Track work

Anybody who lives in the city, and anyone who's visited, knows how dirty and awful the subways are. So dirty that you can't imagine what you would do if you ever dropped something on the track. Well that happened to me today. And it was not fun.

I was just listenin' to my i-pod, mentally preparing myself for my day at the crew. The train came to a stop at 42nd street and I got up to transfer subway lines. Somehow, and I have no idea how, my i-pod fell out of my pocket at just the exact moment that when it disconnected from my earphones it fell right down the crack between the subway door and the platform. It was like it happened in slow-motion; I saw it falling but couldn't do anything fast enough, and then I just stood there staring at my earphones swinging in the air. The people waiting to get on the train were clearly tourists and very concerned about what I would do. "We can see it", "Just wait for the train to leave.'' "Don't jump down there to get it". Are you kidding me, jump down there? In my work clothes? Not a chance.

I walked up the stairs to the booth and informed the extremely nice and helpful agent that I had dropped my i-pod and needed someones assistance to get it back. He made a call and I went back down to the very hot platform to wait for a guy with an orange vest to come help. He said it might be an hour. Even though it was super hot and I was starting to sweat way more than I would've liked, there was no way I was going to leave without music playing in my ears. If I wasn't there to show him exactly where it was then maybe he'd just give up and I'd be without an i-pod. Luckily he was there in about twenty minutes, grabbed it with his long pole with grabber fingers, and I was on my way.

Two Favorites

I sure love me some Olympics. And as much as I loved Michael Phelps, nothing compares to these two guys who became my favorite athletes from the games. Aussie diver Matthew Mitcham who thwarted China's gold-medal sweep in diving by performing a spectacular, three-10s awarding final dive and looking so adorable after doing so. And weight lifter Matthias Steiner from Germany, who beat the favored Russian to get gold in the 105kg and held up a picture of his wife who died last year in a car accident after being awarded his gold medal. Two golds couldn't have gone to two more deserving, genuine people.

Alone again....naturally?

Yesterday I put my sister on a train headed for Newark and on Wednesday I put my mom on a bus headed for La Guardia. So I'm all alone again after a week and a half of spending the time sharing the city with them. It was so weird getting used to having people with me all the time, and then when I finally got "used" to it and had to ride the subway home alone after Em left that was a little weird. But I adjusted to it pretty quickly and even took a little nap on the way home after the busy week we had.



If I had posted every night while they were here I could've given a much better account of what we did. But with my pretty awful memory, all I can really do is post some pictures and remember what we were doing, but a lot of the days just run together in my mind.

I first showed them around the city and a few places I like to go: Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Times Square. Well, I don't actually like to go to Times Square very often as it is overcrowded with a jillion people, but it's still an experience. And whenever I'm there at night it's kinda cool. So that first night Mom and Em were quite the troopers and did a lot of walking with me. You see, when you're in the city you don't think of walking as that big of a deal and everything seems close. We ended up walking from 42nd street all the way up to 72nd street, because whenever we'd stop somewhere to eat, look around, use a bathroom, I'd always think of something that was just a few more blocks up. But I think the city's the coolest at night and it's better than seeing a dirty subway station.

I'll just list off some of the things we did and then post some pictures to go with them (although I'm not quite as picture-taking crazy as Cat so there aren't as many as there should be): World Trade Center visitor's tour, pizza downtown, getting caught in the rain, playing Phase 10 in Central Park, eating at Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, going to the Top of the Rock (which in my opinion is cool than the Empire State Building), eating ice cream at Serendipity, having cannolis in Little Italy, going to a Broadway show, visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, staying up late to watch the Olympics, and being refused when I wanted to share my favorite place in the city with them--Grey's Papaya!

We also went to the American Museum of Natural History. I was super excited to see the dinosaurs and wanted to spend more time there.....
















while Emily was less than excited.
















So now it's back to the regular grind of work and life in the city. It's fun to see the city as a tourist for a little while because I usually see it as this crazy place that I'm constantly trying to stay ahead of and make my way in. It must be nice to just come for a little while and then get to go home. But this is home for me.

Belated Wishes

I had meant to make these posts on their respective anniversaries, but my Mom and Emily have been visiting so I've gotten a little behind. Mom went home today, and Em and I are just sitting here watching the Olympics. So better late than never.

First, Happy Birthday to Josh. It was his birthday on August 11. I've also got to give a shout-out to his brother George, who had his birthday on July 12. I love both these guys and miss they're cute smiles and fabulous personalities. This pic was taken a year ago at my going away party. Man, are they cute!



And then a Happy First Anniversary to Lindsay-loo and Scott. A year ago August 11th they had a fantastic wedding that I luckily got to be a part of. I loved my Maid of Honor duties and wish I could do it all again, if for only the chance to actually prepare my speech. (Darn my procrastinating, think I can wing it tendencies!)


Love you Lindsay-loo and miss you TONS! You're pretty awesome, too, Scott!

Happy Birthday Mo!!

Today is my nephew's birthday. I can hardly believe Moses is three years old! He's just so cute and I miss him so much; I'm afraid he won't know who I am as the last time I saw him in May it had been seven months since I'd last seen him and he had changed so much. But I love him and think he's just so cute. Here's a pick of the two of us when I was last home in May.




Happy Birthday Moses from 2,000 miles away!! Love ya! (Isn't he the cutest?!)

Partyin' it up!

This past Friday was planned as being a really awesome night. First, Stef and I along with a co-worker and her friends had reservations at UCB for Step Brothers--an improv routine with some of the funniest performers from AsssCat. That was going to be followed by celebrating Jose (a co-worker at the Crew)'s birthday at a club in Hell's Kitchen. It was going to be a fun night of laughs and dancing, and I was looking forward to it all week. This of course all hinged on the Crew not taking my on-call of 8-10. The Crew has been pretty tight with hours the past month, not taking anyone's on-calls and scheduling for minuscule 12-hours a week (making it awfully hard to make rent this month). So we all felt pretty confident that my on-call would not be taken and I could attend the show with them at 9:30. They took my on-call.

And so started the disappointing night. It's my own fault, though, as I tend to get so excited for things and hype them up so much in my mind that it never lives up to the expectations and hype that I've created. I'm not sure why I was so excited to go to Jose's birthday celebration; I barely even like going to get-togethers with people in my ward because I simply just don't like the forced togetherness of everything. But I can at least check off "Go to New York City club" off my list. And yes I danced. Not totally crazy like some of my intoxicated co-workers, but I got my groove on. But I was pretty much done with it after ten minutes.




So here's a few pics from the night. The guy with the fan is Jose; Meaghan is the chick in the blue and white dress; the top right is one of my favorite managers Matthew; and the bottom left is Marky Mark. I don't know the guy in the pic with Meaghan and me, he works at one of the Crews. I don't really see the appeal; loud music you can't talk over, expensive drinks (my manager Meaghan had to buy me two 7-ups along with her drinks because there's a $30 minimum), and co-workers all of a sudden thinking it's okay to be touchy-feely and dance all over you. Granted, some people like this. I definitely do not. Thank goodness you can't smoke in clubs.

Mad Grillin' Skillz

Last night we had an Enrichment BBQ, Our Relief Society counselor lives in a nice row house in Harlem which has a front porch and yard-type area, making it the perfect place for a nice block party. Since I'm on the Compassionate Service Committee I thought it best to go and show my support and compassion for all the sisters in the ward. Plus, hamburgers and hot dogs! It sure felt nice to eat some real food; I've been trying to save my money for when my mom and sister are out so I haven't gone real grocery shopping in awhile. So the expectation of getting some real food in my stomach was a huge motivator. That and Stefanie's Cheez Doodles.

I had already had one hamburger but was really craving a hot dog so I meandered over to the grill to see what I could get. There were no hot dogs on the grill as yet so I placed two on and somehow ended up being in charge of the grill for the rest of the night. I placed more meat on the grill and kept turning those patties all night long. That's right, I worked at Wendy's all thru high school so I knew what I was doing. But since I was manning the grill I didn't exactly get to mingle much with the girls. But I did get to talk with the elders who were there. They wondered if they were allowed to come to Enrichment as missionaries. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to be fed. They even ate the patties that were pretty charred and black, and I had to hurry and cook two more for them because they had to be inside in ten minutes.

Someone brought Oreos and that made my night of standing over the grill worth it. That and talking with Soo.