It's the Simple Joys

There are very few things I love more than a pedicure. You ladies can back me up on this one. I very much enjoy sitting in a lovely chair while someone massages the feet that walk in heels all day and make them beautiful. How relaxing is a foot and leg massage after days of running around?! All I have to say is the pedicure is a divine and inspired invention.

Now let's pair this glorious event in which we ladies get together to chat and relax with a 32oz Dr. Pepper. I'm pretty sure the only thing closer to pure heavenly bliss is the shoe department at Bloomingdale's.

I am now relaxed, energized and perfectly painted pink...

Between this and the fact that the guy at Walmart gave me his employee discount on the 457 pictures I printed made today utterly fantastic. Apparently I was the only person who was nice to him all day. It pays to be nice people, good karma totally comes back to you. In this case it came back to me in the form of a $70 savings. Which on one side makes me very sad. Why are people rude?! And on the other side makes me happy. $70 happy!

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Hello Lova...

I got myself a Christmas present. And I think I'm in love. Two new additions to the shoe family. I love these gold Steve Madden pumps and black lace pumps with an exposed platform by Guess (the heel is covered in black satin!). My heart fluttered when I saw them at DSW. I love a good bargain so this store is one of my staples. I can't tell you how excited I am to wear these. Love, love, love!

Wedding Website

It's a work in progress. Much more info will be up on it soon.

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/PrestonThomas&KambriaLomeli


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He liked it so he put a ring on it...

We're engaged!!! Preston and I are so happy and I wanted to share the story for those who want to know. He did an amazing job.

My friend Krystal called me because she got gift certificates to The Boat House in Central Park and she wanted me to go with her. She knew I had always wanted to go and I was very excited to get a lovely lunch for free. It's a place where a lot of people dress up. It is a classic NY novelty. So when she told me she "kind of wanted to get fancy" I was all for it! Anyone who knows me can tell you I take any excuse to doll up. So we set the date for Friday afternoon. She was late which ended up causing stress on Preston's end (but that's another side of the story). So we met up at the 72nd street subway stop off of the red line and started to walk into the park. Apparently Preston was within 15 feet of us the whole time! I had NO CLUE. I guess I even looked right at him once or twice but I had no idea. When you aren't expecting to see someone you know you don't really pay attention I suppose.

So we're walking a really random way to The Boat House but I didn't say anything because Krystal and I were talking about a boy she met in SF and was texting. And I didn't want to interrupt the boy story. Turns out it was a fake story and she was texting Preston trying to coordinate the spot. We walked over this beautiful white bridge that's on the way and about half way over it she stopped. So when I turned around to see where she was, who was actually behind me getting on one knee? Preston :) I had NO idea he was coming to NY. I really thought I was going to The Boat House. So my first words were something very romantic like "Why are you here?!?!?!"

He said very sweet things and told me he loved me. And of course asked "will you marry me?" to which I replied yes and gave him a big kiss and hug. After a minute I was still waiting for him to take the ring and actually put it on my finger. So I kind of put my hand out and smiled for him to put it on. In his version of this story he falsely tells people that before I even said yes I "shoved" my hand in his face because I wanted my ring. But these are lies.

Krystal was such a sweet heart and snapped these pictures for us. And afterwards Preston took me on a carriage ride around the park and up to 5th avenue. I had never been on one and always wanted to have a ride. We were able to walk 5th and look at all the Christmas window displays, which are amazing this year.

He was very romantic and sweet and we were just so happy. He gave me a rose and let me gush and call/text people. And he was able to spend my last weekend in NY with me, which was so amazing. This is really where we did 90% of our dating. We talked about how we will always talk and refer to "The NY Years" as the best. It's our city. And we had the most amazing time here.

Kudos to my friends who helped him plan and did a scary job of lying to my face that whole week. I can't believe I was so surprised. I thought for sure I was way too quick to ever be caught off guard.

I love Preston so much and we can't wait to get married and start the next part of our lives together.

Random things I'll miss in NYC

#1 thing I'll miss hands down is brunch. New Yorker's are SERIOUS about our brunch. We can't be bothered to do our own laundry (sending out my laundry changed my life) or even chop our own veggies (that's right we have vegetable butchers in select grocery stores). BUT we ALWAYS, ALWAYS have time to spend two hours eating large portions of brunch goodness while gossiping and catching up with our favorite people on a Saturday afternoon. It's the time to laugh, eat and be merry.

I love that you never know if you will get a dance or musical performance when you get on a subway! Today's rendition of "Feliz Navidad" put me in a great mood. Especially when one of the group members looked at me and Brittany and gave us an extra little shimmy/shake. He totally got a dollar.

I'm going to miss "Clinton's Deli" around the corner from my apartment. The guy who works there gives me a free Dr. Pepper every now and then. And he pulls out my People and US Weekly magazines early for me so I get them a day before everyone else. It's the closest thing to a drug dealer I will ever have! He has the goods I need haha.

Then there's the museums, restaurants, shows, plays, clubs and culture... Which contain too many things to list. You can do anything, get anything and see everything. But you pay a premium for it! Which brings me to the one thing I won't miss, the expense. A price, although worth paying, is high.


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Palin + Gosselin = Good Idea???

Ummm PLEASE tell me you have seen the promo for TLC's "Sarah Palin's Alaska" this week. I do not watch this show. Nor have I ever watched "John & Kate + 8" or any of the spin offs. But. This. Is. BAD. TV. And when I say bad I mean that after me and my roommate Brittany saw the promo there was dead silence for a solid 2 minutes before we could stop staring at the TV to turn to each other and say... "REALLY?!"

And for those of you who haven't seen it: Watch the promo here...

Now I find it very unlikely that Sarah called up her good friend Kate so they could take their kids out together for a nice family camp out. So I can only assume we owe TLC a great deal for bringing these two characters together. But between Sarah's' voice (I swear she can't naturally sound like that) and Kate's whining (Did we learn nothing from her stint on "Dancing with the Stars") I will be watching, for the first time, Sarah Palin's show. Because this is a train wreck people. And while you may be horrified by it, you cannot. stop. watching.

The only good thing I can really say is that Mrs. Palin's hair looks fantastic. So kudos to her stylist.


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Mr. Connor Athey

While I was in Utah I was able to see my besties Karynn & Derek, and their beautiful baby boy Connor. This baby is SO HAPPY. Like all my close friends beautiful children, I'm already trying to convince him I'm his favorite. I think if I tell him "I'm your favorite Tia" over and over that he will think it too! He's so advanced too! Crawling and pulling himself up like a champ at only 8 months. He'll be walking in no time.

I was glad to see that Utah is catching on to the cupcake craze that is so big here in NYC. I LOVED "The Cocoa Bean". It's darling inside and the cupcakes were right on par with NY. And since I'm very bias you know that I mean it. And while parts of Utah still depressed me, there's a "Welcome to Mod Bod County" billboard off the freeway by the point of the mountain that made me want to cry, little gems like this are making it a lot better.

I had a delicious dark chocolate cupcake with raspberry, ganache and buttercream. Delish. For those of you that live in Utah I suggest you go there.

I can't wait to see this little guy again. And I'm so glad I got to see my beautiful friends, The Atheys.

Fun on the Farm

One of the great things about living in NYC is that I'm close to my family that lives in upstate NY. Instead of once every 3-5 years I've been able to see them several times a year! This last trip had a first for me. I helped cut down a Christmas tree! By "helped" I MIGHT mean "supervised" but I felt pretty legit. I even wore work boots. The best part was watching my cute cousins getting so excited with the whole process. It was a very fun family outing. Nothing like a few days of fresh air, good home cooking and a loving family.

Random Things I Hear in NY

There's a homeless man in a cardboard house on the side of the road. He is on the phone, and lucky for me and my chicas we walk by just in time to hear...

"Yo man just look me up on Facebook. I got a Facebook... Uh huh you find me..."

Seriously?!?!

Wisdom from O Magazine

There are 2 publications I read cover to cover religiously every month. One is "Elle" and the other is "O Magazine".

I thought I would spread this tid-bit of good news.

Chocolate is Good for your Ticker:
"Researchers who studied 32,000 middle-aged and elderly women found that those who ate two servings of chocolate a week had a significantly lower rate of hospitalization for heart failure. This may be because cacao contains flavonoids, chemicals thought to combat the free radicals that cause plaque buildup in the arteries." (O Magazine, December 2010, Page 162)

I love me some Oprah... Now do your heart a favor and go get yourself a nice hunk of chocolate! (May I recommend Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate with a touch of Sea Salt - it. is. DIVINE.)

Jetblue Won My Heart

So normally I HATE JFK. As grateful as I am for an international airport close by, it's the biggest hassle EVER. The lines are always super long. For some reason if you fly Delta they always try and make you walk outside, uphill, to the international terminal to check in. Even though once you're through security you have to cross the airport again to get to the domestic gates. I realize the security line is shorter but after both of my completely unnecessary walks in which I am lugging a heavy suit case it would have been faster to wait in my normal line. After a few times of this I now refuse. I actually told the security guard that this wasn't my first rodeo and I knew my gate was right on the other side of the line I was already in. To which I was told that I fly too much. (Tell me something I don't know buddy)

Now the Jetblue terminal is in a newer wing of the airport. But I still thought flying the night before Thanksgiving would land me in scary territory. SO imagine my surprise when not only did I have NO LINE to check my bag but the security line took me 10 minutes! GLORIOUS, HALLELUJAH!!

I have to say that between that and my free Direct TV in the seat in front of me I am pretty much a Jetblue fan for life. Thank you Jetblue for making all of my pre-Thanksgiving flight fears vanish. And for having multiple places for food and snacks peppered throughout your terminal that are not gross and that are actually reasonably priced. Fingers crossed it's this good on my way back.

Now if only they would stop flying Airbus planes and switch to Boeing so that I didn't feel like a traitor. Sorry Dad!!

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Happy Birthday Ellie

My fantastic roommate Ellie had her birthday a couple weeks ago! We had a karaoke night and then dinner on her actual birthday at Buddakan. For you SATC fans this is where Carrie and Big had their rehearsal dinner in the first movie. Recognize the door?

I love any excuse to get all dressed up and eat good food! And the food at Buddakan did not disappoint. I started with crispy rock shrimp and had a steaming crab pot with prawns for my main course. It was swimming in the most delish broth that was full of flavor and spice. If you can't tell I'm a total foodie. I LOVE to eat.  We had a blast ordering dishes and passing them around to try. This place has Asian fusion down to an art. And the dessert tasted as good as it looked. I am all about the presentation. I adore chocolate stamped designs on plates. Tell me you don't want to try this...

Nights like this make me feel so blessed to live here and to have the most fantastic friends. I felt very New York eating dinner at 10 and dinning into the night.

Happy birthday Ellie!!

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The City Bakery

I don't know how I've gone this long without visiting The City Bakery. I've been wanting to go and today I  finally did with my beautiful friends Courtnie and Maria. Because I love Sex and the City (although I hate to break it to everyone but it is one of the biggest misrepresentations of NYC ever. I know... I was a bit heart broken too...) part of the reason I've been dying to go there is because of the cameos it has on the show.

But can I just tell you. If you ever want the most divine hot chocolate EVER go here. It's like drinking straight, pure chocolate with a big HOMEMADE marshmallow on top. I couldn't resist the "shot" size with the adorable mini cup. It is a velvety smooth treat that I will be getting again very soon.

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Love

I'm loving the view of Central Park from my office!! This picture is bad because it's taken with my phone, but trust me when I say that the colors are fantastic...

Hello blogging world

I decided that I am very witty and funny and therefore need to have a blog. This may or may not be true. But either way I've found a big regret I have is not starting one when I moved to New York to document the amazing things I've been able to do while living here. I have a great love affair with this city. Many moments where I hate it (like when I'm late and I JUST miss the subway as I'm racing for the closing doors. Or when it starts to get bitter cold and I have to give myself an actual pep talk to trudge the 10 minutes from my apartment to the subway). And many, many more where I feel so lucky to live here I pinch myself. (There are too many of these to list. But between passing the Plaza Hotel on my way to work and the numerous celeb sightings - just walking around becomes exciting.) 

Between Provo and New York City I've lived in two, polar opposite, bubbles. One day I'll make it back to the real world. But for now I'm perfectly happy in the most amazing city on earth. And in case you need more convincing that it is in fact spectacular... please see the link below ... :)

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/11/50_reasons_to_b.php

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