April 2014 Lung Cancer Walk in New York

Most people are well aware of the Breast Cancer Walk and the AIDS Walk that takes place every year in New York City at Central Park. These are the two biggest walks I can think of since they are well advertised a few months before the walks happens, but what about the other walks that don't get as much recognition. The other walks matter too.

Luckily I was able to find the information on the lung cancer walk and I signed up. This year I will be participating in the Labrecque Lungevity Run As One Walk. The Run As One Walk has been going on for eleven years. What I like about the event is you can either run or walk. So everyone is able to participate for a good cause. I'm not a runner, so I chose to do the walk. I'll be walking with my boyfriend who has lost his grandfather over 20 years ago and with my mother. I was surprised when my mom volunteered to do the walk with us. She's not big into sports, but since this one hits home she decided to join the cause. 

Ever since my step father passed away I knew that I would do everything I could to promote awareness on lung cancer and help the fight to find a cure. It hasn't even been a year yet since my step father passed away. It'll only be a year in July. I think doing the walk plays a big part of the healing process. I visit him every other week and even when I'm at the cemetery I still can't believe he's gone. I haven't accepted the fact that all I have of him are memories whether good or bad. 

This is very personal to me and I'd like to raise as much as I can for a great cause. I'd like to ask everyone who reads this to donate whatever you can for this cause. Every little bit helps a great lot. 

Link To Donate

Please note if you do donate please OPT out where it says "Optional Processing Fee" and make it 0%. This is something The Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation is aware about and having the website work on.

In Memory of Oscar R. 

Ditch New Years Resolutions Day!!!

Today's wacky holiday has to be the most fitting for my adventurous long weekend. I'm taking Ditch New Years Resolutions Day and taking it to another level.

January has to be my least favorite month of the whole year. Besides the fact that it's winter and cold, it's the one month that I'm always broke no matter what. I'm always broke in January, but with good reasons. Some of the most important people in my life are Capricorns. With Christmas and New Year's past then comes the birthdays all in a row. It first starts with my mother on the 4th, my boyfriend on the 10th, godmother on the 13th and my youngest aunt on the 14th (she's 37 this year and no one ever believes she my aunt).

So today I'm starting by taking my mother out to LIPS to New York City's best Drag Queen show. When I was with Bali my mom, aunt and I went to a gay bar and they had Drag Queens performing and it was so much fun. So I figured why not take my mom to a Drag Queen show here. I've read almost all the reviews on Yelp and everyone on there said this was the place to go. I hope it's everything I hope it would be.

Saturday I'm going to watch Rock of Ages for my boyfriend's birthday. He absolutely loves the 80s and once again the reviews on Yelp all said this was the show to see. I've seen some of the YouTube videos on it as well and you can't help but start singing and dancing along to the songs. Since I'm going to a daytime showing we'll be having an early dinner. For dinner we're going to Neely's Barbecue Parlor. I've always wanted to go here and the menu looks amazing. While I'm eating dinner there will be no such thing as New Years Resolutions (I know it's bad, but I know I'll pay for it).

Sunday I'll be going to my favorite Dim Sum in Flushing (Jade's Asian Restaurant). The review on it is on my other blog Inda's Tasty Reviews( Dim Sum Review). Although I just went there a little more than two weeks ago, my aunt the birthday girl suggested we go there. In my family whatever the birthday person wants they get. So Dim Sum it is.

Then Monday my I'm going to lay low and go to my mother's house and she already told me that she'll be ordering Chinese food that day. There's a good Chinese takeout spot in Woodhaven and that's where she'll be ordering our lunch that day.

With all these good places to go to my eating clean/healthy lifestyle will be paused for the long weekend. Then Tuesday starts the true starts one of the hardest test. I plan on going to the gym in the mornings. I know I can do this, and everyone isn't perfect especially when there's so many things to celebrate. So there it is all the things I'll be doing to ditch my New Year's Resolutions.

Snow Day in New York City

Last Thursday New York City experienced our first winter storm. Luckily for me I had requested a personal day for that Friday, but it was because I had a wedding to go to. So knowing how bad the snow storm would be did make me nervous about going to the wedding.

So Thursday night my boyfriend and I stayed up a bit because we both had the following day off. Usually he's in bed by 10PM because he has to get to work by 7AM and I go to sleep by 11:30PM. We also kept watching updates on the storm and looking out the window. Whenever I looked out the window it looked like a scene from a movie. I love how snow looks when it first sticks to the ground. It looks so clean and it makes you want to go out there and play in the snow. One of my favorite things to do when I lived at home was to go to the backyard with my sisters get into a snow fight and make snow angels.

On Friday I got to sleep in for once and although the snow was bad, it didn't look too bad as how the news said it would be. I was expecting almost a foot of snow, but it was only about six inches. I guess in my eyes that's not bad because I'm not the one shoveling any of the snow. So after my boyfriend and I ate breakfast we got ready to go outside to take pictures in the snow.

We were only out there for about 15 minutes at most and that was enough for the both of us. With that much time we were only able to take about 3-4 pictures because it sure was cold. Once we got back inside the house and ate lunch it was time to get ready for the wedding.

Lucky for us we called Metro Line a Brooklyn based taxi company and we were able to reserve a cab in Maspeth. Usually they don't reserve cabs, but I suppose it was different that day because of the snow. Meanwhile when we called a local Queens taxi company (Four Ones); they told us our chances were slim to none and should call back at 3:30PM. We needed the cab for 4:30PM so that wasn't going to work. Plus what if we called at 3:30PM and they still didn't have a taxi available? We would've been screwed. At least there's always options in New York City.

Once 4:30 PM came our cab picked us up on time and off we went to our friend's wedding. In a nutshell our snow day was very productive and we had fun all throughout the day and night.

Daily Blog: Learning How To Drive in New York City

Even though you don't necessarily need a car in New York City my father made sure I learned how to drive when I was old enough. I'm so thankful he did because it's true what they say it's like riding a bike. Once you know how to drive you'll never forget.

My dad started teaching me how to drive when I got my permit at 17. The first year I got my permit I didn't drive too much. I actually sucked the first couple of times. Back then when Shea Stadium was around, I learned how to drive at their parking lot. It took me about 2-3 times practicing in the parking lot before I actually started driving in the street. I always drove with my dad because I made the mistake of asking my mom and she freaked out on me while I was driving. So I didn't make that same mistake twice.

My dad was a good teacher, he had the patience for it. I never understood how he did it because if I was him I don't think I could have done it. He made me drive everywhere and it was a good learning experience. Driving in Manhattan was the worst with all the yellow cabs, but my dad walked me through the whole thing. Regardless if people honked at me or not he said don't worry stay calm and just do what I tell you. He gave me good pointers and I learned things I'll never forget.

I drove for about 3 years with my permit and then at 20 years old I got my driver's license. Thankfully for me I took my test once and I passed, but that's because I had a great teacher.

San Gennaro- Little Italy, New York

When you're a New Yorker you know fall has arrive because the fest of San Gennaro is going on in Little Italy. The feast normally begins by the second the weekend of September. To find out the history and activities of the feast you can go to SanGennaro.org. At the feast you can get your favorite Italian American sandwiches, pizza, pasta and many desserts.

During the feast the street of Little Italy becomes a lot smaller. All of the restaurants set up tables on the sidewalk of their restaurants. Then you have your food carts or shops set up on both sides of the streets. It gets jammed pack when you go at night. Although I know it might be hard to go out the house without a stroller when you have a young child, but it's best to leave them at home. It takes up a lot of space and you don't want people to bump into the stroller and especially your child. That's just my opinion because you should be more practical in these types of situations.

So usually when I go to the feast (or any feast) I usually get a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions. This time I wanted to try something different so I got the pork barasoiel with onions and peppers. It was one of the best things I ever ate. With each bite I kept on saying how amazing and good my sandwich was. Also if you like the fat on your meat I definitely recommend getting the park barasoiel. There wasn't a lot of fat, but here and there you would bite into it.

After the sandwiched we walked it off for a while and started to scope out the other things to eat. I'm big on sweets so I passed by Ferrara's and saw they had gelato, but we stilled wanted to walk around. Plus I wanted to get calamari from Umberto's Clam House. At least my boyfriend and I figured out where we were getting our desserts from, so time was not wasted walking around. Then off we went walking and hit Umberto's Clam House. They had two stands, this year and I can only imagine the kind of profit they'll be making from it. Every time I go it's always been packed with people around. I love seafood so I appreciate good friend calamari. It was golden and crispy on the outside. Not too chewy either which was just perfect. We got the sweet marinara sauce on top of the calamari and everything was delicious.

Once we were done with that it was time to take a picture in the big chair. Usually my boyfriend and I take the big chair pictures at the feast in Brooklyn for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It we don't get it at that feast then we'll take the pictures at San Gennaro and it's the same lady