Bachelor Sightings and My Chat With Ashley

It's been an insanely fun weekend.  I went to my first Indian wedding last night in downtown Manhattan.  I also attended my first Mehndi, which is part of the Indian wedding festivities - the bride's family gathers at the bride's parents' house and celebrates with traditional Indian dancing, music, food, etc.  The night came complete with henna treatment on my hand (see pic).  The Husband and I participated in the Indian dances, admired the beautitful saris and jewelry the women wore, and ate delicious Indian food.

The wedding last night was absolutely spectacular. In addition to more beautiful saris, delicious Indian food and the chance to see one of my best friends marry a really great guy, was the wedding cake.  Turns out the groom is a huge Transformers fan from his childhood days, so the cake was topped by not a traditional bride and groom, but rather, a transformers head.

After a fun filled weekend and hours of dancing last night, I woke up this morning and had to make an important decision.  Should I motivate to get out of bed, get over to Central park and schmooze with some Bachelors and Bachelorettes from seasons' past?  An organization that Graham Bunn is involved in called 46NYC was hosting a charity Lemonade Stand to raise money for childhood cancer research.  The event was on 59th Street and Broadway, so I put on some semi-fashionable work out clothes, a dab of make up and walked about 45 minutes to get across the park.  I would have made The Husband come with me, but he was already at the bar watching football, so this was out of the question.

Upon arriving there, I was taken aback by how easy it was to go up and talk to any of the Bachelors / Bachelorettes that were there. Most of the people hanging out in Columbus Circle today were tourists or people that had never heard of the show.  I'd say there were about 30 or so people hanging around the stand waiting to take pictures with their favorites.

Some interesting info you may want to know:

1.  Michelle Money is super hot. I suspected this might be the case, but meeting her in person, I was honestly blown away by how pretty she is.  She could easily have gone straight to the Victoria's Secret store and started modeling underwear.  She and Graham are very much still an item.  They were kissing and hanging out together the entire time, getting interviewed and hugging kids who wanted pictures with them.

2.  Ames is actually attractive. I know some of you Bachelorette fans had a thing for Ames. I never saw it before.  I kind of pegged him as kind of an emotionless type, but after watching him from 20 feet away, one flash of his bright white teeth and sparkly blue eyes, and I think he actually is good looking.  He's tall, and a classically handsome fellow.  He may have been wearing some make up, because he seemed very tan and there wasn't an ounce of sweat on him despite it being 80 degrees and humid out.

3.  JP and Ashley were there and very much loving life and each other.  I introduced myself to Ashley, who was TINY - a very petite lady. She had cut her hair and darkened it since her last public appearance.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  We spoke a little while and I learned that Ashley and JP had just moved in to their new place together the previous day.  She finishes dental school in about a month and then will be in New York full time.  We talked running and lunges, and hopefully we'll be hanging in NYC again.

4.  Michael Stagliano was there, and there were lots of women, particularly 40 and 50 year old women who were flocking to him.  He has a great smile and was full of personality.

5.  William also was there, but he was kind of hanging by himself, talking to a bunch of different women, but not really with the rest of the Bachelors/Bachlelorettes there.  At one point I saw him whip out his flip video and take footage of the controlled madness around him at the lemonade stand.

Emily Maynard, Jackie Gordon and a couple of others were expected but it was so hot, and I didn't want to seem like a stalker (even though I kind of am for Bachelor stars) - so I took off.  Anyhow, fun to see them all in person.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

Michael Stagliano hangin' at the 46NYC event

Stacey B