exciting--the games, the players, the coaches, the brackets, the trash-talk, I heart every single minute of the goodness.

My espeically favorite days are the days like today, when there are 7 games played during the day and I can spend my entire workday doing nothing except refreshing SI.com to get the scores. LOVE IT.

Here come the bridesmaids!

I have the sweetest, loveliest friends in the world. Four of these beauties have agreed to be bridesmaids for my wedding. They are the best in the world - loving, kind, patient, excited, possessing a healthy appreciation for the color pink, and all-around classy gals.

The line up is:

Miss Ellie Marble

Ellie is in the fur hat and I am on the left singing. Yes, it is kareoke. Yes, it is hip-hop kareoke. Yes, we were awesome.

Miss Liz Longergan

Lis is very artistic. One of my oldest and bestest friends.

Miss Jessica Ruiz

Jessica and I enjoy going to Broadway openings together.

and

The Homecoming Queen of Tulane University, all the way from New Orleans,

Miss Jessica Roberts

She's very excited to be my Maid of Honor. She's the cutest little snickerdoodle ever.

Aren't they lovely? Aren't they wonderful? I love them!

Thanks, girls!!!

Spring forward

Daylight savings already?? Yippee! I'm so grateful to leave the office and have hours of sunshine left. Ohhh, the magicalness of spring.

Mark your calendars!

Addressing the envelopes and stuffing them with save-the-dates. This is really happening! XOXO!

A word to the wise:

Don't lift this
when you can only lift the little pink ones. I might have used 10 lb. dumbbells during my cardio workout Wednesday instead of my usual 3 lb. ones and ummm....yeah....my arms and back HURT!

To Detroit and back again

Motown was my host this week in preparation for a big work project coming up in June. My mission: test every amenity at the Ritz-Carlton hotel and visit the Detroit Institute of Arts.

It's worth putting in print that the king size bed at the Ritz is far and away the coziest, comfiest bit of heaven I've ever rested my curly head on. Justin--I took notes on the mattress and feather bed. We should look into it. The hotel was lovely and filled with crystal chandaliers and tinkly music. The best part was the candy lounge on the Club Floor. A giant glass canister of Tootsie Rolls and Gummi Bears and hot and cold snacks and sodas and water at all hours of the day and night? My boss and I sat in a corner of the lounge, kept company with a real Detroit posse (the gentlemen were absolutely wearing floor length fur coats), watched a blizzard dump 8 inches on snow on us and got the giggles. Best Tuesday night in a long time.

The Detroit Institute of Arts blew me away. Knocked my socks off. The DIA recently completed a 6 year expansion and construction project that I believe exemplifies why art museums exist. The DIA has had a historically rough life--one of the richest collections in the country in terms of the works of art but one of the poorest in actual monetary senses. Detroit as a city is frighteningly tragic. And is lacking a generation of donors, philanthropists, politicians and economy to help get it back on track. Graham Beal, the Director of the DIA (and the object of just a little hero worship on my part), made radical changes to the way the collections of the museum would be displayed and caught a lot of heat from his colleagues and the press over his efforts. This review by The New York Times gives a nice overview of the situation and is typical of the general response to the new DIA. What I can say is--the DIA is an inarguable demonstration that 1) art enriches people's lives and 2) everyone deserves to see said art. White, black, orange, purple, rich, poor, upside down and sideways. Don't criticize the ones who try to make it possible.

The art is world class. The building is a legacy to greatness of the past and the possibility of renewal. It was the first time in my life that I've been moved to tears by a personal interaction with art. (Yes, crying in the Italian galleries next to my boss and Graham...erm...one of the more embarrassing moments of my week but genuine. I couldn't help myself.)

Emily in Bloggerland

The blogging community is amazing. I learn from you, I cheer with you, I hope for you. Thank you for sharing joy and wisdom and thoughtfulness and wonder and grace and beauty and love. I don't even know most of you but please know that I wish I did, and in the meantime, you have each helped give me the courage to stand up and be myself. Out loud. So thanks. Love you all.

The Progress of Love

I am ENGAGED!!! My amazing sweetieheart, Justin, proposed to me and I want to share the delightfulness of the event.

The weekend before the proposal, the NFL playoffs dominated all social interaction and pretty much monopolized a complete 48 hours of our lives. Sunday night, post football, Justin suddenly starts talking about the following weekend and how we should go out in the city and do something like go to a museum. (I love museums. A lot.) Then he says, "What's the name of your favorite...isn't like...(dramatic pause)...the Frrr...the Frick?" Oscar worthy, right there. And I, in my delightful ignorance reply, "Oh yes! Let's go there, it's my favorite!" So we make plans to go the Frick the following Saturday.

Cut to Thursday night. Justin calls and says he wants to go to dinner after the museum on Saturday. A French restaurant one of his co-workers told him about. Ok, I think, sounds good. I ask what the name of the restaurant is, so I can look it up and determine what I want to wear. He suddenly starts hemming and claims he can't pronounce it properly and when I ask him to please text me the name of it he couldn't totally remember and said it was recommended to him.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that I enjoy the surprise of events. I don’t skip to the end of books to find out what happens, I don’t try to solve the mystery in suspense movies, I don’t open Christmas presents early—I really enjoy the thrill of surprise. So, in the back of my mind, there was a little wiggling thought that there might be something special about the dinner portion of the evening but had no clue what it could possibly be and resolved not to bust Justin’s chops over a dinner reservation. He next mentions that the dinner reservation is for 7PM. What??!?!?! WHY??? Dinner should be eaten at 8 or 8:30 and if we go that early I won’t have time to change etc….he calmly suggested I wear whatever dress I want for dinner to be worn all day. To the museum. It all makes sense—all part of the master plan of the day.

Saturday arrives bright and cold and beautiful and I fuss and fumble with my outfit, trying to decide what would be appropriate for the museum and yet fabulous enough to the mysterious unknown French restaurant. My sister helpfully suggested that I just go for fabulous (she had started to put two and two together while I will still gleefully unaware!). I settled on a classic black V-neck dress with a ruffled collar from BCBG and a cranberry cardigan from J.Crew. My lovely pearl earrings maddeningly broke as I was putting them on so I had to wear flat mother-of-pearl earrings instead. Black tights. My new favorite black suede ballet flats.

So the afternoon whiles away and we fiiiiinally make our way to the museum just after 5 (it closes at 6) and I was feeling rushed and frustrated that we were arriving later than anticipated. Through my boss, I had secured passes for us from the Director’s office and couldn’t believe we were arriving so late. I start zipping Justin through the collection, showing him highlights and my favorites and giving a quick running commentary. While I can pass many a happy hour in a museum, Justin’s attention span is much shorter and I was trying to be sure to go through quickly while he was still enjoying the art. Strangely, he kept slowing down, stopping to examine a painting here, an enameled French soup tureen there, pointing out the colors he liked. And I thought that was odd. Great! But odd. There was a room that had recently been renovated and re-installed: the Fraganard Room. The room is pink, with crystal everywhere and the most gorgeous paintings. Sigh. How fabulous. We kept going. Fifty minutes later we had completed our sprint through the Frick and were being ushered out by the security guards. From the back, there are two ways to exit—walk along the Courtyard or go back through the study and the Fragonard room. Justin suggested walking that way, as I had skipped over the study earlier. We amble through and I thought how great it was that we were alone in Henry Frick’s study. As we passed into the lovely pinkness of the Fragonards I veered to the left to look at my favorite painting one more time. It's titled "The Progress of Love." Indeed.



Justin came up next to me and put his arm around me. The following then took place:

Him: I love you.

Me: I love you too, Justin. (La la la, museums are fun and now we’re going to dinner.)

Him: (Clearly not finished) NO, I really love you. (The speech begins. It will be kept private, but I must say that this is the moment when I should really have realized what was happening and I just….didn’t. I was pretty enraptured in his lovely words though…)

And then he took my left hand. And I knew. I could feel his weight shifting and in that moment I knew he was going down on the knee. OMG!!!!! HE’S DOWN ON HIS KNEE!!!!

Him: Emily Roberts, will you please marry me?

SPEECHLESS. I was absolutely speechless. I could see he was holding ring box that he had awesomely popped open with one hand but I couldn’t look away from his sweet eyes.

I said yes.

And then I kissed him, he stood up and asked me, “Well, would you like to see the ring? Do you want to try it on??”



And the ring is so beautiful! So beautiful. And he had done the whole ring thing on his own. It was so amazing to be so surprised. I truly had no idea. Magical!

The evening went on from there—the moment was absolute perfection and I could not have asked for anything more. He went so above and beyond to make the experience something that I will never forget. The most amazing part is that the Frick has been my very favorite museum since I moved to the city eight years ago. Since my very first visit, it had been my dream to be proposed to there. Justin didn’t know this—he picked the museum for his own reasons. Isn’t that just incredible? I am the happiest and luckiest girl the world.

XOXO!

Emily (soon-to-be-Birch)

I'm moving--and moving on!

It's official! I am moving next weekend. Strangely enough, I'm getting quite excited about this transitions--and for someone who abhors change and abhors moving above all else, I'm truly surprised at myself. But like all personal evolution, it snuck up on me and I can honestly say I am excited. Yesterday someone was being very sympathetic and offered up, "Maybe there is a blessing in disguise here" to which I replied, "It's not even disguised--it is very clear to me the positive results that are coming out of this move"--a response that surprised both her and me. The results of this move are:

1. I am sorting through closets, desks, drawers, bookcases, under beds--any place that harbors junk and either giving it away or throwing it away. Cleaning out 8 years worth of stuff is quite an undertaking but getting rid of it feels so good.
2. Broken furniture is finally making its way to the furniture graveyard! I've had a broken dresser for 3 YEARS that is finally being put to rest.
3. I was never going to be happy to leave this apartment. 2007 was truly a magical year for me and many happy memories happened within the walls of 75 West. Moving now instead of later provides me with the perfect buffer to transition into what will hopefully be happening this summer.

Moving up and moving on--it's a fact of life. The choice is ours to make the best of it and embrace the goodness that comes with evolution.

Begin Again

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." ~Joseph Campbell

I'm aware that today is the 10th of January, and everyone else in the world celebrated New Years 10 days ago, but for me, this year of 2008 starts today. Through an unfortunate set of unforseeable circumstances, the last 7 days have caused me a lot of turmoil and jeopordized many situations and I went into lockdown mode. I turned into an angry person who began systematically blasting through the problem-solving process. Finally, last night the puzzle pieces fell into place and the problems began to be solved.

It was pointed out to me a few days ago that holding onto anger was not helping me figure out the situation and that I needed to find a way to move on. I can't honestly say I was in the mood for such advice but, along with everything else I'm thinking about, I've been mulling it over.

Last night, after the relief of getting all this nonsense settled, I started to consider the future. Moving forward demands letting go of the past. I realized that my toxic anger was affecting all my relationships, my ability to function at work, my happiness and my health. And while the situation caused a friendship to end, which was sad, I've come to the conclusion that moving onward and forward is the only option.

Picking up the pieces has precipitated a lot of personal navel-gazing, and I'm proud of the way I've been able to stay focused on the task at hand. I know I have a lot of personal growing to do--and always will--but that's part of the fun. So my New Year's Resolution is to BEGIN AGAIN. Start fresh. Get rid of the baggage from the past. Just shed it like a snake sheds its skin.

In the last year my life has changed radically. I'm so glad for all the risks I took and moments when I made myself vulnerable. The payoff has been incredible. All this gives me the courage and confidence to keep trying new things, pushing myself, allowing myself and others to make mistakes. We all will. But I know there is so much good to be had in the world and so many possibilities, if we will only take the first step. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

....my true love gave to me: four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves AND a partridge in a pear tree!

i love these little guys.

On the Third Day of Christmas...

....my true love gave to me: three french hens, two turtle doves AND a partridge in a pear tree!

On the Second Day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me: two turtle doves AND a partridge in a pear tree!

On the First Day of Christmas...

I've been so busy enjoying the holiday season that I've neglected to post! And now I'm leaving in two days for vacation so I'll smoosh in my adorable days of Christmas. So:

On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

....a partridge in a pear tree!