First Things First....

You know those movies where they try to do too much and everything seems really chaotic and disjointed? This is one of those posts. We've got a lot of ground to cover, people!

Item One - Cindy's Wedding

My dear friend Cindy got married in December. Our other dear friend Jess couldn't be there, but I promised Jess I would post some pics so that she could see what a gorgeous bride Cindy was. Here we go:


The pictures don't do her justice (mainly because they're so dark). She was a beautiful bride!

Item Two - We are all moved into our house and unpacked! I'd show you pics, but I still need to take some and we've been far too busy shoveling snow this past week for me to feel like it. I will soon. We're loving the house and all the space. I'm cleaner when it's my own house - go figure.

Item Three - Christmas in Ro-cha-cha with my family! Everybody made it out there this year and it was so wonderful to be able to spend so much time with everyone. Now I get to play the proud auntie once again:

I hope my dad's not mad that I included him too, but it's a cute one of Connor and I felt particularly satisfied with the set of John Wayne movies I gave my dad this year for Christmas (which he is holding in the picture). Many moons ago, my family and I were getting ready to go somewhere, and I was told to go downstairs and let dad know we were ready to go. He was watching a John Wayne movie downstairs and I just went over and turned the TV off without a thought. He was extremely indignant and said, "What did you do that for? I wanted to hear what that old Indian had to say!" He can now hear all the wise words from that old Indian and can even rewind them.

The last one isn't the cutest one that I have of Aiden, but he was such a fun playmate while we were back there, and everytime I look at this picture, I just miss him! Anyway, it was a grand old time. We enjoyed every minute of pizza and wings, garbage plates, keeping the boys entertained, Christmas, etc.

Item Four - New Year's! We had a great time with Adam's family once we got back into town. His sister Jenny was able to stay a few days longer so we were able to see her too! We had the best chicken cordon bleu I've ever had and some nice tennis and boxing sessions on the Wii. I won at Scattegories. It's no big deal.

Whew! That was a lot. For those of you who were able to make it through this post, I thank you for your time. After the holiday rush, it's nice to get back to a routine and make some empowering resolutions for the new year. I recently rediscovered Dolly Parton's "Light of the Clear Blue Morning" song. Years ago, I used to listen to it when I needed a pick me up. It's maybe a little cheesy, and something I shouldn't admit to liking but I feel like I could hike Mt Everest whenever I listen to it. It was a good way to start the new year and you should listen to it on youtube or something for a quick fix. I feel no shame. I also like Timbaland's "The Way I Are." It's called being well-rounded - sheesh.

I'm Pregnant!

Just kidding. I'm NOT pregnant. I'm also not quite as skinny as I used to be, but just to set the record straight - no pending babies here, although I do plan regularly to kidnap my brother's baby once he's no longer nursing. You would too if you saw this kid smile. I digress. The real news is.....drumroll.......we bought a house! We're moving in this week! It's so exciting! I can't use enough exclamation points!!!! !!!! !!!! See what I mean!?! Needless to say, we're very happy although now completely debt-ridden. This was us last night after the necessity of buying a fridge and a washer and dryer:



And yes, I do get that dressed up while appliance shopping. You dress for success, you know? On a side note, washing machines are looking more and more like those escape pods on Star Wars. Is there a reason for that? Should I be afraid? I'll post some pictures soon before my sister kills me. I'll also have some other updates. Spoiler alert - on Sunday, Adam and I saw Santa Clause's real mode of transportation. Love to you all!

12-hour work day

Ah, November. I have so many mixed feelings about you. Election day - I felt proud to be able to exercise my right to vote. Veterans Day - another patriotic holiday. Thanksgiving - LOVE it! Spending time with family, having a delicious meal, and did I mention two whole days off of work? I can't wait! On the flip side, this is my busiest month of the year as far as work goes. I've been doing web training sessions with international areas and today, Adam and I left the house at 5 AM so I could be to work by 5:30. I made it on time (no small miracle) and then worked till 5 PM. So, I'm tired and loopy and blaming November as if it's the cause of all my problems. It's not, but have you ever noticed how as soon as November 1st comes around, the number of cloudy days increases exponentially? I have. It's just weird. On top of that, there's the whole you-can-never-count-the-weather thing and the landscape begins to look really dead. I thought of another plus though: Adam and I busted out the hot chocolate on Sunday and have enjoyed a nice comforting late night snack every night since. This was done in spite of the fact that one night, I turned the AC on because it was too hot in our apartment. Like I said, mixed feelings. Maybe it's the lack of sleep.

A year and one day......

So, Yesterday was my one-year wedding anniversary! I really cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by. What did we do to celebrate our anniversary? We had all sorts of grand plans leading up to it, but since we're looking to buy a house and wanting to save our time-off for a trip to see my family at Christmas, we settled for spending Thursday and Friday at a hotel downtown, dinner at the Melting Pot and lots of sentimental speeches interspersed through out the weekend. ("You're pretty. No, you're pretty! And the like...) Can't you just picture us?

In all seriousness, this past year has been so great and so eye-opening, and I mean that in the best sense! I've learned so much about myself, how I communicate, and what it's like to not always do things my way. It hasn't always been easy, especially since both of us were single adults for more than a decade. There were some things that I thought would be difficult to adjust to (sharing a bathroom with a man, etc) that were surprisingly easy. Who knew that the real challenge would be realizing that the fact that we both speak English doesn't mean that we interpret things exactly the same way? ("So when you say that you're upset, that's like my version of slightly annoyed. It doesn't mean that you want to throw your hairbrush?") Some of you don't know Adam very well. Let me tell you what kind of guy he is:

1) The kind who listens, really listens to everything a person says
2) The kind who thinks before he speaks (I don't always do that well)
3) The kind who would buy a book on Mathematics and another about Gandhi in the same trip
4) The kind who loves to cook with me even when it takes until 9:00 to eat because we can't understand the recipe
5) The kind who doesn't realize he has the nose of a Greek god (that's how I describe it anyway) and isn't vain about his glossy brown curls

Hopefully nobody who reads this is dry-heaving. I'm really more of a private a person when it comes to things I feel deeply, but I wanted to at least say this much. He's great and we've been happy and grateful for the miraculous circumstances that led to one year ago (it might be thanks to my grandma Kate - you just never know). For any of you who may want to relive the joyous day:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zundelje

Nooooooooo!

This was going to be my weekend to rest. The long anticipated mornings where I could sleep in. The countless hours of leisure (I'm a leisure addict - I don't know what I'll do when I have children). This was my chance to fully heal from my monster cold (still coughing). What did I get instead? Too few hours of sleep last night, and a sore throat! This better be some slight little blip because I live in a semi-arid region of the United States and not an indication that another virus is preparing to stage a full-fledged attack on my already weakened immune system. What happened to Jedi-knight white blood cells? What about my pioneer constitution? Time will tell, I guess, but as Sunday night draws to a close there is one unhappy camper in my house and her name isn't Adam!

On the upside, we've been enjoying lovely Fall weather, there's plenty of apple cinnamon herbal tea for me to drink and our voter registration cards came in the mail this weekend.

What do you think I should be for Halloween? Seriously.

Last pics from NYC, sickness, and Liam!

So, I got waylaid in my quest to report on my trip to NY. Ravaged by disease is a more accurate description. Some people (ahem, Lis) have teased me in the past for being slightly dramatic when I'm sick. I'm coming to the realization that there might be some truth in this. For example, at the first sign of illness, I go to the grocery store, buy OJ, lots of soup, throat drops, lemons, cold medication, tissues and anything I can think of to help treat symptoms. This time, I was able to send someone else out while I laid on the couch bemoaning my pitiful state. Yes, being married has it's advantages and this is one of them. Poor Adam. I did promise to spoil him rotten after I recovered, which I define as being symptom-free. Since I still have a rather convenient cough, he's still waiting on that promise.....

You'll note that I'm calling him Adam now. My less than clever alias was ruined when, as he pointed out, I forgot to use it in the last post. So, instead of being the simplest form of matter (is that right?), he's a regular old Joe..........except that he's a genius and super awesome.

So, I just don't have the energy to give a real play-by-play of my last day in Manhattan. Suffice it to say, we saved the best for last and spent most of the day in Central Park. It was great! The weather was beautiful! We basked on a blanket in the sunshine for awhile eating a lunch of bread, cheese, fruit and cookies, browsed at a book fair, watched the regular crew of roller skaters as they boogeyed to some music, ate some free Ghirardelli chocolates and roamed around the park. It's nice for these city-dwellers, these pavement junkies, to have their own green space:



I loved those roller skaters! I would have joined them if I could, but I was lacking skates and a cool enough outfit. For those of you who don't get to hang out with my best friend, Liam:

NYC Part Deux

Soooo...day two of my brief sojourn in Manhattan began at around 10:00 in the morning. Luckily, Abby didn't have to go into work for the rest of the weekend which guaranteed that Lis and I could at least be spared countless wasted hours on the subway. Since we weren't able to get tickets to Mary Poppins on Broadway, and we'd already toured one art museum, today was dubbed "wander-around-and-shop" day. We grabbed some pastries for breakfast and our first stop was the CO Bigelow's Apothecary, which was full of fun things like jasmin mint toothpaste and this perfume that I will probably always regret not buying because it had the most heavenly fragrance. I've already tried to look for it - argh!

We then headed over to Union Square, meandering through a Farmer's Market on the way. I bought Adam a t-shirt, we enjoyed sampling apple cider, and slowly made our way to the Strand Bookstore, which is the home of 18 miles of new, used, rare and out-of-print books. Needless to say we enjoyed our time there. My sister would probably disappear in this store never to be found again. For the sake of her children, I won't ever encourage her to go.


As we were walking, I saw this building that had a hole in the middle of it with smoke coming out. I asked Abby what it was and her answer was, "I think it's art, actually." She couldn't remember what the concept was for it so I did some research later and apparently it is called, Metronome. It's a public artwall, and it's supposed to symbolize the intangibility of time. It does seem rather intangible.....

The next stop was another one of Abby's favorite stores - I can't remember the name, but it was chalk full of old-school candy such as atomic fireballs and these "gourmet" lollypops that I remember classmate of mine selling in high school for fundraisers. If I hadn't already indulged in pastries and an order of sweet potato french fries, I probably would have loaded up in the name of nostalgia. I settled for taking a photo.


We eventually ended up eating panini's at a fun restaurant on the lower east side and heading to Soho where some more serious shopping ensued. I've come to a realization that my pictures aren't all that exciting - mainly street scenes in the neighborhoods we went to, but I love all of the different building facades and just the feel of the city as you walk around.


At this point of the day, Lis and I were beat. Our feet weren't as tough as Abby's NY feet, who by the way, walked around in heels while Lis and I wore the most comfortable walking shoes we had. We discussed walking to see the Brooklyn Bridge, which probably would have been really cool to see and in the end called it quits for a siesta back at the apartment to rest up before going to dinner. Abby suggested this Japanese restaurant, Ippudo, where you can get ramen. All this time, I've been thinking that ramen is the cheap food you buy when you're in college! My bowl was (insert Japanese word for delicious, here)!


We capped off our evening by going to a piano bar to meet some of Abby's friends from grad school. Picture, a super crowded bar, with a piano in the middle and tables all around. There were two men and one sassy lady who would alternate serving drinks and singing numbers like, Son of a Preacher Man and Love Will Keep Us Together while the drunken patrons (except us) sang along with them. We sang ourselves hoarse, and I'm quasi-serious about pursuing a career in piano bar singing - I'm pretty sure that my Son of a Preacher Man was better than Natalie's. Just sayin'...