I don't heart New York

EVERYWHERE around here are those stupid I heart NY t-shirts. For a belated birthday trip a couple of weeks ago, Bryan and I went to NYC. A friend of mine from grad school is now living in NYC, so we had a free place to stay. While we had a fabulous time and she was a great host, I won't ever go back to NYC. It was crowded, dirty, loud, overwhelming, and just generally not the nicest place to go on vacation. But we got to see all of the fun sites, and it was so great to catch up with a friend of mine.

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry (which was free!).


Riding the carousel in Central Park. Central Park was the best part of the trip, even though Bryan refused to go ice skating with me (and he didn't want to go to a Broadway show...he's well aware that I'll hold that against him forever).

From BK 31 birthday

When you go to Central Park you have to get a hot dog from a vender. Note the ice rink in the background. The weather was downright tropical to us. It was about 20 when we left Rochester, and I think the day in Central Park was about 50. We basked in the sun, and Bryan actually managed to get a sunburn!

From BK 31 birthday

Trying out the first White Castle burgers we'd ever had (that's my friend Tana who hosted us). This White Castle was in the middle of Harlem (which she assured us was safe now...um, yeah...I'd never been so scared in the daylight in my life!). The burgers were G-R-O-S-S. I didn't even eat mine.

From BK 31 birthday

All in all, it was a fun birthday get-a-way. We saw Times Square, Greenwich Village, Harlem, Chinatown (yummy Pho), Little Italy (yummy desserts) and probably many other things I've forgotten. We walked until our legs were going to fall off, and successfully navigated the subway. Thanks to Tana for being a great host and not minding that we took up a good 300 sq ft of her 600 st ft apartment with the blow up air mattress.

Rest in peace my friend

Even things you expect are unexpected.

Every time you pick up the phone, you think "thank god, it's good to hear your voice."

Then you get the call, and before you even hear a word, you know what's coming. Maybe if you don't hear it, it won't be true.

It is.

My dear friend Travis died on Sunday. I'm unsure of the exact circumstances, and I don't want to know them. I do know that he was safe at home in bed. His sweet roommate found him on Monday and has had the horrific job of calling everyone they know, including his parents.

Travis had a rough life and battled a lot of mental demons. He was much too young to go (26), but I hope all of his troubles are gone. Trav, I'll miss you.

Backwards birthdays

A certain gentleman lives with me. That certain gentleman had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. Said gentleman doesn't like that he has crossed a certain age threshold, so that gentleman decide he's counting backwards now. So the gentleman had his #29 this year. Due to some yucky commitments (school for the gentleman, some very important grant deadlines for me), we were unable to party ala Prince (Like it's 1999) the day of. However, we were able to have an eating feast thanks to my mom. And if you know us, and you are a loyal reader of this blog, you know that we love to eat. love might be too low-key of a word. LOVE might be more like it. This was our first encounter with Edible Arrangements. Heavenly delicious fruit in the middle of winter. Hooray! It caused a feeding frenzy around here. It fed the 3 of us for a week solid. Ours had cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and chocolate-dipped apples. Although they are a bit pricey, they are worth every penny when all that is found in the grocery store is rock hard peaches and mealy apples. I highly recommend these as a unique gift that every fruit-lover will love.


This was the smallest basket of this variety available, and it filled up 3 GIANT tupperwares (after we'd already made a huge dent in it). The cute part is that the skewers are all stuck into a head of lettuce.

Shoot, work calls! More on our delayed birthday trip to NYC to follow......

Orthodontist update

So after being so bitter at my orthodontist, I heard back from them the same day, and they squeezed me in the next day (Thursday) at 12:30pm, which was as late as I could do since we were headed to NYC for a long weekend. When the receptionist called me with the new appointment, she apologized and explained that Dr. K had been out for 2 days for a funeral, and 4 staff had been out that week with the flu. Okay, fine, but don't pull out the pity card AFTER I call to make sure you are running on time and you tell me yes.

Either way, my polite yelling at the receptionist clearly made an impact. When I went in on Thursday, EVERYONE was apologizing to me. The ortho assistant, 2 receptionists, and Dr. K himself. I ended up having Dr. K for the entire appointment, which was his lunch break, because he felt badly about how I was treated. He told me the funeral excuse, but also said "That's no excuse, and I sincerely apologize for you having to wait and reschedule."

So all is fine, and although I'm still pissed about how much I've had to wait lately, they were genuinely sorry and did everything they could to make me happy. I also talked to the head receptionist about getting a discount, since I'll be out of treatment WAY early, and she said she'd talk to Dr. K about it. A few hours later I got a call from her, and he's going to review my chart and discuss how much discount I can have at my next appointment. Yay! Even if it's $50 I'd be happy, since they normally don't discount at all (you pay for straight teeth, not time).

And the biggest news of all......

THE BRACES ARE COMING OFF MAY 1ST!

My hatred of my orthodontist's office

Almost exactly one year ago, I forked over $5,600 (well, part of that, and I'm paying for rest) in the pursuit of straight teeth. Being one year older and one year wiser, I wouldn't do it again. But that's an entirely different post.

The point of this post is to state how much I hate my orthodontist, Dr. Kaufman in Rochester, NY (and yes, I sure hope this post shows up if someone does a search on him). I only have to go in generally every 8 weeks. The first few appointments were right on time, no troubles. They even squeezed me in with a tech the same day several times for poking wires, infections, etc.

Things have rapidly gone south though. 3 appointments ago, they were 30 minutes late. Okay, I figured it was a fluke and they apologized profusely. 2 appointments ago they were ONE HOUR late. Even when I finally was seated by a tech, the appointment was an hour and a half because Dr. Kaufman was still so far behind. To add insult to injury, 3 people were bumped ahead of me in line because they "needed less time with the doctor" (I was getting 8 brackets re-positioned). I spent a total of TWO AND A HALF HOURS there, for what was supposedly a 40 minute appointment.

I had an appointment today at noon. I called at 11:30 to see if they were running behind, since I had a lot of work things I needed to get done. The receptionist checked, and said everything was fine, come at noon. This same receptionist saw me walk in a half hour later and said "Hi Tia, I'm sorry to tell you that we are running behind now." I seriously thought she was kidding, since I had just spoken with her. She wasn't. I grab the latest issue of People and have a seat. I read it cover to cover, and they still haven't called me. I wait a few more minutes, until I'm fuming with anger. At 12:50, nearly an hour past my scheduled time (which was on time just 30 minutes before my time), I've had enough and I go to the receptionist and tell her I can't wait any longer. It took all I had to resist my urge to scream at her. It isn't the nice receptionist's fault that Dr. K can't keep up with his patients. She tries to reschedule me for a week from today. Um, NO, these are supposed to come off in 6 weeks, you're not pushing me off a week for my last adjustment, especially when it isn't my fault that it isn't happening today. She took my number and is calling me after she gets a chance to talk with Dr. K. Who knows when that will be, since he can't even manage to see all of his patients.

The moral of the story is that Dr. Kaufman is all about money and cares not at all about his patients. He has taken on more patients than he can handle, and I am suffering because of it. I'm no longer important, because I have already agreed to pay him, and that's money in his pocket. But I paid for 20-24 months of treatment, and I'm only going to end up with 12 months. You'd better believe I'm asking for some of my money back, and a nasty letter is coming his way.

Movies, babies, and movies about babies

This weekend marked the debut of Adelaide Marie! Congratulations to Joe and Maria on the birth of their first baby. I was so excited when I got the call from Joe. Then Bryan says to me, "See, that's the difference between chicks and dudes. You're all excited about this, and I'm depressed. I really liked hanging out with them, and this baby means that we have to find new friends. People with babies can only talk about babies." Men! I guess he is right in a way, in the same way that single people don't generally have married friends, but I have faith that life won't be 100% baby for Mo and Joe, as evidenced by her heading off to a conference in 3 short weeks, and to our wedding in 8 weeks (all with Addy of course).

Bryan was really busy this weekend with clinicals and homework, so I spent the weekend movie watching. Last night I went to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Oscar nominated (I think it won for something?), and depressing as all get out! Based on a true story, the French editor of Elle magazine is an ass, has a girlfriend and 3 kids with her, but cheats on her all the time. Then he has a stroke and is "locked-in" and can only blink one eye. He blinks out the story of his life, with the aid of a charming woman, and dies 10 days after the book is published.

Next up, and BY FAR the best of the 3 movies I saw, was the documentary "The Business of Being Born." It was done by none other than Ricki Lake, but in this movie there are no Jerry Springer-esque moments. It was a fascinating look about how we medicalize births in this country, to the detriment of both women and babies. The picture below is an actual picture from the movie, where this mom delivered her baby at home, squatting (a much more natural position), and picked it up just before the baby hit the floor. This movie really showed the nasty cycle of pitocin-epidural-pitocin-epidural that causes fetal distress and leads to a c-section, all because doctors are impatient and won't let the body do what it needs to do.

The third movie was a total chick flick called "Definitely, Maybe." It was cute, and had some twists and turns as you waited throughout the movie to find out which girl he ends up with. NOt a high-class film, but it was entertaining.

Also to relieve boredom this weekend, I went to DSW, the best shoe-store on earth (okay, the best affordable shoe store on earth). I got some comfy walking shoes (Kangaroos, which Bryan says he had as a kid, but I've never heard of them) and some cute/comfy shoes for the cruise.

From March 2008

From March 2008

Yes, those bare legs you see are because I was wearing a skirt, enjoying the high of 67 degrees! No worries, the next few days were in the 20's and 30's with snow and ice.

We ended the weekend with a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Bryan felt bad about being so busy all weekend, so we had a lovely dinner and spent some nice time together discussing the political state of our country. A very heady topic for dinner, but we had fun.

Fruit crisp and general updates

This is one of my staple desserts because it is easy to make and relatively healthy (as far as desserts go).

The recipe itself is designed for a 2 quart square baking dish. I like to make it in my ramekins, so I adjust the amount of fruit slightly. If you use the baking dish, it calls for 5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples, peaches, pears, or apricots. Now here is how I make it:

Fill 4 ramekins (mine are from Ikea) about 3/4 full with fruit.

From feb 08

For the ones in these pictures, I used 2 granny smith apples, about 1/3c frozen blueberries that I picked in the summer, and 1/2 of the big package of raspberries at the store (or an entire small one). I usually use a mix of peaches (again, frozen from the summer, but thawed first) and blueberries, but we've eaten up all of the peaches from the summer :( The only fruit I have used that was a failure was pear. It made it way too runny. Because I use fresh fruit (or fruit I picked), I don't ever add sugar to the fruit.

Once you have the fruit in the ramekins, you make the topping by mixing these together:

1/2c oats
1/2c packed brown sugar
1/4c flour
1/4tspn nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon (I've only used cinnamon because we like it the best)
1/4c nuts - optional (I've only used nuts once, since I'm not a big nut fan)

To this mixture, cut in 1/4c of butter until mix is crumbly. Divide mix over ramekins (about 1/2c per ramekin).

From feb 08

From feb 08

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes until nice and bubbly. They are best warm, and you can serve with ice cream if you like (Bryan likes his with whipped cream).

From feb 08

Our review of the raspberry, apple, blueberry combo is that is isn't the winner that the combo with the peaches are. We really like the sweetness and juiciness that peaches add.

If you like this and want to save time, I make a double batch of the topping (without the butter) and put it in a ziploc so it's all ready to go for the next time.

When I wasn't baking this week, I was taking care of Bryan, who was stricken with the evil flu. Of course, with his pre-existing issues, having the flu for him is really scary. Here is how he felt a few days ago:

From feb 08

Here's how he feels today:

From feb 08

He's still not at 100%, but he's much better and the gut-wrenching coughing is almost gone. We're both so happy that he's feeling better! I knew he was starting to feel a bit more like himself on Sunday when I heard him singing again. It is the cute way to judge his mood...he's always singing when he's happy. I was happy to finally get a kiss after a week of no contact in an attempt to keep me from getting sick (which worked!).

My sweet mom sent him cookies while he was incapacitated. Yum!

From feb 08

Markisa says thanks for the cookies too, as she loved the box.

From feb 08

And finally, if any of you are blog readers that haven't responded to your wedding invites yet, know you're in the dog pile! We are having a small affair with our nearest and dearest, and 6 of the 11 invitations have yet to be returned! Almost all of our non-RSVP-dependent planning is completed, and now we're really looking forward to the wedding and the cruise, especially since we're getting 8 inches of snow as I type this!

The terrible twos? No way!

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. Two years since I met that adorable man in Powell's, and the first thing he said to me was "Darn, you caught me in the comic book section. I hoped you would see me reading some science book and think I was smart." I was already hooked! From there we went to vegetarian chinese food, played old video games at a funky arcade, and had cupcakes at Saint Cupcake. It was so much fun and was definitely the longest first date I had ever had. I never would have predicted that 2 years later I'd be living in the frigid east, preparing for my wedding!

Yesterday, like the romantic couple we are, we worked (Tia did) took a nursing school test (Bryan did), had spaghetti for dinner (it was too icy and snowy to go to the store) and watched 3 episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo. Tres romantique!

Yesterday, in other words, it was a pretty normal day. However, we did have a fun early celebration together on Sunday. After taking an early morning test (a 94, good job baby!), we went to breakfast at Simply Crepes, came home and relaxed for a bit, then headed off to the spa thanks to Sherri and my mom. It was so nice and peaceful. Then home to shower, off to dinner (oops, our favorite place is closed on Sunday, which we discovered as we drove by it). Dinner take 2 was a Vietnamese place. It was okay, but we were the only people in there and it was really cold! With it being a whopping 6 degrees outside, we were looking for warmth. After dinner we went to see Cabaret, with Portlander (and Rockstar Supernova finalist) Storm Large. She was great, but that musical is SO bizarre! We enjoyed it, even though Bryan asked me several times if I had slipped drugs in his dinner...that's how bizarre Cabaret is! The night was capped off with dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Yesterday I was reminded of my future. My future with a man who said, spur of the moment when we were being silly, "We are going to have the best marriage." And I knew he meant it. Baby, if you ever read this, I wholeheartedly agree and can't wait for May. Here's to saying goodbye to celebrating February 12th and hello to May 9th.

Oatmeal chocolate chip banana muffins

It's no secret that I love to bake. Lucky for me, I live in a house where people love to eat baked goods. It's a win-win for all involved. My lastest find is from Allrecipes.com, my favorite cooking website.

These are just too good not to share the recipe. I've made them twice now, and both times they were fantastic. I used my new silicone muffin liners that my mom gave me. I'm not sure if they are the key to this, since I haven't made them any other way. I really like that you make this in just one bowl. No combining wet and dry required.

Directions:

Mash 3 very ripe bananas in a large bowl.
Add 1/2c sugar to the bananas and stir
Add 1 beaten egg and 1/3c apple sauce (I used cinnamon because it is what I had, and it was great) and stir
Add 1tspn baking soda, 1.5tspns baking powder, 1c flour, 1/2c quick cooking oats, 1/2tspn salt and stir
Fold in 3/4c chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

The end result:


You can see that just minutes out of the oven and many were already gone!

Updates for my mama

Mom, this whole post is just for you. Don't you feel special?

Here is the re-sized wedding band. I'm sorry the pictures is so blurry, but my camera just doesn't do close-ups very well. It looks fantastic in person and I love it. Thanks for coming to pick it out with me.



Bryan's ring. Note that he put it on his right hand. The left hand was "too scary." He's funny. There was no way my camera would take a picture of the engraving, but it came out very nicely.

From feb 08

Check out the cool ring "box" his ring came in. My ring came in a vintage heart box with a neat little clasp on it, but I forgot to take a picture of it.



The veil, which is 150 times better than the crummy one from Target.

From feb 08

The beautiful flowers you sent that definitely made my day. Unfortunately, as is the issue with tulips, they don't last forever, so we had to finally throw them away today. We all really enjoyed them though, and the red vase they came in is beautiful.


A few pictures of our apartment.





The view from our window today. Although 3 days ago it rained and the grass was bare, 2 days ago we had freezing rain and today it snowed on top of the ice. I haven't even been brave enough to go unearth my car for 3 days now.


Hope this catches us up on all of the things I've promised. More apartment pictures at some point. I love you and miss you. Can't wait to see you in May!

Some days are just crap

Some days I really miss having my girl friends spread out all over the country. Even many of the local ones have moved away. I guess it doesn't matter much anyway, as the only privacy I get on the phone is when I go sit in my car! And it's cold outside, and I've been forbidden from complaining via the phone, so blogging it is.

The day started off with a braces adjustment, which always makes for a crappy day since my teeth start to hurt a couple of hours after. They were running 25 minutes late, and then made me sit in the chair with those horrible mouth expanders in for 10 minutes while the dentist was running behind as well. They ripped off (literally) 8 brackets, filed down the glue that smelled so awful I started to gag, then replaced them and gave me ouchie new wires. Crappy thing #1

Today I found out a friend of mine recently got engaged. Is is terrible that all I could think to say to her (besides congrats), is "Be prepared for the hell of wedding planning"? Just don't do it. Get engaged, go elope, and be done with it. I can't even fathom being one of those women who spends 2 years planning a wedding. I would have become suicidal long before I reached the 24 month mark. Weddings really seem to bring out the worst in everyone, and it is a shame since it really is such a happy event. Crappy thing #2

I went to a meeting today for work. After the meeting I sat in my car and cried (my compatriot...we'll call her L...at the meeting did so as well, so it wasn't just me having a bad day). L and I have worked very hard getting a project going, and this nasty hag screamed at us for over an hour for absolutely no reason. I am NOT one to ruin a business prospect, but at one point I heard myself saying "there is no reason for you to be rude, that is inexcusable behavior." After the meeting L said she wanted to jump across the table and hug me for saying that. We have pretty much discovered that this group of people we were really excited to work with is using us (currently for free) with no intention of actually giving us business. They are clearly using us for our expertise and plan to screw us over right at the end. Thankfully we caught on now, but it makes it no less hurtful. The atrocities that have gone on are too numerous to list, but let's just say I hope a number of these witches lose their jobs soon (which actually is a real possibility). This town just breeds spiteful, angry, burned-out people. It's a shame, since the real losers here are innocent children, but it makes me even more happy to be going back to Portland. Crappy thing #3 (the meeting, not the going-back-to-Portland part)

I hold hope that tomorrow will be a better day!

P.S. Mom, I haven't forgotten about the pictures for you. I can't find my camera, but as soon as I do I'll take them for you.

P.P.S. The one bright spot in the day was I did my taxes and I'm getting a huge refund back! It helps make the loss from the house much more bearable.

A time, a place, a date

Yes ladies and gentlemen, after much debate and Mitt Romneying (i.e. flip-flopping), we have settled on wedding plans! A huge thanks to my mom who recognized the mounting frustration, took the reigns, and just started planning things. Another huge thanks to random person at Audrey's (my future MIL) work who came up with the final winning idea which Brad and Audrey so nicely went to check and give the thumbs up for. More to be announced once the very few invites go out this week. The rest of you will be invited to the "reception" sometime this summer in Portland.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorites of the engagement photos we had taken back in November. I had to wait to post them since many were Christmas gifts to family. It was a very chilly, rainy day, but the park by our old house was a great location and the photographer and her hubby were great to work with.

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

From Engagement ph...

And our favorite, which will probably be used as the reception invitation:

From Engagement ph...

Stella (Tia) got her grove (Bryan) back

Thursday, December 20th the school gods decided to give Bryan a break and make that his last day for the term. The pukeys made him miss 2 days of clinicals, but due to the laziness of his instructors, they didn't want to have to make up the days with him. It's SO nice to have him "back." By Friday he was his normal, silly, picking on me self which I had so greatly missed.

We've been doing our best to have tons of play time in amongst selling the house and working (me). To celebrate him being done, we had a really fun date night going out to see Sweeney Todd (bizarre yet good) and having dinner at this very "Portland" upscale pizza place with the most fantastic tiramisu I've had in a long time. In addition to Sweeney Todd we went to see Juno last night (great flick) and we've rented Waitress (not that good, but I was still entertained) and Eastern Promises (which I have no idea what happened because I couldn't understand their thick Russian accents). Bryan has also watched I Am Legend and part of The Bucket List online. Yes, we've been movie junkies!

The movies were interspersed between a few episodes of Six Feet Under (which we love) and lots of cable...namely marathons of Flip that House (we were sucked into this until 1am one night!), Say Yes to the Dress (okay, that was me that watched a pathetic FOUR hours of it, but I did at least unpack while I was watching), Stand Up on Comedy Central, and some marathon on TLC about people at this fat center in New York. We clearly missed having cable :) I'm not ashamed at all to admit how much TV we've been watching, since come mid-January Bryan will be back to school and the TV will stay dark just like it did last term.

Christmas was a low-key affair, since we had adopted a family for Christmas. However, our parents still managed to spoil us royally. I guess the "no gifts" thing is impossible for moms! Christmas Eve we went to Sherri and Kevin's where we had a fantastic meal! Appetizers of cheese and crackers, strawberries, cold shrimp, and a fig/feta/hazelnut thing that was so good. Dinner was lobster, risotto, homemade mac and cheese, a fancy salad with raspberries in it, and bread. Dessert was homemade lava cakes. Of course the champagne was flowing as well, which was delicious with a splash of the marionberry wine added in that we had brought. It was a scrumptious meal and it was really fun to be around young kids on Christmas Eve and remember the excitement.

Last night (New Year's) we had a fantastic meal that Bryan made which consisted of cheese and artichoke quiche as an appetizer, fruit he picked out just for me (fresh pineapple and raspberries), steak that he did an amazing job of cooking, butternut squash, and rolls. Dessert was eclairs with chocolate frosting on the top. After the late dinner, we went to see Juno, then came back to watch the ball drop and toast with some Eye of the Bee, our favorite wine from a local winery (expect it to make an appearance at our reception).

When we weren't eating or watching TV, we were unpacking. Supposedly, after a last minute panic by the buyer that cost me $100 because I was too tired to fight anymore), my house finally closed. That was the 27th, and I haven't heard from my attorney or my real estate agent that it actually did close, but I know if someone had gone wrong the bitch..err...realtor would have called. I still need to write to her boss and tell him what a horrible person she was. I'm just thankful it's all done.

The sea of boxes has been downgraded to a creek of boxes, which is at least moving in the right direction. I hope to have everything unpacked before the trip to Portland next week for my dad's 80th birthday! Can't wait to be back home where the high is higher than 18 (which is the forecast here for the next 2 days!).

The wedding is, well, frustrating to say the least. Still no date, no plan, and no location even remotely decided upon. Every idea is shot down by at least one person. We're hoping to make progress when we are back home.

There's no place like home (wherever that may be)

I never quite know what to say when people ask me where "home" is. My heart considers Portland to be home, while my address and physical presence consider Rochester to be home.

Either way, I'm not at home.

Where am I? Oh, well THANKS for asking, because I was just going to tell you! Currently, I'm sitting in Penn Station in NYC.

My intended route was a flight from Portland at 7:20am, with a 3:30pm connection in Newark, ending in Rochester (and back with my love) at 5:45pm. Mother Nature didn't like that plan.

Everything was fine when I left Newark. By the time I got to Newark, all flights out to Toronto, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Boston, Albany, Portland Maine, and probably others were cancelled. They rebooked me for:

TUESDAY (keep in mind it was 4pm on Sunday)

Bryan the wonder finance (insert superhero music here) got his brain a-thinkin'. Renting a car wasn't an option due to cost and weather conditions. He found a train ticket that left from the airport at 6am Monday. Not the best, but better than Tuesday. Then he found out that Greyhound had a bus leaving at 6pm. The catch was that I had to get a cab and go to the bus station (which is also the train station), because they don't reserve seats (huh?). So I go. Turns out that the people he spoke to on the phone were morons, because the bus had been canceled to western NY.

So now I'm in Newark's Penn Station. To say it was scary is an understatement. Rampant poverty and homelessness, beggars, and a confusing, overwhelming system of trains and buses that only a native understands. But I put on my cute "help-me-even-though-I'm-dirty-and-smelly" face, and the very kind woman at the train took pity on me and walked me through buying a ticket to get to NYC ("you don't want to stay here overnight honey - no way") where I would need to wait 13 hours to get the 7:15am Amtrak to Rochester (an $85 ticket). She was so kind in a time when I really needed someone to be nice to me, lest I break down in tears in the big scary city. She had me come back near the time my NYC train was to depart and walked me to the right "line" or "platform" or whatever it was I had to stand on to catch my train to Hogwarts...er...NYC.

While sitting there a nice (yet scary-looking) African American man struck up a conversation with me, called me "mama," said that I was nuts to stay overnight in th NYC train station (a scary thought coming from him), and said I "looked like a woman with money....I know them braces ain't cheap." But he helped me get on the train, so I'll give him a thumbs up.

So now I sit at the NYC station (which is right at Madison Square Garden...cool if I wasn't so terrified to venture outside of the train station and get lost, plus it's cold). I'm 5 hours into my 13 hours. Thankfully they have internet (at 9.95, but totally worth it) to keep my occupied, and I bought some cheap headphones so I can watch some online T.V. I'm trying to stay under the radar because for some reason, even though I have a ticket and I'm in the special Amtrak area, you can only sit here for 2 hours. They have chased one sketchy looking guy out already, but I think as a descent (although yucky) looking woman, they will leave me alone.

What an adventure I would rather have not had! So overall I'm $105 and a day in the negative, but I should be home tomorrow afternoon (oh, it's today now!). Who knew that THIS would be my first time in NYC?

I heart Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is like a close piece of heaven. Okay, that is a little bit of exaggeration, but it is definitely my favorite place for an inexpensive, fun overnight getaway. It is like a smaller version of Vegas or any tacky tourist town, with it's Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, wax museum, "house of horrors" and the like. But I love it because it's under 2 hours away and staying there is pretty cheap. Oh yeah, and the falls.

Last month (yep, I'm waaay behind), two friends and I met up in NF. One came from Pittsburgh and the other from Erie. We are friends from high school, and they hadn't seen each other since high school, and I had only seen them once or twice.

What a fun weekend we had! Seriously, we need to have girl's weekends more often! We just went overnight, but we managed to go to the spa and get facials, gamble a bit (I won $30!), go out dancing, and eat a 3 hour long buffet breakfast. It was such a blast catching up with them and talking about old friends and long-past high school days. We were out dancing until 1am I think (super late for Em and I, who might as well be old ladies now that neither of us are single), and then stayed up until 3am just chatting.

From Girls Weekend

Last weekend Bryan and I went to NF overnight just to get away from wedding planning, moving, and schoolwork. It was REALLY cold, but we had so much fun! We weren't so lucky with the gambling, but still only lost $20 between the two of us. Like the children that we are, we spent more time in the arcade. They have this fun mini-bowling game. I asked Bryan why he wasn't smiling in this picture, and he said "this is my focused bowling face." Hmm, funny to me that "focused" looks very similar to "deer caught in the headlights." He still hasn't figured out how the timer on my camera works, and it cracks me up.


We stood outside in the 28 degree weather to watch the fireworks over the falls. It was very cold, but neat. They also had the falls lit up and the entire strip had Christmas displays. The one below is my favorite.

From NF getaway No...

We went to the Hershey store and didn't buy anything since the prices were way higher there than at the grocery store. But we did get to take some tacky tourist photos there and at other locales.

From NF getaway No...

Tacky tourist photo #2

From NF getaway No...

Tacky tourist photo #3

From NF getaway No...

The shocker of the trip was going into Denny's for dinner, opening the menu, and finding out that no food item (including salads) was under $13! At Denny's! They had a special 3-course meal that was soup or salad, one of 3 entrees, and one of a few dessert choices. TGI Friday's (usually more expensive than Dennys) does this same thing for $12.99 sometimes. Guess how much it was at Denny's. $21.99. No joke! We ended up leaving and going to a lovely Italian place a few doors down. For $33 (including the 18% tax and tip) we got a yummy wood fired pizza, ceasar salad for 2, tiramisu, and drinks for both of us. A much better deal and much better food. To end the great overnight on a good note, we went to not one but TWO outlet malls and we sailed through the border crossing. Now that's my idea of a great getaway!

Friday Fall Foliage

The view from my office window today.