Unexpected Beach Day

Yesterday morning I went into the city to have brunch for book club one last time before I move home. It was great. We didn't talk about the book at all! Someone (I think it was Meg) pointed out how funny it was that when book club started and none of us really knew each other we all read the book and came prepared, with our list of questions and comments. But now that we all know each other and have become friends we show up to brunch and just kind of forget to bring the book up at all.

As we were finishing up with brunch I asked what fun things people were doing for the day. Meg (she's the other redhead in the photo above, by the way. Right across from me) told me that her ward in Brooklyn is going to the beach, so she was going to Penn Station to catch a train to Long Island to go with. That is when I recalled that on Friday night Sadie was trying hard to convince me to go to Long Island to the beach with her and our ward. I asked Meg if this was a multi-ward sort of an event and she said that yes, she thinks it is. So I invited myself to go with. I bought a sundress off the street on the way from the restaurant to the subway (Oh yeah the restaurant. Cafe Mei Mei in Brooklyn, which had the most amazing, cornflake battered french toast ever), hopped on a train with Meg, and went to Jones Beach.

This is a picture Patrick took and I stole off his facebook (thanks Patty) of Me, Sadie, Meg, and Sarah chatting just off the boardwalk

Meg, myself, and Karen (who I just met on this trip and is wonderful) hanging out on the beach.

And here I am with Sadie. We had a lot of fun. There was a volleyball tournament, frisbee, and just general lounging around. The water was SO cold, so I just put my little toes in for a few minutes...well, the cold water and the fact that I had no swimsuit is probably why I only put my little toes in. After we finished soaking up the sun and hanging out we (Meg, Karen, myself, and a number of Megs friends) got back on the train and went to dinner at the Shake Shack. It was such a great day.

Bye, Bye East Coast

The plan all along has been to live in Connecticut for two years (it's been about a year so far). Someone decided that they didn't like that plan so they went ahead and changed the plan for me.
Anyway, the point is, I'm moving home! And I will be there....are you ready for it...Tuesday, June 15, 2010. That's right. Just a little over two weeks and I will live in Utah again! I am still not fully sure how I feel about this new "plan". I am so excited to see my family and friends again, I've missed them terribly. But I really love the Pags and am going to miss them a lot, and I REALLY love New York City and I am going to miss it like I can't even explain. I think I'm still a little in shock about the whole thing. Both excited and sad, so I'm just trying to focus on the excited parts. Anyway, that's the news. Now you know.

Girls Night, Mystic, and Robin Hood

I haven't blogged in a while...sorry, I'll have to do a few update posts sometime but for today I will just write about my weekend, which was wonderful. On Friday, Sadie and I got all dressed up and went into White Plains, NY for a little girls night out. It's always fun hanging out with Sadie but Friday was especially fun cause we got the VIP treatment from the clubs while we were hanging out. We’re talking bouncers ignoring the long line of people waiting and hoping to get in so he can pull aside the velvet rope to let us in, then when we told him "Thanks but Sadie doesn't have her ID on her" he took us around to the side door to let us in there. It was great!

On Saturday, I drove my little self to Mystic, CT (which I've wanted to do since I moved here) and had a "little slice of heaven" (that would be Mystic Pizza...you know, like in the Julia Roberts movie, Mystic Pizza...) It was a pretty great slice, and the employees of Mystic Pizza were awesome. My waitress was chatting with me and then the manager Rob came up and was chatting with us. Then he volunteered to get in the picture with me and my slice of famous pizza.

After lunch I wandered around Mystic. It is a little fishing village and it used to be a big whaling port so I saw some cool things like the last surviving wooden whaling ship, a cute little lighthouse, and some tall ships. It was a fun little day. Then on Sunday, I went and saw the new Robin Hood movie, which I loved. All in all it was a pretty great weekend.

Me, My Mom, and Washington DC

I can't even begin to find the words to explain what an amazing time I had between the night of April 13th and the morning of April 19th, 2010. Lucky for me i don't have to, I think I heard someone say once that a picture is worth a thousand words....here are a few thousand words:

look closer...I'm on the balcony at the Library of Congress

On the tour of our nations capitol

Almost eaten alive at the Smithsonian!

What Did You Do This Weekend?

Well, Michelle, since you asked...I will tell you (wow, I'm such a nerd!)
I went into New York City on Saturday.

The first place I went was Union Square. It was a beautiful day and lots of people were out selling things and hanging out...this isn't a picture of that. This is a picture that I stole off the Internet because I wanted to show you the stores that I went to. DSW and Filene's Basement. If you don't know, DSW is a wonderful shoe store, and Filene's Basement is...well, it's better in Boston but its fun here too, it's basically a store with some great clothes and stuff for some great deals. They are both in this building in the picture above.

And this picture is one that I did take, it's Union Square out the window of Filene's Basement which is not a basement but actually on the top floor of that building in the picture that I didn't take. Whew.
After I shopped for a while (without buying anything, by the way) I decided to head to Times Square to the Tkts booth to see if I could find some discount tickets for a Broadway show that I might want to see. I didn't. I got there and decided that I wanted to see Chicago but the discount tickets weren't that discounted and the nice lady told me I would probably get a better deal if I just went to the box office and bought them there. So that is what I did. I got to the box office and found out that I could get some decent enough seats for a little more that $100 OR I could take the standing room only tickets (which she informed me were assigned spaces and she had one available that was a great view behind a wall to lean forward onto and next to a wall that I could lean sideways onto...did that make sense...) for about $27. Since I have recently discovered that saving money needs to be a top priority for me right now, I decided to see Chicago standing up...I can handle leaning for two hours, right? So I bought my ticket and moved on to the next part of my day.

Battery Park! Like I said earlier, it was a beautiful day, so I decided to go wander around Battery Park for a while. I saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (from a distance, I didn't ride the ferry out there), I saw a very entertaining street performance, I enjoyed the sunshine. It was great.

I also saw this statue that used to sit at the base of the World Trade Towers. I remember seeing it there when I came to New York back when I was sixteen.

After that, since I was in the area, I walked over to see the bull. I don't know who this guy in the picture is, it was impossible to get a shot of the bull without having someone in it. And it was also impossible (ok not impossible but more effort than I was willing to put forth) to get a picture of me and the bull...at least his head.

There was no waiting or pushing at all if you wanted to take a picture of yourself with the bull and his...um...backside so I got some nice people to snap my photo there instead. Say cheese!

Then it was time for the show! Note: after wandering around all day, two hours actually is a really long time to stand to watch a show. And on top of that the show was just ok...or maybe it was because of that, I haven't decided. Anyway, I suggest forking over the extra money for a seat.

Sunday!

On Sunday I went shopping. It was another beautiful day and I decided to go to the Woodbury Common outlet stores. My friend Megan told me once that she thought they were in Connecticut. I knew they were actually in New York but since she got confused I figured they must be at least close to Connecticut...not really. But the hour and a half drive was so worth it. These are outlet stores for very high end merchandise, which made it fun to wander around. I bought a couple of pairs of shorts, some jeans, a few tops, and a necklace. I refrained from buying the Jimmy Choo shoes that I fell in love with, because even though they were at the discounted outlet stores, $600 for a pair of (beautiful and wonderful) shoes is still out of my price range.

So there you go. That's what I did this weekend. (I was going to say that was my weekend in a nutshell but that was no nutshell...that was a dang novel! Sorry!)

Happy Easter

Me, Chris, Dorothy, Madeleine, and Alex just before we went to Redding Country Club for Easter brunch.

Book Club Brunch

Today was fun. I met up with the book club that I joined (but until this morning hadn't had a chance to attend) for brunch. My friend Megan started the book club and I've been reading the books but have always been busy with work when they have met. But today I wasn't busy, and it was great. We went to Sarabeth's (a delicious restaurant near Central Park) and ate wonderful food (Apple-Cinnamon French Toast with banana. Yum!) and chatted. Then Megan, Jessie and I did a little shopping (I bought a great cardigan at H&M). After that I went to Bloomingdales then Filene's Basement and wandered around a little more. It was a pretty great day.

Madeleines Math Test

Problem: Queen Arlene has a problem. She wants to divide her land among her three children. She wants her oldest daughter to get 1/2 of the land and her younger daughters to each get 1/3 of the land. Can she do it? Explain your answer.

Mads answer: No because it is not fair for the older sister to get more than the younger sisters.

How Little Girls Play Basketball

• Everyone runs to whichever end of the court is appropriate
• The ball is dribbled (a little awkwardly)
• The ball is passed to one of the little girls
• Every single member of the team then puts her arms up and yells the name of whomever has possession of the ball, over and over again
• The girl that has the ball stops, looks around (for at least...oh I don't know...thirty seconds maybe), and passes the ball to whomever is yelling her name the best
• At this point, the routine is either repeated, or the ball is hurled towards the basket
• They do it all over again

It is maybe the cutest thing you'll ever see. I love to watch it, just cause its so darn entertaining!

"Maddy! Maddy! Maddy! Here Maddy! Over here Maddy! Pass it to me...Maddy!"

Another Day In The City

Yesterday I went to the city again. It was fun, the weather was beautiful, I wandered around for a while then met up with Sadie and some of her friends. We went to the Museum of Sex which was interesting, then to dinner at Blue Smoke, which was just alright (it would have better if I wasn't a vegetarian and didn't have to wait for two hours for a table at a BBQ restaurant...and if the service didn't suck...) but my favorite part of the day was when I (for the first time ever) hailed a cab in New York City. I'm not sure why that was so exciting to me...all I did was stand on the street with my arm in the air, but it was very cool. It was a pretty fun day.

Love From Kinley

Grandma Jean and Kinley made this video for me about a month ago with Grandma Jeans phone so they could send it to my phone. I love that she calls me "Aunt Chelle" and I love that "Aunt" sounds more like "Amp" ...sigh...I miss my girl...

Sleepy Hollow

One of the things on my "list of things to do while I'm living back east" is to visit Sleepy Hollow, New York. It was a beautiful weekend and I had no plans so on Sunday that is what I did. I found on itunes a pod cast of someone reading the legend (which, by the way, was written by Washington Irving in 1820) and I listened to it on my way to see where the legend of the Headless Horseman came from. It was a pretty great day. My first stop was the Old Dutch Church (where Ichabod Crane sought refuge from the Headless Horseman) and the Old Dutch Burying Ground (where legend says the Horseman was buried and came from each night)

Besides it being kind of cool that this is an important chunk of the story, It was also really beautiful there. It was so cool to see the headstones that were dated in the 1700 and 1800's. I found it interesting that most of the stones (at least the ones you could still read) said the persons name, the year they died and their age at death in years and days (e.g. lived to be 47 years and 17 days old)

After that I went to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which surrounds the Old Dutch Burying ground and didn't exist at the time the story was written. The Bridge in the picture above is the Headless Horseman Bridge, which is within the newer cemetery.

I also went to Washington Irvings (the author) grave

This was really cool too. Its a monument and some of the solders of the the Civil War.

The last stop of my day was in Tarrytown (right next to Sleepy Hollow) for a tour of Lyndhurst. A beautiful mansion that was built in 1838, and was lived in until 1961. They have restored it, and it still has the original furnishings and art work in it, which was pretty cool to see.

This is the view of the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee Bridge that you can see from the mansion.

I, just like Eric Clapton, Have a Rock & Roll Heart Too!

I just got back from the Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck concert at Madison Square Garden. I can't even explain how amazing it was! AMAZING!! Here are a few photos from the evening.

Jeff Beck played for about an hour, then Eric Clapton played for about an hour, then they played together for about an hour. It was such a great show.