New City, New Bars

You know what the best part about moving to a new city is?  Discovering that local bar.  You know, the place after a horrible day of work you go to for a beer, some comfort food, and most likely a 2nd beer on the house.  After the exhausting experience of moving from Ithaca to NYC, I finally get to exchange boxes for beers...and I couldn't be happier!

In my little time in my apartment, I've identified some good choices.  I know what you are going to say when you see the list.  Really Megan, all these bars in 4 days? But hey what can I say.  I'm committed to bar crawling the city to find my spot..not a bad assignment if I do say so myself.

The Contenders:

Rumours Irish Pub: Liquid Lunch Spot
  - Upside: Classic Irish bar, great happy hours
  - Downside: Pass on the food

Brickyard Gastropub: Beer Snob Heaven
  - Upside: Amazing Brunch, long beer list, beer geek events
  - Downside: A little classy for every now and the necessary wild nights out. 

Valhalla: Party Time
   - Upside: Great Beer List, "Angry" Happy Hour
   - Downside: Crowded, which makes securing a table a chore

Don't worry, I for sure plan to do more research...maybe by this time next year I will have stopped bar hopping, and settled on one spot.  You're right..not likely...but hey it could happen!

Competiting with Myself

As a former athlete, I've found that the one thing I miss most about playing sports is the competitive aspect.  I love the feeling of going up against someone, one on one, and besting them.  It doesn't matter what it takes, I was always willing to push myself that little bit more that was necessary to more often than not, come out on top.  The byproduct?  Being in SICK shape!

So now I find myself wondering how I can get that same adrenaline rush that served me so well and helped me to stay looking tight.  The answer...or at least partly, is my favorite product ever.  My Nike + Sportswatch and GPS!  I'm a huge Nike fan.  At least 90% of all my workout gear is Nike, so its no surprise that I have always worn Nike running shoes.  Recently though, I've become addicted to the whole Nike + ecosystem as its become a way to compete against my toughest opponent...ME!

All your runs are automatically uploaded to the Nike + website, where it will map your run and show you how fast you ran each mile.  Every time I go on a run, I want to run a faster mile or further than the time before hand.  Or sometimes, like today, I go to upload past workouts and am rewarded by a surprise achievement.  Today I got the sign that I had been "5 Alive!," which meant that I had been active for 5 weeks in a row.  Seeing that, I got pumped and went on a quick run to ensure that I kept my streak alive. 

If you ever get bored of trying to best yourself, don't worry there are also Nike Challenges that help you push yourself against the rest of the Nike + community.  So every time I log on, I can benchmark myself against what women my age have done the last 40 days.   Today, I saw that I've run a 9 minute average pace compared to their 12.5, and 16.5 miles compared to their average 18.3 miles.

Working out isn't always fun.  But Nike + really does help to add some competitive fire that gives you the adrenaline rush you need to find that old athlete buried in you.  So get out there and run!

The Best Seats in the House

Continuing my tour of MLB stadiums in the US, I figured the next stop should be my home town Los Angeles Dodgers.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not Dodgers fan.  In fact...I actually root for the San Francisco Giants.  But hey, I was back in LA and I figured it was time to see the home town team again.  And I had the best tickets ever to experience the Dodgers again! 

My dad's boss has the best seats in the house, and I am not exaggerating.  Four seats...First Row...Right by the visitors dugout.  I mean they warm up right in front of you!  And let me tell you, baseball players have seriously cute butts. 

The amazing-ness of the seats starts when you enter the VIP section of Dodger stadium.  As once you go down stairs, you are greeted by the most amazing cafeteria I have ever seen in my life!  In addition to ball park staples (Dodger dogs and Cracker Jacks anyone?), there was also three different hot sections with options such as Gnocchi, Chicken Souvlaki, and fajitas.  And if that wasn't enough, there was a huge salad bar...but come on you are at a ball park! Live a little!  So don't take up valuable space with salad...instead make sure to take advantage of the mountain of a dessert bar they have.  My recommendation?  Do the make your own sundae.  You won't regret it.


After the food-orgasm I experienced, I didn't think the rest of the game was going to be as exciting, but I was wrong.  There's something about being that close that makes the game really different.  I mean you can actually see all the different superstitions the players have and how they interact with each other.  It's like you are really part of the experience.  Having the Giants be the away team for sure helped as they are a bunch of goofballs.  The entire team stands up at the edge of their dugout, and there are constant secret handshakes going on, making it seem more like a college group than a professional team. 

Americas Pastime in Canada

In my quest to visit every baseball stadium, I found myself in a very strange position...watching America's past time in the heart of our friendly hockey/maple-loving neighbor, Canada.

My first impression?  They needed to import a better baseball stadium architect as the Toronto Blue Jays stadium is BORING!  It's huge, has no personality and the fans?  Well, those that were there (and there weren't that many of them, let me tell you), I'm not really sure they knew what the were rooting for.  They seemed more concerned with drinking and being as obnoxious as possible.  We actually had to change sections of the stadium (again, not hard to do as there was no one there) in order to escape some annoying fans who were complaining about how lame baseball was compared to hockey.  Come on Canada! We don't complain about your national pastime! Well...ok we do, but whatever get over it!

The one thing that I was pleasantly surprised about?  The food! I mean it had the standard American baseball food, but it added a Canadian twist.  The hot dog wasn't just a hot dog.  It also had some maple flavored baked beans on top of it! So make sure to venture outside of your  comfort zone and go for some of the more random food.  Trust me you won't regret it.  And when you are in Canada, whats more random than poutine?

Fries with gravy and cheese curds.  I know, I know.  Sounds gross. But believe me, its heaven on a plate!  Thank God I have to go across the border to get this puppy as otherwise I'd be having this puppy every day and the calories would not be good to my figure.

All in all, I enjoyed my time in Toronto but in terms of prettiness of the Stadium?   Canada, you still have a ways to go...