I'm Pregnant!

Just kidding. I'm NOT pregnant. I'm also not quite as skinny as I used to be, but just to set the record straight - no pending babies here, although I do plan regularly to kidnap my brother's baby once he's no longer nursing. You would too if you saw this kid smile. I digress. The real news is.....drumroll.......we bought a house! We're moving in this week! It's so exciting! I can't use enough exclamation points!!!! !!!! !!!! See what I mean!?! Needless to say, we're very happy although now completely debt-ridden. This was us last night after the necessity of buying a fridge and a washer and dryer:



And yes, I do get that dressed up while appliance shopping. You dress for success, you know? On a side note, washing machines are looking more and more like those escape pods on Star Wars. Is there a reason for that? Should I be afraid? I'll post some pictures soon before my sister kills me. I'll also have some other updates. Spoiler alert - on Sunday, Adam and I saw Santa Clause's real mode of transportation. Love to you all!

12-hour work day

Ah, November. I have so many mixed feelings about you. Election day - I felt proud to be able to exercise my right to vote. Veterans Day - another patriotic holiday. Thanksgiving - LOVE it! Spending time with family, having a delicious meal, and did I mention two whole days off of work? I can't wait! On the flip side, this is my busiest month of the year as far as work goes. I've been doing web training sessions with international areas and today, Adam and I left the house at 5 AM so I could be to work by 5:30. I made it on time (no small miracle) and then worked till 5 PM. So, I'm tired and loopy and blaming November as if it's the cause of all my problems. It's not, but have you ever noticed how as soon as November 1st comes around, the number of cloudy days increases exponentially? I have. It's just weird. On top of that, there's the whole you-can-never-count-the-weather thing and the landscape begins to look really dead. I thought of another plus though: Adam and I busted out the hot chocolate on Sunday and have enjoyed a nice comforting late night snack every night since. This was done in spite of the fact that one night, I turned the AC on because it was too hot in our apartment. Like I said, mixed feelings. Maybe it's the lack of sleep.

A year and one day......

So, Yesterday was my one-year wedding anniversary! I really cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by. What did we do to celebrate our anniversary? We had all sorts of grand plans leading up to it, but since we're looking to buy a house and wanting to save our time-off for a trip to see my family at Christmas, we settled for spending Thursday and Friday at a hotel downtown, dinner at the Melting Pot and lots of sentimental speeches interspersed through out the weekend. ("You're pretty. No, you're pretty! And the like...) Can't you just picture us?

In all seriousness, this past year has been so great and so eye-opening, and I mean that in the best sense! I've learned so much about myself, how I communicate, and what it's like to not always do things my way. It hasn't always been easy, especially since both of us were single adults for more than a decade. There were some things that I thought would be difficult to adjust to (sharing a bathroom with a man, etc) that were surprisingly easy. Who knew that the real challenge would be realizing that the fact that we both speak English doesn't mean that we interpret things exactly the same way? ("So when you say that you're upset, that's like my version of slightly annoyed. It doesn't mean that you want to throw your hairbrush?") Some of you don't know Adam very well. Let me tell you what kind of guy he is:

1) The kind who listens, really listens to everything a person says
2) The kind who thinks before he speaks (I don't always do that well)
3) The kind who would buy a book on Mathematics and another about Gandhi in the same trip
4) The kind who loves to cook with me even when it takes until 9:00 to eat because we can't understand the recipe
5) The kind who doesn't realize he has the nose of a Greek god (that's how I describe it anyway) and isn't vain about his glossy brown curls

Hopefully nobody who reads this is dry-heaving. I'm really more of a private a person when it comes to things I feel deeply, but I wanted to at least say this much. He's great and we've been happy and grateful for the miraculous circumstances that led to one year ago (it might be thanks to my grandma Kate - you just never know). For any of you who may want to relive the joyous day:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zundelje

Nooooooooo!

This was going to be my weekend to rest. The long anticipated mornings where I could sleep in. The countless hours of leisure (I'm a leisure addict - I don't know what I'll do when I have children). This was my chance to fully heal from my monster cold (still coughing). What did I get instead? Too few hours of sleep last night, and a sore throat! This better be some slight little blip because I live in a semi-arid region of the United States and not an indication that another virus is preparing to stage a full-fledged attack on my already weakened immune system. What happened to Jedi-knight white blood cells? What about my pioneer constitution? Time will tell, I guess, but as Sunday night draws to a close there is one unhappy camper in my house and her name isn't Adam!

On the upside, we've been enjoying lovely Fall weather, there's plenty of apple cinnamon herbal tea for me to drink and our voter registration cards came in the mail this weekend.

What do you think I should be for Halloween? Seriously.

Last pics from NYC, sickness, and Liam!

So, I got waylaid in my quest to report on my trip to NY. Ravaged by disease is a more accurate description. Some people (ahem, Lis) have teased me in the past for being slightly dramatic when I'm sick. I'm coming to the realization that there might be some truth in this. For example, at the first sign of illness, I go to the grocery store, buy OJ, lots of soup, throat drops, lemons, cold medication, tissues and anything I can think of to help treat symptoms. This time, I was able to send someone else out while I laid on the couch bemoaning my pitiful state. Yes, being married has it's advantages and this is one of them. Poor Adam. I did promise to spoil him rotten after I recovered, which I define as being symptom-free. Since I still have a rather convenient cough, he's still waiting on that promise.....

You'll note that I'm calling him Adam now. My less than clever alias was ruined when, as he pointed out, I forgot to use it in the last post. So, instead of being the simplest form of matter (is that right?), he's a regular old Joe..........except that he's a genius and super awesome.

So, I just don't have the energy to give a real play-by-play of my last day in Manhattan. Suffice it to say, we saved the best for last and spent most of the day in Central Park. It was great! The weather was beautiful! We basked on a blanket in the sunshine for awhile eating a lunch of bread, cheese, fruit and cookies, browsed at a book fair, watched the regular crew of roller skaters as they boogeyed to some music, ate some free Ghirardelli chocolates and roamed around the park. It's nice for these city-dwellers, these pavement junkies, to have their own green space:



I loved those roller skaters! I would have joined them if I could, but I was lacking skates and a cool enough outfit. For those of you who don't get to hang out with my best friend, Liam:

NYC Part Deux

Soooo...day two of my brief sojourn in Manhattan began at around 10:00 in the morning. Luckily, Abby didn't have to go into work for the rest of the weekend which guaranteed that Lis and I could at least be spared countless wasted hours on the subway. Since we weren't able to get tickets to Mary Poppins on Broadway, and we'd already toured one art museum, today was dubbed "wander-around-and-shop" day. We grabbed some pastries for breakfast and our first stop was the CO Bigelow's Apothecary, which was full of fun things like jasmin mint toothpaste and this perfume that I will probably always regret not buying because it had the most heavenly fragrance. I've already tried to look for it - argh!

We then headed over to Union Square, meandering through a Farmer's Market on the way. I bought Adam a t-shirt, we enjoyed sampling apple cider, and slowly made our way to the Strand Bookstore, which is the home of 18 miles of new, used, rare and out-of-print books. Needless to say we enjoyed our time there. My sister would probably disappear in this store never to be found again. For the sake of her children, I won't ever encourage her to go.


As we were walking, I saw this building that had a hole in the middle of it with smoke coming out. I asked Abby what it was and her answer was, "I think it's art, actually." She couldn't remember what the concept was for it so I did some research later and apparently it is called, Metronome. It's a public artwall, and it's supposed to symbolize the intangibility of time. It does seem rather intangible.....

The next stop was another one of Abby's favorite stores - I can't remember the name, but it was chalk full of old-school candy such as atomic fireballs and these "gourmet" lollypops that I remember classmate of mine selling in high school for fundraisers. If I hadn't already indulged in pastries and an order of sweet potato french fries, I probably would have loaded up in the name of nostalgia. I settled for taking a photo.


We eventually ended up eating panini's at a fun restaurant on the lower east side and heading to Soho where some more serious shopping ensued. I've come to a realization that my pictures aren't all that exciting - mainly street scenes in the neighborhoods we went to, but I love all of the different building facades and just the feel of the city as you walk around.


At this point of the day, Lis and I were beat. Our feet weren't as tough as Abby's NY feet, who by the way, walked around in heels while Lis and I wore the most comfortable walking shoes we had. We discussed walking to see the Brooklyn Bridge, which probably would have been really cool to see and in the end called it quits for a siesta back at the apartment to rest up before going to dinner. Abby suggested this Japanese restaurant, Ippudo, where you can get ramen. All this time, I've been thinking that ramen is the cheap food you buy when you're in college! My bowl was (insert Japanese word for delicious, here)!


We capped off our evening by going to a piano bar to meet some of Abby's friends from grad school. Picture, a super crowded bar, with a piano in the middle and tables all around. There were two men and one sassy lady who would alternate serving drinks and singing numbers like, Son of a Preacher Man and Love Will Keep Us Together while the drunken patrons (except us) sang along with them. We sang ourselves hoarse, and I'm quasi-serious about pursuing a career in piano bar singing - I'm pretty sure that my Son of a Preacher Man was better than Natalie's. Just sayin'...

NYC Trip Part One...

This is for you, Dad:

Atom's birthday present to me was trip to New York City with Lis to visit our dear friend, Abby. This is why I really like him. It was our first time apart since we got married, and it was so hard to leave! We sat on the couch before going to the airport and both of us cried like I was going away for a year. Do you think our children will be dramatic at all? Luckily, I was only going away for three days and four nights (counting the red-eye flight), and so we put on a brave face and if you'd seen us part at the airport, you would have thought we were old hats at the whole saying goodbye thing. So, the trip begins....

with a torturous flight that left at midnight, Salt Lake time, and was due to arrive at JFK at 6:15 AM. I am not one of those people who can sleep on an airplane. I think I might have dozed off for a good 7 minutes, and that was about it. We arrived at JFK on-time. Our bags were miraculously the first ones out at the baggage claim and before we knew it, we were in a cab on the way to Abby's apartment. I fell in love with her neighborhood in Greenwich Village with all of its old buildings:


After we crashed for a couple of hours, Lis and I got ready to meet Abby for lunch in the financial district. Abby left us very detailed instructions regarding how to get to the subway and which lines to take. One thing we neglected to take into to consideration: the lines travel both ways. We knew we should be heading downtown, but we neglected to check which train we were getting on and ended up on the upper west side instead if downtown. It took about another half hour to remedy that mistake but eventually we made it. We walked along Wall Street and saw about a million people taking pictures by the stock exchange, and some fun old ships along the water front, but we didn't linger too long. We had decided to go to see the art collection at the Frick mansion. It's a smaller art museum, but with a very eclectic collection. First, we had to get there. It took about an hour longer than planned, and a brief foray into Harlem, but eventually we made it. (We didn't tell Abby about our trip to Harlem - too embarrassed.) The museum was amazing! I partcularly enjoyed the Whistler paintings in the last room that we walked through. Here's one of my favorites:

I finally mastered the subway map on the way back downtown (no small feat in my mind), and we made it to the apartment with no problems. We went to dinner at a Spanish restaurant where they only serve tapas, or appetizers. We tried about a dozen different tapas ranging from grilled quail to pork empanadas. It was fantastic, and after we rolled ourselves home, we promptly hit the sack. Stay tuned (if you care) for Day Two...