always a success.

Lats night, I had another fabulous meal at Vento. If you have never been here, I highly suggest going. I have yet to have an unappetizing meal. With their seasonal menu, you are always guaranteed fresh ingredients, and a lovely ambiance. (We saw them filming Ugly Betty, and happened to stalk the actors trailers parked outside.)

Ordered: steamed mussels with a garlic-pesto sauce to start, followed by mushroom-stuffed, hand-made ravioli. Delicious. Oh, and of course a bottle of wine to top it off.

Check it out.

Real Men Have Fangs.

Can you believe it - front page article in the WSJ on vampires.. I told you they were everywhere! Thanks to Natalia for this fabulous read. Full article below.

Real Men Have Fangs
"With series like 'Twilight,' vampires have crept up from the crypt to the book aisles for women and girls -- and found a rich vein of interest. Laura Miller on why the enigmatic guy with an unusual diet is so hard to resist.
By LAURA MILLER

Pulp genres interbreed as wantonly as alley cats. The vampire novel, once strictly relegated to the horror section, has in recent years infiltrated the romance, science-fiction, fantasy and young-adult shelves of bookstores. Individual authors may specialize in anything from gothic swooning to crime-fighting, globe-spanning action, high-school intrigues, chicklit-style shenanigans and Southern-fried humor.

Vampires have never been more popular. "Breaking Dawn," the final volume of the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer, sold 1.3 million copies on its release date in August. (The film version comes out Nov. 21.) There are six million copies in print of Laurell K. Hamilton's series of vampire detective novels, and Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books have cropped up all over the best-seller lists since being adapted as the new HBO drama, "True Blood."

These three series are only the most visible examples of a booming fictional genre that's aimed primarily at women and girls. Labeled "paranormal romance" or "urban fantasy," it's a hybrid species that includes dozens of series comprising hundreds of books in which mostly human heroines fall in love with assorted supernatural beings: werewolves, shapeshifters, gods, fairies and, above all, vampires.

The rules of these fictional vampire universes are dizzyingly diverse: in some books, they can be repelled with crucifixes and garlic; in others, not. They may or may not have souls. The ability to tolerate sunlight and silver, to survive on just a sip of blood or on an artificial substitute, to fly or transform into an animal or to reproduce sexually -- all vary according to the author's whim.

Nevertheless, a few indispensable qualities reside at the heart of the vampire's appeal. Vampires are always good-looking, excruciatingly so; the word that Bella Swan, the protagonist of the "Twilight" series, most often uses to describe her adored undead boyfriend Edward is "perfect." Washboard abs are a must. Vampires are also invariably well-dressed, whether in period costume or the pricey designer outfits sported by the blood-sucking boyfriends in Gossip-Girl-style gothics like Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" or Melissa de la Cruz's "Blue Bloods," both set in exclusive prep schools. Above all else, vampires are rich. (The source of vampire wealth is obscure, since few of them appear to be gainfully employed. The assumption seems to be that anyone who's been around for 300 years must be in a position to take full advantage of the miracle of compound interest.) In short, they uncannily resemble the heroes of traditional romance novels.

The fusion of the romance and vampire genres isn't as unlikely as it might seem. The archetypal romantic hero owes a lot to two characters from Victorian literature: Mr. Rochester in "Jane Eyre" and Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights." The two sisters who wrote those novels, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, were, like most literary women of their time, great admirers of Lord Byron, whose stormy, passionate heroes (based on his own bad self) served as patterns for Rochester and Heathcliff.

In turn, one of the earliest stories in which a vampire is depicted as a decadently attractive aristocrat is "The Vampyre" (1819), by John Polidori, Byron's physician, who achieved a minor literary notoriety by writing thinly veiled portraits of his former employer. Both the classic romance hero and the suave vampire are handsome yet dangerous, mysteriously worldly and a little cruel, but gifted in erotic persuasion.

If the conventional romance and the vampire yarn share an ancestor in the poetry and persona of Byron, they achieved their first communion in 1976, with the publication of "Interview With the Vampire," the first of Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles." Ms. Rice's brooding vampire hero, Lestat, espoused the whole spectrum of Byronic defiance and license, even turning rock star, to assume the cultural role of bad-boy celebrity that Byron is often said to have pioneered.
Vampires have been used to represent sexual minorities, artists, drug addicts, bikers, even the mafia: any group, in short, both subject to ostracism for its social transgressions and prone to romanticizing its outcast status. The vampires who star in paranormal romance, however, are seldom scruffy or strung out. The cliché is that vampirism is a metaphor for sex, but the vamps of paranormal romance don't need metaphors for that: they tend to cavort their way through a range of impressively explicit bedroom escapades. What these undead lovers promise is not just eroticism, but a particular variety of eroticism that their female admirers more than half suspect of being reprehensible and anachronistic, if not flat-out extinct: They offer old-fashioned romance in the arms of an alpha male.

Here lies one of the unique pleasures that the vampire romance can provide for its female readers: the opportunity to enjoy an 18th- or 19th-century courtship while remaining a 21st-century woman.

The problem with historical romances is that if you want a man who behaves like Mr. Darcy, you have to live within the constraints imposed upon a woman like Elizabeth Bennet; in addition to the lack of voting rights, credit cards and any chance of pursuing a profession, there is the fun-squashing little matter of virginity taboos. In order to bask in the chivalry of a Regency-era gentleman, a modern woman can be magically transported back to his time (another popular romance device), but she'll still be stuck in a society where she hasn't mastered the rules and her freedoms are severely curtailed.

Make the gentleman immortal and he brings with him into her modern world not only his ancestral estate and fortune, but an anachronistic understanding of how to treat a lady. Replete with old money, the vampire hero has plenty of leisure time to embroil himself in politics (fictional vampire societies tend to be complex and conspiracy-ridden hierarchies) and to woo the heroine.

Vampires have long served as a nightmare symbol of the idle hereditary gentry as seen through the eyes of the hardworking bourgeoisie. The original Count Dracula, as conceived by Bram Stoker, came from a backward corner of Mitteleuropa and had the atavistic, parasitical authority of all aristocrats, whose claims to power and status are founded, tellingly, in blood. Dracula, with his schemes to feed off the "teeming millions" of London, coolly selects the rational, upright solicitor Jonathan Harker as both prey and instrument, confident that obedience is his birthright. Then, by night, the count plunders the womenfolk.

But "Dracula" was written by a man, and so his vampire aristo is more monster than seducer. Jonathan Harker's modern-day female counterparts -- independent lawyers and businesswomen -- would no doubt balk at acknowledging a duke or an earl, let alone an ordinary commoner, to be anything better than their equal. Nevertheless, the nagging longing to be plucked from the ashes and exalted by an exceptional, masterful man remains hard for contemporary women to exorcise. If flesh and blood men disappoint, if men's innermost thoughts have proven to be largely coarse and selfish, a vampire, at least, has a perfectly valid claim to superiority. Besides his wealth, his looks, the wisdom afforded by his centuries of existence, a vampire possesses superhuman strength, heightened sensory perception, the capacity to hypnotize his victims and, last but not least, immortality.

Not only is there no shame or degradation in surrendering to a lover this powerful, but a woman can ogle him freely without rendering him effeminate. He can wear his hair long, murmur preposterous lines like, "Allow me to touch you or I will go mad," as does the master vampire lover of Karen Chance's Cassandra Palmer series, without coming across as vain, ridiculous or psychopathic. Best yet, if he is troubled, as he should be, by his conscience (and most vampire heroes are), that conflict can throw numerous obstacles onto the path to consummation, further prolonging the couple's delectable courtship.

In "Twilight," Edward is reluctant to deflower Bella (he maintains that if he loses control he might bite and kill her). But it's not the absence of sex that makes the readers of Ms. Meyer's series sigh and neglect their home and housework to spend hours posting in online discussions with titles like "The intensity... will it ever go away?" Though technically chaste, the couple engages in marathon sessions of what used to be called "heavy petting": drawing out the erotic tension to just shy of the breaking point. You could call it all a big tease, but as many a woman can testify, sometimes the tease is the best part, and it certainly does add zest to the finale.

Some adult women worry about the effects of the "Twilight" series on young girls. They point out that Edward is overprotective and controlling. Worse yet, when the deplorably passive Bella isn't mooning over his "bewildering perfection," she's running herself down for being unworthy of his magnificence: "There was no way this godlike creature could be meant for me." Bella is the exception among paranormal romance heroines, who tend to be the sort of women described as "kick-ass" in back-cover blurbs. (The obvious inspiration here is TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer.") No matter how tough, intrepid, sassy and smart these heroines may be, however, their vampire boyfriends will always be stronger.

It's hard to imagine any real man pulling that off, and so the authors and readers of paranormal romances have simply ceased trying to imagine it. As fantastical as the paranormal romance may appear, it reflects a rueful pragmatism. The classic romantic hero has been relegated, like the vampire, to the realm of legend and superstition."

'tis the season.

So Halloween is two days away and the overload of scary movies and advertisements for tacky costumes is everywhere. (Granted, I walk past Ricky's Costume Store on my way to work every morning.) I thought it was about time to pay tribute to my new(ish) fetish of the vampire phenomenon. It's true. My friends think I'm a freak, but lately there has been a huge media push towards the undead. HBO's True Blood series, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight collection , and a new movie based on the series being released in three weeks.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this movie to come out. I am a movie buff, and fell in love with Robert Pattinson circa Harry Potter 4 (Cedric)...that's right, I like the HP movies too. Don't judge me. He is officially my latest Hollywood crush. What I find interesting, is that the director, Catherine Hardwicke, is actually from my hometown of McAllen, Texas. What a small world. She has a niche for darker movies, i.e Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, so I am really interested in how she is going to capture these characters.

Anywho - if you haven't read the books - check them out. They are a quick read and quite addicting. Plus, they will get you in the mood for the Halloween season! Nothing like a good vampire cult to jump start the festivities!

Twilight is in theatres November 21st. You know you want to go.

keep living the dream. class of '95.

I have let a few days slip away from me - but the weekend was chaotic, and I was greeted with a Monday crazier than expected. That's usually how my Monday's are.

But what a great weekend. I can't even tell you how much fun I had visiting my school (completely re-done I may add) and catching up with my favorite people. Granted, Haley and I got a LITTLE lost driving around Dallas trying to find Sara's apartment, and got pulled over, which we talked our ways out of, we arrived to such a warm welcome. All of our girlfriends were there - with cocktails waiting. It was so nice to see everyone's faces again! I know a lot of people may say this, but I am so luck to have a group of accomplsihed friends. Listening to where everyone was in their life, whether law school or nursing, I realized, I have really smart, successful friends.

After chatting- it was on to the bars in Dallas. We went to Knox Street Pub and danced our pants off. literally. what a blast. Woke up early Saturday morning (with the help of 2 Excedrine Migraines) and geared up for a full day of tailgating. We all pitched in and rented a 16 passenger van to drive to Ft. Worth, which ended up being a great idea. We arrived at Fuzzy's and 2 scooners later, we were ready to party. We continued to tailgate and walk around until the game was over (we won, by a lot). Then on to snookies. No changes there - kareoke, and disgustingly cheap drinks. I miss Texas prices...

Anyways, the rest of the night was blurry - but I do remember having a BLAST. I love my friends more than life itself and cherish every opportunity I get to spend with them. We have all moved to dfiferent cities, but still make the effort to come see each other. And when we do - it's always such a good time.

Next Reunion: New years's eve.

south-bound.

So, I'm off! I leave this afternoon to fly to Dallas and visit some of my favorite people in the world (not all of them - some were unable to make the journey. tear.) It is TCU's homecoming! I don't think we will actually go INTO the game, but I can't tell you how excited I am to drink some cold beer in 78 degree weather with girls who mean the world to me.

In honor of this vacation, I would like to remember back to the good old days before 10 hour work days. The photograph above was taken during the firts year of our Chateau expereince. Honestly, I can't explain what we are exactly doing, because it wouldn't make sense to anyone who wasn't there. Let's just say that one house with five girls = a lot of crazy times. I can't wait to go back and see how much of the house has changed, as well as the campus.

Be prepared for an update of photos, and hopefully some good stories.

See you Monday.

Spread the word. Not the flu.

With the great season of Fall, comes the flu season as well. It's awful and annoying, but a fact of the times. I am lucky enough to have a company that provides all employees with free flu vaccines - but these can be given at any CVS, Walgreens or from your local doctor. It takes 5 minutes and will in turn save you from a lot of misery.

"Influenza" is caused by influenza viruses. It spreads easily from person to person—at home, at school, at work, at the supermarket, on the train. It gets passed on when someone who already has influenza coughs or sneezes. You can also get influenza if you touch something that has the influenza virus—a door handle, a phone, or a pen—then touch your mouth or nose. People can also be infectious (able to pass on viruses) before they even know they have it. Healthy adults can transmit influenza from one day before becoming sick and for up to five days after. EWWWW.

Please for the sake of the other 7 million people living in this city - get vaccinated! Something to think about the next time you grab that rail on the subway..

Do it!

wine or exercise? you decide.

Wow. What a day yesterday. I have come to completely agree that one person's attitude is reflected in every other person they encounter in that day. Working in such a small group, it is hard to stay cheerful when stress trickles down the totem pole.

I would be at the bottom of the totem pole.

With the work load picking up and eventually exploding in November, I need a reliable way to vent my stress, because I, on the other hand, DON'T believe that by yelling at others, you will feel better. So I have come to a cross road - what is the better relaxer - wine or exercise?

Because I was a little heated last night by the time I got home from work, I decided not to indulge in my usual glasses of cab sav, but rather eat a reasonable dinner and go to bed early. I woke up (with the sound of the trash men) and went for a morning run. I must say that I already feel better. Something about pouring sweat that early in the morning, cleanses not only your body, but clears your mind.

However, this study is not over. The month of November will be the test, and by December 1st I will have a conclusion.

To be continued..

the power of change.

While skimming the news yestedray, I found this amazing picture taken at an Obama rally in St. Louis, Mo. on Sunday. Over 100,000 people showed up to support the presidential hopeful - the largest crowd for an Obama event in the U.S. Politics is a topic that can be argued until you are blue in the face, but I think this photo captures such a surreal moment, especially during such an exciting and monumental election.

100,000 people. Wow. I am from a town in South Texas with a 100,000 total population. Seeing this photo just solidified why I find Barrack Obama to be so inspriing - he ignites a sense of hope throughout Americans. A sense of change, that even with the sprialing economy, more troops being deployed to Iraq, and a failing energy plan, there is still something to be hopeful for - a man who genuienly wants to help.

Although I could go on and on about why I am voting for who I am, I think it's most seen through this photo. Clearly, I am not the only one who feels this way.

vote : November 4th.

-allison

if you are in the market.

With Fall officially here, it's about that time to dust off your boots and warm, layering gear. For me, boots with a 3 or 4 inch heel tend to send a wave of hesitance through me. Why, you ask? Because I walk...EVERYWHERE. Living in this city, one of the first things you learn is to invest in shoes that don't make your feet feel like they are going to fall off.

For me- my latest find are these pair of Nine West booties. (Currently on sale - they also have a lot of other cute Fall boots)

The ultimate test was executed Saturday night with a full night out. From Fiddlesticks in West Village to Catch22 in Gramercy ( where we stood ..even though we "had a table"..I don't know why) then to the 12 block walk home, I was completely surprised that my feet felt great.

I'm not sure if it's the extra padding in the soles, but if you are looking for a comfortable pair of boots - these are key.

Do it.

-allison

it's official.

Apparently I am the last to catch on to the trend of blogging - but with a little encouragement, and guidance from my creative, tech-saavy friends, here I am. Who knew it was that easy. A few short steps, and I have a permanent place in the cyber world of communication. How empowering.

To get the facts straight: this blog has no theme, no particular rythym or rhyme, just me, and whatever nonsense I think is worthy of spreading to others. Basically, just another outlet for me to share my words of wisdom...

The challenge: to blog (efficiently) for one year straight. Anything and everything I experience, see, feel, eat, drink, meet, and visit. So by all means, stay tuned. It will hopefully get interesting.

until then -

allison