I just MadMen’d Myself!  Pretty funny.  It’s like creating your Mii on the Wii… only to the accompaniment of cool, 60′s era-type lounge music.   You can pick out your face shape, eyes with or without glasses, clothes, what you hold, even down to the jewelry you wear.

I wanted to hold a drink and a cigarette since that seems to be all they do on the show, but alas, it was one or the other.  I could have had a cigarette in my mouth while holding a martini glass, but it reeked a bit of trailer trash so I passed.

As if you couldn’t tell… AMC’s MadMen is my Sunday Night Addiction… one of the few shows my husband and I both watch.  And every week, after some quiet scene comes to an inconclusive end, I invariably ask: “Now, WHY do we watch this?”

We started watching it for the styling.  They do such an incredible job with the details… and on a more personal note, my first job out of college was with Lintas: NY, at the time, the 9th largest ad agency in the world… so even though it was 1990, not the early 60′s… the same companies in play in their world were in play then.  Even in 1990, they smoked all over the office and lunch was quite often in liquid form…    It’s interesting to hear them talk about accounts and competitors.  But, just like the soaps, they’ve hooked us into the story… I mean, what will happen at Sterling Cooper now that the Brits’ management restructuring has gone awry with the loss of a man’s foot? And when will Betty Draper get a personality?   Stay tuned!

But I get this strange urge to chain smoke (I’ve heard they actually smoke some herbal stuff – no not the ‘herbage’ sort!- that the actors all hate) and drink scotch… but I can pass on those armor like undergarments… Thank God for women’s lib – and Spanx, don’t forget Spanx!

Just home from NYC where my best friend from college got married in Central Park at the Conservatory Gardens. It was a simple ceremony with glorious weather.  When I was in school, after spending the summer in the grueling Atlanta heat, it was always such a joy to return to the northeast and a dry, cool September.

After the ceremony and the obligatory pics,  they  arranged for a double decker bus to take us all to Grand Central.   It’s funny – we were all as excited as the tourists who usually do these things.  When you live in a place, you tend not to do the basic touristy things that are around… and even now, when I return to the city, I visit friends, eat all the stuff I can’t get back home, perhaps visit the Met… but having lived here once, actually twice, what sort of stuff am I really going to do?  But with the perfect weather, sitting up top and seeing the familiar buildings go by, it was really cool.  So everyone really enjoyed the ride… then the reception was a Metrazur, it sits on the mezzanine overlooking the grand hall of Grand Central – which is just gorgeous!  It’s great place for drinks after work… watching all the commuters head home in this ballroom of a space.  Everything was really nice.

That night, we all met up again and took the Circle Line from the 42nd Pier. It took us as far as the UN on the East River, then over to the Statue of Liberty – then back up the Hudson. It was a lot of fun doing things we don’t and wouldn’t normally do like the double-decker bus and the Circle Line.

We stayed with friends out in Brooklyn, Prospect Park. Sunday was spent hanging out there and getting the Brooklyn experience. Since I lived, worked & played in Manhattan, Brooklyn is still a mystery to me… it’s all fairly new. So we got the mini-tour… and now I’m completely sold.  I started urging friends in Manhattan who told me at the wedding they were looking to upsize, so I am now convinced Prospect Park and the other areas nearby would be perfect!

So it was nice to see old friends, hang out in the City, experience new areas and do a few new things… My friends kept asking me ‘Don’t you miss the City’ and the answer is yes.  I think my husband was a bit put out by my response since I left New York to get married to him and live in St Simons Island.  But what’s wrong with missing a place that’s been such a major part of your life?