Delta's iphone App review

I'm at the airport about once a month, sometimes more.  I live away from my family and a lot of my very dear friends.  I've often joked that I need to have a direct deposit to Delta for $250 each month.  I also travel pretty often for work.  Not as much by plane these days, but every now and then. 

With all of this travel, I would easily consider myself an expert traveler.  I'm quick in the security lines.  I know my way around airports.  I never check a bag - I can pack anything into my carry on bag!  The only thing I need is upgrade status.  I'm not there yet... close, but not there. 

One thing that has made my life even easier is the Delta Airlines iphone app.  I only fly Delta.  My grandpa worked for Delta for 40 years so the airline is in my blood.  The app is AMAZING.  It's everything I wanted it to be and more. 


With the app you sign in with your skymiles number and it automatically pulls up all of your itineraries.  You can even book flights from the app, I haven't done that just yet.  You can set up push notifications from the app and it alerts you when you can check in, and change seats, and it continues to update you with your flight's gate and any gate or departure changes.

The best part is the boarding pass.  I don't have to get it in my email or have it texted to me anymore, it's right here in my app.  And it saves expired boarding passes, helpful I can imagine if you have to do expense reports, etc.

It's SO EASY.  I've moved the app to my front screen on my iphone even though I don't fly every day.  It makes me happy to see it. 

I will be at the airport this weekend headed to Vegas. With 3 of the best friends anyone can ask for.  Can't wait. 

Is 10:00 too early for a stripper?

There will be no pictures of the topic of this post... yet they do exist somewhere.  I will probably never be able to run for political office, but I'll get over it.


One of my very best friends is getting married in less than 2 weeks.  She's marrying into one of the best families I've ever met.  Her fiance is one of 7 kids, 5 being girls.  The five girls are fantastic.  Beautiful inside and out and crazy fun to be around.  For her bachelorette party we spent the day at the W in Hollywood.  There was some pool and cabana time, crazy showers (come on - 8 girls getting ready in one hour), a lingerie party, dinner at the Fogo de Chão, drinking, shopping and.... a stripper.

I'm not sure how much we had to drink before we decided that it was a good idea to surprise her with a stripper, but it was decided.  10:00.

I've never seen a male stripper before.  They are gross.  Gross.  He wasn't attractive, older  than me and his moves were gross.  I think if my boyfriend (oh yeah more on that recent development) was dancing and moving around like he was I'd still be laughing hysterically.  I'm not sure I've laughed as hard as I laughed for the 30 min he was in the room.  She was mortified.  Some of the best money I ever spent - her face when he started taking off his clothes was priceless.

Philadelphia

Last week I had a business trip to the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.  It was my first time to the city and everything I heard about it before heading up was negative.  Everything.  I wanted to see for myself before I made any decisions about the city so I went in open minded. 


It's a pretty rough around the edges type of city.  VERY different from California and complete opposite from where I grew up in Florida/California.  We were there to visit Bottom Dollar Food locations all around the city, so I was prepared to get to see a few different parts of town.  Some were nice, others made me want to leave as soon as we drove in.  Let's just say that I won't be volunteering to move to Philly any time in the future. 

While the city left a lot to be desired, the Bottom Dollar Foods that we visited were great.  The stores are unlike anything we have in San Diego and I wish that wasn't the case.  Come on it's San Diego! CALIFORNIA!! The stores are smaller in size than a Whole Foods and don't have all of the frills that you'd find in a WF or even a Trader Joes-- and I wish that wasn't the case. I wouldn't do all of my full shopping at at BDF (I'm too much of a seafood and steak snob not to shop at a farmers market or Fresh Market) but I'd definitely make a trip or two a month for a lot of my grocery list.  If you read the blog you know that I do most of my shopping at a farmer's market.

The second day we were in town was to attend the Grand Opening of a new store.  The doors opened at 7:30am and there was a crowd!  I had no idea people waited in line to go to a new grocery store. I mean come on this isn't a FAT SALE at Bergdorf.

Also new while in town, a Philly Cheesesteak.  A hot, steak sub with a lot of cheese and veggies isn't my idea of a great lunch but while I was in town, I had to do it.  My boss and I drove around for 30 minutes looking for a legit, authentic cheesesteak place and we came upon Steve's Prince of Steak.  A hole in the wall, walk up and order place with delicious food.  They've been open 30 years, they must be doing something right.  Here is the cheesesteak that I ordered.  It was physically impossible for me to finish the entire thing, I ate half. 

So that was Philly for me, in a nutshell. 

Chicago

I spent last weekend in Chicago with one of my very dear friends, Natalia.  We go way back, back to middle school in Florida.  We were best friends through high school and while we don't see or talk to each other all the time, when we do we pick up right where we left off. 

I was only able to fly up on Saturday morning and had to come back Sunday evening, but we were able to cram TONS of fun into just 2 short days.

Our first stop after we dropped off my stuff at the apartment was to walk around her neighborhood and take it all in.  Natalia lives in Lincoln Park which is far more beautiful than I expected it to be.  Maybe because I only associate the name Lincoln Park with the band??  There were parks around every corner, beautiful tree-lined streets and fun restaurants and bars on every block.  Such a cute part of town.  AND the zoo is FREE.  What a great bonus for the people of Chicago.  It isn't a large zoo, but they have the big three - big cats, primates and reptiles.  It must have been nap time because every animal we saw was napping, but it was still amazing to me that something like that was just a few blocks from Natalia's apartment - and it was FREE!

When I asked two people at the office what I had to do when I was in Chicago - each one said that I had to eat an Italian Beef.  So be it - off we were to eat an Italian Beef at Portillo's.

The rest of Saturday was spent walking around town checking out the fun boutiques in different neighborhoods.  One of Natalia's favorite stores was having a huge sale and I got some great necklaces for $7 each.  One of them I've worn twice (once in Chicago the night I bought it and today at work) and I keep getting compliments. 

Saturday night we went to dinner at a cute Italian place in Lincoln Park and then headed to The Southern, a fun bar not too far from her place.  All locals.  It was a pretty good mixture of an older and younger crowd.  I didn't feel out of place at all.  We met some pretty interesting people and had a bunch of laughs. 

Sunday the weather was fabulous and thank goodness because we had an architectural boat tour down the Chicago River!  WHOOP WHOOP!  Totally a tourist thing to do and I'm so glad I did.  There are SO many amazing buildings in Chicago the tour was such a great way to see all of them and really take them in without being distracted by the things around you.  Come on - you're on a boat, nothing else to look at but the buildings.  Our tour guide was amazing - she knew the year, architect, style and little tid bits of knowledge about basically every building we passed on our 90 min voyage.  We toured with The Official Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise.  HIGHLY recommended to anyone visiting Chicago.  Book early!  Our tour was at 1:00 and the rest of the day was already full.  Connie knew to book early because she'd missed out on a tour once when her family was visiting.  Also fun to note - there is a full bar on the boat.  Bloody Mary's and a cruise through the city. Yes, please.

We grabbed a bite to eat, did a little bit more shopping and headed back to the apartment to relax a bit before I had to head to the airport. 

It was a very quick trip, but I fit so much in that It feels like I was there much longer.  I can't wait to go back and see even more of the city. 

Things I loved about the city:

• FREE Zoo
• Parks (green space) around every corner
• The Chicago River and Lake Michigan right there!  Water makes any big city better.
• How clean the city is.  It's a huge city, with lots of people and so many different neighborhoods, and everyone of them that we visited were CLEAN.  Even the cabs felt cleaner than in San Diego or NYC
• Shopping
• Two airports 
• I didn't see many homeless people at all.  In San Diego I feel like there is at least one homeless person on every street corner and in some areas even more.  It just gets depressing.  I know Chicago has rough areas, but everywhere we went, and we went all over the place, it was very nice not to feel like a bad person by not giving someone money

TOMS

Why was I so late to jump on the wagon??  I LOVE TOMS SHOES!  I want a million pairs, in every color possible. 

Yesterday was my first day wearing my new, grey TOMS and they couldn't be more comfortable.  I got them in a size 10 because a size 9 I tried on at one point were just fitting my foot and I was worried about how they would stretch.  This morning I bought my second pair of Toms, in blue, size 9.  Classic fit.  Not only are they the most comfortable shoe I've worn besides my flip flops, but they aren't ridiculously priced.

I'm definitely going to frequent the site to see what new fabrics they come up with and styles.  I need to try a new style soon.  They also started selling sun glasses.  They are a little pricey for me, but who knows, maybe one day.

It keeps getting better: One for One Movement - for every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need.  They are great shoes and you're helping children... you can't feel bad for spending the money!

These will be the next ones I purchase.  I can't wait until I get them. 

Go to the website now, order a pair, help a child in need.

A Game of Thrones

I've been reading like a mad woman lately.  The Kindle has really helped because I can have multiple books in one place.  Having the larger purse has helped too.  I can carry the Kindle or a book with me at all times.  LOVE IT.  

I just started reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, the first book of his A Song of Fire and Ice series.  If that sounds familiar to you, HBO has created a series based on the book series and it's doing extremely well for the network.  Entertainment Weekly does recaps of each of the episodes as it does for Dexter or Glee and it's been the talk of the trade magazines for a few weeks now.  HBO hit a jack pot.  I've heard the show has a LOT of sex which is probably helping the ratings, but I haven't read any of that in the book just yet.  Maybe I'm not far enough along yet?  I'll keep you updated. 

 

I've been told the book is a lot like Lord of the Rings and I've never read a true fantasy book.  I'm a fan of the movies, but I've never picked up a fantasy for pleasure reading.  

I'm keeping up with my plan to read one actual book (in my hand) and then one book on the Kindle.  But the Kindle is sooo easy, I'm really struggling with it.  I miss that it isn't in my purse at this very moment.  (I left it at work!!!!! NOOOO!!)

Oh my, I'm missed you blog!

Life has been hectic lately. Work has been CRAZY.  It's getting hotttt, so of course I've been at the gym, trying to keep in shape for the beach (love living in San Diego), plus training for a triathalon  how my Jewish Puerto Rican grandma would say "oy vey!".   But I have a couple drafts that I have been working on some get ready for a blog-overload! Missed you all! I'm also working on my playlist for last week on my music blog! YAY!