Hodgepodge

Since David is burning the candle at both ends trying to get through finals- I'm here alone with my thoughts tonight. And since I'm doing my best to avoid doing the dishes, folding the laundry, and starting to pack for Utah I might as well send some of my random thoughts out into the universe.

First, I can't believe how fast my little boy is growing up. I know every parent says this but GEEZ! In the past two weeks he's gained 2 lbs, grown 2 teeth, gotten taller, started crawling for real, started pulling to a standing position, gotten a fat lip and a bruised shin from pulling to a standing position while I'm not looking, started to laugh at his own "jokes", outsmarted or outclimbed every attempt I've made at keeping him away from stuff like the radiators and the cat food, and doubled his food intake-DOUBLED!! Now I know why people are crazy enough to have a 2nd kid...you're so in love with how much cuter they keep getting and how proud you are of them for learning, but you also miss that itty bitty little ball of immobile baby so much you can hardly stand it!

Second, I'm really excited for our trip to Utah. In addition to satisfying all those food cravings I mentioned earlier, we've already got plans to go ice skating, laser tagging, sledding, and skiing. Did you know that ice skating at Rockefeller Center costs $30 bucks a pop! Bless Provo and its endless bargain date options!

Third- we met some really interesting people yesterday while waiting to have our temple recommend interviews with the stake president. The girl who sat next to me is here working as a costume designer for Law and Order. The girl next to her told us that she works for the United Nations and is married to Sierra Leone's biggest rock star, Daddy Saj who is seriously like Michael Jackson there (no kidding- look him up on google or wikipedia). So now they live in our stake, hang out with Wyclef Jean, and help the former President of Sierra Leone write his autobiography. The guy next to them was a dentist. Ever since we got home last night, I can't get the Sesame Street song "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?" out of my head.

And finally, for a couple years now I've been decrying the Facebook phenomenon and refusing to have anything to do with it. Much to my chagrin, David set up an account a while ago which he mostly uses to keep in touch with his mission friends since they don't have a very good website running-although he's definitely gotten sucked in a lot more than he originally planned. Now I have a confession to make. Sometimes I sneak around in David's account and look people up when I'm bored. It's weird and I'm so ashamed. It's like a car wreck though. I can't help it. And then I can't help feeling a wee bit jealous that everybody else is on there being so witty in thwarting the infamous "is" status, and racking up 4 million friends. And then I start wondering how many friends I would have if I joined... And that's when I throw up in my mouth a little and come to my senses and realize why I must stand firm in my decision not to enroll in a virtual high school. At least not until I come up with enough witty statuses and artsy profile pictures to make me the most popular girl there...

But for now, I'll just stick to my blog and my hopes that my posts will get tons of comments so everyone will know that others love me and find me interesting, while I continue to feel sorry for all those Facebookers who need so much social validation =)

We'll be home for Christmas!

I just realized that we leave for Utah in less than 2 weeks and I don't think we've told everyone we're coming! We've been feeling a little homesick lately, so when we found out that David has a month long break before the next semester starts we decided we'd much rather spend it at home with family. So we'll be there from the 18th until January 15th. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Here are the things I'm most excited about:

#1 Having a whole month to spend time with family and friends. I miss everyone like crazy and Rhys adores everybody there- he will be so happy to get smothered with love and attention! My mom and sister and I already have more things planned than we probably have time for!

#2 Enjoying all the holiday trimmings without having to worry about how to do it in this tiny little place on a tight budget.

#3 Seeing A Christmas Carol at the Hale. My wonderful friend Jeremy (who is playing Fred this year) hooked us up with tickets to see a matinee of the show a couple days before Christmas. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I usually suffer from severe CTADD (community theater attention deficit disorder). But he talked us into seeing this show a few years ago, and I LOVED it! Plus, with Jeremy in the cast, I would rather see it than anything Broadway has to offer =) God bless him, everyone!

#4 Eating out as much as possible! We already have a running list of all the places we want to eat at...Have I mentioned that we've been sorely disappointed in the New York fare? We have NO fast food chains near us, only 2 places (pizza and subs) near enough and "cheap" enough to eat at if I don't feel like making dinner, and the ethnic food near us is TERRIBLE! We spent $40 to share two tiny Indian entrees and it was so gross I couldn't even finish it (Bombay House is now at the top of the "places to eat while in Utah" list). It's pretty lame- we were really looking forward to endless variety and awesome ethnic food here. Maybe it's more like that in Midtown or if we were willing to spend $60 bucks a pop at the trendy restaurants around here. But from what we've seen so far, the Cougareat has more selection and less chance of food poisoning than anything in the Upper West Side. So Bangkok Grill, Brick Oven, and Cafe Rio here I come!

The list goes on and on (both the reasons i'm excited list AND the places to eat list) but I'll stop there.

We hope to get a chance to see everyone while we're there- so let us know which restaurant you want to join us at and we'll make it a date!