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.