i believe congratulations is in order

You can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl. No matter where I live or where I go, the "normalcy" of the South will follow me everywhere, and for that I never feel far from home.

All this wedding talk and baby heartbeats are sometimes a little much for my friends in New York. Married after college? To most, a foreign concept; that is, unless you live in the South. I got used to hearing about all of my sister's college and high school friends getting hitched, but my friends aren't far behind.

A congratulations is in order to my best friend, Christine Cloninger. Her future husband, Justin Devore proposed Saturday evening. Two people I have known a very long time, I can honestly say, this marriage will be one to last decades.

A second congratulations is to my pledge mom from Dallas, Texas, who is currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. Tara Smutz got engaged Sunday to Nathan Stewart, who is hilarious and wonderful. From the beginning of this friendship/relationship, these two were made for each other. Congratulations to both of them and their families!

visitors visiting nyc

Whew. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Geez. My cousin Melissa visited from Indiana while she was on Spring break, then when I returned from Arkansas, one of my dearest friends, Jay Murphy, was already waiting for me in New York. Having never been to New York, Jay had several things on his list to see and do. Mostly, museums. He ventured to the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I joined him at the Frick and the Modern Museum of Art.With the surplus of people in the city, the random days of gorgeous weather, followed by many days of rain, it is obvious that schools across the country are on Spring break. Jay and I had to wait in line at MoMA for nearly half an hour, and that was just to get our tickets.On Tuesday, I took Jay to Alice's Tea Cup, which we returned to again before he left. Believe me: it is that good.

Jay and I inside Alice's Tea Cup.

After our great finds at Banana Republic, we had an afternoon drink off 5th Ave.

While we met up with friends from Arkansas in the city, frolicked around Central Park, shopped along Fifth Avenue, Jay and I had plenty of time to catch up. Having only seen him for a couple of hours since I moved to New York, it was great to see him. After Mickey took me to Otto several weeks ago, I knew it would be a great place for Jay and I to go. From the wine and cheese to pizza and gelato, we indulged and enjoyed a fantastic meal.

Here are a few pictures from the week.

Smiling because we both found awesome deals at Bloomingdale's and Levi's.

Way back from BWTA (Batchelor-Walker Tennis Academy). Alex met us at my apartment to join us for dinner at the Indian restaurant below my apartment.

pictures from the wedding festivities

The place settings for the bridal luncheon.

Centerpiece Mom put together.

Rachel and Drew at the rehearsal dinner.

Three fabulous women with three fabulous daughters.

Three friends together again.

Mrs. Drew Rogers.

Kisses all around for the bride!

down south

A trip South should include warm weather, rays of golden sun, mild winds, and enough fresh air to upset every allergy possible. With the exception of one day, my trip down to Arkansas was very different than the above description. Cold, wet, chance of snow... oh yeah, "Welcome to Arkansas. Where you never know what kind of weather to plan for."

I landed in Little Rock last Thursday, while my luggage continued traveling to Sun Valley, Idaho. Go figure. Immediately my mom and I started running errands to prepare for a bridal luncheon she was hosting at our home on Friday for a dear friend of mine. Apparently the flowers had died and the flower pots outside had broken, so we ran around replacing everything before we even had time to say hello.

Thursday was a whirlwind, but my luggage finally arrived at the house and everything was ready for the luncheon, which turned out wonderfully. The puff pastries were delightful along with green bean salad, a congealed orange salad, and chocolate lemon tarts for dessert. The bride, Rachel, was glowing the entire weekend, as were the mothers of the bride and groom. Between the luncheon and the rehearsal dinner we didn't have a lot of time but mom and I squeezed in a Target trip. Ah! How much I miss having a large, fully-packed Target in New York.

The rehearsal dinner was in Trio's party room, which is always a sure-fire winner. Spinach dip and crab dip preceded a "south-of-the-border" inspired chicken dinner with all the fixings. Catching up with old friends and seeing pictures of the Rachel and Drew growing up were cute, funny, and maybe a little embarrassing, we finally got to ditch the braces. The speeches were heartfelt and sincere. Hard to believe that my best friend growing up is now married but I've never seen her happier. She and Drew both. Congratulations guys! Pictures coming soon.

ratatouille and the cable guy

My oh, my what a wonderful week. The positive aspect is the weather. Can you believe it? 50's in March in New York. Last year I came up during March and it was still snowing. Not that I don't think history will repeat itself, but for the time being, I'm really enjoying lighter coats and Spring sunshine.

Saturday I work a very long day and come home to find a little mouse scurry across the floor from underneath my radiator to the opening between the wall and my mini frig. Don't worry, I'm not saying this calmly, I did a little dance on my bed while speed dialing my Dad while freaking out. Okay, that was the girl moment of the week. I bought a couple traps, set them, and still nothing. I think I scared him off. Hopefully he crawled into someone else's apartment. As my Dad said, I'm not surprised this is the first mouse I have seen. I live above three restaurants. Now let me preface that I am clean. I keep my apartment clean, because, well, it's so darn small. If I make up my bed it looks like a first class dorm room! So I threw all my food except for soup and dip mixes. (Don't worry, only chinese leftovers and a couple heads of lettuce were lost. Along with a loaf of bread that probably should have been thrown out around Christmas. Oops).

After my own Ratatouille adventures, I have now started a relationship with the cable guy. No not really a relationship, but we talked on the phone for over an hour last night. I went to the cable store this morning, and then spent another half hour with him on the phone. Oh, and he's coming over on Friday. HA!

I came home from work yesterday and my internet was spazzing out and my cable wasn't working properly. I could see the channel guide on the screen but I could not see a picture on the screen. Basically for a Monday night, this was a major pain.

I woke up early this morning to take my cable box and modem down to the cable store to trade them in for new ones. When I got back home I plugged in the modem. Yes, it's going to work, I thought. But no, same problem as last night. Cable box. "Maybe I could catch the end of LIVE! with Regis and Kelly, but no, the new cable box doesn't have a signal.

From now until Friday at noon I have limited internet access and NO TV! At least I picked up a new book to entertain me, and we can't forget about the Wii.

That is how the week has started. Whaaahooooo! Pray that everything gets fixed on or before Friday. Until then, I'm at a loss for technological activity.

tulips and denim

Today was a taste of Spring. A tease of what won't stick around for long. The most beautiful day of 2010 thus far. I had the day off from the Gap and woke up around ten to really get the most out of the day. It was fantastic to walk outside in my gym clothes and a mere Patagonia fleece. Sunglasses were a necessity, ipod set to Hootie and the Blowfish, computer in bag, first stop: Alice's Tea Cup. For $3 I picked up a fresh mixed berry scone with cream and jam and headed a few blocks down for stop two: Starbucks. A table for one, an iced coffee, the best scone in town, and a fully charged computer- "It's going to be a good day."
A lot was accomplished during my three hour stint at Starbucks. I updated several pieces in my portfolio, worked on my Web site and penciled in my "to-do's" for the week.

Let me make a quick plug for the Gap. From now until March 14, bring in any old piece of denim (shirt, jacket, dress, jeans, etc.) and get 30% off any, and as many pieces of new denim as you'd like. This applies for all regular priced men's, women's, kids, and babies denim. Your old denim does not have to be Gap brand. Anything is accepted.
The best part is, all the denim collected will be recycled into eco-friendly housing insulation. Gap has teamed with the organization, Cotton. From blue to Green.
"As a result of the 2006 COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.^® denim drive, and with the help of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge, in the spring of 2007, a total of 30 homes were built for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina."

So start your spring cleaning early, and donate your old jeans and that denim jacket you wore in the eighties.... and help insulate homes around the country.

part two..."I think it's colder in little rock"

Let me back up a bit to explain the statement in the entry title. Walking out of my apartment on Thursday morning, Mickey announces, while it is snowing immensely, "It's not that bad out here, I think it's colder in Little Rock." My response was simply, "oh... okay..."

Walking down Broadway into the wind as we felt like our skin was being pushed back and our hair was flying straight in the wind, Mickey says, "Maybe it is colder here." I said nothing, but smiled inside.

The adorable Alice's Tea Cup. Mickey's new favorite place.

Okay, back to part two. Saturday morning I picked up tea and scones and brought them back to the apartment while Mick was getting ready. We watched a little 90210: an episode Mickey actually hadn't seen. I know Dad, did you think that was possible?

We stayed on the Upper West Side for a bit and picked up a few things at American Apparel and Urban Outfitters. Mickey found an adorable chambray dress at Urban that was on her list of things to get while in the city. Afterwards we ran back by Olive and Bette's to pick up our purchases from the day before, but of course, being the Searcy's we are, we have a tendency to never leave a store empty handed. We like to say our mother blessed us with good taste, ha ha! But really, Mickey had been eyeing a pair of shoes (by the way they are amazing shoes) and I told her that she would regret not buying them because she kept talking about them. Sold and shipped. Maybe this is why I work retail?

Down the block from my apartment, we stopped and took a pic.

We dropped everything off at my apartment walked around the corner to Pinkberry, and enjoyed a bit of yogurt before grabbing a cab towards Times Square to the matinee showing of In the Heights. Whoa! Weeks ago we were deciding between In the Heights and Jersey Boys. This was the one thing I was adamant about. I wanted to see In the Heights and I knew Mickey would love it. After all, it did win a Tony for Best Musical on Broadway. Thankfully, she agreed to see it (we are waiting for mom to join us in the city to see Jersey Boys). The story line of the show is set in Washington Heights, NY and follows grown children of parents who moved to the country from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, with nothing and worked as hard as possible so that their children could have more. Mixed with awesome music, a little hip-hop dance, a little rap, some Spanish here and there and a great cast, In the Heights rose exceeded all of my expectations. I loved it! Mickey loved it! Basically, in a nutshell, GO SEE IT!

Sisters outside Richard Rodgers Theatre

In Times Square before heading to ESPN Zone.

Being our last full day together, we were trying to check everything off of Mickey's "to-do" list. Next on the list: New York pizza. I took her to Ray's pizza, which is a staple in New York, and we had a slice and stromboli. Mickey had never had it, so I had her try it. She loved it. Basically, it is a lot of meat (turkey, ham, salami, pepperoni, and several others that I don't know, with a lot of melted cheese). Basically it's a heart attack in a pizza crust. MMMMM!

Having plenty of time to kill before our dinner reservations at 10:30 we stopped by ESPN Zone, had a beer and watched Kansas loose to OK State! I was elated! Sitting behind Mickey was Brad Garrett, Ray Ramono's brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. He chatted it up with us several times.

Fun Fact #2: I don't notice "celebrities." The quotes indicate that I don't notice any one from television or a movie, but when Mickey said, "I hope I see someone famous" I was calling people out left and right. Even after she left on Sunday, Monday night at work, I helped Jeff Gordon and his wife. Weird.

After ESPN Zone we took a quick subway ride back to the Upper West Side and went by my local pub. By this, I mean, it is across the street and I am known by the staff because I always come in and order the soup. It's a cheddar potato soup, but if you pick out the potatoes it's the best cheese soup. It doesn't beat Victorian Tea Garden's cheese soup at home, or Mimi's version, but being 1,300 miles from home, this place hits the spot, and it's less than $3 a cup!

So Mickey met my friend Anna and after chatting for a while we went up to the apartment to rest. This was a good idea and a bad idea. With our dinner reservations being 10:30, we had time to kill but not much left to do, so by relaxing and watching TV, we just got more tired. But, after searching the Web site of Asia de Cuba, where we would be eating, we had already decided what we would get and then got ready and caught a cab.

Asia de Cuba was suggested to Mickey by her boss, who swears by it. Well, we were not let down. Though we were exhausted and did not sit and linger during dinner, we had a great meal. We enjoyed tuna tartar on wantons as well as pan-seared scallops, and for our entree (served family style) we shared a fabulous cut of tuna with wasabi mash-potatoes. Definitely a place to go back, and for larger groups, a great place to enjoy a good dinner. We decided that we would not get reservations on the last night of "vacation" so late, ever again, but we would in fact, go back to Asia de Cuba.

Sunday morning Mickey was up and going early, and by the time I woke up and put myself together we were walking out the door, to thankfully, a "warmer" day than the previous. We walked about 15 blocks up to Ouest, where we enjoyed brunch. We have been there before with our parents during Summer 2008 while I was living here for a short time. Afterwards we did a little stroll through Central Park and then hauled Mick's luggage downstairs and into a cab, and off to JFK she went.

A vacation for her and a vacation in my backyard. Some of the best memories between the two of us were made on this trip. We'll never forget it, and always want to repeat it!

Hope you all enjoyed!

who wears heels in the snow.... part one

Well, I'll tell you who wears heels in the snow; my sister. And not in just a light snow, or a semi-snow storm. She wore heels in a full on blizzard (flakes bigger than a half dollar). For those of you who know my sister, you will be happy to know that the complaining was kept to a minimum. Seriously, after walking ALL OVER Soho on Thursday, she never complained, but after about eight or nine hours, while our umbrellas were turning inside out, she managed to say the balls of her feet were hurting. Basically, an award should be given to Mickey. Snow doesn't stop her from being fashionable. Me on the other hand.... I looked very cute when we left the apartment that morning to go by Alice's Tea Shop around the corner for tea and scones, but before getting on the subway to go downtown I had to change to snow boots. I will spare fashion to not have another broken foot.

Mickey at the beginning of the day.

During the afternoon. Notice the increase of snow on the ground. It didn't get any better. I love snow.

Fun fact #1: If you live in a city where you can feel like your on vacation for five days, stay, it's a great feeling. 2 points for New York.

Let me back up a bit and be a little more detail oriented. Mick was scheduled to fly into New York around 11:45 on Wednesday night. I had worked all day and was exhausted. To keep from climbing in my bed and falling asleep before she arrived, I met up with some friends across the street to grab a bite for dinner and visit. Due to weather in Atlanta? I know, it doesn't make much sense, but its in the past now. After finally leaving Atlanta around 11, she landed at JFK, caught a cab and texted me in a bit of a panic, "Get me out of this cab. My driver keeps falling asleep." She made it in one piece, finally, at a quarter till 3 Thursday morning!

Thursday we woke up around seven and went to Alice's Tea Cup for tea and scones. This is one of my favorite places to have breakfast. Mickey quickly became obsessed, so obsessed in fact, that on Saturday morning I threw on sweats while she was in the shower and walked around the corner to get a couple of warm scones for us to have before we set out for the day.

Thursday was over-the-top fun! We started at Anthropologie, continued to H&M, and Topshop for a "small" day of shopping. Between shops we stopped at Balthazar's for lunch. I have eaten here a few times and each time it gets better and better. Well, Mickey and I had a glass of wine, an amazing goat cheese tart and we split a fabulous chicken sandwich. The perfect amount for the two of us on such a cold and snowy day. I have to say, Mick was a trooper in those heels in the mass amount of snow. Don't worry, pictures are coming soon. When you see it, you will believe it.

Lunch at Balthazar

After shopping all day, I had planned for us to run uptown to my apartment, get ready for the night in about thirty minutes, which again, Mickey surprised me and was ready to go in under the time allotted. We grabbed a cab back down to Soho to one of my favorite places to grab a cocktail, Bar 89. The address is 89 Mercer, hence the name. I've only been once, but I knew it was right up Mickey's ally. Sitting down we ordered martini's and chatted about how wonderful the day had been. We talked to Mimi on the phone and had a ball. Mickey said, "who is that in the grey shirt over there." I looked over and had no idea, but then it hit me. When he put his chin in his hand and his fingers on his bottom lip, while his legs were crossed, I knew it; Isaac Mizrahi.

Mickey and I at Bar 89

After drinks we caught a cab to make our dinner reservations at Nobu. I always say, "to stay at 'hotel Searcy,' you must treat me to dinner." Well, Mick took it above and beyond! She somehow got reservations and once we sat down, to my right was Kathy Bates, the mom in Failure to Launch. We had an incredible meal. If you ever go I suggest the Rock Shrimp, as well as the Jalapeno Tuna. After a dinner to never forget we hopped in a cab to head home. Mickey fell asleep in oh.... 20 seconds.

Friday was another busy day. I didn't wake up until Mickey was about 75% ready to go, but I put myself together and took her to an adorable boutique across the street, Olive & Bette's. The first time I went in I thought, this place is my Tulips [Tulips is a boutique in Little Rock, Heights area] Pink stripped walls, a bit of Free People and a wonderful staff; yes, 100% my Tulips.

The greater half of the day was spent at Saks Fifth Avenue. It was like the heavens opened and we heard angels singing! Marc Jacobs new collection was out and I could have convinced Mickey to spend her life savings, but we both ended conservatively, each purchasing one top. I know Mickey will say, for the record, she bought her shirt first, then I saw the same shirt in bright neon yellow, and could not stop thinking about it for several hours, so I went back and purchased the same top/different color! I found a couple tops on sale and fantastic pair of sandals --- why I bought sandals when I have weeks of winter left, I have no idea, but nonetheless, come Spring, I'll be sporting a funky pair of gold jellies.

After shopping at Saks we ventured into the BIG H&M on Fifth, which is basically good for one thing; an anxiety attack, and then cruised down Fifth making a pit stop at Tiffany's. Excuse for going in --- "Maggie's never been." Good, right? Regardless, we had a ball.

Our reservations that night were at Mario Batali's restaurant, Otto. Mickey has been twice, I have been once. I think I can easily say it is Mickey's "go to" NY restaurant, and believe me, it's climbing the charts in my book as well. Our waitress Amy was a "22" on a scale of 1-10! We had cheeses from around the world with meats that were out of this world. For our entree we decided to get a pizza and pasta to split. We had a fantastic pizza, with a sunny-side egg on top-- absolutely to-die for!! Mickey ordered her staple pasta, which we were unable to eat that night, but enjoyed for lunch today. Unable to refuse the homemade gelato, we indulged. I savored the creme fraiche and pistachio, while Mickey enjoyed the lemon-huckleberry swirl and vanilla. All in all the day was fantastic!

Stay tuned. More to come.