June 4, 2013: Breakfast Briefings at Bryant Park with Bobby Flay

Date: June 4, 2013
Event: Breakfast Briefings at Bryant Park with Bobby Flay
Cost: FREE (well, an hour of sleep so I could get to work early so I could take an hour off)
Summary:  Beautiful morning, beautiful weather, free coffee, and Bobby Flay talking about barbecuing.

I was checking my twitter feed last night and lo and behold, Bryant Park (@BryantParkNYC) tweets about the first "Breakfast Briefing" (sponsored by Wall Street Journal) of the year -- a one hour discussion with Bobby Flay, click here to register.  Why, I think I *will* click there to register, thank you!

So, about 14 hours later I find myself at Bryant Park on the most gorgeous of spring/summer mornings.  And soon after that, found myself in this wonderful little outdoor seating area listening to Bobby Flay talk about cooking, his restaurants, Iron Chef, an upcoming book of his, and barbecuing.  All the while enjoying the weather and sipping coffee while the city goes on around us.  Mornings like this is just one of the things I love about NYC.

June 1, 2013: Name Tag Day!

Date:  June 1, 2013

Event:  Name Tag Day

Cost:  FREE

Summary:  Volunteers with the Awesome Foundation hand out thousands of name tags to New Yorkers so that we can say hi to each other by name as we pass each other on the side walk.  What's not to love?

Pretty much, the summary says it all.  What a fun idea.  I got my name tag while I was out at the Howl Festival (post on that to come) and managed to say 'hi' to two other people.  "Hi Terrance!" and "Hi Jenny!".  This resulted in smiles and waves.

Then, as I was headed back to my apartment, I was at Starbucks near Union Square (one of the locations where name tags were being handed out) and just as I was leaving these two women were coming in and I heard one say to the other, "What's with all the name tags?"  That also made me smile.

And finally, as I was headed across Union Square, I heard this, "Hi, Jill!" I turn and look and it's the person who gave me my name tag.  How he remembered my name I have no idea.  But we both waved at each other frantically.  And I smiled the rest of the way to my apartment.

Thank you Awesome Foundation.

Just a couple pictures after the jump.

May 25, 2013: Manchester City FC vs. Chelsea FC

Date:  May 25, 2013
Event:  Soccer at Yankee Stadium:  Manchester City FC vs. Chelsea FC
Cost:  $120 (for the ticket, $4 for the terrible coffee I got at half time because I was freezing)
Summary:  Soccer at Yankee Stadium?!  As in Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium?  Clearly this is something I need to check out!

So, yeah, the summary pretty much is it.  A friend of mine tweeted me asking if I was going to this game at Yankee Stadium and, to be honest, I hadn't even heard that it was taking place.  But once I looked into it, it was something right up my alley.  I mean, I'm not a huge men's soccer fan (I far prefer the women's game) and all those leagues and cups and stuff the Europeans have confuses me to death.  But, you know, I'd *heard* of both of these teams and, well, I wanted to experience some European football.  And, I'm finding I love doing sports photography, so this was a perfect opportunity to indulge in that as well.  So off I went!