Money (not) well spent

So this is a picture of the pants to a $700 suit I recently bought. What's the white you're seeing? That would be the size of the split in the butt that occured when I sat down in my car after my Improv Comedy school Christmas party. Do you see the irony in splitting my pants wide open after spending an evening at a comedy club? Needless to say, these will be going back to Nordstroms ASAP.

My little Christmas tree

I love my little 4 ft Christmas tree and wreath. I am very much in the spirit this year. After a long day at work, I love coming home, opening my screen door and catching a wiff of the balsam scent of the wreath on my front door. And yes, I made that bow..

My tree skirt is a little on the large side, I'll admit - it's hard to find a skirt that fits a tiny tree.

If you have 20/20 vision, you will count only 7 ornaments on my tree (not including the pre-lit lights and purchased mini-balls). That's all I have collected so far! How sad. Note to friends - Christmas ornaments make great gifts for Aimee!

Missing in action...

Yes, that's me, I've been MIA (not to be confused with my niece named Mia). I don't know where the time goes, but it goes fast. It seems I haven't updated this thing in almost 2 months. I'll try to recap some things here. After my dad's party and before Thanksgiving, I found out that I am going to Dubai for work in January. I've changed focus a good deal so I'll be doing a lot more international work. This will be a great challenge but a cool experience. I'll definitely post photos and updates once I go.

Thanksgiving was a nice time to go home and veg out. I didn't do much at all. I did however start Improv classes at the DC Improv. I'm pretty funny, I have found out. I think I'll be taking a stand up/joke writing class in 2008. That comes with an open mic night so that will definitely be interesting. But I certainly do have an endless source of information/friends/experience in which I can write some funny jokes.

I'm just about done my Christmas shopping. Well, actually I am finished. It's been a frantic month with parties, events, etc but fun nevertheless. I am again looking forward to some down time in PA with the family and then a quick trip to Minnesota to visit my friend Ann over NYE.

Then in Feb, my friend Lisa and I are going to Paris for the long President's Day weekend and I can't wait. I've wanted to go for years since I studied French for 5 years. We'll see how well it comes back. I know it's only 3 days but we'll make the best of it. I'm expecting to go away for a long weekend in January over MLK weekend too for another friend's birthday but she hasn't decided where to go yet (fingers crossed for some place warm). Hopefully the Dubai trip won't coincide with any of this.

Other than that, I think I'm all caught up. Hope anyone who reads this is doing well..

Everybody loves a surprise..

On Saturday night, we threw a long-planned surprise 60th party for my dad at Scoogi's restaurant back home in PA. It was a fabulous affair and we had a great turn out, not to mention tht we were able to keep the surprise firmly in tact. Here are some photos from the evening..






Dad walking into a surprise he thought was for someone else. Clearly he is a little confused in this photo.






A copy of the invitation with a school photo of my dad at about 8 years old.








My cousin Megan, me and Megan's husband Jerry.









My niece Mia, making her debut on this website, with Aunt Aimee








Benny helping his Nonni blow out the birthday candles









My parents and me









My family: Deacon, Mia, my parents, Benny, me, Whitney and Ava

Celeb sightings

This past weekend was filled with yet more unexpected plans. Just when I think I'm going to have a quiet night at home, something comes up - that's usually a good thing. First I should say that last week I went to a small event where Patti LaBelle spoke and sang. I took a photo w/my camera but it did not turn out well so I'm not posting. Boy does she have a voice and beautiful skin. This past weekend was the National Italian American Foundation (www.niaf.org)Gala here in DC. I was asked to go to the prelude event on Friday night where Neil Sedaka performed (from the 60's who sang popular songs such as Calendar Girl and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do). Again, I had a couple of pictures but taken with my phone so they did not come out well, therefore I am not posting.

On Saturday night was the big gala which I happened to read last week in Washingtonian Magazine that it is one of the top 10 events in DC. Who knew I'd end up at it a few days later! That is a very Washington thing to happen - there is always something going on and you never know where you'll be next.

What I didn't know was who would be there from the celebrity circles. Legendary director Martin Scorsese was honored as well as presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in addition to several other folks such as Ellen Pompeo from Grey's Anatomy, Connie Stevens, Susan Lucci, Yogi Bera and some others. The swag bags were great as well (lots of Italian foods and products, books and bath salts). I'll attach a few photos below. I got as close as I could.

Finally, I met the man they say is going to take Pavoratti's position as the 3rd Tenor. His name is Vittorio Grigolo. He performed a few numbers and is just fabulous. It doesn't hurt that he is incredibly handsome as well. (see pic below) Pay no attention to me - it's an awful photo.




Martin Scorsese giving remarks. To the left you can see Ellen Pompeo (Merdith Grey from Grey's Anatomy) looking on.






Connie Stevens offering remarks. Her daughters, including actress Jolie Fisher was also at the dinner.






Rudy Giuliani about to give remarks. He was introduced by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.






The expected new Tenor, Vittorio Grigolo and me.

Going Public...

I wish I could offer some stock options for this, but sadly, my little ol' blog and $3.00 will only get you a coffee at Starbucks.

So I have been tinkering with this for 2 months now and am finally getting up the courage to let more than 5 people know. Here it is -- I don't think it's that exciting, but for all of you whom I don't talk to much and see even less, I thought it would be a way to keep everyone updated with my shenanigans and photos.

I don't really know how the "comment" section works, but feel free to make them if you would like. And as I said somewhere else on this site, if you want me to add some photos or news for you, I'd be happy to. Just make it all respectable please :)

Chrissy's rehearsal dinner

I am not going to steal Chrissy's thunder by making her wedding photos public, so I'll post one from the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. This is a photo of 4 of her bridesmaids at the Warehouse restaurant in Old Town. From left, Deanna, Alison, Chrissy, Aimee and Tracy.

The Windy City weekend

Last weekend, Ann and I spent a few days in Chicago. I had to be there for work on Friday and decided to stick around and check out the city that I've been to twice but have only really 'seen' through the window of a taxi.

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel. The staff was fantastic but I'm not sure if I would stay there again. It was an old hotel and we switched rooms soon after I arrived because the room didn't have internet (?). They moved us into a suite, that as soon as I walked into had the theme song of "Three's Company" pop into my head. It actually looked like Jack, Chrissy and Janet's apartment. The best part was how the electricity flickered often and actually went out when I was in the shower. That was fun.

While in Chicago, we had some fantatic meals at: The Ralph Lauren restaurant http://rlrestaurant.polo.com/ , Le Lan http://www.lelanrestaurant.com/ and Topo Gigio (which doesn't seem to have an active website).

Through a connection, we were able to get tickets to Second City's "Between Barack and a Hard Place" which has been sold out every night. It pays to know people... The show was fantastic and helped me sort of prepare for my foray into Improv. I will be studying Improv at the DC Improv starting next month. I'm sure I'll be talking about that soon..

We also did some damage on Michigan Ave where I continued to feed my appetite (allbeit a new one) for Christian Dior shoes. I picked up that habit in Italy.

We spent an afternoon at Navy Pier which was a lot of fun. We rode the ferris wheel ate popcorn and took a short cruise to see the Chicago skyline. I'll add some photos below. And of course we couldn't leave Chicago without having some pizza at Giordano's. Fantastic.



Here is the good looking antipasto we had at Topo Gigio's restaurant.







Here's me looking tired and make-up free on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.






The beautiful Chicago skyline at sunset. Sears Tower is on the left..

Wake Me Up, When September Ends

Wow, I've been awful at keeing up this blog. I think I have good reason however. I chose the Green Day song as my heading for this point because I think the title is appropriate, although the song has a much different meaning than mine.

September was filled with extreme highs and lows. It started off frantically with Labor Day in Cape May, New Jersey with some friends, followed by Chrissy's surprise bridal shower and my 33rd birthday. I've written about all of that. Then I had to have an outpatient procedure which included a biopsy that had me bent out of shape until I learned my results this week. Things are, for the most part fine. We'll just keep on top of everything every six months.

Following this, my dear grandmom Tess passed away after a long fight with her ailing lungs due to years of smoking and working in an asbestos factory when she was young. This was extremely hard to deal with even though I knew it was coming. I was lucky enough to get back to PA and be with her until the very end. The next several days were stressful and packed with family visits. I offered the eulogy at her funeral and could barely even get through the funny parts without crying. But I think she would have liked what I had to say.

After everything ended, I came back to DC and jumped back into work and caught up with some friends. I saw the last Nationals game against the Phillies which was fun. The last weekend in September I headed to Chicago for work and fun. Ann flew down from Minneapolis and we stayed a few days since I had a good rate at the Fairmont Hotel. Even though our suite looked like Jack Tripper decorated it (and may have been the last person to actually stay in it), we had a great time. I'll write a post about Chicago following this. What a great city!

Well, that is me catch everyone up on things. Maybe I'll actually share this blog with more than just the few people who know about it... We'll see..

33

On Sunday, I turned 33 which is scary. It seems like just yesterday I was a kid or in high school, college or even just moved to this town. Time really flies. I celebrated by going to brunch with a group of my good friends to a place called Indigo Landing. The service was in need of help and the food was ok, but it was so much fun to spend the afternoon with such great people. Here are some pictures of our group.

Catching up

Well, so far I'm off to a poor start in keeping this updated regularly. So I'll catch up the past two weeks. Labor Day was spent at my friend Nicole's beach house in Cape May, NJ. I hadn't been there in 20 years, since I was a kid. It has built up so much since then that I barely recognized it. It was a perfect weekend in terms of weather and I got a lot of sun and spent time with some good people. Attached is a picture of the gals that weekend (Jen, Nicole, Megan, Ashley and me).





Following Labor Day, it was back to the grind at work. My friends Kelly and Gary had a baby named Sam and I was able to see him the day he was born. He is a perfect little guy and I am very happy for them.

On Saturday, we through a long awaited surprise bridal shower for Chrissy and it went over very well. She was truly surprised and I believe touched. It was held at the Ritz Carlton tea room. Here are some photos from the shower:

Chrissy and Scott walking in:



Aimee and Tracy, two of the co-conspirators/hostesses:




Chrissy:




Group shot:

Lunchtime entertainment in Florence

I know there's a way to put this video straight onto this blog, but until I figure it out, here's something I snapped in Florence, Italy and just stuck up on YouTube. He was the cutest man and I hope he's making other bleary eyed Americans smile like he did us.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=39Lsj9F-jnE

My precious

This is my precious boy, Hunter (or simply, oot). He's an old guy now whose favorite things are cookies, scratches and his doggie bed positioned just in front of his mini- osciliating fan. He has a big bark and no bite but does not like the cleaning ladies or the vacuum.

Italia

Back in May, my friend Diane called me to tell me someone had backed out on a trip to Italy she was planning to go on at the end of June. She asked me if I wanted in. I thougth about it for about 30 seconds and said yes. I had never been overseas and so a spontaneous trip to Europe, not to mention Italy (or the motherland as I refer to it) was a no-brainer. I quickly wrote a check for my part of the villa (see pic below) which included a chef the first night and opera tickets to Rigaletto in Florence. Then, at the wise suggestion of my brother, called AMEX to see if I had enough points to get to Italy. I was 10,000 short so I bought them which came to about $300. That sure beat the $2200 plane tickets I had been scouting before AMEX came to play. Within a couple of hours of Diane's call, I was all set.

I left on June 27th and getting there was NOT fun. My flight from DC-Reagan to JFK was cancelled and therefore I missed my flight to Rome. So I made a big stink at the Delta counter and the nice guy got me on a flight out of Dulles on Air France that night, flying through Paris then onto Rome. I was able to get to Dulles with hours to spare and settled into the Air France lounge, which I was allowed in since I was in business class. (I had a choice, I could fly coach and get some miles back or fly business class and use all of the miles. Was that a serious question, I asked?)

I boarded the plane and sat on the runway for 2 hours. So I knew before I even left the states that I missed my first connection out of Paris. I barely slept on the flight over, even though I had a sleeping capsule. I was too wound up. We landed in Paris and the flight attendant said my terminal was right next door so it wouldn't be a problem getting there. 45 minutes, 2 buses and an immigration checkpoint later, I was in Terminal F. My cell phone didn't work so I couldn't call home to let them know where in the world I was. I had to stand in line for an hour to try and get on the next flight, which I missed just by standing in line. I finally got up to the counter and was put on a flight out at 4:30. I ran to buy a calling card, and then to the security line. I got through and went to a phone booth. I quickly realized that 15 euros I paid for this calling card was a waste becaue it didn't work. I was trying not to melt down, but thinking that I had no contact with the outside world, hadn't showered in over a day (or slept), was hungry, tired and forgot all of the French I knew the day before (from the 5 years of studying the language) put me at the breaking point.

I found the Air France lounge and learned the flight was delayed until further notice. I got to a phone and after cursing and banging the phone for a while, thinking my calling card would magically work, I pulled out a credit card and tried to get an outside line. That finally worked. So I got through to work and had them immediately put international service on my blackberry/phone. Then I called home and called Diane who was at the hotel in Rome waiting for me. At that point I broke down from exhaustion. All I wanted to do was get to Italy. Finally they called our flight and I soon found myself flying over the breathtaking French (or was it Italian) Alps. What a sight. I got to FCO airport and found my bags which had clearly gone on a flight before me. But I had them and that was all that mattered. After spending 50 euros to get to the hotel I was FINALLY there. I found Diane and ran to the shower. All of a sudden, I was ready to go.

We went to dinner at Piazza Narvona that evening and I felt like I was in a movie just watching the scenery. The next day, more people on the trip started coming in. We went and did a lot of the tourist things (Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Colleseum) and then that night I met up w/family who live in Rome. I'll save that whole experience for another posting because it was the coolest thing. (See first photo on my blog). Day 3 we were off to our villa in Tuscany and from that point, we went to Arezzo, Lucca, Florence and Siena. Florence was my favorite followed by Siena. Italy is gorgeous and I could easily live there if I could find a job that would allow me to keep up the bad shopping habits I had while I was there! I'm ready to go back and I can't wait for the next trip. I definitely have the European bug.

Hotel room at the St. Regis in Rome



Trevi Fountain in Rome

Spanish Steps

Our villa in Tuscany -- Radda in Chianti was the town

Duomo in Florence. It's beyond words.

Candles I lit for my grandmom Tess (the two in the middle) inside the Duomo

Some pretty Tuscan countryside


Tuscan sunset from our villa

Bomber Benny

My nephew Benny is fearless in the pool, as you can see in this photo from August. He's also turned into a tried and true Philadelphia sports fan at the tender age of 6. How do I know? He referred to Phillies' Ryan Howard as a "bum" when describing to me his so-so year. I think 'bum' like 'yo' is a word indiginous to Philadelphia only! (My sense is that my brother had a hand in that vocabulary lesson..)

Before & After

Earlier this year and sort of on a whim, I decided to gut my kitchen. It was originally going to be just replacing the major appliances and painting the awful green to a neutral color. But then I figured, after a little convincing from my dad that it was like putting lipstick on a pig. So I decided to go the full monty with a little help from Home Depot. I spent almost every weekend in town for the first three months at the store picking out cabinets, countertops, knobs, flooring, etc. I suffered through the contracting period where my little condo was turned upside down and finally it was over in June. Actually, the paint went up when I was in Europe. So for those of you who knew about my home improvement project but have yet to see the final product, check out these before and after photos.

Dewey

This past weekend was one of my best friend's bachelorette party weekend and we went to Dewey Beach to celebrate. Inspite of a little too much sun, we had a great time. This photo is proof of that. Seen here is Tracy, me and Chrissy.

Sighting..

Tonight I went to a new restaurant/bar called Proof and got some drinks with a couple of girlfriends. Jenna Bush (1/2 of the Bush twins) walked in to meet some friends at the bar as well. Clearly they were celebrating since she just got engaged last week. I've never seen her in person although she's a pretty solid fixture on the DC circuit. She's even cuter in person and she had a beautiful ring! My friend Todd said I should tip off the gossip columnist at the Politico so I sent her a little email. We'll see if it makes it into her column...

First photo

So here is my first photo. It is from this summer when I went to Italy with a group of friends. While I was in Rome, I had the chance to meet some of my Italian family. Seen here with me (I'm in green) is my cousin, (everyone's a cousin when you're Italian) Antonella. She barely spoke English just like I barely spoke Italian. But somehow we knew what the other was saying.

Where to begin..

So this is my very first post on my new blog. I have been wanting to do this and have been urged by so many people because they think I'm a funny gal and like reading what I write. We'll see about that. While I write this, I'm watching the reality show "Singing Bee" hosted by Joey Fatone (who's kinda cute) and am absolutely certain that if I was on that show, I'd win the jackpot. I think in a parallel universe I am a singer (probably country, but don't tell my Philly friends/family that).

I chose the title "aspiring aimee" because I always have my hand in a new invention, recipe, business, idea, plan -- you name it. One day I'll actually follow through on that candy company, the novel or the comedy script I keep saying I'll do. Until then, I'll just keep thinking an awful lot about it all.

I know there is an "about me" section that I haven't quite found yet so I'll add some brief stats about myself here. I am (gulp) 32 -- for another 2 1/2 weeks anyway. I live in northern Virginia and have been in DC for over 11 years following college at Shippensburg University where I was a communications major and in Theta Kappa sorority. I am originally from the Philly suburbs where my family still mostly remain. I went to Upper Dublin high school (class of 92) and played softball mostly, among other sports like field hockey and a few years of soccer.

Some how I ended up in PR (well, it's not that far of a cry from what I studied in school). I always wanted to be on TV or even the radio and I still wonder what it would have been like but I got a job working on Capitol Hill which brought me to DC in the first place. I never looked back.

I'm not really sure where to start here so I'll probably post some recent pictures and tell some stories to go along with them.

Well, I think that's all for now. I hope you enjoy my absurd thoughts, posts and pictures. I'll try to make it all as lively as possible :)