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This is the last blog post I will write in my 30s.

Oh you heard right. I am entering a shiny new decade to go with this shiny new chapter of my life. Tomorrow is May 1. May Day. My 40th birthday. And I will be celebrating Fabulous at 40 style.

My birthday wasn’t always fun times. My Gram died on my 30th birthday. She was basically my whole family and I had a Knowing she would die on my 30th birthday and then she did and my whole world shattered. Every birthday after that was a nightmare. But then May 1, 2011 happened. Osama bin Laden was killed. And just like that, my birthday was entirely turned around.

Today One World Trade, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will become the tallest building in the western hemisphere. They were supposed to add the final piece to its spire yesterday, but it was too windy. You can see One World Trade and almost the entire Manhattan skyline from my boyfriend’s place. We watched Zero Dark Thirty last night, One World Trade was sparkling out the window, its reflection shining on the TV during parts of the movie where the screen went black. You know how I love those full-circle moments. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you also know that I have a long history with the Twin Towers. And that my friend Stephen and I have walked down to Ground Zero almost every September 11 since 2001. It’s our way of celebrating being alive. I took this photo on our walk down last year:

I don’t only document One World Trade on 9.11, though. Here’s a photo I took last May:

Every day I see One World Trade, I take a minute to breathe in its energy. To remember. To appreciate everything I have and everything yet to come. One World Trade represents strength, resilience, and goodness. This building is a physical manifestation of positive energy. You can feel the energy just by looking at it.

I want to be like One World Trade in that way. I want to help make the world a better place using positive energy. That’s why I’m really looking forward to 40. My teens were the worst years of my life. My 20s were for working out issues. My 30s were focused on self-discovery, career stability, and finding peace. But my 40s? My 40s will be the happiest decade yet, no question. I have a Knowing. That’s why I can’t wait to be Fabulous at 40.

Bring it, 40s. Let’s do this thing.

wheel

Neil deGrasse Tyson on creating your ideal life:

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

Happy weekend, friendly neighbors

one million

When people ask if I like my job, I tell them that my job isn’t work. It’s a gift. Confucius said, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That is exactly how I feel about being an author.

Sometimes I can’t believe this has been my job for six years. I’m so thankful the Universe presented this amazing opportunity. And I’m so thankful I was able to be a high school science teacher for ten years before making my career switch. Reaching out to teens and helping them feel less alone is my purpose in life. That’s why I’m here.

I recently found out that I’m approaching one million books in print. Which is all because of you. So I want to say thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for reading my books. Thank you for taking the time to write to me with your emails, comments, and tweets. Thank you for sharing your life and letting me know that you feel inspired to turn your dreams into reality.

Thank you for making this life possible. Much love <3

you’ve got the power

In case you missed the billboard I rented about it, I won the raffle at Trader Joe’s.

This is a monumental deal.

What makes winning a raffle monumental? First off, it’s not just any raffle. Trader Joe’s gives you a raffle ticket every time you bring your own bag. Five winning tickets are drawn each week. The prize is a $25 Trader Joe’s gift card. That’s a decent amount of Tofu Edamame Nuggets.

I’ve been going to the Trader Joe’s a few blocks away about once a week ever since I moved into my new place last summer. Every week I brought my own bag. Every week I got a raffle ticket. And every week I’d check my ticket from the week before to see if I’d won.

Every week I was a loser.

But. Every week when I saw that I’d lost, I would say to the cashier, “I’m going to win the raffle one day. I just know it.” They would usually throw me a pity glance before bagging my pumpkin butter or cherry juice, smile politely, and give me a fresh ticket when I asked for one. I knew what they were thinking. They were thinking I’d never win. Because really, who does?

None of that stopped me from repeating the same procedure every week. Check last week’s ticket. Confirm that I lost. Announce that I would win one of these days. Receive new ticket. Become filled with hope all over again. That’s what being an eternal optimist is all about. No matter how many times you lose, no matter how many disappointments you encounter, you keep holding on to the hope that good things will come.

Which is exactly what happened.

Behold documentation of my winning raffle ticket. Not only did I truly believe I would eventually win the raffle, I repeated that belief over and over, week after week. Visualizing a goal and holding it close to your heart is important. But when you say the words, when you put your goal out there for others to hear, the Universe responds in even more profound ways. Our thoughts inspire words. Our words inspire actions. Everything is connected.

You have the power to score your own winning raffle ticket on a much larger scale. Whatever your heart’s desire is, let it be known to the world. Own it. Live it. Be vocal about your dreams. Never stop believing in your power to turn your dreams into reality.

The Universe is listening. What do you have to say?

board game nirvana

My fellow board gaming nerds will love this big news. There’s a new Monopoly token. One of the less popular tokens was replaced with a shiny new design. The iron is out. I never really liked the iron anyway. Or the shoe. Maybe if it were a cute shoe. But the shoe was what you had to be if all the other tokens were already taken. Oh, and the thimble. Who wants to be the thimble? Get ready for this fresh choice. The shiny new token is a cat.

That cat looks awesome. He’ll be appearing in the new edition later this year. I am going to be on that cat so fast it will make the wheelbarrow spin.

Why do I love old-school board games so much? Not just because I have serious affection for everything old-school. Board gaming has always been one of my fave activities. I grew up playing Monopoly, Sorry!, Parcheesi, Clue, and the rest of the classics with my friends. That was back in the day before we had screens to stare at other than the TV. There’s something so nostalgic and happy about playing board games. Every time I play one, that warm fuzzy feeling comes rushing back.

That’s why I’m a grownup who belongs to a board gaming group. Not just any board gaming group. My group is hardcore. These guys play games I’d never even heard of. My fave is probably Asara. You get to build castles. As a Sometimes Princess, I appreciate the castle theme. I also love Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan. Here’s Settlers in action:

These games take about three hours to play. Which is nothing compared to what a lot of the hardcore gamers play. They’ll spread out these elaborate boards that take up five tables with a dazzling array of pieces, cards, figures, puzzles, shards with magic powers…and one game will take like seven hours to play. These games require serious commitment. They require snack breaks. Lighting effects have even been known to occur.

So you can understand that most of these guys scoff when my friend Stephen busts out The Climbers:

Climbers is such a cute game. It’s not a board game, but we sneak it in before we get a group together for the main action. You have to use full blocks, half blocks, and ladders to be the highest guy standing at the end. The game ends when it’s impossible for anyone to get any higher. Of course I had to document the first time I played Climbers and won. My guy is the light blue one on the right. He is only a half block above the next highest guy. That was a tight game.

Sometimes in the park or wherever I’ll see little kids glued to their electronic devices who can’t even look up for three seconds to take in the world around them. It makes me sad. Sad that they’re not connecting with the Now. Sad that they’re missing all the real world action happening around them. It makes me sad to think that, by the time they’re teens, playing an old-school board game may be reduced to some archaic ritual their parents remember from back in the day.

I’ve made a pact with myself to do everything I can to encourage old-school activities. A winter night in playing Monopoly, drinking hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and talking to friends in real life instead of through a screen might seem boring. But being fully present in the Now and connecting to people in an authentic way are two things we should do every day.

And if kids are reluctant to turn away from the screen? There’s always a shiny new cat token to shake things up.

home life – front closet

How many of you remember the front closet door drama that raged on for five months after I moved in? Show of hands. Now let’s review. There’s a coat/utility/storage closet near the front door that was in desperate need of new doors when I bought my apartment. I knew the original doors had to go. I just didn’t know having new doors made would take so freaking long. But they are magnificent. Def worth the wait.

Here’s the front closet before picture:

Those sliding slatted doors were not working for me. The closet space was basically one long hanging rod and two overhead shelves. An outrageous waste of space. I could not start sketching designs fast enough. You’ll also note the second closet on the other side of the front door. At first I was like, “Sweet, two big closets!” But my architect was like, “Um, no, we should take that other closet out to create a grand foyer.” How right he was.

This was the second closet after being ripped out:

Then the front closet was gutted:

I worked with the same designer who did the walk-in closet. She determined the best measurements for a coat rod, several shelves for supplies, overhead storage shelves, a cubby for my floor cleaner, and an area with hooks for hanging my gym bag, scarves, and umbrellas.

Here’s the completed front closet and grand foyer:

Were we done? No. No, we were not. Because this whole time I thought the custom doors were almost finished, my carpenter was still waiting for special hinges to be made. You know hinges are special when they take two months to make. The closet doors were not going to have a frame. They were going to hang on pivot hinges. They were going to be spray painted glossy white. They were going to be magnificent.

If they ever got here.

This was the front closet situation for five months after I moved in:

The funny thing? Is that people who came over didn’t even realize this was supposed to be a closet. I kept insisting that doors were coming. They kept nodding like you do with crazy people who insist their imaginary friend is coming to dinner so you better set an extra place. Some lost hope that the closet doors would ever arrive. But I kept hope alive. First the doors were supposed to be installed, but the carpenter’s assistant put the latch pulls on backwards. Then they were supposed to be installed, but they needed another coat of paint to correct for the latch pull debacle. Then Sandy happened. My carpenter’s studio was flooded. He sent me a photo of the doors to confirm that they existed, but were being held hostage:

Finally the doors were brought over! Were they painted yet? No. No, they were not. They were only visiting for a few hours to make sure they fit:

Saying goodbye was not easy. I couldn’t wait to see them again and welcome the painted doors home for good. They were whisked away to be painted…oh yeah, then the whole latch pull/Sandy/flooding/repainting happened. Sorry, the timeline got a little foggy there. In the end, the front closet doors were installed in their full magnificence.

Finally…the after photo we’ve all been waiting for!

The doors are solid maple with a layer of MDF to achieve that glossy shine. Each door is about 150 pounds. The doors pivot on those special hinges so smoothly they don’t even make a sound. My architect wanted me to go with latch pulls instead of doorknobs for a streamlined look. Am I happy with the doors? Hells yeah. Windex is pretty, but I really didn’t need to look at the bottle like it was part of a sculpture called No Closet Doors anymore.

Oh yeah. If you’re wondering why my grand foyer doesn’t look all that grand, allow me to kindly remind you that this is downtown Manhattan. A foyer measuring four square feet is quite grand. Just being able to open the front door all the way is a luxury. Oh, it’s fancy up in here. No doubt.

dream big

Happy New Year, friendly neighbors! Get ready for an amazing ride. I have a Knowing that 2013 will be spectacular.

So I was going to share before and after pictures of my bedroom today. Then I realized there was one after picture that would be perfect for welcoming in this shiny new year. After the bedroom was renovated, I decided to write my main motto over the bed to be reminded of how important this is every day:

Dream big.
Visualize your ideal life.
Take steps every day to reach your goals. Keep hope and patience alive.
That’s how dreams become reality.

Here’s to dreaming big every day of 2013!

serendipity day

December 20 means it’s time to celebrate Serendipity Day! I’m reposting my annual tribute to share the magic of this very special day with you. Here’s to fate, soul mates, and always following your heart.

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Today is Serendipity Day, aka Serendipity Do-Da, aka Do-Da Day.

You would probably like an explanation.

If you didn’t see the movie Serendipity, then not to be bossy? But you really need to go ahead and do that. It’s all about fate and destiny and energy and has some awesome New York scenes. Even if you did see it, you probably didn’t pick up on the fact that Jonathan and Sara meet on December 20. I’m obsessive about those sorts of details, so I totally did. And immediately made a note that December 20 will always and forever be known as Serendipity Day.

When they meet, Jonathan and Sara are in Bloomingdale’s trying to grab the same pair of gloves. You know how sometimes you meet someone and there’s this instant, amazing connection? That’s what happens to them. So of course they can’t just go their separate ways. They have to go to Serendipity 3 (which is only a few blocks away – love the accuracy) for frozen hot chocolates. And then they go ice skating in Central Park. It’s one of those magical New York nights, filled with excitement and possibility.

But then.

When Jonathan writes down his number for Sara, the wind blows it away. She thinks it’s a sign that they’re not meant to be together. Or at least, not right now. She’s all about fate and destiny. So she makes him write his name and number on the back of a five-dollar bill, which she immediately uses to buy mints. Sara’s idea is that if the five-dollar bill makes its way back to her, then they’re meant to be together.

Good, right?

If you’ve read Something Like Fate, you can understand why I love this movie. I love it so much that my friend Joe and I celebrate Serendipity Day by reenacting the original Serendipity Day’s events. First, we put our names in at Serendipity. There’s usually a three-hour wait for a table. I’m not exaggerating. Around the holidays, is it a gorgeous winter wonderland in there, all sparkly lights and trees and tinsel. Everyone wants in. But it’s cool because we need those three hours for the rest of the events. We head over to Bloomingdale’s, where we both grab a pair of gloves at the same glove counter. That counter doesn’t have gloves anymore so we have to bring the gloves over, but it still counts. Then it’s off to Wollman Rink in Central Park. It is always the Coldest Night Ever when we do this. I don’t know how to ice skate, so we kind of just stand there and watch the glittery skyline and send positive energy out into the Universe.

Then it’s frozen hot chocolate time! In the movie, Jonathan and Sara get red and blue straws in theirs. But we always get regular straws. So I asked about the red and blue ones and found out that they don’t have those anymore. But those frozen hot chocolates are the best in the world, so who cares? If Joe and I are each at a point in our lives where we’re single, we take out a five-dollar bill and write our name and number on the back. Then we give them to the waiter as part of his tip. Not that anyone ever called us. But that’s not the point. The point is that we put our energy out there. The city is magic. It makes magical things happen.

So. How can you celebrate the Do-Da Day if you’re not here in New York? Well, if you’re already with your soul mate, you can make frozen hot chocolates and call it a day. But if you are still searching, send positive energy out into the Universe today. Take some time to write in your journal. Visualize what you want life to be like with your soul mate. And make a plan to take steps towards finding them. All of these things will help you get closer to turning your dream into reality.

Oh, and P.S.? Serendipity is also home of the $1,000 Golden Opulence Sundae, served in a Baccarat crystal goblet (which you get to take home), made with the world’s most expensive chocolate, and covered in 23K edible gold leaf:

Happy Serendipity Day!

lights

There’s a group of four apartment buildings near my place called the Zeckendorf Towers. Each one has a triangular top. Every night the tops are lit up with gold lights. I can see one of the towers from my window wall. Its top has not been gold the past few nights. Instead, it’s doing this wild thing where it will be orange for a few minutes, then flash light blue and lavender for a few seconds, blink to blood red, and fade back to orange. It keeps repeating this cycle until the lights are turned off around 12:30.

I have to know what this means.

I’ve always been obsessed with city lights. Not sure where it came from. Maybe it’s just that when I was growing up in the country, city lights symbolized a more exciting life. They still give me that electric feeling. Even streetlights. Of course, the most special lights right now are the Tribute in Light. I wasn’t expecting to see them this year until tonight. They’re usually on for a week leading up to September 11. But they’re super expensive to produce, so the rumor was that they weren’t going on until tonight this year. When I saw them walking home from the gym last night, I just stood there and looked up. For a really long time. Seeing the lights emerging from One World Trade (aka The Freedom Tower) is a thing of beauty:

Tonight my friend Stephen and I will take our annual walk down to Ground Zero. We will get as close to the lights as we can. It’s this thing we have to do. Almost every year since September 11, 2001, the day we were supposed to visit the Twin Towers observation deck, we have walked down to where the Towers should be. Here we are with the Tribute in Light last year on September 11, 2011, reflecting on the past 10 years:

I wrote about our story last year. You can read it here.

The meaning of those Zeckendorf Towers lights is a mystery for now. But the meaning of the Tribute in Light could not be more clear. Hope lives on. Memories live on. We will never forget.

memory lane

What I’m about to say might sound so 2008, but I’ve been slowly uploading photos to my blog archives here on WordPress that were still being hosted by LiveJournal (aka the ex BF who cheated, lied, and basically made my life miserable). I am aware that everyone’s moved on to Tumblr and other bloglite forms of communicating in smaller snippets. The thing is, I love this blog. I love being able to share news about my books and cupcakes and whatever quirky stuff I want to without having to cram it all into 140 characters. Plus I’ve been using tags since I started this blog five years ago. That makes it way easier for you guys to find info that will hopefully be helpful to you in some way.

It would have been awesome if the photos transferred along with my blog posts when I imported this blog to WordPress last summer. But the world doesn’t work that way. Yet. I had two options: Upload each photo individually to WP or lose all of the old photos when I deleted my LJ account. As someone who hopes you might enjoy the archives, I went for option one. Going back through all those old entries was actually pretty fun. There were random things I’d forgotten about, epic events to relive, meltdowns and milestones. A walk down memory lane always brings clarity.

In case you’re interested in revisiting the highlights, here are some of my fave posts:

Hot gossip – In which I go fangirl on Steve Martin, Gossip Girl style.

John Mayer, front row center 2.25.10 – In which I score front row center seats at Madison Square Garden for John Mayer’s Battle Studies tour. A huge dream come true. One of the best nights of my life.

Kiefer is a friendly neighbor – In which I meet up with Kiefer Sutherland in our neighborhood. Yeah, we’re tight like that.

Copy that and Kiefer’s other GF – Sequels to above.

David Duchovny on my block – In which David Duchovny films an ep of Californication right outside my door. Literally. Right outside my door.

Jon Stewart is my BFF - In which Jon Stewart is my BFF.

Jeremy P. and me sitting in a tree – In which I kick back with Ari Gold, Entourage style.

Book tour, part one – In which I meet Wilson from Cast Away.

Santorini, finally – In which I visit Santorini, the most beautiful place on Earth.

It will be interesting to see where social media takes us five years from now. Until then, I will keep posting. Thanks so much for reading!