While I really enjoy hanging out at home alone or with a small group of friends, there are a lot of things that I like to do out of the house, either to meet new friends or simply to be around people who enjoy the same things that I do. Here is an overview of some of my favorite places to hang out:

Spending an evening at a coffee house with friends is one of my favorite ways to pass the time. As a relaxed, casual way to listen to some great music, coffee houses have no equal. I also enjoy the fact that most coffee houses will host open mic nights, poetry readings and other fun events and they also typically feature artwork from talented, local artists. All in all it is a great time.

I have been looking for a good coffee house to become a regular at, preferably somewhere close and somewhere with lots of acoustic music. If you happen to know of any that you can recommend, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know.

As someone who loves music, I really enjoy going to concerts. As much as I enjoy collecting mp3's of my favorite songs, there is just something about seeing music performed live that I truly enjoy.

Overall, I love performances of all kinds. While I tend to spend more time watching musicians and actors, I also enjoy watching other kinds of performances, including dance and live comedy.

As a gamer and a life long reader of science fiction and fantasy, it was pretty much inevitable that I become interested in Sci-Fi and Gaming Conventions. Cons are wonderful places to meet up with friends and hang out while gaming, watching films or shopping for nifty things in the Dealers Room. Cons also feature some interesting lectures and panel discussion by artists, authors and scientists as well as actors from popular TV shows and movies.

My first convention was I-CON, held every spring on the campus of Stony Brook University. Rob and I even spent many years helping to run that convention. We eventually dropped off of the staff but we still return every year to visit with friends and see the show.

Ubercon is another favorite. A gaming convention held twice a year in NJ, Ubercon has some of the best board gaming I have ever seen at a con and is simply a fun, relaxed weekend surrounded by tons of great people.

Rob and I like to attend PhilCon whenever time and finances permit. We also want to go to DragonCon in Atlanta but so far, we have not been able to make it down there.

Even though I couldn’t skate to save my life, I truly enjoy watching professional figuring skating. My favorite athlete of all time is Kurt Browning, a professional skater with fantastic style and skill on the ice. Rob and I try and go to a figure skating show like Stars on Ice at least once a year, particularly if Kurt will be performing.

Maybe it’s silly. Maybe it’s cheesy but I don’t care. I think karaoke is a lot of fun. One of my favorite places for karaoke is Ozumo Japanese Restaurant (Located at 164 Hicksville Rd, Bethpage, NY.; Telephone: 516-731-8989). There, I can indulge both my love of karaoke and my craving for some good sushi.

One of the great things about living on Long Island and being so close to NY city is that there are a lot of cool little events going on almost every weekend of the year. Since getting into photography, Rob and I have been trying to get to more and more of these events. We like to spend the day, look around and take pictures.

Very often, after I come home from an event and start showing off my photos of the day, I hear someone say "Why didn't you tell me that you were going to this? I would have LOVED to go." In the interest of giving everyone a chance to share in the fun, I am going to post a list of the upcoming events that I am interested in attending. If you are interested in going with me to anything, please drop me a line and I will include you in the planning.

As someone with no artistic talent whatsoever, I am in total awe of what real artists can create. This is why I enjoy going to museums. I am very lucky to live so close to NYC where some of the greatest museums and galleries in the world can be found. I am particularly fond of the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But my all time favorite museum is the Cloisters. This branch of the Met is devoted to medieval art and architecture and is home to the famous Unicorn Tapestries. Rob and I love to visit the Cloisters as often as we can and we take the best photos there. Outside of NY, I also enjoy going to the museums of the Smithsonian Institute, especially the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Ever since I discovered that I really enjoy photography, I have begun seeking out cool places to go and events to attend just for the purpose of taking some pictures. Whether it is a scenic park or garden, someplace historic or cultural like a museum, some sort of festival or faire, or even just a play date or field trip with my nieces and nephews, I love going out and capturing a little part of it with my camera.

In my opinion, the best way to spend a weekend is to go to a Renaissance Faire. From the costumes and pageantry to the games, the food, the music and the incredible shopping, I look forward to Renn Faire season all year long and usually drag friends and family to any event that holds any resemblance (including Celtic Games, Pirate Festivals, etc. etc.) to a Renn Faire whenever possible. Whenever possible, Rob and I go to two faires a year. During the summer, we meet friends up at the Sterling Renaissance Faire and then in the early fall; we head down to Maryland to visit family there and attend the Maryland Renaissance Faire. Of course with all the interesting things and colorful people at the faire (as well as its gorgeous location) I usually end up taking a lot of pictures there as well.

Sometimes, I think I must be part feline because I love to be petted, pampered and spoiled. This is why I love going to spas. I particularly love massages, both as a way of relieving achy joints and muscles and as a wonderful way to relax. My favorite spa is the Spa at St. Tropez

I love musicals and I go into NYC as often as I can to see one of the great plays being performed on Broadway. I have seen Avenue Q, Into the Woods, Les Misérables, Man of La Mancha, Miss Saigon, Rent, Spamalot, and The Pirate Queen live on Broadway (some of them multiple times) and (with the exception of Avenue Q), I have loved them all! This is in addition to the many wonderful plays that I have seen performed in local theater productions or on film. I even once performed in a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof. My favorite musicals are: Rent, Godspell, Into the Woods, Les Misérables, Man of La Mancha and Spamalot. I also enjoy non-musical theater, particularly the works of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde.

Looking back, I really haven't traveled much in my life. In fact, I have only been out of the US once and that was for a short trip to the Canadian side of Niagra Falls and I have never been off the East Coast of the US. When I travel, it is usually to visit someone so I go places like NH to visit my cousin, Nikki, or to MD to visit Dan and his family. But I would love to travel to more places and see more things. More than anything, I want to go to Ireland. Because of my heritage and my love of celtic myth and music, I just feel such a draw to Ireland and simply cannot wait to go.

I would also love to go to England. There are so many things that I want to see and do there, most of them related to my favorite books and authors. I want to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater. I want to play Pooh Sticks in Ashdown Forest (the original Hundred Acre Woods). I want to go on a tour of all the different sites associated with the legends of King Arthur and I want to go to a Robin Hood Festival in Nottingham. I want to see Jane Austen's house.

I want to go up to Prince Edward Island in Canada. I am such an Anne of Green Gables fanatic, that I just can't resist the thought of going to visit Green Gables.

I want to go on a cruise to somewhere warm and beautiful. I want to get over to the west coast to visit my sisters and friends that I have there. And I want to visit so many places in the US that I couldn't list them all. I want a vacation to somewhere... anywhere, really.

Of course, my travel is somewhat limited by finances and logistics but it is something very much on my mind to do someday soon.