I think I stayed in my Thanksgiving food coma a liiittle too long, and now all I want to do is cuddle up by the fire (which I don’t have, because I live in a Manhattan apartment) and read books and watch movies. In my perfect Bubble-World, here is what I would do:

Wake up and take a shower with HOT water (really, is that so much to ask?), then stroll down to the Silver Moon Bakery for something yummy that I never treat myself to, like a croissant or brioche. And a big cup of ginger-peach tea to go with it.

Then it’s back home, and onto the sofa, with a big chenille blanket (I don’t actually have one, but this is my Bubble-World, so it doesn’t really matter).

Like most people, my book list is a mile long, but I think I’d start my morning off with Or Not by Brian Mandabach. He is a total weirdo, but very cool, and his book looks really witty and fun and easy to relate to.

I’m also reading The Other Boleyn Girl, because winter always puts me in the mood for period dramas. They’re turning it into a movie soon, so I better finish it quick. Although, I’m not sure about the movie. I like Natalie Portman, and I more-or-less like Scarlett Johansen, but (in the beginning of the book, at least) she’s supposed to be about 13—uuuuh, I don’t think so.

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Speaking of movies, after all this reading I think I’ll put down the books and watch one. In my Bubble-World, nothing is better on a cozy day than watching a Jane Austen movie, like the new Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightly. Nothing warms you up like one of the greatest love stories of all time.

I would totally watch the new Harry Potter, but I don’t think it’s out on DVD yet, damn!

In that case, maybe I’ll try another classic book-turned-movie, like To Kill A Mockingbird. If you haven’t seen and/or read it, you should. Both the book and the movie always make me cry.

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After watching a heartbreaking movie, I definitely think I’d need some comfort food, and what better place to go than S’MAC, the restaurant entirely devoted to mac & cheese. That’s right folks: heaven has arrived.

Oh, and did I mention that while all this was happening in my Bubble-World, I was wearing this incredibly gorgeous $2200 chiffon dress by Alberta Ferretti? I am in love with the scalloped detailing and the colors.
Yes, a couple people were staring at me while I ate gooey macaroni and cheese in a 2000 dollar dress, and it made the cuddling-under-some-blankets part a little less comfy/cozy, but hey, that’s how I roll! haha.

Yesterday I was buying pie crust at the grocery store (yes, I bought a pre-made crust), and I overheard this adorable little five year old girl say to her mom, “Did you know some people call it Turkey Day?”
Isn’t that adorable? I love it when kids start to pick up on things you’ve known about for years, and then they think they’re teaching it to you. Priceless!!!

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I love Thanksgiving. The fantastic food goes without saying. I’m going to try making cornbread stuffing. I totally effed it up last year, but I think I learned my lesson, and will make it better this year. And my mom has the greatest recipe for Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes. If you like spicy food, you may want to ask me for the recipe!!!
Oh, and PIE! Lots and lots of pie.

The Macy’s Day Parade is the greatest way to kick off your T-day.
Sometimes it’s frickin’ freezing out there, but it doesn’t stop anyone from going. There ar scenes from Broadway shows, incredible giant floats (some of which represent cartoons I’ve never even heard of), they get C-list celebrities to make guest performances, and there’s always a float full of deaf kids singing a song in sign language, which makes me teary eyed with joy, every year. And after the parade comes the Westminster Dog Show. It’s totally bizarre, and yet highly addictive. It always makes me want to rent Best In Show by Christopher Guest.

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My sister and I are really into puzzles. Every year we buy a mystery puzzle and spend the whole day obsessing over it. First you read the very poorly written mystery, making fun of it the whole way through (or spacing out, as I usually end up doing), and then you spend, like, fifteen hours assembling the whole thing, and then you finally solve the ridiculously half-assed mystery. It’s always a let down, and yet, we never stop buying them.

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Next on my list:

Best Thanksgiving oriented movies:

*Home for the Holidays (we watch this one almost every year. It never gets old. And Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic)

*Pieces of April (before Katie Holmes went loco, she made this really poignant indie flick about dysfunctional family Thanksgiving. I loved it.)

*A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (because it’s so cute!)

And whether it’s just our immediate family, or a huge crowd of 20 people, I always want to dress up for Thanksgiving. It’s fun to feel festive—know what I mean? (Of course, I keep the PJ’s nearby, for after I’ve stuffed all that food into my tummy). I have my eye on this multi-colored metallic dress from Tibi. It’s kind of hard to tell how cute it is in this picture, but I tried it on at Monmartre and it was very flattering and adorable.
Either that or a cute sweater dress. I like to feel cozy on T-day. And I usually skip the shoes. (What’s the point, if you’re going to be inside all day?) But not the accessories. Thanksgiving should be a very glitzy day, possibly even incorporating a tiara.

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Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!!

I don’t know what my deal is, but I have been having tons of crazy dreams lately. I wonder if it’s because I’ve been staying up until 1 or 2 AM every night? Or maybe it’s not even that they’re so “crazy,” I just think it’s strange that I’ve been remembering them so clearly. As I was saying to Stiletto Heights the other day, dreams can seriously be affected by what you’ve been eating before bed. If you eat a few Oreos before lights-out-time, the sugar will seriously mess with your dreams, and same goes for pizza—something to do with the dairy, perhaps?

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Last night’s dream was a 2 parter. In the first dream, I was some kind of urban Sherpa, leading two random hot guys on a trek through the mountains to find the best Starbucks in the world. Apparently, in dreamland, the best Starbucks is somewhere amid the mountains and arroyos of my hometown of Santa Fe, NM. And when you’re leading two uber hot guys (one of them looked like John Krasinski, and the other one was just a random cute guy I probably saw on the subway*), you can imagine I got a little bit lost. We never found Starbucks. Sob. But we did find a sale at the Clinique store, which leads me to Part 2.

* Note: Andy, don’t take it personally that you weren’t one of the hot guys in my dream. You’re hot all the time!

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Part 2: A friend and I waited in line at a Clinique sale counter forever—probably 3 days or something—and when we finally got to the front, there was a balding, middle-aged douchebag sitting on a folding chair at a folding table, holding a few different tubes of eyeliner and concealer in his sweaty palms. Yuck! I told the guy I refused to wear liquid eyeliner because I didn’t want to look like Amy Winehouse, and instead wanted an eyeliner pencil with a smudge tip. While he was riffling around for something, his assistant came around behind me and started trying to cover up my bald spot—in my dream I had a BALD SPOT!
Talk about “nightmare.” It was very traumatic. But, you’ll be happy to know that when it was all over (the grubby Clinique salesman could not find eyeliner for me), I looked to my left and there was a Starbucks! Not the Starbucks Mecca the hot guys and I had been looking for, but at least it was a nice way to end the dream.

1.First of all, big ups to anyone who ran the marathon on Sunday. Can you imagine doing that? 26 miles? TWENTY-SIX MILES. No way. I’m lucky if I can run two—and that’s with several bouts of speed walking along the way. But it’s great. Very impressive. Except for all the horror stories I hear about blisters, chafed nipples, peeing in your pants! Not fun!

Instead of marathoning, Andy and I went to the movies (Lars & The Real Girl, which was as good as I’d hoped it would be) and we saw tons of marathon runners on the subway in their dorky silver mylar capes, with big bronze medals around their necks. It was very entertaining. Personally, if I’d just run the marathon, you wouldn’t catch me on the subway—somebody would surely treat me to a cab, right? But anyway, it’s a huge feat, so WAY TO GO, runners!

2.Kaching Design
This website was launched by a friend of a friend in San Francisco, but I was checking it out and it’s actually pretty cool! Check out some of the fun, modern designs. I’m really into this shirt, and there are also cute bags, kids T’s, and wall art.

3. Stereo Gum. As you probably know, I am a massive music lover. At work the other day I overheard my cool music-loving coworkers discuss the downsides of Pitchfork Media, so naturally I decided to look for a cooler music news website. As far as I’m concerned, Stereo Gum is it! They’ve got the down-low on all the hip new artists and I’ve been listening to Mp3’s all day. My faves at the mo’ include: Lykke Li, Yeasayer, Black Kids, Justice… and I’m still looking for more.

4.
The Cookie Sandwich Co. I read about this website on Daily Candy, and my mouth is watering!!! Gourmet cookie sandwiches delivered to my door? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m in love! Flavors include Mint Brownie cookie sandwich, Macadamia Nut Lemon cookie sandwich, Chocolate Truffle cookie sandwich… I know this is very similar to the 24 hour cookie delivery company I mentioned in a top five a few months ago, but as far as I’m concerned, cookies can be on every top five list!

5. My love/hate relationship with Christmas. It’s really more of a love/love relationship. I can’t help it, I love all the music, the decorations, the food, the movies, the presents, the clothes, the warm fuzzy feeling—but there’s a time and a place! It was barely even Halloween when I started hearing Xmas music in the drugstore, and Xmas trees up in storefront windows. Come on people, we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet! I think the xmas season should start any time after that. Sounds reasonable, yeah?

ps-My neck is better! Thanks for all your concern, commiseration, and advice.

Oh, the pain! The pain!
I pinched a nerve in my neck and am currently in agony, stiff as a board, on the sofa.

It happened at the gym in my aerobics class. Well, that’s kind of a lie. It was at the very end of class when we’d finished all the hard stuff and we were stretching. I heard this POP sound, felt a sharp crack, and suddenly I couldn’t move my head! It’s happened before, and it’ll go away in a few days, but it is so painful. Not just that, it’s completely embarrassing! I can’t turn my head from side to side, or pull clothes over my head. I look like I’m pretending to be a robot. On Halloween we watched scary movies, and my sister kept teasing me and saying “Alex, look over your shoulder, there’s a monster behind you!” But of course I couldn’t. Turning is a full body activity for now.

Maybe it’s just that being bedridden has made me restless, but I suddenly have an insane urge to travel. I want to see, eat, and learn about new things!
Back when I was dreaming up honeymoon destinations I read about this ecolodge in Nicaragua called Morgan’s Rock. They’ve planted 1.5 million trees, and reintroduced formerly extinct animals into the private reserve. Doesn’t that sound cool? Okay, I sound like a pamphlet, but I’m practically drooling thinking about all the hiking, beaches, plants & animals, and the hotel has an infinity pool!!! One of my favorite things ever. As a honeymoon destination, it ended up being too far, not the right season, too expensive, etc. But, get this: my parents are going there later this month! They stole my honeymoon!

Am I bitter?

Who, me?

Never!!!

No, really. I’m very excited for them. They had to cancel a long anticipated trip to Montenegro this fall, and this is going to be an awesome adventure for them. They just better bring back a lot of frigging pictures and souvenirs. hint hint.

I’ve also always wanted to go to New Zealand. Maybe not always, but after seeing the sprawling landscapes in Lord of the Rings I was in love. One of my favorite books, The Bone People, by Keri Hulme is all about Maori culture, which is fascinating. I think it’s also a good destination if you’re into sporty things, like sky diving etc… which I’m not sure I am (though I did go bungee jumping once!).

I promise I won’t go on and on, but I want to see the world. Thanks to my culturally inclined parents I’ve been to S. Africa, Zambia & Botswana—that’s when I went bungee jumping. Scary!!!
Italy (Tuscany, Venice, Florence)—what incredible food, art, and architecture.

Greece—I went there with the ‘rents when I was 16, and also by myself when I turned 23 for a 2 week yoga retreat. Traveling alone is intense!

Turkey—not my favorite place. There was a lot of ass grabbing.

Japan—I went to Kyoto and Tokyo w/ my two best friends to scope out the fantastic shopping/fashion, temples, food, and crazy culture. I should post about that trip another time.

There are a million places I still want to go. Endless possibilities. I read a great article on cnn.com about travel destinations that may not last forever. Lots of interesting geographical tidbits.

Anywho, how about you: Where have you been and where are you dying to go?!