What Went On in September

I started out this month as a New Yorker and ended it living in the Green Mountain State…quite the contrast, let me tell you! Needless to say this is one of my more memorable ‘what went on in’ monthly wrap ups!

Let’s just dive in, shall we and see what went on in September? I last left you at the end of August, when we had two weeks before we moved and were trying to be super Brooklynite/New Yorkers in the short time remaining to us in the city.

We continued that theme with taking some selfie stick family photos in Prospect Park:

Funny story about our self-made photo shoot. A good friend recommended a photographer she knew who would do us a deal. I emailed him and copied Fran and then…crickets. Never heard back from him. I just figured he was busy and family sessions weren’t at the top of his list. Anyway, then I decided we’d have to DIY it because time was too short to organize another photographer. I was telling Fran all this while buying a selfie stick on Amazon. Little did I know, it was supremely pissing Fran off to hear that this photographer had never even replied to my email.

So while I was online shopping and telling him my plans for a family photo outing to the park, he was busy replying all to my original email to the photographer with, “Oh, you’re cool.”

The thing is, Fran’s email address is not just his name, it’s actually a bit of an inside joke and can kind of read like a woman’s name if you see it. The photographer clearly thought the email was me “following up” with a snarky remark, since he replied the next morning in a slightly frosty manner. Fran, to his credit, replied and explained he was just being a cranky old man and I had nothing to do with it, but I was still mortified.

Anyway! After all that fun fun family time of trying to capture a portrait (I think Fran’s face in the bottom right shot captures the experience nicely), we then headed to the Carousel in Prospect Park for one last ride. 🙂

I attended a launch party for the new line of women’s wear for New Balance, in the city…I believe this may have been my last subway ride into the city as a New Yorker! It was a great event, very Fashion Week oriented, with the outfits all arranged around the room and champagne being handed out liberally. I enjoyed every minute of it, knowing events like this are probably not the norm for fitness bloggers in Burlington, VT.

Also, I decided I NEED this cute black jacket (on the left), especially since it’s effectively active wear and that’s the majority of my wardrobe anyway.

I mean…has everyone seen this yet? I can’t stop watching it.

I also attended my last book club meeting, which I was really sad about. I love the group of thoughtful, intelligent, hilarious women who formed our group and will really miss talking books and life with them.

And I have to share a book club story with you. Our book for the month was Bad Feminist – which I loved – a collection of essays by Roxane Gay. I took my time reading it, since I could read one essay in a sitting, then put it down for a while. So it sat on the side table of our couch for a good six weeks. At one point I remember picking it up, thinking, ‘I kind of love the cover design, with the artfully placed wine stain, like she’s the kind of feminist who likes to curl up with a good book and a glass of red, too.’ It wasn’t until I got to our meeting that I realized it was only MY book which had that “artfully” placed wine stain. (I guess that makes me the kind of feminist who likes to curl up with a good book and a glass of red, what can I say?)

We were all booked to have the movers come in on Monday the 14th, pack us up, then we’d move on the 15th. That Saturday evening the mover texted me to see if we could switch the packing date to Sunday. As in the next morning. ‘Sure!’ I replied. ‘No worries!’

The thing about having a full day less to prepare to have your entire apartment packed into boxes is that you invariably forget to set aside things you actually want to find when you arrive in your new place. So it took me a full week to find my sneakers (and yes, it felt like a limb had been removed) and we STILL haven’t found our salt and pepper grinders which is driving me insane.

The move was pretty uneventful – I’ll definitely share more details in a post I’m writing about how it feels to move after 15 years of building a life in one place!

But let’s just say for now there are things I’m immediately loving about Vermont living.

Like amazing beer, as well as dedicated WINE aisles in the supermarket.

Like exploring our new city and checking out fun festivals on the weekends which we can easily drive to without having to weigh up the cost of losing our precious street parking spot.

Like discovering new places to run and trails (TRAILS!) right near our new place.

Like the fact that the boys seem to love it here (well, mainly Roman, really, since Tanner is happy pretty much all the time always).

Like living close enough to Grandma to drive to visit (and be able to capture this amazing early 70’s portrait photo of one’s husband with a sweet profile fade to share with you all):

And oh look, a farmer’s market where I’m not trying to shove my stroller through a one-foot opening, or negotiate crowds of approximately 1,000,000 people on a weekend. Also, VT farmer’s markets feature llamas.

And I’m soooo happy I’ll be seeing this view from our new place transform spectacularly over the next couple of weeks as the leaves change color.

And remember how I took that quiz about stress and your probability of getting sick? And I was at nearly an 80% chance of getting sick due to stress? Yeah, well, I got a head cold. It’s been super fun. But it hasn’t stopped me doing the #BOSUstrong challenge (which you should totally get in on for the last week, because they give away a BOSU every week!).

And of course…this happened. Baby T is 5 months old! #Squoodge

Here are a few of the posts you may have missed in September:

All the adorable that is Baby and Me Yoga.

My love letter to New York City.

A review of Vim & Vigr compression leg sleeves ( spoiler: LOVE)

A sweet giveaway of a Motivate Wrap from Momentum Jewelry (congratulations Stephanie N! I’ve emailed you so you can claim your prize!)

And some BOSU action! Check out Weeks One, Two and Three of the challenge.

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 How has your September been? How did all the parents go with first day of school?

Favorite fall thing? I could care less about pumpkin spice lattes, but I’m really enjoying the cooler temperatures and copious apples.