I'm Laughing Inside

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:47:00.009-04:00

After a long, inexcusable period of neglect, I am writing a new blog post! Needless to say, a lot has happened since July, so I'll stick to the big stuff from earlier this week and this weekend.

First off, I was in the Blue Man Group show this week at The Bushnell. No really! See?

This is me at "the feast" with my three new, blue friends. Despite what you might be thinking, this was not a set up. I can see why you would think so, considering I work at The Bushnell and all, but honest to God I had no idea this was coming and neither did anyone else I work with. I was just sitting in my seat, minding my own business, when suddenly all three Blue Men were standing at the end of the aisle...staring at me. I'd seen the show before so I knew what was most likely going to happen next. My inner monologue went a little something like this: "Oh no...ooohhhh no...no! No, not me! No! I work here! It should definitely be someone else...please don't pick me."

But before I knew it one of them was standing right in front of me with his hand extended. So I took it. And he dragged me up on stage. This is when I had a moment of panic.

I was chewing gum.

Why is this a problem, you ask? Because I KNEW this bit involved eating Twinkies. And there was absolutely nowhere for me to spit out my gum. So I did the only thing I could do.

I swallowed it.

The rest of the experience was a bit of a blur. There was lots of laughing by both me and the audience, fun with Twinkies, a Polaroid picture, and a wee bit of grossness...and then it was over and I was back in my seat with a Polaroid, a plastic knife, and a Chinese take-out box full of mushy bananas in hand. What a great, memorable experience. People kept telling me I did a great job as I walked out after the show was over. I couldn't stop smiling.

The other thing I have to share doesn't really have much of a story that goes with it...but quite a few more pictures. Ladies and gentleman...Ginger Snap Root-Beatty in her very first Halloween costume:

Oh my little squishy! I know, I know...she's obviously miserable. And this is an awful, humiliating thing to do to a dog. But isn't she cute???

Here she is taking a little whiff of the camera...

Here she is making an unbearably cute sad puppy face...

An aerial shot...

She's my little sweat pea! Get it???

How can you not just absolutely LOVE that face? She's such a sweet little pup. And tolerant. That's my good little girl. :)

(Don't worry...she's out of the costume now. She happily lounging on the couch next to me right now enjoying a nice nap.)

Happy Halloween!!!

Long Beach Island: Days 1 & 2

2010-07-25T15:52:00.003-04:00

Wow...so much has happened in the past month. Ginger has been growing like a weed (a very cute weed, of course...I'll have to post new pictures soon), we've now been in the new apartment for about a month, work has been crazy, and we've finally arrived at the Long Beach Island I thought would never come. Yesterday my dad, his wife Lisa, my sister Hillary, Shane and I set off in a Volkswagen caravan (Lisa's Passat...I think...wagon and my little Jetta) and approximately 6 ridiculously hot hours later, we were there. Here is a real life picture of the dash in my car at one of the hottest points yesterday...

That right...109. 109?!? I thought I was going to die. But, fortunately, I made it through the day and now here we are...sitting inside waiting for the inevitable thunderstorm that's going to come. Well...that doesn't sound very good...but believe me, it's heaven. I'm at the beginning of a whole week of nothing but relaxation and I'm going to savor every single moment. There will be much book-reading and nap-taking and, while just about everyone else in the house is planning an exercising regularly this week, I plan on doing no such thing. Ahhhh...this is the life!

And while I claimed I was going to blog every day like I usually do while I'm on vacation, I don't think I'm going to do that either. So I apologize to anyone who was looking forward to my exciting daily entires about how we sat on the beach, ate some food, then sat on the beach some more, but I'm going to take this relaxation thing very seriously. I'll try to snap some pics and maybe post a summary entry at the end of the week. Maybe. HA! This is going to be awesome. Week o' relaxation, here I come! Don't be too jealous. ;)

Puppy Love

2010-06-18T21:05:00.008-04:00

Last week I fell in love. And so did Shane. With this...

We did not intend to get a dog on Monday, June 7. Shane and I have been talking about getting a dog for quite some time but we had said we would wait until at least a couple of months after we moved. We had every intention of adopting a shelter dog too. So when our friend and co-worker, Amanda told us there was a very sweet cockapoo puppy at Puppy Center (where her husband's cousin works...I think...right?) we thought we'd just go down and check her out because cockapoos were one of the breeds we were considering. We gave each other a little pep talk before we went (as we've done pretty much every time we've visited Puppy Center) and said "We're not going to be getting this dog. We're just visiting." (Really this pep talk is more for me than it is for Shane...) And then we headed on into the store.

We were not prepared for this...

This little pup was everything Amanda said she would be and more. A very nice girl working at the store couldn't stop telling us about how wonderful this dog is and how she's one of a kind and on and on and on...gushing about this tiny little girl.

But there were so many obstacles we would have to overcome to get a dog right now. First of all, the apartment we're currently living in doesn't allow pets. Second, Shane's roommates did not necessarily want a dog in the house. And third, we were going to be moving in about two weeks and we still had a lot to do before we'd be ready.

But even with all of that working against us, we began scheming about how we could make it work.

(A picture of the little girl playing with Shane.)

Puppy Center said they would hold her for a little while if we paid for her now, we could ask my mom to keep her for us until we moved...we agonized for hours over the decision.

And then we finally came to the decision that we could make it work. She was our dog. We just knew it. And we were going to do whatever we had to do to have her. My mother very graciously agreed to care for her until we moved to our new apartment and we began thinking about what we'd need to do to prepare for her.

But then there was a wonderful twist. Our present roommates were surprisingly ok with our decision to get a dog and said it would be alright if she stayed at the apartment with us. We were thrilled. So we instead changed our plans so that she would stay with us for the most part before the move, and then go to my mom's for the time leading up to the move when we'd really need to focus on packing and wouldn't be able to give her enough attention. While she was with us in West Hartford, we would take turns going home during our lunch break to let her out and feed her.

So we paid for her and gave her a name (that we also agonized over...for days)...Ginger Snap Root-Beatty. And we had our dog. The cutest, sweetest, smartest little pup there ever was.

(A rare moment...taking a little nap on my lap at my mom's house...)

Taking care of her has definitely been challenging. She needs constant attention (and I do mean constant) and all of this is coming at an already stressful point in our lives...but I don't regret the decision one bit. I can't wait to watch her grow and learn new things and just generally become intertwined in our lives. This is the start of something good.

Niagara Road Trip, Day Five: Flowers and Butterflies

2010-05-26T15:18:00.018-04:00

So today is our last day in Niagara Falls. We did get a whole extra day that we didn't plan for, but it still doesn't feel like we've been here long. Today we did some non-Falls-related activities and went to the Floral Showhouse and the Butterfly Conservatory. Lots of pretty pictures were taken! Here are just a few...

Here's a sign for the Floral Showhouse...

A turtle in a little pool inside the Showhouse...

There's a little baby turtle in this picture (though he looks just as big as the larger turtle in the previous picture because the camera is zoomed in)...can you find him?

Here are some of the plants that were growing in the showhouse...

Me in front of a statue in the hydrangea display...

Shane with the hydrangeas....

Another pretty flower...

A cool looking tropical bird (there were others but they were hard to take pictures of)...

And here are some pictures from the Butterfly Conservatory...

A butterfly landed on Shane's shoulder...

...twice...

No butterflies landed on me because I got all flinchy and spastic whenever they got close. I didn't mean to! I just get nervous about bugs...even if they're pretty and I wouldn't mind if they crawled on me.

There were some poisonous frogs on display too...they were in a little aquarium...

After leaving the Butterfly Conservatory we jumped aboard a shuttle and headed back to our hotel to chill out for a while. Later we're planning on going to Johnny Rocket's for an early dinner and then we'll take a stroll over to the big ferris wheel that's supposed to give you a very nice view of the Falls. I am determined not to let my fear of heights get the best of me.

Tomorrow we'll be heading out early to begin the long drive home. It's been a really wonderful vacation...we were so unbelievably lucky at just about every turn! I hope anyone reading has enjoyed the stories and pictures!

Niagara Road Trip, Day Four: Soaked

2010-05-25T18:55:00.013-04:00

Last night before we went to sleep Shane told me not to spend a lot of time on my hair the next morning...and boy am I glad I listened to him. Today we took a ride on the Maid of the Mist and went to Journey Behind the Falls to get an up close view of the Falls. And we got completely soaked. They warn you that you're going to get wet at both of these attractions...they even go so far as to hand out free ponchos...but it's impossible to really understand how drenched you'll get until you experience it. The mist from the Falls can hardly even be considered mist...it's more like rain. And it's so windy and chilly the closer you get...I'm so glad it was a hot day! I can't imagine what the experience would be like in colder weather. Here are some pictures from our day...

A sign pointing us in the right direction...

Me in my stylish, blue Maid of the Mist poncho (just like the ones Jim and Pam from The Office were wearing when they got married on the Maid of the Mist!)...

Shane looking fancy in his poncho...

Me near the U.S. Falls (there aren't any closer than this because it was too windy and there was too much water to take pictures)...

Now this next picture is a scary one. Somehow, Shane got stung by a bee while we were boarding the boat. This was particularly never-wracking because when Shane was little he was ALLERGIC to bee stings. I was so concerned he'd have an allergic reaction that I tried to make him get off the boat before it left the launch but he insisted he'd be fine. And indeed he was. Still...for a while there it was very scary!

Here's a picture of some stairs near the U.S. Falls that we could see from the boat. Look how close you can get! You're practically IN the Falls!

These are the horseshoe shaped Falls on the Canadian side...

Me and Shane aboard the Maid of the Mist...

Before heading over to Journey Behind the Falls we had a very nutritious "lunch" at Tim Hortons (we've been very healthy on this trip)...

Here's us in a tunnel literally behind the Falls in our lovely yellow Journey Behind the Falls ponchos...that's a whole lot of water falling at about 40 mph behind us...

After Journey Behind the Falls we walked up to Clifton Hill where there's a bunch of touristy stuff...souvenir stores, "4-D" movie theaters, wax museums and whatnot. Actually, during our travels around town we have come across at least 4 haunted house attractions. It's completely bizarre. After that we returned to the hotel to wash up then went and had a lovely Italian dinner at a restaurant called Mama Mia's in the casino across the street. Now we planning on chilling out for the rest of the day. AAAhhhhh. And we have another full day here tomorrow instead of going home like we originally planned!

Niagara Road Trip, Day Three: A Perfect Day

2010-05-24T23:04:00.009-04:00

Today really was a perfect day. Despite the fact that most of it was spent driving and I am now completely exhausted, so many wonderful things happened. It started when Shane got an email on his Blackberry saying that the administration at work decided to give us all the day off on Friday so that we'd have a four-day Memorial Day weekend. Shane and I weren't originally planning to take the whole week off...but with Friday off now all we'd have to do is take Thursday. So we both got in touch with our bosses and were both given permission to take Thursday off too. YES. And since we didn't need to be back anymore we decided to add another night to our stay in Niagara Falls. Amazing...

And then, on top of that, we have this completely awesome room to stay in for the next few days. Here's a picture of Shane taking a picture of me through the sliding window things that open up to the whirlpool bath in the bathroom.

Here's a picture of me taking a picture of Shane from inside the bathroom.

Here's just a portion of the breathtaking view from our room...

Here is the other part of the view....

Here's Shane and I looking all fancy before we headed out to our "nice dinner"...

And then after dinner we spent a little time in the casino across the street from our hotel. Normally, I wouldn't be thrilled about this...I don't exactly love it when Shane gambles, though he can, of course, do as he pleases...but he won $155 Canadian tonight (about $145 in US currency)!

We ended the evening watching the Victoria Day fireworks over the falls from the comfort of our hotel room. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing and I don't think we could have possibly planned it any better. :)

Niagara Road Trip, Day Two: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2010-05-23T15:42:00.019-04:00

Despite a forecast for rain, today has turned out to be a beautiful day! The hotel advertised a daily free continental breakfast so we started our day at a time we considered relatively early (we were headed out the door by 9:30 a.m....here's us looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed)...

but were apparently too late for said breakfast which ended promptly at...9:30 a.m. So we wound up having a very healthy breakfast from the McDonald's adjacent to the hotel. Mmmm...greasy...

We then headed out on our voyage to the glorious Baseball Hall of Fame. Here is where we parked (picture taken of Shane's Blackberry so that we'd remember the location)...

And here is the Baseball Hall of Fame (a lovely couple from out West somewhere took this picture for us...Angels fans, just in case anyone was curious)...

The Hall of Fame contained all sorts of wonderful baseball relics...here are just a few of the SEVERAL pictures that Shane took while we were there. This first one is of Babe Ruth's locker...

The is the most expensive and rare baseball card out there (it's worth about $3 million)...

This is a locker full of more recent Yankees stuff (Alex Rodriguez's batting helmet, CC Sabathia's shoes...which are gigantic, the batting gloves Derek Jeter was wearing when he broke the record for career hits as a Yankee, etc.)...

Here is a picture of Shane in Hank Aaron's locker...

And the piece de resistance...only appearing this very weekend at the Hall of Fame...the Yankees' 2009 World Series Trophy...

Ooooo...shiny. Here's a picture of Shane with the trophy...

Here's a picture of me with the trophy (the 3rd attempt...I blinked in the first two)...

Then, surprise of surprises, we ran into Don Mattingly and Derek Jeter! Right in the actual hall of fame where all of the plaques are hung!

Boy, did they look different in person. Shane also took several pictures of the plaques for different players...so I chose one to include in my blog. For your viewing pleasure, the Babe's Hall of Fame plaque.

After that we took a short spin around the gift shop...looked at all the overpriced merchandise ($100 sweatshirts and whatnot)...and then that was that. Doing all of this actually took a lot less time than we thought it would, so we went and grabbed a couple of hot dogs and pondered what we'd do next...

Here's me sipping my lunchtime root beer...

Here's Shane being Shane...

We couldn't really come up with anything else good to do (there's not really a whole lot going on in Cooperstown, NY) so we decided to take a leisurely walk down to Otsego Lake and sit on a bench for a while. Here's a picture of us at the lake...

It was really very nice and relaxing. We then decided we wanted to try to go feed some deer at a place where they said you could do so...but for the life of us, we couldn't find it. So after driving around for a little while, we decided to return to the hotel to relax a bit and then we'll head out to dinner before, you guessed it, watching the 2.5 hour series finale of LOST. Not an action-packed day by any means but it's been relaxing and the weather has been nice so I'm happy.

Tomorrow we embark on the second half of our trip to Niagara Falls! We're actually staying on the Canadian side of the Falls so a trip across the border is in order. I'm wondering if my GPS is actually going to work in Canada...hmmm...well, it'll be an adventure!

Niagara Road Trip, Day One: Going Underground

2010-05-22T15:40:00.017-04:00

Vacation! Vacation, vacation, vacation...VACATION! I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time. I needed it. And my brain is pretty fried at the moment due to travel and the yucky headache I have at the moment, so bare with me...this entry may be all over the place.

Several months ago Shane and I decided we wanted to go on a little road trip again but this time we'd be heading North instead of South (like we did last year when we went to Washington D.C.). We planned to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and then head on up to Niagara Falls. It's been a long road between then and now but we made it and we're on the road once again! Enjoy the photos from the first leg of our trip below...which included a stop at Howe Caverns...these awesome underground caves in New York.

As you can see, we're clearly elated...

Halfway the drive to Howe Caverns, our friend Snoopy decided to ride up front with me.

Before long we reached Howe Caverns...

Even though it's warm out we had to come equipped with jackets because it's only about 52 degrees in the caverns. By the end of our spelunking my nose was actually running because of the cold. Here's a lovely picture Shane took of a wall with several different colors of calcite on it. We had one of those touristy picture-in-a-cardboard-frame pictures taken in front of this wall. They took the picture without an obligation to buy it...but I liked it so we did. I'm such a sucker.

Here's our very own version of a picture of us in the caverns...no cardboard frame necessary...

Here's me at "the bridal alter," which is an area where they actually perform wedding ceremonies underground. The slab in the floor that I'm standing on is a heart shape that was cut out of the rock. Legend says that if a single person stands on the heart, they'll be married within a year. I couldn't push the little kids out of the way fast enough. HA! ;)

(Those kids were quite annoying too...middle school aged boys from the looks of things. You can see one in the background of the picture above. There wasn't a moment that went by without them making ridiculous amounts of noise. And their chaperons were hardly doing anything about it. Sheesh...)

And here is the last part...I think it was called "the winding way" or something like that. It was a super narrow passage way through the rock. Very high...but very...very...narrow. Surprisingly, little old claustrophobic me did not have a complete mental breakdown. Shane was reassuring me almost the entire time though...

(Photos courtesy of Shane and his brand-spanking-new camera. Lovely.)

After leaving the caverns we drove about an hour through the upstate New York countryside (and believe me...that's all there is up here), saw several cows and horses, and are now resting up at the hotel before heading out to see Iron Man 2. :) Tomorrow we're on to the Baseball Hall of Fame...and who knows what else!

Our First Place!

2010-05-16T17:34:00.002-04:00

So it's official...Shane and I now have our very first place together. :) This week we went and looked at an apartment in a historic house in Portland, unexpectedly fell in love with it (we were very skeptical about it going in...for some reason we thought there'd be a shared bathroom...which, thankfully, there isn't), met with the realtor handling applications for the landlord, and were selected as the new tenants by the end of the week. It all happened so fast but I couldn't be happier. I can't stop talking about it! There's a washer and dryer IN UNIT, an adorable fireplace in the bedroom (though I'm not sure if it works or not yet), those charming details that come with old houses, original hardwood floors in the kitchen and bedroom, a shared front porch and a back porch, it's pet friendly (can't wait to get a dog!)....AND DID I MENTION IT HAS A WASHER AND DRYER IN UNIT??? Who knew I'd ever be so excited about appliances? The only drawbacks are that it's somewhat small, so we'll need to be creative about storage, and there isn't a dishwasher. In my opinion, these are not big drawbacks. Now I just want to hurry up and move already so I can get settled again! Waiting until the end of June is going to be hard...but I'm hoping the time will fly by. SO EXCITED! I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

And I'm sure you'll all be excited to hear that Shane and I are going to be going on a little vacation next week so I'll be sure to do my daily travel postings as I do whenever I take a trip. Our destination? Howe Caverns, Cooperstown, NY to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and then on to Niagara Falls! I've never been to any of these places so I'm very excited. Not to mention I'm in serious need of a vacation after 3 very busy months at work. So much awesomeness going on I can hardly contain myself! EEEEEE!!!!!

My Life in Boxes

2010-04-18T19:20:00.003-04:00

If there's one thing I've learned from the moving process it's this: I have WAY too much stuff. Boxes and bins of my things are slowly beginning to fill the spare room in Shane's apartment and I'm not even done yet. The pictured boxes do NOT include several of my kitchen items (at least two more full boxes), more than half of my wardrobe, or any of my furniture.

But why am I moving you ask? Shane and I have been talking about moving in together for some time now, so there's that piece of the pie. But why am I moving now...into Shane's current apartment with Shane's other two (male) roommates? That's a little more tricky. You see the people that own the house I was renting with MY roommates would like to move back into said house. And they'd like to start work on the house in May. BUT Shane and I can't get our own place yet because his lease isn't up until the end of June. Thus, I am moving into Shane's apartment (rented house, really) for two months...and then I have to move again. Damn.

So this is what brings me to the conclusion that I have too much stuff. Having to move all of one's belongings twice within a couple of months makes one seriously reconsider hanging on to the accumulated crap of an entire lifetime. I have a serious pack-rat problem but I'm usually pretty organized about it so I never saw a problem with it...until now.

Not all of this stuff will be coming with me to my future home. I'm am DETERMINED to get rid of some of it. I do not need to keep every single item that was ever given to me...I do NOT need to keep every single item that was ever given to me...

I Stink...Big Time

2010-01-31T16:32:00.003-05:00

It has been several months since I've blogged and I don't have a good excuse as to why I've been so lazy about my writing. I do, however, have a very lame excuse. Way back when I started this blog a certain someone (::cough::SHANE::cough cough::) said that interesting blogs have pictures. And I certainly did NOT want to have a boring blog so I determined I would not blog unless I had some kind of pictures to go with it.

But the thing is...it is a big fat pain in the rear end to upload pictures for a blog. Or at least for me it is. Getting the pictures onto my computer isn't hard but actually getting them into the blog? That's a challenge. It's time consuming and, frankly, I don't have that kind of time.

So, if it's alright with you all (the small hand full of folks that at least USED to read my blog) I'm going to attempt to blog more often...but there may only occasionally be pictures. Who knows if that will actually encourage me to write more often...but it's worth a shot.

So enough with the excuses and on to what's new in life. The most interesting thing of late is probably that I've joined a gym. Yes, really. I've never really been particularly strong or had much in the way of endurance...but I've decided to work on it. Shane has joined up too (Planet Fitness...it's only 10-freaking-bucks a month!) so I'm hoping that will help me stay motivated. Although at this very moment I'm sitting here on my ass writing a blog fully decked out in my gym attire while Shane is sitting at his desk (most likely looking at Reddit...or however it's spelled) putting off going to the gym. And after a string of going almost every day...I haven't gone in the last three. Uh oh. I must go tonight...I MUST!

So with that...I'm going to try to get my butt in gear. I hope I still have some readers out there...I hope I hope I hope!

Quarter Century

2009-09-10T19:55:00.023-04:00

So, pretty much I suck at blogging. It has been over a month since my last post. I am such a bum. The funny thing is that it's not because I don't have things to write about. It's actually more because I have too many things to write about...so many that I'm spending all my time out doing the things and no time writing about them. It's a happy sort of problem.

ANYWAY, now that my unforgivably long absence from blogger has been addressed, on to the wonderful and lovely things that I have to share! First of all, since my last post I have turned 25 years old. I never really thought of this as being a big deal until people started saying things like, "Wow! A milestone birthday! You're a quarter of a century old now!" It's not that I feel old. I just feel like I'm in limbo. Being in your mid-twenties is such a weird thing. You feel too old for some things and too young for others and it's all very confusing. Well, it is for me at least. I suppose I can't speak for 25-year-olds the world over. I still feel very much like the same old Audrey, but at the same time so much has changed. My friends are all getting married off and having babies. My health isn't what it used to be (this is one of the things I feel too young for). My "little" cousins are graduating high school...and college. When did life suddenly become so...real? I'm doing a terrible job of describing what I mean...but I still hope you get it.

But aside for the mind-bending soul-searching I've been doing, I did some really fun stuff to celebrate my birthday. I went to Watch Hill with my Dad, Lisa, Hillary and Shane the weekend before my birthday, Shane brought me out for a truly awesome dinner at Barcelona on my birthday, and I went to Block Island with my mom, aunts, Hillary, and Shane the weekend after my birthday. So much fun.

Here is a picture of Shane and I at Watch Hill (Shane at the beach?!??! WHAT?!?!?)...

Then a couple weeks later Shane and I went on a wondrous journey into the woods of Burlington, CT.

This was, far and away, the most challenging hike I have ever been on. There was lots of climbing up steep rocks and some trudging through undergrowth. And while I would love to say we navigated our way through the forest without the assistance of a trail, it would be a flat out lie. Though there were a few times where we couldn't seem to find the next tree with a blue paint square on it and we had to do some back tracking. Adventure! We even saw some frogs and...a SNAKE! GASP! Fortunately we both managed to not get eaten by bears and eventually made it back to the car safely. Here is a picture of Shane resting after we climbed up a bunch of rocks.

Here is a picture of me at the top of one of the rock...things we had to climb.

Here is Shane climbing up one of the many places where I stopped and said "Really? The trail can't possibly be leading straight up those rocks..."

Bravely standing at the edge of a "cliff"...

Another one of the places where I said something along the lines of "You're kidding...right?"

Here's a picture of the sign that was at the juncture of two paths.

Here's me in front of the "Tory Den"...the goal destination of our voyage. Some guy nicknamed "the leather man" lived in this little cave and lived off the land years and years ago. I'm sure there's much more to the story but that's all I can remember off the top of my head. He sounded kind of like a serial killer in hiding to me. Could make for a pretty scary horror movie, don't you think? Beware the leather man...

(I find it odd that I seem to have mysteriously lost my dramatic flare for posing for photographs in the pictures Shane took of me. It is very unlike me to just stand for a photo with my arms at my sides. It won't happen again.)

THEN last night we went to a Yankees game in the big city! Shane bought me my very first Yankees baseball cap and I was very happy (see picture below).

It was the first time I'd been to the new stadium so I was very excited. And the experience definitely lived up to my expectations. I can say, without exaggerating, that I had more fun than I've ever had at a sporting event. The game couldn't have been better. After a rough start the Yankees won the game and I got to witness baseball history! Derek Jeter made his 2,721 hit last night which ties Lou Gehrig's record!

The excitement that spread through the stadium was absolutely palpable. I hate crowds but for that moment I actually felt a real, human connection with the thousands of other people that were there. It was amazing. Here's a picture of Derek acknowledging the crowd, which was standing and cheering as loud as humanly possible for him.

The top three hit leaders...

Derek's mommy and daddy...

A self-explanatory picture...

But the funny thing is...I almost missed it completely. Right at the beginning of this inning I very stupidly got up to use the bathroom. Even more stupidly I then took my sweet time getting back to our seats. Only when I heard the crowd begin to get rowdy did I realize what I was potentially missing. I sprinted up the stairs to our seating section to see Derek at the plate. I looked up towards Shane trying to figure out what to do and saw him looking down at me with this "EEEE!!! GET UP HERE!!!" kind of look on his face. I wanted to be with him so badly when Derek made the hit. Call it silly, but I've actually been getting into watching the games lately and so this meant a lot. I looked down at the field. I looked at Shane. No sooner did I turn to make the ascent to our seats did I heard the crack of the bat, the crowd roar, and then turned around to see the ball bouncing it's way out to right field. Something like this could only happen to me. I laugh about it now but at the time I though my heart was absolutely going to break. I wouldn't say I really "missed" it...but I sort of only half saw it. Either way it was completely amazing and I had a wonderful time. What a great GREAT game. I feel so lucky to have been there. (Thank you, Shane. <3)

Here's a picture of me hoping Derek's next (and final) at bat will yield the record-breaking hit...

Here's Derek at bat...

Derek getting walked by the Tampa Bay pitcher is not pictured. Damn. I'll say it again though, what an awesome game overall. A year ago I never would've guessed I'd care so much about a baseball game. Who'd have thunk?

And after a solid hour of writing and uploading pictures, I'm going to go to bed. I now remember why I don't write these often...it freaking takes me FOREVER! I need to allow myself to write entries that aren't so...epic.

Whatever You Do...Don't Go to the Bathroom

2009-07-24T20:23:00.003-04:00

After a characteristically long gap, I am now back on the blog! Did ya miss me?

And boy do I have a story for you. Shane and I had a lovely date night scheduled last night - we planned to go out to dinner at the new-ish Japanese noodle place on Pratt Street called Tanuki and see the show THWAK! at Hartford Stage.

Everything was going along very smoothly and we were having a lovely time. The noodle place was fun and the food was good. We also had one of my FAVORITE desserts there. It's called mochi ice cream and at Tanuki they serve it creme brule style with caramelized sugar on top. It's hard to explain and, in all honesty, I like regular mochi ice cream better...but it was still very good!

So then we headed over to the theater for the show. We didn't know where our seats were (don't ask) so when an usher guided us to the cabaret style seating right in front of the stage...and then to the table that was smack dab in the middle of the first row...well, needless to say, we were very surprised. A little while after we got there a very nice couple joined us at our table and we made small talk and sipped drinks while we waited for the 90 minute, intermissionless show to start.

I think you may see where this is going...

A little over 3/4 of the way through the show I noticed Shane had stopped laughing...which was odd because the show was very funny (you should really watch the clips on the Hartford Stage's website...the show is there until August 2!!! ::shameless plug on behalf of my Greater Hartford arts comrades::). I turned to look at him to see if something was wrong and he had a very concerned look on his face. I asked him if something was wrong and he whispered to me the three most dreaded words one could possibly udder while being seated in the front row, dead center, at an intermissionless show..."I have to pee."

Now one might think, "What's the big deal? Just get up and go to the bathroom." Under normal circumstances, even though it's somewhat gauche, this is acceptable. But we knew better. Earlier in the show a woman who was also seated near the front of the cabaret area got up to use the restroom. IMMEDIATELY one of the actors began screaming, "GET OUT!!!! GET OUUUTTT!!!!" and the two launched into merciless taunting (much in the same way stand-up comedians do if you get up in the middle of a show...this show had a similar feel to something like that). It was very funny....but it also made you think "thank GOD that wasn't me!"

So now fast forward to Shane's predicament. He has to use the men's room and we're not sure how much longer the show is. Like a trooper, he tried to stick it out for as long as he possibly could. But just when I saw beads of sweat forming on his brow and a look on his face that made me think he was going to be sick he said "That's it...I'm not gonna make it," got up and walked out. He received some mild taunting but when he didn't respond one of the actors just said, "he doesn't give a shit, does he?" So true...so true. ;)

About 5 minutes later the show was over. Damn. But no matter...we both agreed we had a wonderful time in spite of the jeering.

So the moral of the story? If you're going to see a 90 minute, intermissionless comedy-type show...go potty before it starts or you may just get some unwanted attention.

The Little Things

2009-07-09T19:07:00.002-04:00

I promise this story has a point...bear with me.

As many people know, Shane and I have been doing our best NOT to buy lunch at work every day. And we've been doing a pretty good job! For at least a few weeks we've been making each other peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day and saving our pennies as best we can. But as time went on those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches got so old I could barely stomach them anymore. Using chunky peanut butter helped change things up a bit for a little while...but soon I wanted to gag when I even THOUGHT about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

So we decided to make a change once again and bought some cold cuts and cheese last night. I made a couple sandwiches and brought them into work for us.

My God. I swear to you it tasted like the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my entire life. It had been so long since I had cold cuts straight from the deli...not from Subway or Quiznos or Blimpie. And we got rolls instead of regular bread...mmmmm. When I was done with it I wished it wasn't over.

It just goes to show what a deep appreciation one develops for the little things in life when one is deprived of those things. Ever since I've really buckled down...like really REALLY...and started desperately trying to save money so that I don't go completely broke my appreciation for so many things has deepened. Anything new...new clothes, shoes, or whatever. I rarely go shopping now so when I do, it's like a special treat. Money itself...when I'm able to get a deal on something and not spend so much money it's like a huge victory. And of course...lunch meat.

*Picture borrowed from the Internets. Thank you, Internets.*

Glorious. I am oh so grateful for those little things in life. They bring me such joy.

I Will Try to Fix You

2009-07-05T15:58:00.005-04:00

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

~ Coldplay, "Fix You"~

Today I went to my mom's house to pick up some things I'd left there and gradually try to chip away at the clutter that accumulated in my bedroom there over the better portion of my life. When I was there I came across some letters from an old friend that I'd received in my early teen years and I became completely overwhelmed with a feeling of time passed...in that moment I remembered so clearly the person that I was then and how dramatically different I am now. It blows my mind.

It made me think of all the beautiful and painful things that have formed who I am today...all the things I thought I'd never let go of or never get over that, in time, I was indeed able to leave in my past and move on to a surely better and brighter future.

And as I was listening to the song mentioned above while I drove home I felt sort of a bursting in my heart that I can't quite explain. I felt a new resolution to continue to grow from the mistakes of my more recent past and allow those mistakes to, in fact, be in the past and not so much a part of the present. Each passing moment presents the opportunity to embrace life in a new and different way...shaking free the weight on my shoulders that I choose to carry around, if only for the moment, and then choosing to take a route of optimism and growth. Yea, sure...adolescence is a time of dramatic change and development...but for me at least, I don't think it ever stopped. Self discovery continues on.

That was my 4th of July weekend epiphany. A little sunshine can do WONDERS for the optimist in me. :)

DC, Day Five: Audrey and Shane Go to White Castle

2009-06-24T21:40:00.013-04:00

One would normally think a travel day, such as today, would not be a very eventful one. Packing up, checking out, six hours of driving with a rest stop or two mixed in...not very exciting. But I don't think Shane and I have ever been about doing things the easy way...whether we mean for it to be that way or not. So we, of course, planned things for the day of our trip home. I don't think either of us thought that would be a big deal...and it probably wouldn't have been...but we both ran into some major minor disappointments (and I do mean major minor...that is not a typo).

First off we went for a delicious breakfast cupcake at the highly anticipated Georgetown Cupcake.

We were able to score a street parking spot within a block of the little cupcake bakery and blissfully trotted on in.

Look at all the pretty cupcakes...

Ooooo....aaaaahhhhh... We then ordered two cupcakes each. I wanted a red velvet and a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting (two of my favorite cupcake flavors) and Shane wanted a red velvet and a lemon berry cupcake. I was so extremely excited...I had been looking forward to this for the entirty of the trip. It's absurd my enthusiasm about cupcakes. But while the lovely folks behind the counter were packing our cupcakes into this cute little box I noticed something...

They had given us a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting instead of chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting...view the cupcake in question at the bottom left of the picture below.

Now normally I would be a rational human being about this and just accept the mistake and go along my merry way. But I was so exhausted this morning and I had hyped this all up so much in my mind that this was just unacceptable. I didn't know what to do with myself...I didn't feel like I could tell them they'd made a mistake because it was pretty busy in the store but I really really wanted the cupcake I'd had in mind. It was a big difference! This was my major minor disappointment of the day.

BUT Shane, being the true gentleman that he is, went back in and purchased an additional cupcake...this time with chocolate cake and vanilla frosting. My hero. ;)

After Shane returned triumphant with the additional cupcake we sat in the car and enjoyed the spoils of our victory...

No, we didn't eat two cupcakes in one sitting...we each only had one for the time being.

We then hit the road again...heading north towards home...and White Castle.

It had been the plan all along to go to Sonic on the ride down to DC and White Castle on the way back up to CT...so that was no big deal. But sometime about halfway through NJ we hit the nasty, rainy weather we had just begun to forget about. Ew.

No matter though...we made our way through the torrential rain to a White Castle somewhere in one of the lovelier parts of NJ (imagine me saying that dripping with sarcasm) and ordered up some grub. Between the two of us...10 sliders, 2 orders of onion rings, and 2 soft drinks.

Brace yourselves...it is now, unfortunately, time for Shane's major minor disappointment of the day.

It's probably no surprise that Shane was looking forward to this side trip a bit more than I was...and the little burgers had been hyped up so much (just as my cupcakes had been hyped up for me). But when we went to dig in Shane discovered each and every one of our 10 sliders had ketchup on them. And if you don't already know, Shane hates ketchup. I felt so horrible I wanted very badly to go purchase some more without ketchup, but he wouldn't let me. He pulled himself up by the bootstraps, picked some that didn't have AS much ketchup, and ate them anyway.

In dealing with today's major minor disappointments, I do have to admit that Shane handled himself a bit better than me. I have no doubt that he will remind me of this often.

In the end we both agreed on one thing though...ketchup or no, the famed little sliders weren't as good as we hoped they'd be. The meat was a little like shoe leather and they were very soggy. Definitely no better than a burger from McDonald's. The only real novelty was that they were tiny...which was kind of fun. We made a White Castle castle out of the little burger cartons...

We then proceeded to get stuck in horrendous traffic because we forget to take a detour around the George Washington bridge...in the middle of which I got severe indegestition due to our interesting meal choices earlier in the day. Oops. Something I probably should have foreseen but it didn't really wind up being a big deal...we both made it back home safe and sound.

And despite the little hiccups on the way home today...I can say I had a truly amazing time. We had a whole lot of fun together and I think we made a lot of really great memories...including the ones we made today under slightly less than great circumstances.. This trip will keep a smile on my face for quite some time. I can't wait to see where we go next. :)

DC, Day Three and Four: We're Alive

2009-06-23T20:55:00.020-04:00

A note right off the bat: I apologize to anyone who worried about Shane and my safety because I did not blog yesterday after the horrible metro collision down here in DC. We actually didn't even know about it until fairly late in the evening when we came back to our hotel room and I realized I had a bunch of concerned text messages from various people and a missed call from my dad. The really creepy thing is that we were on the red train earlier that day...we never went through the area where the accident was...but still, it was enough to give me a chill. Needless to say, my thoughts and prayers are with all who were involved and the families of the 6 people that died. Truly horrific.

Other than that we've really enjoyed ourselves the past couple of days. We did go to the zoo and our nice dinner yesterday but we didn't make it to Georgetown Cupcake...yet. We plan on going tomorrow before we hit the road instead.

Today we hit three of the Smithsonian Museums - Air and Space (again), Natural History (again), and American History. We are BEAT. It's been pretty crazy but it's also been really fun. However I may need a vacation to recover from my vacation...

On to the pics!

On Monday morning we had a delicious McDonald's breakfast...mmmmm...it was so good my arteries were clapping.

Then we went over to the zoo.

We saw gazelles...

...zebras...

...a great panda (yes, we saw a real one too...not just this statue)...

...a TON of flamingos...

...some pretty peacocks...

...and many many other animals.

Then we got all fancy and went to dinner at a restaurant called Proof after taking a stroll through the National Portrait Gallery (which was very cool).

It was sooooo good...the wine was delicious and the food was excellent. Couldn't have asked for a nicer night out.

Then this morning we went over to the Air and Space Museum to see a show in the planetarium. It was a lot of fun because it'd been a long time since either of us had been to a planetarium...but I didn't taken any pictures while we were at the museum. We'd already been there so we didn't stay long before heading out.

We started walking to get lunch and took a detour through the sculpture garden next to the National Gallery of Art.

(Believe it those pics of Shane and I separately were not posed. We're just excellent photographers.)

Then after we got lunch we went over to the Museum of Natural History.

Shane next to some creatures that are (or were) actually taller than him...

We also saw the Hope Diamond while we were at this museum but...once again...I didn't take any pictures. It's very big and very sparkly...take my word for it.

After that we went over to the American History Museum which I actually think was my favorite of the three we visited today. I didn't even take any pictures while I was there I was so absorbed! We got to see the original star spangled banner while we were there which was actually an amazing sight. It was in a low light area to prevent any further fading or damage from light and it was HUGE. The original flag was in the neighborhood of 35'x40'...but it's now closer to a square shape because of the tests of time. And they actually flew that huge thing! It's the very flag Francis Scott Key saw in the distance that inspired the song "The Star Spangled Banner." And seeing it in person was truly inspiring. Another favorite part of this museum was the photos of the 2009 inauguration.

I've said it once but I'll say it again...I'm BEAT! Now time for some relaxation and sleep...tomorrow there will be cupcakes, White Castle, and lots and lots of driving.

DC, Day Two: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2009-06-21T21:37:00.015-04:00

First off I have to say that I am incredibly tired right now so the narrative of this particular blog is going to be brief. I apologize if this is upsetting to anyone.

Today was jam-packed with activity. We got up, got a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to the metro to go down to see the Nationals game. Here is Shane waiting for the metro in, what I thought, was a pretty cool looking station. At the very least it was clean...for public transportation.

Then we got to the field...

The stadium was incredibly nice. It's essentially brand new. However, the Nationals have some very odd mascots...

These are "the running Presidents"...I'm not really sure what their point is. The Nationals also have a normal type of mascot...Screech the bald eagle. Why they need these scary President type things as well is beyond me. Shane insisted I have my picture take with Lincoln.

As you can see in the picture I was rather uncomfortable about this. I found him very scary and I did not want him to touch me. Lincoln, that is. Not Shane.

Our seats were incredible...even better than Shane thought they'd be. Here is the view from where we were sitting.

It was around this time that we were both good children and dutifully called our fathers on Fathers' Day. Yes, we remembered.

And then we took the obligatory "at arms length" picture.

Awwww.

A surprise bonus...today's game turned out to be one of those free stuff games. We each walked away with one of these Geico duffel bags.

The game was a lot of fun. As expected, the Nationals lost, but it didn't rain at all even though the sky looked ominous at times and it wasn't oppressively hot either.

This evening we had plans to see Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian in the IMAX at the Air & Space Museum...so after the game we went straight there.

We picked up the tickets at will call and then poked around inside the museum for a bit since the movie wasn't for another couple of hours.

Here is Shane playing in the museum:

Here is me playing in the museum:

Here are the two of us in front of the lunar module:

It was shortly after this that we realized the movie we were seeing was not at the Air & Space IMAX...it was at the Museum of Natural History IMAX. Why the lady who gave us our tickets didn't tell us that is beyond me. We had about 20 minutes to get over to the other museum so we speed-walked across the Mall and managed to make it with plenty of time to spare. It was a very cute movie but we both agreed it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if we'd seen it anywhere other than in DC...in a Smithsonian museum.

And so ended a busy day. We've got the zoo, Georgetown Cupcake (hurray!), and our nice dinner tomorrow. It may be a small miracle if I actually manage to blog tomorrow night.

DC, Day One: Accepting That We Are Tourists

2009-06-20T21:49:00.025-04:00

Shane and I are at the end of a very very long day one here in DC. The drive down was relatively uneventful aside from the fact that we almost didn't find our way out of New Jersey along with the occasional torrential downpour...but by the time we actually got into the city the weather was warm and beautiful, albeit a bit humid. Here are some of today's highlights...

On the way down we planned a stop at the ever illusive Sonic. There are commercials for this mysterious fast food chain in the CT area but there aren't any that are actually close by so we were determined to partake in what we've only heard was incredibly good, quick eats while we could.

Here is the drive-up menu. When you're ready to order you push the little red button that can be seen at the bottom left of this picture. Someone eventually takes your order in a similar fashion to a drive-THRU.

BUT instead of driving up to a window and taking your food away, someone actually comes out to your car and brings you your food. What a novel idea! However, much to our disappointment, we only saw one server on roller skates.

The food was alright...Shane got a chili cheese "coney" (a.k.a. hot dog) and some popcorn chicken and I got a grilled chicken sandwich and some tater tots. I think he enjoyed his food a lot but mine was really only on par with McDonald's...although the tots were very good. We also each got a cherry limeade which was, in my opinion, the highlight of the meal. Mmmm...

This is a picture that Shane took of the people in the car next to us. He was attempting to get a picture of the guy in the driver's seat eating his hot dog.

Here is me with my tots.

Shortly after eating we switched drivers (I drove for the first part of the trip). Here is Shane driving my car...

Before long we were in our nation's capitol and driving around trying to find a place to park. While driving around Shane kept grumbling about the tourists crossing the road at inconvenient times (mainly when we needed to quickly make a turn) and I kept reminding him that we are, in fact, tourists ourselves. This is something that I don't think really settled well with either of us. I mean...who really WANTS to come across as a tourist. Not us, that's for sure.

Which is why the sign we discovered on our hotel was particularly humorous...

You can't really tell in this pic but it says "Hotel Harrington: Washington's Tourist Hotel."

Uh oh...they're on to us.

We were both pretty tired and achy from being in the car for 6+ hours so we collapsed in the room for a little while as we tried to figure out what to do for dinner.

And I forced Shane to take the first of many "at arms length" portraits of the two of us.

Not bad...not bad at all. We finally decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner which happened to be about one block down from the hotel...I had requested we go there purely for nostalgia's sake because it's one of the few things I remember from my first DC trip around the time I was 10 (if my family is reading this I have only one thing to say to you...boy scouts).

Then we started our walk over to "the mall" to see the White House, Washington Monument, etc. On the way over there we caught a glimpse of the Capitol Building in the distance.

And then we saw Barack's house.

And then we took pictures in front of the Washington Monument...which is so much bigger than these pictures suggest. Also for some reason Shane looks normal size in his picture and I look like a miniature version of myself. I'm not actually half Shane's height. The pictures are a bit dark in the foreground...oops...

Then we headed down toward the Lincoln Memorial alongside the reflecting pool which was actually in pretty sad shape, as you can see in the picture below. The water was oddly low and dirty looking.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is right next to the reflecting pool so we took a quick detour over there. This memorial is really very striking in person. There are so many names on that wall it's staggering...

Finally we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial and ascended the steps to see our 16th president.

And I got to stand where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood when he made his "I have a dream" speech.

Here is a picture of me with Mr. Lincoln...

And then the second of the forced pictures...

Before heading back towards the hotel to get some ice cream and turn in we stopped by the Korean War Memorial...which I'd never seen before.

The looks on the statues faces were truly haunting.

And now, my friends, I am completely exhausted. I've probably made lots of grammatical errors but in the interest of going to bed, I am not proof reading. Baseball and IMAX tomorrow...goodnight!

Babies, Cheesecake, and Love

2009-06-14T19:37:00.003-04:00

SO I decided to delete my last post. I've never done that before but I decided it was just negative blah-di-blah-blah about a whole lot of nothing so away it went. Onward and upward!

This weekend has been truly great. It started off Friday night when Shane and I went on a triple date The Cheesecake Factory with my friends Kathy, Brandt, Carrye and Jeff.

The one pictured above is not the one we went to but I wanted to include a visual to make things more interesting. The funny thing about this triple date in particular is that the other two couples were both married...and having babies. Now before I say anything else I should say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. I'm very happy for both of them and it was a joy to spend the evening with them. But in such circumstances one can't help but make note of it.

ANYWAY one highlight of the evening was that I got to actually FEEL Charlotte...my friend Carrye's baby. She's due in about a month so, as you can imagine, there are a lot of people asking to touch her belly (or sometimes not asking, from what I hear). I didn't want to impose so I didn't ask, but I also said I wouldn't mind it. So a little while after that she grabbed my hand and put it right on the left side of her belly. A few moments later I felt one of the coolest things I've ever felt in my entire life...it felt like a little round wave against the palm of my hand. My heart couldn't help but swoon. I can't wait to meet the little one face to face! And I was happy to be able to spend time with my friends before their babies are outside of their bodies...I plan on packing as much of that in as possible because I'm well aware that scheduling can become very tricky once babies are involved.

Then on Saturday I went to see Epoch Arts' production of the orignal play, Love.

The play was wonderful but I have to admit my favorite part was seeing everyone there...it had been way too long. I hadn't even seen my own sister in weeks! This is obviously something I need to work on...

Then today I managed to be a productive human being! After I went on a walk with my mom and her three dogs I mowed the lawn and did some laundry. Exciting, right?

BUT next week you'll all be in store for some true excitement. Shane and I are making a road trip down to Washington DC to spend a few days there and I plan on doing some photo-journaling like I did in London. I know...try hard to contain your enthusiasm.

Alright Already!

2009-05-31T10:18:00.003-04:00

So I've received numerous complaints about the fact that I have not posted any blog entries since I returned from London over a month ago. In the words of the ever articulate Steve Martin: "Well excuuuuuse meeee!!!" But in all honesty I feel very loved and flattered. I'm glad so many people really enjoyed reading my blogs and now miss them.

In response I am, as you can see, writing a blog. However I want to apologize in advance for a lack of pictures, which is really want has been preventing me from blogging. I like to include pictures whenever possible and I was 1) feeling lazy about taking and downloading some relevant ones and 2) a certain Shane Beatty has abducted my camera and refuses to return it. SO I am going to do my best to locate some pics available on the internets and include those. Here we go...a summary of the notable, blog-worthy events that have occured within the last month+:

I surrvied the trip back from London.

If you know me, you know this is huge. How I survived two 6-7 hour flights is beyond me. I think it must have been the lovely screens in the back of each seat that provided endless entertainment to distract me in-flight. I love you Virgin Airlines.

I was in YPCCA's production of High School Musical.

Aw. Yeah. It was actually a lot of fun and I got to work with some very talented and fun teenagers. Yes, the words "talented," "fun," and "teenagers" can be used in the same sentence without the word "not." Man, was it great to be on stage again. There's nothing like the rush of the curtain call. Walking out onto that stage and hearing the applause. The last show was particularly amazing. It was like I had my own personal fan club in the audience. The minute I walked on stage for the first time, before even say ANYTHING, there was an erruption of applause and cheering. Does wonders for a girl's ego.

I went and saw Shane's friend Jerry at Foxwoods.

So much fun! Seriously...what a great evening. Shane got to play Blackjack AND he even won enough money to cover our outrageously expensive steak dinner at Prime! And, of course, Jerry was wonderful. I laughed so wonderfully hard. I need to give Shane a special shout-out now because one of the best parts of this evening is that I did not pay a dime for any of it. And it wasn't even my birthday! Isn't he sweet? A group "awwwwww" would be appropriate now. :)

I went to see Spring Awakening in Boston with Amanda.

Indeed, this show was shocking to say the least, but I actually really enjoyed it. It had this great sort of "f-you authority" feel to it that gets the inner rebel in me going. Yes, I have an inner rebel. Shut up. For those of you who have seen it I particularly enjoyed the character Moritz. For those of you who haven't seen it, he's the kid with the crazy hair in all of the ads (on the lower right of the above picture). He made me laugh and he made me cry. So good. AND on top of it all I got to hang out with Amanda. Always a good time.

I went to see Coldplay with Hillary.

This was easily one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I can't even really explain it...the music was amazing, the performance itself was great, the energy was intense, and the visuals were unbelievable. If you like Coldplay and haven't seen them in concert before I would HIGHLY recommend it. This is the second time I've seen them and this time was even better than the first. A special shout-out to Hillary now because she purchased my ticket for me as a VERY early birthday present. For this, among many other reasons, Hillary rocks.

In summary:

April and May 2009 were possibly two of the best months of my entire life. Really, 2009 so far has been one of the best years of my entire life. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be experiencing the things I'm experiencing and, on top of that, to have such generous and loving people in my life that make it possible for me to experience it all. The gratitude and happiness I feel is absolutely immeasurable. I could not ask for more. <3

So, after a long respite, I believe I have provided a bang-up entry for you all to read. And if you are indeed reading this, comment will you?! I'm more motivated to post if I know people are reading and commenting is one of the best ways to let me know you'd like me to write more. You know who you are. ;)

London, Day Six: There's Life Outside of London

2009-04-17T17:46:00.014-04:00

Today was the last full day I'd spend here in London. It also happened to be the first, and only, time I journeyed outside of the city and into the countryside to see what there was to see. And I have to say the rolling green hills were truly breathtaking...especially on the gray drizzly day we had today. Every once in a while there were small town or beautiful old farms with hills dotted with sheep and cows but in between there were wide expanses of big, beautiful...nothing. It was really very relaxing. KC had some great driving music on (including that Brett guy Lisa mentioned in her most recent "What I Love" entry!) and I just stared out the window for miles and miles.

About and 1.5 hours from London we reached our first destination - Stone Henge. The peaceful enigmatic beauty was mesmerizing. Here's a picture of me in front of it looking like a complete nerd with my audio tour guide thing (and there are actually a couple of other pictures of me in this entry...happy, Shane?).

And here is a picture sans me...

My aunt and I...

From a little farther away so you can get a good look at the whole thing...

The audio tour was really great too because it sort of, in a really weird way, helped to reveal the mystery of this amazing landmark by telling me more about it. It's almost like the more you know the more questions you have. This structure is at least 5000 years old. 5 THOUSAND years! Think before Jesus, folks, when pyramids were being built in other areas of the world. I've never seen something so old. So for any of you that heard this structure may be linked to the Druids...well that is actually most likely false. I guess historians researching it believe it existed well before the Druids and may have even already been in ruin before they were in the area. How it was made is a complete mystery...seriously, how do you lift rocks that way as much as 7 elephants (literally) that high without modern machinery? What it was used for is a complete mystery as well...though many believe it was used for either religious or scientific purposes...used to study the heavens and the movement of the sun and moon.

This is a poor attempt to capture the beauty of the countryside near Stone Henge. This photo really doesn't do it any justice at all.

So pretty...we drove through about another 1.5 hours of this over to the aptly named Bath to see the Roman Baths. But first we had some lunch at this great little place...

I believe the building is from the 1400's and the food was great (thank goodness). I guess Jane Austen and Charles Dickens used to hang out at this place back in the day.

Then we went to the Roman Baths, which were amazing in all of their glorious oldness as well. This picture is of the main bath area where people used to come and lounge in the healing waters.

Here's a close-up of one of the statues that was standing on the roof overlooking the bath.

And this pool was called the "cool plunge" because men would sit in extremely hot saunas and then jump into this cold pool. The bottom of this one was covered with coins and there were movie projections of half-naked, and sometimes fully naked, men getting in and out of the pool (no full frontals though...I know you're wondering...pervert). Oh my...

Here is a cool shot looking through the open area above the main bath.

This pool was originally sectioned off as the private pool for the gods...then was later used as a healing pool by monks. They brought sick people here to help them get better. I don't know how effective it was...

Here is me with the pool of the gods.

A little while later we headed back to the car and then back to London where we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Whole Foods then came back to the apartment to pack and get ready for tomorrow's trip home.

And so ends my blogs from across the Atlantic series. I will most likely do a reflective blog once I get home. This has truly been a wonderful experience and I hope to do much more traveling in the future. The only question is...where to next??? See you all across the pond. ;)

London, Day Five: The First Day of Rain

2009-04-16T15:08:00.039-04:00

So in an amazing turn of events we had our first day of rain on the fifth day in to our trip. Before I came here I was under the impression that we would probably have rain just about every day. We got incredibly lucky! And I think Ann Marie and I are seriously starting to hit a wall...every day it gets a little harder to keep hoofing it around this city. I think I've done more walking this week than I have ever walked during any given week in my entire life. We've been getting very very lazy...which is evidenced clearly in at least a couple places during the course of this blog.

This morning we started our day by heading to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. Here is the gate in Green Park right before you get to the palace...

And right across the street from here is the one, the only, Buckingham Palace...

There were tons of people there despite the rain. This statue was out in front of the palace.

But there were so many people and the rain was so incessant...and the changing of the guard was apparently running late...that we left without seeing it. Lazy moment number one.

Then we went to the British Museum...thoroughly soaked by the time we arrived.

Which happens to be home of the Rosetta Stone.

(You can see my reflection in the glass in this next one...Shane, this is your picture of me for the day.)

After viewing the Rosetta Stone we walked around and looked at some other Ancient Egyptian artifacts...

And then we went to lunch in the museum cafe and I had the first disgusting meal during my time here. I was going to get a baked potato but the toppings they had to offer were: tuna fish, coleslaw, corn, and some shredded cheese...and the cheese didn't look all that good. Yuck. So I got the vegetable soup, thinking I couldn't go wrong with soup. I was very wrong...

I could not eat this soup. For some reason it tasted and smelled like fish and by "vegetables" apparently they meant "slivers of carrot and some little green things." Luckily I had a little bit of French bread and a cookie too so I managed to survive the afternoon. After lunch we saw a little more of the museum but then left. Lazy moment two.

Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. I'm convinced this is the place where the old lady from the song "Feed the Birds" in Mary Poppins sits and sells birdseed to feed the pigeons. "Feeed the biiirrddss...tupins a bag. Tupiinnnss, tupppiinnnnss, tupins a baaaaggg."

But you had to pay 11 pounds to actually walk around inside...so we poked our heads in, had a look, and left. We'd already seen St. Martin in the Fields and Westminster Abby so we felt we'd seen enough churchy stuff. Lazy moment three.

We then went over to Notting Hill to do some shopping on Portabello Road. I believe it is when we arrived at the Notting Hill tube station that we did the one non-lazy thing all day. As a matter of fact it was so non-lazy it was outright stupid. The station was pretty crowded and we needed to take an elevator to get to street level...or take the stairs. I hate crowded elevators so I was willing to do just about anything to avoid it. Ann Marie cautioned me that she saw a sign saying there was a whopping 193 steps to the top, but I just said "I bet it's not as bad as you'd think."

Dear lord was I wrong. I think I nearly killed my poor aunt. I managed to power through the stairs and nearly had an asthma attack at the top...I couldn't even feel my quads...and Ann Marie had to stop twice to rest. I felt so bad I couldn't stop apologizing. She was about ready to strangle me.

But we still had a good time shopping and walking around Notting Hill...here's a view of the shops on Portobello Road...

This one store, Alice's, was almost like a museum. It was packed with really cool, strange antiques.

During our journey we also stopped by a bakery KC had recommended to get some cupcakes. It was called The Hummingbird Bakery.

Alan and Amanda - suprising they had NO hummingbird cupcakes! They did, however, have red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...

Naturally, I unhinged my jaw and ate the entire thing in one bite.

Then, when we were lesiurely strolling back to the tube station, we passed by this very unassuming looking building.

Which turns out to be the former home of George Orwell.

I LOVE the book 1984 so this was a very exciting discovery. This little round plaque was the only thing denoting the house as a historical site. You could very easily miss it and I'm so glad we didn't.

Also on our way back to the tube station we saw a very interesting storefront display. It contained two live bunnies.

So cute! I know in this picture it looks like that maniquins foot is crushing the poor thing but I promise you it wasn't. He was hopping around happily and nibbling on some hay.

After that we went way out of the way to Covent Garden to do some more shopping and then we headed home for a relaxing eveing of pizza, wine, and Semi Pro. Although this movie is definitely NOT one of Will Farrell's best, it was a vast improvement over last night's selection.

Night all! I have to rest up for my last full day here in London... :'(

London, Day Four: Westminster Abby, Fish & Chips and Victoria Albert

2009-04-15T14:09:00.024-04:00

We slept in a bit too late this morning and missed the changing of the guard. Damn. So we'll be doing that tomorrow and decided instead to head directly to Westminster Abby. As we've done for the past couple of days, we jumped on the Picadilly Line and headed East towards Trafalgar Square...

There I took a picture of the St. Martin in the Field church that we went to yesterday but I was too lazy to take a picture of. I love the blue clock face at the top.

From this picture you can also see the beautiful, clear blue sky. Somehow we have had utterly beautiful weather all week so far. Today it was almost 70 outside!

I also took another picture of Big Ben just so that all my lovely readers can get a better feel for how tall it is. This provides a less deceiving perspective. Here you can clearly see that the tower is much more than 1.5 bus lengths long.

Then we went to Westminster Abby. We had to pay 12 pounds to get in (yikes) but then could get a little audio tour guide free of charge. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures inside but take my word for it...it was beautiful. The cloisters in particular were nice because of the wonderful, sunny weather.

Here's the entrance...

And a closer picture of the door...

Detail pictures of the door...

A picture of the huge stained glass window from the College Garden...

Another part of the Abby...

Westminster Abby is the final resting place of so many people it's ridiculous...they're actually even buried under the floor. Everyone from Queen Elizabeth I who has a huge ornate tomb to Charles Dickens who has a very simple engraving on the floor and that's it.

After leaving the Abby we saw a familiar face...

Mr. Lincoln was a comforting, so-there-Americans-don't-suck-after-all, sight to see.

Then we grabbed some lunch at a little pub called The Old Shudders.

What did I get, you ask?

Why fish and chips of course! It was very good...not too greasy at all, nice and light. It came with some mushy peas too (that green stuff) which was kind of interesting.

After that we headed back from whence we came to go to the Victoria Albert but first stopped by the church we went to for Easter Mass to snap a few shots of the exterior.

And THEN went to the Victoria Albert...

We looked at some Chinese and Japanese artwork along with some sculpture and a fashion exhibit then headed out to the grocery store to buy some things for dinner.

And that is where I really had my breath taken away. I literally gasped when I saw this...

Aero bars are freaking amazing. They're available in Canada and used to be sold in New York City until they mysteriously disappeared from store shelves. I love these things. I immediately bought three of them and plan on bringing at least one home.

Then we headed back to the apartment, cooked and ate dinner, and are now watching Match Point which I'm hating a little bit because the main character is a freaking horrible slime ball and I can't stand him. Ew. Don't watch it. Well anyway...more fun ahead for tomorrow!

London, Day Three: Flying Solo for the First Time

2009-04-14T16:46:00.007-04:00

It's day three here in London and, for the first time, Ann Marie and I hit the town without our familial tour guide because KC had to work today. For the most part we went to areas we'd already visited before but went to see different things and, miraculously, we didn't get lost!

We got a much later start today though because we were both exhausted from staying up far too late the night before. So I woke up around 11 this morning after sleeping like a log all night and we got ready and headed back to Picadilly Circus...then Trafalgar Square. There we grabbed lunch at a little Patisserie called La Roche.

It was very good but, unfortunately, my lunch gave me pretty severe heartburn. Not an unfamiliar happening to me these days but, unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for it this time. So we located what was sort of like a little convenience store and I purchased the equivalent of some TUMS.

The only reason I'm sharing this is because I find anything that's different from what we have in the United States very entertaining. (I should also note that I skipped over a part here...between lunch and getting Rennie we went to this church on Trafalgar Square called St. Martin in the Fields. There are often small classical music concerts held there...we went in hopes of hearing a chamber group rehearse, as you can sometimes do, but sadly no one was there. The acoustics must be amazing. I did not take any pictures because I was distracted by the fact that my stomach was on fire.)

Then we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery and spent quite a bit of time walking around looking at wonderful art from all different time periods. I found the more contemporary stuff particularly enjoyable.

Then we headed back towards the apartment...stopping off at Harrod's on our way there. I was apparently being very lazy today because I didn't take any pictures there either. Sorry. :-p It's essentially a giant, super-fancy department store...which also happens to contain a food market with pretty much anything you could imagine from dim sum to mutton to fresh produce. It was very pretty.

After that we boarded the incredibly crowded tube (we had timed things poorly...it was right around rush hour) and went to the normal-person grocery store near KC's apartment to pick up some items for dinner...which consisted of chicken, potatoes, and asparagus all cooked on the grill. Mmmmm...despite all of the talk about how food in England sucks I haven't had a disappointing meal yet! It could be that KC is being careful to protect us from it though because it seems that he has definitely had some bad experiences.

After dinner we just crashed at the apartment because everyone was extremely tired and we watched Atonement while it poured down rain outside. That movie is incredibly sad. It was kind of cool though because a good deal of it takes place in and around London...so the characters were mentioning and going places that I've now been. KC also informed us that Keira Knightley actually lives in London (at least part of the time). He confessed to us that he's been contemplating for quite some time what he'd say to her if he even met her. Shhhhh...don't tell him I told you.

All in all another great day! It didn't rain at all while we were out and we should have at least a little more good weather this week (fingers crossed). Tomorrow it's off to see the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace, and the Victoria Albert. I promise I'll take more pictures...I know very well that that's the best part. :)

London, Day Two: Trafalgar Square and Beyond

2009-04-13T18:37:00.019-04:00

It's been an incredibly long, but good, day and my brain is fried so I'm going to keep this relatively quick and most likely picture-heavy because I'm not feeling particularly...wordy.

Today we started off by jumping on the "tube" (i.e. subway) up (or over?) to Picadilly Circus (which is kind of like the Time Square of London).

Where I chatted on the telephone for a bit...

We then walked over to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery...which is where I took this picture...

And if you look carefully you can see Big Ben in the distance...

We then headed down towards Parliament and Big Ben...and stopped at the Horse Garden.

Which looked like this on the inside...

They bring the horses out here but we didn't see any other than the ones that were on either side of the gate (pictured above).

And then we passed by where the Prime Minister lives...10 Downing Street...

I did not get to see this place from the inside so I do not know how it looks.

And THEN we saw Big Ben and Parliament...

Which was actually much prettier in person than I thought it would be.

And there was a protest going on there...

It had something to do with genocide in Sri Lanka...I know that sounds very indifferent but I just don't know more about the issue at hand. We did receive a pamphlet about it though.

We then went to Covent Garden where we had lunch at a little Italian-y place and shopped around a little bit.

We then went to the Tower of London which was amazing. We took a guided tour with one of the Beefeaters...which are the Queen's Royal Guard. Our tour guide was hysterical...he had this really dry and sarcastic sense of humor. Here is a picture of KC standing near him while he was giving the tour.

Here we also saw a bunch of Henry VIII's armor and the crown jewels.

After we exited the Tower of London we took some pictures at the famed Tower Bridge.

It was not falling down.

We then headed back towards KC's, stopped by a couple pubs, and had dinner at what KC says is the only good Mexican Restaurant in all of London. Apparently it's owned by some American people. It was called...

That's right...Crazy Homies.

We then returned to KC's...with VERY sore feet...had a wonderful philosophical conversation up on the rooftop patio...and now here I am. And now it is time for bed. To be continued...

London, Day One: Drivers, Red Eyes, and The Smell of Spring

2009-04-12T13:00:00.025-04:00

If you haven't heard already, I have arrived safely in London! And my g*d has it been a busy day...or was it two days? First of all there was the driver that brought my Aunt Ann Marie and I to Newark Airport Saturday afternoon. To say the least he was a bit...off color. At the worst, offensive. But he was relatively harmless. He just would not stop TALKING. For the ENTIRE 2 and a half hours it took to get to the airport.

Once we got to the airport we were able to chill out and grab a drink at Chili's (yes Chili's) and hang out getting anxious about...I mean calmly waiting for our flight. A few short hours later it was time to board the VS002 to Heathrow and I walked aboard of my own free will. And to be honest? It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I had a nice little screen in front of me the whole time streaming entertainment and relaxation music to me and the time really flew by...despite the fact that I only slept for a total of about 20 minutes. Oh well.

Then to top it all off...we've had an AWESOME first day in London despite being awake for an absurd amount of time. We went to Easter mass at this gorgeous church and went to a great brunch buffet then walked around in these beautiful gardens...Hyde Park for the most park I believe. Then we took a quick turn through the Natural History Museum and have returned back to my cousin's to veg out...we're currently watching Definitely Maybe.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...the first round of pictures!

I could not get over this...the drivers side is on the RIGHT side of the car. THE RIGHT SIDE! This is, of course, something I knew ahead of time but it still boggled my mind seeing it in person.

Here's a picture I took of some pastries in a bakery we stopped at for some hot cross buns (yes, really). Right after this I was yelled at for taking pictures inside the store. Ha ha ha ha ha...I'm such a tourist.

Here's my cousin KC and Aunt Ann Marie in from of THE Travel Bookshop from the movie Notting Hill. The scenes were filmed there and everything. This picture is dedicated to my cousin Elisa.

Here's my very own room at KC's apartment. And what's even better...

I get my very own bathroom too!

Here's a picture of the beautiful church we went to Easter Mass at.

Another...

A cool monument in Hyde Park.

And now begins a long series of pictures I took in Hyde Park....

These next few are of the Princess Di Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park...

And this is a picture of the Natural History Museum...

That's all for now! We'll be getting dinner soon at a little English pub. :) More to follow!!!

Catch-Up

2009-04-10T17:46:00.014-04:00

I'm leaving for London tomorrow so I figured now was as good a time as any to catch up on some blogging before beginning a series of travel-related entries! If any parts of this entry don't make sense please excuse me...the changing weather is making my head feel all weird. Ew.

My camera was storing some pictures I'd been meaning to blog about for some time so I've decided to toss them all in one entry...here goes...

I don't even remember when I made this meal now...it had to be almost a month ago. Blackened beef stir fry! I think this was the first time I really made something without any help at all from Shane. I'm getting the hang of this cooking thing! Now I need to make sure I keep doing it...

Ah yes...the Mohegan Sun trip in honor of Hillary and Jessica's birthdays. We enjoy making trips to Johnny Rocket's and playing slots. You can tell from these pictures that we obviously had the best table in the house.

Mmmmm....public restrooms are so appetizing.

Being very sneaky...

Here are Hillary and Jess in the brand-spanking-new Casino of the Wind. It was pretty and didn't smell quite as strongly of smoke...yet. The new Margaritaville restaurant is in there too. I have to admit though...I found that place a bit scary. There's this giant spinning monstrosity in the middle of the bar's ceiling above a huge glowing blender. Very strange.

If you look just past me in this picture you can see a giant wall of water...pretty cool. I'm pretty sure we technically weren't supposed to take these pictures....hmmmmmm...

And here is my most recent culinary creation...baked mac and cheese with bacon and caramelized onions. By far my favorite thing so far.

Unfortunately that's all I have the energy right now. This was a painfully boring and pointless entry but now I've at least uploaded the pictures I've been meaning to for a while now.

I hate changing pressure systems and shifting weather. I have serious "barometer head" today. Can't...think....anymore.....must......continue....PACKING! The next time I blog it will be from across the Atlantic Ocean! Woo hoo!

We're All In This Together

2009-03-16T17:25:00.003-04:00

There are a few different things I want to blog about...one being the blackened beef stir fry I made last week (I must blog about all of my culinary accomplishments!) and the other being the Fleetwood Mac concert I went to on Saturday night (I may be deemed some kind of geek for saying this...but it was easily one of the best concerts I've ever been to and I've been to quite a few).

But I'm not going to blog about either of those things right now because I don't have access to the lovely pictures that will go along with them. So instead I'm going to write a blog I've been meaning to write for some time now. A blog about my most recent dramatic endeavor.

For those of you who do not know, I am going to be in a musical at the very end of April/beginning of May this spring. But not just any musical. Oh no. I'm in HIGH SCHOOL Musical. Yes that High School Musical. With real live high school students! How did I get into this you ask? Well it's simple, really. I used to be a part of a youth arts group called the Young People's Center for Creative Arts (or YPCCA - pronounced "Yip-kah") when I was in high school. This group did a musical every summer and I was in such shows as Fiddler on the Roof and Damn Yankees. Ah yes, community theater.

Well this group has continued doing musicals every summer and they have grown into a larger, more organized non-profit. So, just like any other non-profit, they hold fundraisers every now and again. This spring they decided to do a show as a fundraiser...the show being High School Musical. They had plenty of high school students to play the roles but what about the adult characters? Hmmmmm...

So I get an email out of the blue from the director of the organization (and the show, for that matter) asking me to come down and read for the part of the drama teacher Ms. Darbus. After a bit of discussion about rehearsals and what I would and would not be able to make, I decided to just bite the bullet and go for it. It'd been a while since I'd been in a musical and I kind of missed it. So I was cast as the quirky, crazy drama teacher who directs...you guessed it...the high school musical. In the movie the character looks like this:

Interesting. We'll see where I go with this...I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to play it yet. Regardless, this is going to be a fun character to play even if the show is one of those fluffy tween-centric kind of things.

So I get to act! YIPEE! And best of all it's a supporting role so little to no singing and dancing! Or so I thought...

Yes, it's true that I don't have to sing much and the songs I do sing in I only do so in the chorus but dancing...oh the dancing. As many times as I've been told I have a "dancer's body" I must assert - I AM NOT A GOOD DANCER. And really I only have to dance in one (maybe two) songs in the show but BOY is the choreography difficult! The one I'm learning right now is for this scene:

Now we're doing the dance that they do in this video...but we're also doing MORE. It involves being on the ground at times. Madness. After the first full dance rehearsal (2.5 hours, thank you very much) my thighs hurt so bad I could barely go up and down stairs.

If you'd like to see me in this lovely show it will be at East Hampton High School on April 30th and May 1st 7:00 p.m., May 2nd at 8:00 p.m. and May 3rd at 2 p.m. And since YPCCA is all fancy now, you can buy tickets online at www.ypcca.org. I must warn you in advance though, the tickets are $12.00. I think the price is so steep because this is supposed to be a fundraiser. I understand that $12.00 is a bit much to pay to see a bunch of high school students performing a show you probably wouldn't see unless you knew someone in it though, so there will be no hard feelings if you can't attend (unless you are Shane...in which case attendance is mandatory). But I probably won't be acting again anytime soon so if you'd like to catch this rare glimpse at a side of me only people I knew from high school and college have seen, then I'd suggest you attend. I MAY regret extending the invitation...we shall see.

I win'd!

2009-02-28T12:41:00.006-05:00

Woo hoo! I have been bestowed with my very first blog award. It was given to me by my dear friend and coworker Amanda. This "Proximidade" honor is awarded to blogs that "...invest and believe in Proximity; Nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and to be friends. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to 8 bloggers, who must then chose 8 more and include this text into the body of their award."

I'm verklempt! Talk amongst yourselves...

My only problem moving forward with the latter part of this award is that I really only read 4 other blogs...half of the required 8. And I believe three of these bloggers make up 3/4 of my own readers. I am obviously not spending enough time writing or reading here. Regardless...I will pass the torch along to the best of my ability.

First I would like to return the favor to the one who so graciously gave this award to me. Amanda's blog Me, My Dogs, My Life is what inspired me to begin my own blog in the first place. I enjoy it immensely...even though she feels her blog is filled with misery and woe, I feel as though it's all taken with a very good sense of humor. And it's honest! What promotes nearness is relationships more than honesty?

Next I would like to honor Lisa's Artsy Fartsy blog. This blog is an inspiration to me as well. Lisa's use of photos to narrate is wonderful. She also has a very good sense of humor about the everyday ups and downs of life. And I really like the newly minted "What I Love" entries. They're uplifting. :)

Then there's Alan's blog, formerly I'm Alan, eh? now I'm Alan, eh-l-eh-n?. Alan is just smart. Hands down. And he may not pride himself on his fine and upstanding skills in English grammar, but his intelligence really does come through in his writing. Not to mention he also has a very good sense of humor. Do I sense a theme here?

Finally there is the wondrous Cupcakes Take The Cake, with postings from Rachel, Nichelle, and Stacie. I know none of these people personally but I still really enjoy the blog. Anyone that knows me knows that I have an affinity for this darling confection. Seriously though...what's more charming than a cupcake?

Just Double It

2009-02-23T20:06:00.009-05:00

I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot of these cooking/baking blogs considering that my New Year's resolution is to cook more. And, well, when I'm in the kitchen it usually yields some fairly interesting stories.

This weekend's culinary adventure? Chicken pad thai. A dish that both Shane and I like and it seemed a bit more challenging than the other things I've attempted so I decided to just bite the bullet and go for it.

The whole process started off when Shane and I went grocery shopping. We went to an authentic Asian food market (a place called Young's on Park Road in West Hartford) and picked up some of the more unusual ingredients. One of these ingredients was a specific kind of rice noodles. The recipe only called for 8 oz. of the noodles but the store only had 16 oz. packages. Of course we could have just used half of the noodles but, being the smart people that we are, we decided we would make all of the noodles and double everything else. That way we'd have tons of leftovers and we could feed ourselves for days! Genius!

What we failed to think about was the reality of how much food that really was and what would go into making it. The original recipe was supposed to feed 4...so the doubled recipe would feed about 8. That's right, 8. That's all of the octomom's babies...if they could eat solid foods. Two pounds of chicken went into that pad thai. The pictures are dark and a bit blurry (I hate how washed out pictures look with the flash on so I deal with it)...but it looked a little something like this...

This is all of the veggie type stuff (minus the chopped peanuts) that went into our delicious meal. A lot of green, right? What we have here is some bean sprouts, green onion, garlic, cilantro, and grated lime peel. Not pictured is the sauce I had to make. It tasted pretty good but making it was not very appetizing...mostly because there was fish sauce in it. Apparently there's fish sauce in a lot of Asian-type food but the stuff on its own smells disgusting. And on top of that I saw how it was made on TV once. You don't want to know...

Here is the two pounds of chicken that I cut up to put into the pad thai. Cutting up raw chicken is gross.

Here is Shane using the kitchen appliance thing that chops up stuff. Yup. He's chopping up the peanuts for the topping. I believe this is the second attempt. The first attempt sort of resulted in what looked like a grainy sort of peanut butter. He got a little over zealous. Also, judging from the look he's giving me in this picture, one might gather that Shane actually hates me. At this point he may have. I don't think he particularly enjoys having his picture taken.

This is the giant mess o' chicken pad thai we made...and you can even see the mess we made of my stove. At one point we couldn't even contain everything in one skillet...we had to temporarily split the mixture into two separate pans. This was probably the biggest problem we ran into with making the recipe doubled.

Here's me getting the bowls. I feel the need to post at least one picture of myself to prove that I was actually there...cooking.

Finished product! It actually looked kinda nice once it was plated...and it didn't taste half bad either! And this allegedly half-hourish recipe took us a whopping two hours. Aw yea.

And the Academy Award goes to...

2009-02-23T01:30:00.004-05:00

Ok...so it's far too late for me to write a real blog right now...but I wanted to assert the fact that I HAVE NOT abandoned my blog. I miss it dearly, actually. There just hasn't been anything interesting to write about! And now there is...but I haven't had time to write...UGH! So hang in there, friends. I WILL make my triumphant return.

In the mean time, in the spirit of the Academy Awards, I think you should all seriously consider seeing best picture winner Slumdog Millionaire if you haven't already. It's stunning.

Cupcakes Take the Cake!

2009-01-31T11:00:00.016-05:00

Ok...so I borrowed the title of this blog from a cupcake blog that I follow. So sue me.

But anyway, now that I have that off my chest, on with the story! I haven't blogged in far too long so I'm going to make this a good one. Fasten your seat-belts.

This past Wednesday and Thursday night Shane and I were baking up a storm. His boss's 50th birthday was just around the corner and he was charged with making some delicious birthday treats for him. So we picked out a recipe for my brand-spankin'-new cupcake cookbook. We couldn't make just any old box cupcakes for this occasion! We selected the Lemon Coconut Snowballs and got down to business. Here is how the events played out...

Tuesday evening: I had dinner with my aunt (Who just invited me to go to London with her in April! YAY! More blogging on this is sure to follow...) and was telling her about my baking plans for the week. She drew my attention to the fact that I may want to spread my baking over the course of two nights since I hadn't yet gone shopping for the ingredients and we had cake, frosting, and lemon filling to make. This would likely take a bit of time. I could do the grocery shopping and cake part on Wednesday night and the frosting and lemon filling on Thursday to have everything ready to go for Friday. I am sooooo glad I heeded her advice. We would have been up all night on Thursday if we hadn't spread things out.

Wednesday evening: After a day of being stuck in the house because of the snowstorm, I ventured out to Stop and Shop with Shane to pick up the ingredients for our cupcakes. We were able to easily find almost everything...until this stupid little jar proceed to evade us for what seemed like at least 20 minutes...

What the hell is "cream of tartar" anyway??!?! We called both of our mothers (Shane couldn't reach his and mine wasn't completely sure where to find it...we had been staring at the spices section for some time and were insistent that it wasn't there and that was the only place she could think of it being), looked in every imaginable area we could think of, and then Shane discovered, via his handy dandy Blackberry, that McCormick makes it. It had to be in the spices section. Upon returning to that area for the umpteenth time we, of course, found it immediately. Oops...sorry mom.

Then it was time to go to Target. The recipe required the use of a sifter and I didn't have one. So I ran in and got one, along with a double boiler that could be used, optionally, for the frosting (Why not? If I'm going to get into this baking thing I'll use it again and it wasn't all that expensive.) and some little paper cupcake tin liners because they only had foil ones at Stop and Shop and I didn't like those. I'm very particular about these things.

We then returned to my house, made the cake part of the cupcakes, then put them in the refrigerator until we could fill and frost them on Thursday. We were able to complete all of this by around 10 of 9...just in time for LOST. PHEW!

Thursday evening: I had a doctor's appointment after work and Shane was planning on getting dinner with his Dad so we were going to be getting a little bit of a late start on the rest of the cupcake making activities. My doctor's appointment went a little longer than I expected and Shane was going to beat me to my house so, very unintelligently, I was hurrying home. Keep in mind that there was just a snow and ice storm the day before. Just a mile or two away from my house a car stopped abruptly to allow the car in front of it to turn left. I proceeded to almost slide right into the back of said car but opted to run into an icy snow bank on the side of the road instead. And got stuck there. Stupid front wheel drive. Fortunately a couple very nice passers by stopped to help me and, of course, after I called Shane he rushed to my aid as well. A couple shovels and firm shoves later I was out of the snow and back on my way. But not without some battle wounds...

Very luckily it wasn't anything too ugly. That piece leaning against my tire in the first of the two pictures above came off the bottom of the bumper on that side of the car and if you look right under the headlight in the second picture you can see some cracking in the plastic. That yellow signal light on the side there also popped out but, also luckily, I was able to pop it back in pretty easily. Ugh. But I have to keep in mind that this is much better than my car would have looked if I had rammed into the back of that other car. And, most importantly, I wasn't hurt...so I can't really complain.

Back at the house we got to work making the filling and frosting for the cupcakes. Well...Shane mostly got to work while I frantically tried to do dishes and clean up around the kitchen just so we could have some working space. Typically I would have done this earlier but I just didn't have time. I had the camera out this night too so we were able to snap some more pictures...

Here is Shane very expertly grating some lemon zest for the filling.

Here is the freshly blended frosting...mmmmm...I love frosting.

Here is me anal-retentively putting the shredded coconut on top of the cupcakes. I didn't like the way Shane was just dumping the coconut directly from the bag onto the cupcakes. It just wasn't pretty that way.

Here is the obscene amount of frosting we had leftover when we were done.

Here is the obscene amount of lemon filling we had leftover when we were done.

Aaaannnddd...(drum roll please)...THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Mmmmm...much blood, sweat and tears went into these cupcakes. Anything for Al's big 5-0!

Lights Up On Washington Heights

2009-01-19T20:28:00.011-05:00

I had a weekend full of Broadway this week - Avenue Q on Friday night and In the Heights on Saturday. Needless to say, I feel very fortunate right about now. Both of the shows were amazing! But I'm feeling sort of brain dead at the end of this truly wonderful 3-day weekend so this is going to be a very photo-heavy, writing-light, kind of blog post. I'll make up for it with some great narrative next time, I promise. In the mean time enjoy the pics from my Saturday NYC trip!

The picture above is of my father, his wife Lisa, and my sister, Hillary waiting in the Old Saybrook train station for our way-too-early-for-a-Saturday train. We took an Amtrak train, business class, into the city and then took a town car from Penn Station to Time Square. I should note that I only travel like this when I'm with my dad. When it's up to me I take good ol' Metro North from New Haven to Grand Central and then hoof it or take the subway wherever I need to go.

A picture of the aforementioned folks in Time Square. It was around this time that a woman dressed in a flapper outfit sashayed up to me and said "Hatcha! Whoopie!" and handed me a flyer for Chicago. Now THAT is a dedicated street team member. She was wearing tights in single digit temperatures!

You can barley see it in this pic but if you squint you can see the "2009" and the ball that drops on New Year's Eve at the top of this building just about the Toshiba stuff.

This is where we had lunch - a Pan-Asian restaurant called Ruby Foo's. Apparently Howard Stern likes this place...according to my dad he mentioned it on his show once. I'll just take his word for it. I thought the lanterns hanging from the ceiling were pretty. And the wonton soup wasn't bad either!

My sister, me, and my dad in front of the Richard Rodgers Theatre. We look a little bit chilly, don't you think? At least it wasn't really windy.

The In The Heights set. I thought it was so cool how they used scrim material on the buildings so you could kind of see through them at times. It was such a great show!

Alright that's all for now! Happy MLK Day!

Time Zones Illude Me

2009-01-14T22:18:00.004-05:00

I'm going to do an itty-bitty little blog "no-no" for this entry and write something about work. However, I have changed all the names to protect the innocent and I'm not even going to say where I work...though I'm fairly certain anyone reading this knows anyway.

This morning I needed to make a phone call to a woman who was in a different time zone...far enough away that there was a three hour time difference. I didn't want to forget to touch base with her though so I figured I would call and leave a message about what I wanted to discuss with her and she could call me back whenever she got to work. I dialed the number, the phone rang a few times, and then, to my surprise, someone actually answered the phone. Someone I think I probably should not have disturbed because I have the distinct feeling that he was someone important. The conversation unfolded something like this:

Mystery Man: Hello.
Me: Umm...hello is "Deborah" (not really her name) in?
MM: ...(long pause)...(said with a distinct tone of annoyance) do you know it's 6:30 a.m.?
M: I'm sorry...
MM: Call back sometime after 9...k?
M: I apologize...I will.

Boy oh boy did I feel like an ass. But in all seriousness...what on earth was he doing in the office at 6:30 in the morning, hmmmm??? Is it really all that hard to believe someone would call to leave a message at that time of the day if they were up? Unless this mysterious stranger happens to like to start his work day extremely early, the only logical explanation I could come up with is that this woman's office happens to be in the place where this person lives. Maybe? Either way I had that embarassed, tight-chested, "oh jeez" feeling for a good half hour after the incident and I did not call back until well after noon our time, 9:00 a.m. their time.

Now that I've been thoroughly vague I will leave you with this lovely sunrise photo from the fam Long Beach Island trip '08 to complete the early morning mood. Because I want my blog to be a good blog...and good blogs have pictures.

A Response to a Complaint

2009-01-07T18:30:00.014-05:00

Someone apparently thinks my blog is inferior to others because it does not have pictures. ::Sigh:: Some people are just impossible to please I guess. So in response I have selected some photos at random from my computer and I am posting them below, complete with captions. Enjoy!

This is me the day I brought my car home. Before this I owned a 1987 Toyota Camry. This car is a vast improvement.

This is my friend Jess, my sister Hillary, and me in Boston touching a cow's butt.

This picture was taken on the back deck of the house my dad sometimes rents on Long Beach Island. I enjoy it there very much.

These are some flowers I received sometime not that long ago. I really liked the rose quite a bit. It opened up very nicely.

This is the place on Cape Cod where I got my tattoo. This picture was taken a few years after...the building was completely vacant.

This is a picture of Shane beating me with a frisbee the day before my friends' (Brandt & Kathy) wedding. This photograph pretty much epitomizes our relationship.

Happy? ;)

For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear

2009-01-04T14:50:00.002-05:00

Happy 2009! We're four days into the new year and, just as I'm sure we all are, I'm very excited to have that clean slate feeling of a whole twelve months before me.

2008 certainly ended memorably though...yes indeed, with a story that is certainly blog-worthy in my opinion. I am notorious for getting things all nicely and neatly planned out in my head - imagining everything falling perfectly into place - and being very upset when those plans are, inevitably, muddled as painstakingly precise plans often are. And I wanted this December 31 to be very special so of course I had a game plan in mind. Shane and I were planning on going out to a nice dinner so I'd gone out and gotten something fun to wear complete with a new pair of four-inch heals (How cool is it that I can wear four-inch heals and still not be anywhere close to taller than my boyfriend? But I digress...) and a fancy new purse to match. My sister had given me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure at my favorite nail salon in my home town of East Hampton so I made my appointment for mid-morning on the 31st and my hairdresser even made time in her schedule for me to come in and have my hair done. How cool! I, admittedly, can be a bit of a girly girl at times and enjoy getting dressed up so I was looking forward to it all very much. Then after I was all done up Shane and I were going to go see the early fireworks in Bushnell Park, go to dinner at Dish, and then drink champagne and count down to the new year. Who could possibly ask for more?

And then the weather hit.

4-8 inches of lovely, fluffy New England snow all falling within the mid-morning to early afternoon time window in which I was going to be doing my running around and getting pretty. Damn.

Did I give up and cancel my appointments you ask? Don't be silly...of course not!

So in whiteout conditions I made the journey to East Hampton to get all prettied up. And I made it there and back without even hitting a single car or guardrail! But then I was faced with a unique dilemma...my roommates were both gone for the day and the driveway needed to be shoveled. Double damn. Upon explaining my plight to my hairdresser she provided me with a plastic shower cap to protect my perfectly coiffured do. Stylish.

Once I got home I set to work clearing the driveway...with only about an hour and a half to go until Shane's scheduled arrival time to pick me up. Diligently I began shoveling away the snow all the while with the plastic shower cap sliding down on my forehead and over my eyes until it got to the point where I had to stop and fix it because I couldn't see (this happened repeatedly). Meanwhile my various neighbors' driveways were being cleared by folks with plow trucks and snow blowers...and me in the midst of it all with my measly little snow shovel. Needless to say I felt a bit foolish. And while I toiled I secretly hoped to myself "Wow...I really wish one of the guys in those trucks would see how pathetic I am and offer to give me a hand."

And my patheticness paid off! Low and behold a pick-up with a plow on the front pulled up to the bottom of my driveway and inside there where three guys who offered to help me finish clearing my driveway. Oh providence! $20 later the job was done and I was happily getting ready for my night out. Seriously...sometimes being a sad, puny little girl really does pay off.

The rest of the night proved to be truly lovely (although minus the fireworks...even I'm not such a hopeless romatic that I'll brave freezing temperature and snow drifts just for one of those "awwww" moments)...although the 4-inch heals proved to be a bit of a nuisance. They're not really very good for walking on ice in. Oops. Luckily Shane was able to half-drag me from my house to the car and then from the car to the restaurant. As clumsy as I may have wound up looking I think the first impression was still pretty good! I looked kinda sexy...as long as I was holding still. :-p

And So It Began...

2008-12-29T20:26:00.000-05:00

Right off the bat I feel I must confess: I'm stealing someone else's idea. I was reading a friend's blog today and the thought suddenly struck me,"Hey...I like to write...I have things to say...I need an outlet...I should keep a blog!" And so here I am.

The next challenge of course was deciding what to write about. And I know I don't have to have one set thing to write about but if you know me you know how scatter brained I can be. SO if I don't come into this with a plan it's going to sparkle and fade into the internet ether almost as fast as I became inspired to do it.

And I've decided I'm going to write about the funny things that seem to happen to me that make me laugh inside. Those things that so often happen and you immediately want to tell someone about them. It makes me think of a funny story my blogging friend told me. Something absurd was happening and as soon as it was done her friend turned to her and said "I couldn't wait for that to be over so we could talk about it!" (Ok Amanda...you've probably guessed that my blogging friend is you by now). This blog will be dedicated to moments just like that.

So to kick it off, a story from earlier this year that lead me to select my chosen theme. This is going to be mildly embarrassing but all of this blog business is at least in part to keep me from taking myself too seriously.

My mother, sister, and I were out on a shopping trip to Clinton Crossing down in Clinton, CT. We had been walking around for some time and while we were in the Old Navy outlet I decided I needed to find a restroom. So I did find said restroom in that Old Navy store and, after knocking and finding the door unlocked, I did as any normal human being would and opened it. Inside, to my surprise, was a tiny girl sitting on the toilet who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. In that awkward split second when the realization sets in that you've walked in on a perfect stranger while they're on the toilet this tiny girl made a small squeaking noise that was something like a stifled scream - a nasal "EEEE!!!" Horrified I quickly closed the door muttering various oh-I'm-so-sorries and began to walk away when it occurred to me that I hadn't seen any form of parental unit anywhere in the near vicinity. Huh. Interesting how some people feel it's safe to allow their kids to use a public restroom completely by themselves.

But this isn't where the story ends. Oh no. After recounting the above events to my mom and sister we set off to find another bathroom. We found a larger ladies room not far off in the shopping complex with multiple stalls. Of course, as in any public restroom, some of the toilets were plugged up and far too disgusting to use and the distinct smell of human feces hung in the air...so I quickly went into the nearest clean-looking stall so I could just get in and get out as quickly as possible. I closed the door, locked it, and began to...uh...remove my trousers when I suddenly noticed that the bathroom stall door was not, in fact, closed. Once again horrified I exclaimed something along the lines of "HOLY SHIT!" and quickly slammed the door shut. Very VERY luckily no one actually saw me in my state of undress.

Upon exiting the bathroom and telling my mom and sister who were both then crying with laughter, I shook my head and sighed "I swear...sometimes I can hear God laughing at me."