NYC

I made it!

EXPLANATION: When I wrote my last post I honestly didn't think I was going to make it to NYC. Julia was on the phone for hours and hours and there was no ticket for her before Sunday. I had unpacked my bag and decided to get some dinner with Christian. As we were eating Julia calls and tells me that she is going to try to get on a 10:00p.m. flight in Seattle that would put her in NYC around 6:00 a.m. She wouldn't know until 1:00 a.m. my time. I got a call about 12:30 a.m. and she was on the flight! YEAH!!! I hurried and packed my bag...again. I got four hours of sleep and got up, got ready, and caught the Fung Wah bus.

We were so excited to see each other! We wasted no time and made sure the first thing we did was get some "street meat" aka hot dogs! Yummy! We headed to the MET for some wonderful art. That place is amazing! That evening we went to Rockefeller Center and went to the Top of the Rock for an amazing view!


At the Top of The Rock they had what I call "The Alien abduction Room" which was so fun. Every time someone moves the lights follow them and if you get moving crazy then the whole room lights up. Julia and I could not get over how cool this room was, so we entertained the security guards with our dance moves trying to get all the lights in the room to go off! Seriously so much fun!

Good form!

The next morning we wen to China town to break the law and buy designer purses in back rooms. This proved to freak me out quite a bit, but I have never seen Julia happier! She ended up with FIVE bags, 2 watches, 2 scarves and 1 wallet. HELLO! She really could have stayed there all day, but I was not having it. I did leave with one purse and that is it! See Christian, there are others more obsessed with hand bags than me!!!
This is what Julia ended up buying...

Not a bad deal, as each purse was only $25 a piece!
We ditched the loot at the hotel room and then headed to Time Square, it was Broadway time, my favorite part about NY!! We had great seats to A Chorus Line and it was a great show. We had a fabulous time!

We then did the TIME SQUARE exploration. We went to the best toy store ever...TOYS R US, seriously this is the coolest place ever! We also went to the Hershey's Store, and the M&M's store (3 stories of m&m crap!) and just walked around. It was lots of fun!

That night went to a Comedy Club, it was pretty funny! There was one foul mouthed comedian at the end and we had to walk out but other than that we had some good laughs!
Central Park called to us Monday Morning and so we went!

We had a fabulous fun filled trip! It was great! It was wonderful to be able to spend time with Julia laughing and frolicking around the Big Apple.
On the way home I took the Fung Wah bus again. Everything and on the way down was fine. People had warned me to "be careful" because Fung Wah is famous for breaking down. Well, an hour outside of Boston the bus CAUGHT ON FIRE! People were pushing other people down in the aisles to get out of the bus and I had to sit there and laugh at how ridiculous these people were.
Of course my bus would catch on fire, this trip would not have been complete with just a little bit more drama, right? Long story short, I did safely make it home!

So as you can see Christmas Miracles can happen any time of the year indeed!

All my Bags are Packed

I really am ready to go! This weekend was to be the 2nd annual girls trip for Julia and I. The plan was for us to meet up in NYC Friday night and leave Monday afternoon. Last year we did Seattle, this year we thought NYC would be equally as fun.
This morning I woke up to snow, and the weather channel telling me that it was snowing a lot in NYC with a lot of flight cancellations. I had planned to leave early on the Fung Wah bus (only $30 round trip!) to beat the snow, however when I checked Julia's flight it had been CANCELED! Julia was on the phone for hours trying to figure this out, but at long last the earliest she could get into NYC was Sunday @ 3:35p.m. TRIP OVER! We are both very sad as we have had this planned for a year!! I was so excited to see Julia and to have a vacation from work and home and everything, but now I sad.
Mother nature has NOT been kind to me! Instead of letting her have the last laugh I went out and enjoyed the snow. I shoveled two of our elderly neighbors drive ways and played in Charlotte's backyard. Her backyard is great because McDuff can be off his leash and run around and have fun! We had a great time running around, making snow angels and shoveling. It proved to be quite a therapeutic experience. I may cry myself to sleep in my pillow tonight, but I am feeling pretty good for right now.



We are not really sure if or when the make up trip will be happening, but I'll keep you posted. It is hard to get two girls together cheaply who live on opposite coasts. What to do? One thing we do know is there will be no Broadway shows, no Rockefeller ice skating, no MET, no time square, no fun!

Sorry it didn't work out Juls, I love and miss ya!

That is enough depressing news right? Plus I am sure you are thinking I am having a pity party for myself, which I am, but I feel entitled! Enough! On a happier more smiley note, I do have good news!!! I finally met Lisa's one eyed cat Pumpkin(this as good as it gets folks). He tried to attack me a few times while I sat on her couch but other than that, he was pretty decent for a cat.

Here we are having some bonding time.

I like to call him One Eyed Willie!

My Valentine

What I love about my Valentine is....

That life is NEVER dull! He always keeps my laughing and a smile on my face!
I love you funny Valentine!

Beautification

For those of you have known me for more than a year, you are aware that I like to change my hair. This week I was about to commit hair suicide because the cut and color was just no good anymore; I could not handle it any longer! I haven't had short hair for a long time and it just requires a lot more maintenance than long hair. It has to be cut much more often and I am just not used to this yet, nor do I enjoy it. It had gotten to the point where I was no longer having bad hair days but rather bad hair weeks which is completely unacceptable to me. Luckily Liz finally came back from her 4 million year vacation and fit me in to her busy schedule before I had a nervous breakdown. As you can see I went for a lovely rich dark brown color and a fresh cut and I love it! I am a much happier girl.

On a much sadder note, I have been needing to get my eye brows waxed for about 2 months but just have not known were to go and have not had the time to find a place. So Saturday on my walk home from work I found a salon in Porter Square that was open and had only customer (this should have been my first hint, but hey it wasn't like I was trusting them to cut my hair!). So they said they could wax my eye brows and I was stoked, FINALLY, I was able to wipe this off of my list of things to do. The excitement soon faded when as Napoleon Dynamite might say, "My eyes hurt real bad." Why you might ask...take a look!

HORRIBLE WRETCHED CREATURE!

Pay it Forward
Finally, those of you who read the blog get a little reward! Ami blogged about this, and I participated, so now it's my turn. The first three people who comment on my blog will receive a little gift (homemade...maybe) in the mail from me. Then they blog about it and send little gifts and on and on and on. I have already received the fruits of paying it forward, and it is definitely fun to get a little gift in the mail. Just so you know, I have no idea what I'm going to send. It'll probably depend on who comments. But that's the gist of it. Let the games begin!

The Boston Debut

Last night Christian had his first big debut @ Brandeis, it was a nerve racking event for Christian but it turned out great! He wrote a piece titled skewampity_widget which is written for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello. The piece was played by a local group called ECCE and they did a wonderful job and are all very talented performers. You can click on
this link to see the live performance if you are interested, it runs about 10 1/2 minutes. The audio recording of the dress rehearsal is available here as a WAV file (better quality but longer to load) or here as an mp3. Christian recorded them with his handy H4 Zoom recorder. Better quality recordings will be on their way, so hold tight.


After the concert we all had some tasty refreshments with some fellow concert-goers and friends.

It was great to see so many of our friends from the Cambridge 1st Ward come out to see the concert, and for many experience their first new music concert.



Peter is on the left, he is the other Mormon composer at Brandeis. On the right is the all knowledgeable and wise Logan who has some of the most unique facial hair in the city of Cambridge!


Here is Christian with fellow composers and musicologists.

All in all in was a successful and fun night! Christian's piece was awesome just like he is! Congrats babe on a job well done!