10 on Tuesday

Yes I am stealing this idea from Lindsay, who stole it from her sil anyway, but I think it's great!

1.  There's nothing I love more than a good pair of yoga pants

2.  I really want to get into Interior Design/Decorating.  I'll see something like a bedding set, or a cubby in a wall, or a pot, or a piece of art and I create a room in my head around it...but then I want that room in my make believe house...

3.  I swam with sharks this weekend (sort of...they were in a tank in the middle of the pool, but the water slide goes through the tank!).  It was my friend, Megan Kiefer's bday, so we spent the day lounging and swimming with sharks.  It was lovely.  I'm actually getting a little tan this year!  Well...just Ginger status tan anyway.

4.  I saw Harry Potter again tonight and I still wish I was magic.

5.  What kind of 29 year old woman gets excited about finding TUMS in the office, and thinks 10:00 on a school night is "night owl" status??

6.  Remind me not to ever train for a race (or 3) through the hot Vegas summer again.

7.  I think there's something wrong with the water these days.  Pretty much everyone I know is either pregnant, just had a baby, or thinking about having a baby.  Are we old enough for this??

8.  I think I need to be a nicer person.  I used to be a lot more compassionate than I am now.  Sometimes it's just so exhausting being nice to EVERYONE though, isn't it??  What's the difference between being nice and being fake?  I never want to be a fake person, but I guess that doesn't mean I can't be civil to some particular people.  Hmmmm....

9.  I'm still torn on the NYC move decision.  I mean...I still have a while to think about it...but sometimes I wonder if it will be too hard to be so far away from family and friends.  I LOVE the city though and I really miss it.  Also, I definitely need a venue change asap.

10.  I thought I'd be good and go to FHE the other night...some of the people in my ward are TRAGIC.  I mean, I love the spirituality of my ward, but throw me a bone here!  All my friends are moving soon and I can't help but have a slight panic attack about what will be left when they're gone.  Yipes.

One Big Juicy Apple

Now I know why Eve was so tempted!  If New York City was a man, I'd marry him.  I admit...I kind of wish I would have blogged about this a while ago when it was all fresh and exciting and I could have really rubbed it in.  Le sigh.  This will have to do.  Luckily I took my handy little One Line a Day journal with me, so now we can all relive my adventures and wish we were there.  Or you could all pack your suitcases and come visit me when I move there!

Alright, I'll try my best to give the Reader's Digest version, but we all know I can be a little long-winded sometimes.  Here goes the run down of the greatest birthday yet!

The first night we got to the city our hotel was lovely, but the a/c wasn't working and they were having record highs.  Awesome.  It wasn't so bad at night, but we sweated our balls off whilst we got ready the next morning, then headed out into the world of air conditioning.

So...Day 1:  We got up early and headed down to the theater district to stand in line for Rush tickets to "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" starring Daniel Radcliffe (<3) and John Laroquette.  We got the tickets (partial view, but who cares??), went down to Times Square to hang out and people watch for a minute, headed to Radio City Music Hall, Rockafeller Center, did a bit of shopping on 5th Ave, walked to Grand Central Station where they were filming something, but we didn't know who the so-called "famous" people were.  We went to Madison Square Garden from there, stopped in at Macy's, then met up with Michael and went to the Broadway Production!  On the way down there, this really nice local woman was sitting on the bus next to me and told us of a few fun restaurants to hit up after the show.  So, we took her advice and headed to Ellen's Stardust Diner.  Best. Decision. Ever.  All of the servers are Broadway hopefuls and they serenade you whilst you eat.  It was amazing!!  The food was good, the milkshakes were superb, and the singing was phenomenal.  Love, love, loved it!!  If I ever see that woman again, I will kiss her on the mouth!  (not really...but it was a good restaurant suggestion).  We got back to our room later that night and the a/c still wasn't fixed, so they moved us into a grander, much cooler room.  Score!

Day 2:  We got up early again and hurried down to see if we could get Rush tickets for Wicked.  We waited an hour for the box office to open and found out that they don't, in fact, do Rush tickets.  If only we would have done our homework.  So we scratched that and headed to Anything Goes to see if we could miraculously catch some of their tix.  Gone when we got there.  Rats!  So...no show tonight.  We headed down to China Town and SoHo to do a little shopping.  China Town was sheer chaos, as usual, but I feel like I was a pretty good little barterer.  I even got to hear a little Asian woman say "Sun-g-lass" and it made my day!  We saw the store with the mannequins with large....hands ;)  that my brothers spotted a couple of years prior when they were there...so naturally I had to take a picture and then check out their sweat shop goods.  P.s. it was SCORCHING that day, so we were really ducking into any little shop just to get out of the heat!  Anyway, we had a bit of an adventure trying to catch the right train (I had us waiting on the wrong platform for like 20 minutes...oops) to meet Michael down at the World Trade Centers site.  We saw the new buildings going up - incredible - and then went to the 911 Memorial Center.  There were a lot of really neat things in there, but I honestly didn't realize how emotional I would get.  There was a timeline on the wall and pictures of the events of the day, and at the very end was a picture of all of the hundreds of missing persons posters from families who were hoping for their loved ones.  That got me a little veclempt, so I excused myself and sat outside with mom for a minute...glad to be wearing dark sunglasses!  From there we hit up Lombardi's pizza, which was oh so good, and then had a little dessert at Rice to Riches right across the street.  We savored that whilst meandering down to Little Italy.  There was a legit older Italian guy down in front of a restaurant with a bandage around his head and ear (maybe he snitched and someone cut off his ear??), driving an old Cadi, and as he was heading out to his car he did the classic hand gesture and said "fuhgeddaboudit!" to his pal sitting on the patio.  Sheer bliss for me.  In Little Italy??  Come on!

Day 3:  We tried for Rush tickets again, but alas...we did not do our homework so we didn't realize that RENT didn't start until July.  Woops.  So mom and I headed to Anything Goes to join Michael in line.  They were all sold out there when the box office opened too.  Horrible luck!  So, we headed to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Discovery Museum.  Mom didn't want to go, so she people-watched in Times Square.  Michael and I were in hog heaven in the museum though!!  I could seriously write an entire post on all of the magical things we saw and did.  It was Nerdfest 2011, but it really was amazing.  Props, costumes...the whole lot.  Anyway, we put mom to work to get tix for a show while we were nerding out.  She got us matinee tickets to Mamma Mia and it was awesome!!  I've seen it in Vegas, but Michael hadn't seen it yet and absolutely loved it!  Not gonna say I didn't enjoy it too...that Sky character was pretty easy on the eyes...  After the show we headed out to Brooklyn, walked to a little park between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge and just hung out for a bit looking at the city.  It was actually cold and rainy that day (total bi-polar weather while we were there), so it was cool to see the city across the river where the sky scrapers disappeared into the mist.  Kind of like Gotham City!

Day 4:  My birthday!  We headed to the MET first thing in the morning to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit.  I'll be honest and say that I didn't know a ton about his work before we went.  I mean, I'm as familiar as the next girl, but it was so astounding getting into his mind and the theory behind his designs.  He was incredible!  I was blown away by so many things outside of each particular art/clothing pieces.  I also wasn't sure mom and Michael would be that into it, but being a seamstress of sorts, my mom was in awe of all of the intricacies of his work, and Michael was totally into the art concepts.  Anyway...it was awesome!  After that we rushed to Michael's singles' ward for church.  I know what you're thinking...church on vacation??  You're in New York!  Yes, I know.  BUT it was a big YSA Regional Conference that weekend and Elders Perry and Cook were going to be speaking there, so we spent two hours of our day being enlightened, and I scoped out the goods :)  We went to Michael's apartment for a minute, changed, and went to Central Park after we got some amazing cookies at Lavain Bakery.  I loved everything about the park!  We met up with Ralph, a friend of Michael's from the mission, at the Boat House and went for a little row on the lake.  It was so pretty and so much fun!  After that we strolled through the park to Belvedere Castle, got a cupcake from Crumbs bakery, and headed to the Flat Iron building.  We also saw the Empire State building while we were down there.  We were going to get a cupcake from Magnolia too, to see which one was better, but we ran out of time.  Mom and I headed back to the hotel and had a little birthday song extravaganza, and then I ate the cupcake...all by me onesie!  It was delish!

Day 5:  Slept in a bit and then headed out to Soho and China Town again to do some last minute shopping and grab some final souvies.  Apparently, my mother thought she was starting a small purse business and we ended up going home with a few extra suitcases full of them.  Ridiculous!  We said goodbye to the city and headed for Newark.  I was really sad to leave and honestly wasn't ready to be done yet.  We got to Denver for our layover and it poured for like 30 minutes and they wouldn't let any planes in or out, so we just hung out for a bit.  Apparently though...our luggage was on the cart during the little storm and a few of our purses got a little rain damaged.  Sad day!  All in all it was a fantastic vacation though!  I was so glad I got to share it with my mom and to have a little bonding experience, and I was glad Michael knew the ropes and could show us around a bit.  We keep talking about "blah blah blah...when we move to NYC" and I can't wait!  If any of you have seen Bridesmaids, we keep quoting to each other "It's kind of silly for a grown up brother and sister to be living together..." in our fake English accents and we laugh every time.  :)

And because I'm too retarded to figure out how to add and move pictures on here...try this link to my facebook album!  I love technology

10 on Tuesday

Ok, I'm going to do a 10 on Tuesday just to keep my readers on board while I try to find the time (motivation) to actually blog about my FUNtastic summer!!)

1. I LOVE being alone.  Don't get me wrong...I like being around people too, but I seriously can't wait until I get to live alone again.  It's the greatest!

2.  I love lake.  I really don't even care what we do out there and I don't care that I'm a Ginger and occasionally get burned...I just like being out there.

3.  I have zero motivation to date right now.  Odd?  Maybe.  I feel like it's pretty normal though.

4.  I went to New York for my birthday to a) have a great time bc I've never been there before and b) to check it out bc I'm thinking of moving there next year.  Yup.  I'm on that trail until something tells me to abandon ship.  It won't be for about a year, but I'm getting my affairs in order to get out there.  I was telling Michael tonight that there are definite pros and cons, and I would for sure miss my family here, but sometimes you can either outgrow a city, or find that you're not living to your maximum potential.  It really isn't all about Las Vegas being awful.  It's not.  I'm happy and comfortable here.  I just think that sometimes we need change.  I'm not going to New York expecting the city to change my life, I'm going to the city to change my own life.  You're only as happy as you allow yourself to be.  Anywhoooo...soap box over :)

5.  I cried...a lot...watching Harry Potter 7 part 2 last week.  Amazing.

6.  I have signed up for yet another race...Red Rock Relay.  It's the week before I do Ragnar Napa Valley, so I need to start getting serious about my training and get my buns in gear!  My Half in Arizona isn't until November, so I have a little time for that one.  Why didn't I think about how hard it would be to get motivated to run in 106* weather??  I'm realizing that if I don't get up and out in the morning, that I'm pretty much shot for the rest of the day.  It was still 100* at 9:00 tonight!  Jeepers Mr!

7.  I'm so in love with my new little nephew August.  He's sooooo stinkin' cute!  I want him to stay little and cuddly forever.  I'm actually in love with all of those boys.  Gibson is very 2 right now, but I still think pretty much everything he does is hilarious!  Jonas is just so dang smart and so fun to talk to right now.  I love them :)

8.  I killed a scorpion the other day bc dad was out of town and mom couldn't bring herself to do it.  I mounted a shoe on a pole of sorts and beat the *ish out of it!  Mom had to clean it up though, since I killed it.  I feel like I got the lesser of 2 evils.

9.  I have the greatest friends on the planet.  Seriously.  I was thinking about it the other day and at every stage in my life I have had amazing friends that I've kept in touch with over the years.  I'm one lucky lady!

10.  I'm going in and out of the project/sewing bug lately.  I have all these ideas and yet only half the gumption to do them.  I'm thinking that maybe 1 project per month will cure me of thinking I have too many to do and freezing up the productivity train.

ps.  I'm loving Ames on the Bachelorette right now and I thought he was so weird looking in the first episode! Funny how things change after a few weeks.  If she breaks up with him, I'll nab him up when I'm in NYC!

Oh!  And I'm absolutely obsessed with the Civil Wars right now with Mumford and Sons in a close second.  Love!

A little of this, little of that

Before I get crazy and start telling you (bragging) about all of the fun things I've been doing lately, and why I'm too busy to sit down and write a legit post right now...I'm just going to say that I feel a bit like a square peg in a round hole lately.  I don't know what's with this little transition period I'm going through, and I will say that I'm enjoying the freedom of it, but have you ever had one of those periods in your life where you're just not sure where you fit in?  I took a brief hiatus from the social scene for the past couple of years, but really feel the need to get back out there and meet new people.  It's just not as easy as I remember!  I feel too young to sit at home watching tv or doing random projects, but too old to be going out to random house parties and "clubbing".  It's so weird.  I know it's just a transition, but sometimes I just feel like I'm wandering around, not really sure where to land.  That's all.

Ok, well enough of that...I'll give a brief synopsis (teaser) of my recent life happenings:

• New York was absolutely amazing and I want to go back a million times (or move there for a little while if Michael gets his way).  I'm so in love with that big juicy apple!
• As soon as I got back from NYC, I spent the weekend at the lake with some friends on the houseboat and then we took the motorboat out too.  It was an absolute blast, and I don't think I took many pictures, but it was so fun!  I love the lake!
• We moved our corporate office to a new location last week, so I've been working some major long hours, trying to catch up, get organized, and finish closing our month on time.  I'm absolutely exhausted by the time I get home and I don't want to look at another computer!  Hence the non-posting.
• And of course...bc I'm my mother's daughter...I decided that I didn't want to spend the long weekend alone (bc it seems like all my single friends are out of town, and my married friends have family stuff going on), so I'm heading to the beach this weekend to hang out with Mitchel and laze around on the sand all weekend.  I really am not sure I'm even going to pack anything but swimsuits!

Ok, good enough update for now...pics of everything coming soon.  So sad I'm not in Canada with my parents right now, celebrating the good ol' first of July with my crazy fun relatives, but c'est la vie!