IAmDann Presents: Things I Love Thursday, August 26th

Today is Thursday, August 26th, and it’s time for another edition of Things I Love Thursday! This week marked the very first cool days of the season (finally!) as well as New York City drowning in rain for a good four days in a row. In addition, babies were born, cities crumbled, people fell in love, people cheated, someone found a $100 bill, and a woman tossed a cat in a garbage can. Anyway, let’s move onto the things I love this week!

Gardens in the Middle of Manhattan: If you wander around Manhattan enough, you’re bound to stumble across these little garden oases (yes, that is the correct plural for ‘oasis’) scattered throughout the city. These meccas are what’s known as Community Gardens. Basically, they’re empty lots that have been saved from construction and converted into large inner city gardens! Local residents can rent out a plot where they can tend and grow their own vegetables or other plants. It’s a great alternative to trying to grow a garden on a cramped fire escape outside an apartment window. There is one such community garden on 6th Street and Ave B that I’ll walk by from time to time. They’re free to enter and wander around, admiring people’s plots of land, and are a brief but great escape from the unending concrete and asphalt of New York City.

Turning off the A/C: This week marked the first days of the season that I was able to sleep without my air conditioner! This marked the first real change is the season, especially because I am so obsessive compulsive about my sleeping habits. Once I get used to sleeping a certain way, it takes a lot of work and concentration to change that behavior. The air conditioning is the worst for me, since I get so used to the gentle hum and white noise that I just don’t want it to stop. As a result, it has to be pretty damn cold in my apartment for me to not use the Air Conditioner. I know that this is just a cold spell, and that it’s going to get warm again before it cools down for good, but sleeping without the air conditioner, and forcing that change upon myself, was absolutely amazing.

Peanut Butter Twix: I really don’t eat candy bars very often, but I was really in the mood for one this week, so I had one of my coworkers get me a peanut butter Twix when they grabbed lunch from the deli next door. I can honestly say: Best Decision Ever. Peanut Butter Twix is totally the best variation to the original Twix candy bar. Simply making the cookie part chocolate and swapping out the caramel for peanut butter just makes my taste buds sing and dance. Usually, they say that if you’re really in the mood for a certain food, it’s actually your body craving whatever nutrient is specific to that item. For example, if you’re really craving orange juice, then you have a Vitamin C deficiency that your body is trying to balance out. I’m not quite sure the vitamin content of a Peanut Butter Twix bar, but whatever they put in Peanut Butter Twix was something my body needed this week.

ING Direct: I don’t think I’ve ever been in love with a bank as much as I am with ING Direct. I opened up my first ING Direct account almost a year ago, an Orange Savers account, and that account gradually became a second Orange Savers account and an Electric Orange checking account. At this point, I’ve completely switched over from Bank of America to ING Direct for nearly all of my banking. I’ve got two savings accounts so I can use them to focus on specific goals. I completely refused to touch one of them, and that’s my true savings account. The second is an account where I can tuck away money for Vacations and such and still earn interest. I also joined one of ING Direct’s partner websites, ShareBuilder (earning a $50 bonus for signing up!) and threw some of my money into the stock market, just for the learning experience. ING Direct is everything I want in a bank: great interest rates for ALL my accounts (savings accounts are currently 1.10% APY!!!), GREAT customer service, and almost no fees, ever. Plus, there are no-fee ATMs in every Duane Reade, which you can find ALL OVER New York City. Every time I’ve called ING Direct’s customer support, I’ve had my issue resolved or question answered immediately, and have never once been frustrated during an interaction with them. I recommend everyone to switch to ING Direct.

The Secret Science Club: I had ABSOLUTELY no idea that this thing called The Secret Science Club existed, even though this is exactly the type of thing that interests me. Basically, it’s a group of people who meet once a month, on a Tuesday (which just so happens to be my day off every week!), at the Bell House in Brooklyn. They have speakers or show films and talk about different science topics! This week, I headed out with my friends Blythe (who was the one who introduced me to the Secret Science Club), Doug, and Mike, to watch a film called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives. It was about Mark Everett (of the EELS) and his dad, Hugh Everett, the guy who came up with the entire idea of parallel universes and worlds in Quantum Mechanics. Quantum Physics is so absolutely fascinating to me, and it was a blast to go and check this out!

The Rest: This is Spinal Tape, NoFavorite QR Barcode, Eating mini cupcakes with Ashley, Anatometal always sending Werther’s carmel candies with their orders, the unborn chicken voices in my head, breakfast(s) with Kat, finishing When You Are Engulfed in Flames, filling my iPad with Dummies books, toblerone!, finally getting Google Analytics to work on my websites, switching my tumblr over to my own domain, hearing positive feedback about my blog, Indian women, Wendy’s chili (SO bad, but so good), commenting on digg and having people thumb me up, meeting yet ANOTHER deadline I set for myself.

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