So I bought a bike. And then I bought some stuff to add on to it. This is the part where I tell you what I did. (Yes, “I” did. I actually got on the ground with tools and took things apart and put things together. Myself. At one point with directions only in Japanese. Do you know that I do not speak or read Japanese?)

So the bike, I already told you, is the 2010 Specialized Globe Vienna 3 Step Through. (Now that’s a mouthful. From here on out it will be called “bike”.)

So then I added (ok the man at the bike shop added) fenders. Planet Bike Hybrid Full Fenders to be exact. I got these for two reasons. The first is practical – tires kick up dirt and rocks and water and city gunk. Fenders help with that. The second reason? I love the vintage-y flair they give to my bike.

And tonight I added (yes me this time) a front cargo rack. The Japanese made Gamoh King Carrier Front Cargo Rack (yes that’s an affiliate link). I got this for many reasons. The first being I need to carry things. Things like my laptop, my camera, and most of all groceries. This cargo rack is exactly the right size for my MacBook (in carrying case) and for small grocery runs. You know what else? I love the way this looks too. I scoured the internet for the perfect rack (he he .. rack). I decided I wanted black and wood – again to add to the vintagey feel I’m going for. Plus it lets me live the dream of having a bike with a basket without looking like I’m actually five years old. And … adult approved basket if you will.

So there’s one other thing about this rack that really made me fall in love. And it’s the most ridiculous over the top feature …

The thing has a bottle opener on it.

How convenient.

So there you go. Now you know all the dirty details of my new bike.

Moody black and white photos. (Especially taken from the floor apparently…?)

Champagne “just because”. (Sidenote: yeah we’re drinking out of wine glasses because … funny story: I BROKE ALL THE CHAMPAGNE FLUTES. I told you I was clumsy. No I’m not kidding. I am really that bad.)

Grill marks on swordfish steaks.

Cooking dinner. (Ok all I made was the avocado, cilantro, tomato & lime juice topping….)

Making hot toddys.

Ridiculous depth of field.

Argos.

This weekend was all family, all weekend. And it was great.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon hanging at my Dad’s with my Dad (obviously), my Mom, two of my Dad’s sisters and my grandparents. It was supposed to be a quick visit so I could drop off my car( long story) that turned in to an all afternoon “Hey we’ve been here for hours, let’s order some pizza” affair.

Saturday night I spent with a whole bunch of friends to see off our good friend Rena. She’s moving to New York and is going to be wildly successful in everything she does – I just know it. I spent the night with her, Danielle/Dink and an assortment of other fabulous people. I finished the night off with the cheesy cab ride home:

Cab Driver: Can I ask you a serious question?

Me: Sure.

Cab Driver: Are you going to be around for Christmas?

Me: Uhhhh …. no? What?

Cab Driver: You’re not? That’s too bad. ‘Cause I need an angel for my tree.

Me: *groan* Let me out here please.

Sunday was a lovely day all around. I spent it with the people I call my “Urban Family”. They are some of the people I love most, and luckily for me, all live right in my neighborhood. We get together once or twice a week, but we decided with everyone splitting up for the holiday to go visit their biological family, we needed to celebrate Thanksgiving amongst our family.

We split up the menu, all brought wine, turned on some music, lit up a fire and had one of the most amazing afternoons into evenings I’ve had in a long time. My friend Pia gave a toast before dinner that was so beautiful, it literally made the whole room cry. I have it on video, but with the crying and all, I’ll keep that for us.

You can however look at some pics. Here, ladies and gents, is the Urban Family I refer to so frequently here, on Twitter & on Facebook. I hope all of you are as lucky as I am to have people like these in your life.

Jon & Pia

Matt, Lisa, Julie & Mary

Adam & Jon

Me & Jean!

Ad & our food!

Me & Adam

Julie

Jean

Danny, me & Matt

Matt, Lisa, me & Danny

Matt, Adam, Jean & Pixel

Back Row: Steve, Julie, Pia, Mary
Front Row: Danny (with Pixel), Jean, Matt, Me, Lisa, Adam & Jon (with Heidi)

The whole set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alleyesonjenny/sets/72157622861349000/

Last Thursday I threw a party. There was fashion, there were walk-offs, and there were prizes. If you make it to the end of this entry, you can enter to win a prize of your own.

Here’s how it started: several weeks ago I blogged about getting picked for a Brand Enthusiast program for the Gap. Part of being a Brand Enthusiast is reintroducing my friends back to the Gap, specifically the new 1969 denim line for men & for women.

Here’s how that was supposed to work: The Gap was going to send me a bunch of denim and some party supplies to have an in-home party where my guests could check out and try on the jeans.

You know me. I don’t do anything the easy way. And, as an event planner, I like to have events. In-home party? Easy, but not an event. So I called up a few people, told them what I was doing and threw out some ideas, and a couple of hours worth of calls, emails and meetings later, I secured a venue (Thanks 28 Degrees Boston!), got donated food (Thanks Carl!), and sponsored goodie bag items (Thanks Van Gogh Vodka!).

I had to design the guest list and design the event (create and print signage, sketch out the layout of the lounge and come up with activities). Done. Done. Annnnnd done.

Here’s how it all went down: First the set up. The lounge space that was donated was simply gorgeous and needed no help. I just had to set up the jeans.

Clearly after setting up the jeans we had to pose with the signage.

Before the party I had prepared a … presentation … that was to be projected on the large screen on the whole back wall of the lounge and loop for the duration of the party. It talked about the sponsors, and me and … well. How about you just watch?

Click the screenshot to run the presentation. It’s worth it. Bonus points if you “get” the pics …

My guests arrived and mingled. I explained to them the event: Come try on jeans! Enter to win a raffle! Tweet about the party! Sign up for …. THE AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL STYLE FASHION CHALLENGE (oh yeah, you just wait.)

After a couple of hours, everyone had found their fit. And if we’re in full disclosure mode, I feel as if I should disclose this: I have a lot of gay friends. A lot of gay friends who like, apparently, to wear women’s jeans. Honestly? I think more than 50% of the men invited took home women’s jeans. And I had three women take home men’s jeans.

WE BREAK ALL THE MOLDS OVER HERE IN ALL EYES ON JENNY LAND

Then it was time for my FASHION CHALLENGE. Now that everyone had found their pair of jeans, I got a group of runway divas to model them for us. But of course, there’s more to it than that.

I cleared the remaining party guests into a runway path, and sent the contestants up into the fitting room behind the curtain to get ready. I had pre-selected three bitchy but hot judges, and gave them numbers to score each contestant.

You that’s Sarah right there in the middle!

And, of course, I got to be Tyra.

I had purchased a WHOLE LOTTA accessories for this challenge, dumped the accessories on the floor in the middle of all the contestants and gave them their challenge: they had ONE MINUTE to grab whatever accessories they could get their hands on and accessorize the hell out of their new jeans. They would then walk the runway and get JUDGED.

Oh. Hells. Yeah.

In the end two contestants tied. And we had to have a walk off. They wished each other well and gave it their all.

My friend Mike won, and Sarah took the news like a champ and threw her wig on the floor and stormed off.

Mike won a digital camera and Sarah won a $50 gift certificate to the Gap. Good work kids ;)

All in all, the party was a BLAST. We all had SO much fun. And got some awesome new jeans to boot.

Thanks again to …

The venue: 28 Degrees
The goodie bag and prize sponsor: Van Gogh Vodka
and of course
The clothing sponsor: THE GAP!

Check out the whole set of photos here. (There is video to come, but I had over 2 hours worth and it took me a whole weekend just to get through the photographs!)

Congratulations. You made it to the end! You should be rewarded by entering to win my contest!

The Gap was kind enough to give me an extra $50 gift certificate to give out to a reader on my blog! Here’s how you enter to win:

1.) Comment on this blog post to be entered into the contest once!
2.) Twitter linking to this post and using the #GapBornToFit hashtag to be entered twice (don’t forget to get an ‘@alleyesonjenny‘ in there so I can keep track of you! May I suggest something like “Visit the blog of @alleyesonjenny and enter to win a $50 gift certificate to the GAP! http://tinyurl.com/o6dv9g #GapBornToFit“)

You have until 10 pm on Tuesday, August 18th to enter. The winner will be chosen at random and announced Wednesday morning!

Good luck!

What a weekend. It started with a shattered mirror, a popped tire on the Mass Pike but ended with a lot of dancing, a lot of drinking, a lot of toasting, and a lot of friends and family.

After double duty of bridesmaid and photographer, I need to go sleep for like 48 hours straight. But it was totally worth it :)

Congrats kids! Love you like crazy.

There’s nothing like a friend ending up in the hospital to make a stupid story about online dating seem exactly that: stupid.

My friend. My good friend. My good friend who for once isn’t Danielle is in the hospital.

My friends seem to have an awful lot of bad luck in the health department.

A couple nights ago, for unknown reasons, my friend began having seizures. Three to be exact. All happened when she was sleeping. She’s in this hospital and hooked up to countless machines monitoring her brain, her heart, her health. And her baby’s health.

Oh did I mention her and her husband just told all of us she’s pregnant? Yup. Three months in. Due in January with her little nugget.

She’s been a close friend since high school. I’ve mentioned her on this blog. She comments regularly on this blog. We call her Sasky. At this point, it might as well be her real name.

I found out about all this around 2:00 am this morning. I couldn’t sleep before I found out, I certainly couldn’t fall asleep after I found out and now I just can’t stop thinking about her. This morning around 4:00 am, in an effort to not disturb my roommates, I climbed out of my bedroom window on my roof “deck” and just sat. For hours. Thinking about my friends, my family, my life, the illnesses, the break ups, the divorces, the marriages, the moves, the babies, the crazy ups and downs that life has been for all of us for the past couple of years, but I thought mostly of Sasky.

I’ll see you in a couple of hours Sask. The BPG loves you.

I am so incredibly sad to see these boys go back to San Francisco. (Well they still have 3 weeks left of their tour. Go see if they are playing in a city near you.)

I got roughly 4 hours of sleep last night so I don’t have much to say. Also I look like complete hell. But underneath my fancy work sweater, you KNOW what I’m rockin’. (I wasn’t kidding about that 4 hours of sleep – hence the strategic head crop.)

See a few photos from last night here. Tonight? LMT at the Middle East Upstairs. Rock.

I got new shoes! (To go with that dress I blogged about last week.)

So hot. We had a little photoshoot this morning.

Their adorable BCBGirls. Oh. And.They’re 4.5 inch heels. I look forward to towering over everyone.

Get your own at my favorite shoe e-store: Shoebuy.com.

Also if you’ve never seen the “Shoes!” video, shame on you! It’s an oldie but goodie. Watch it here.

After 48.5 hours of labor, she’s finally here. Good work Tina (and I guess you too Jim. HA.)

She’s gorgeous.