childhood friends

my childhood friend of 20 years, janice, is moving out west!

with her little bundle of joy and thriving career at mgh, janice has been really busy the last couple years, but i am always amazed at how she makes time to catch up with me one-on-one each time before she moves. today i also had a chance to see her mom, brother, and little one, jordan at their hotel! 

it felt so natural and comfortable, probably because that's how we used to hang out in holmdel too. and jordan was really sweet to me, giving me chips, peaches, and grabbing my hand to play cars with him. *melting*

yanks - bluejays

according to kevin, the toronto blue jays and ny yankees are neck and neck on the road to the mlb playoffs! apparently the blue jays are leading by a 1/2 game. this meant very little to me.

so when my friend and client, creighton, reached out to me this morning about going to the bluejays-yankees game tonight, it was a no brainer. we managed 

to get seats in section 116, which is behind the yankees dugout, and found ourselves sitting two rows behind alain vigneault, head coach of the new york rangers! between hits, fans lined up to take photos and congratulate vigneault on the rangers' 2015 stanley cup.

the game was pretty exciting, with the bluejays kicking off the first inning with three runs right off the bat. sadly, the yankees didn't have much of a chance ... they lagged by 3-5 runs for the majority of the game and when we left after the seventh inning stretch, they were down 6 runs (11-5), and that was also the final score. i guess the yanks have even more weight on their shoulders now to win their upcoming games!

the first photo below is lucas hoarding our waters :)

baby calvin!

today was russell recon day. it was pretty exciting to watch different parts of the trade throughout the day, but thank goodness it's over.

jaime, david, and baby calvin met us after work at the apartment! we had a nice dinner in the garden at trestle on tenth, a nice way to end the busy work week. one more week of madness (month/quarter-end), and hopefully in july things will get slower :)

an act of kindness

this morning as i was waiting for the 1 train at the 23rd st station heading into the office, i heard the faint raspy sound of a man's voice mumbling "hello hello" and felt his presence coming from behind me. a bit disenchanted from the variety of characters which pass through nyc, i didn't bother to turn around and assumed he was on his phone losing service underground.

as he neared and the volume of his "hello hello" increased, i turned around and realized that the man was blind and was using his walking stick to try to identify end of the train platform. a little confused at who he was speaking to, i paused momentarily and looked around, during which time a guy who had also been waiting walked over and helped guide him to the edge of the platform, and then when the train arrived, helped him onto the train and secure a seat.

seeing this act of kindness from a stranger was an inspiring way to start my friday. next time, i'll know better myself.

after work, kevin and i met up with a friend in town from austin, komson, for drinks in the east village, and finished the night with a nice dinner with college friends at ravagh's new location around the corner. 

our first experience at the ravagh in murray hill was so memorable, i wanted to bring all our college friends, and luckily, saied was with us to do all the ordering :) we had a few types of eggplant appetizers, chicken, beef, and lamb shish kebabs (whole meat and ground meat), four types of rice seasoned with barberries, sour cherries, fava beans, and saffron, as well as persian desserts with tea. it was really nice seeing everyone after the holidays, the guys anyways as most of the wives and girlfriends couldn't make it. we learned that ray and syl are expecting a baby girl in april so sydney will be a big sister!