I crown myself the Queen of procrastination

I know the 2 of you that read this may wonder if I'm ever going to finish writing about NY. Ok, I'm going to try and just give an overview instead of being long-winded like I tend to be. (I said try, ok?) After that, I may go into more detail, but this is it for now! Since I already told about the day we got there, I'll start with Wednesday.
12/29/04
Pushed snooze for an hour, then got up around 7:30. We were so overwhelmed to be in NY, that we hurried to the subway and ended up taking the wrong one. No big deal for me-I'm whimsical, right? Lindsey however isn't so laid back. She needs structure (love ya Lin!), but I spotted a place, Europa cafe, and we went in to eat breakfast. We had our over-priced fruit while looking at the map, and me trying to look as non-touristy (is that even a word?) as possible. Sometimes that meant acting like I wasn't with Lindsey and Ine, but I'm sure they didn't mind. We hopped back on the subway after eating and figuring out where to go. We caught the end of the Today Show in Rockefeller Center on accident, then went to St. Patricks Cathedral.

After that we just wandered around, walking towards Central Park. We stopped in a few stores along the way, including FAO Schwarz.



We also took a tour of the Plaza Hotel's lobby, which is the hotel featured on 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'. Yes, I'm a dork.



We went into Central Park after that and took some pictures on a big rock.

After the photo-op I proceeded to reenact the scene on Friends where Phoebe runs wildly in the park. Not long after that I tried to reenact the scene in Home Alone 2 where Kevin is running from the bad guys through a tunnel in the park. If you're lucky enough, I'll show you the video of both of these events where I made a fool of myself, but probably not. After that fun, we watched a little ice skating (we weren't prepared with long socks to indulge ourselves) then went to find the Subway. We headed to Greenwich Village. I wanted to see NYU so we were looking for the purple flags. When we had almost given up, we spotted Barnes & Noble. We stepped inside for a moment, looked in a book, found the address for a building at NYU, then headed that way. We soon found one of the dorms and several other buildings. I would have liked to peruse the bookstore, but of course it was closed for the holidays. I did manage to find the building with the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. This is of course where the Olsen twins go, so I had to take a picture.

We stopped in Washington Square park to watch some dogs play in the dog park and of course take more pictures(of just me because I was with 2 camera shy girls!).

We also saw a fat squirrel there.

Lunch was next; We ate at Cosi, a sandwich place similar to Panera. The cashier obviously thought we were true New Yorkers because he gave us a frequent buyer card. From there we went down to Chinatown where my claustrophobia kicked in. It was very crowded and I was happy to get out of there after buying a few I heart NY shirts. After that we caught the subway back to Times Square. After walking around for awhile, I spotted THE NAKED COWBOY. Now you may wonder why I was so excited, but you see before we left for the trip, Lindsey was making a list of things she wanted to do while in NY. She asked me what I wanted to add to it and I said, "See the Naked Cowboy". So you can see why I was very excited that I got to do the one thing I said I wanted to while in NY! When you get your picture with him, he gives you the front and backside-isn't that nice?


Ok-after that we really had to find something to eat. Not because the sight of him made us hungry, but we hadn't eaten in awhile and needed some nourishment. Most of the restaurants, being that we were in Times Square, had lines out the door. We ended up picking Olive Garden despite the fact that we can eat there anytime, just because the line seemed the shortest. While waiting I also got a phone call from a very strange man in PA wanting me to come work for him. He had gotten my phone number off a website w/my resume. I don't know what the job was really because all he wanted to know was what I looked like...nice, huh? After our dinner and a little more window shopping, we went back to the hostel. We did a little e-mailing then took turns in the scalding hot shower.

Ok, who was I kidding? I can't give a brief summary of anything! If I get bored later, I'll write about the next day-oh, and throw out that idea for an overview. I'm no good at that obviously.

P.S. Sorry about all the pictures. I know Katy enjoys them so much so I had to include as many as possible!

Fun times with Lin

This is one of my favorite pictures from New York. It was in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Lindsey protested my noise makers in the beginning, but obviously she came around and joined in the fun.

I heart NY

Well, I'm going to attempt to recall my experiences in New York to you in this epistle of my life. I may finish today, and I may not. I don't really know how much detail I should share, or even how much I really remember. I can get long-winded, so please forgive. (oh, and sorry in advance because I'm sure I'll use past and present tense as if it's all the same-I was not an English major.)
Tuesday, Dec. 28th-Our flight leaves Dallas at 6:50 a.m. that morning, so we leave Tyler a little after 3. Cory comes along to drive the car back because we didn't want to pay for parking. We got there around 5:30, checked our bags, then got in the unusually long line for security. Apparently they weren't ready for the crowds that morning and only had one security station open. We met a nice lady in line who had spent some time in Belgium, so that was fun for Ine. Right when we got close to the front of the line, a hurried man rushed up to the lady checking ID's and asked if he could be rushed through since his flight left at 6. (It was 10 minutes until 6 at this point.) She said, "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to let anyone cut in line." He was frustrated because obviously the line was going to take about 20 minutes to get through-time he didn't have. I asked the lady if we could allow him to cut in front of us, and she said that was fine, so we did. He was very grateful and even chatted with us for a few minutes while waiting to get through security. We told him we were going to New York and he said that sounded fun-and he also said that he didn't think we would have any trouble finding a guy to buy us drinks. How did he know that was our goal? So once through security-and after Ine had been thoroughly searched-we went to our gate. We had a bite to eat then boarded the plane. There was a lot of sleeping going on, but since I had the window seat I was looking out a lot. I realized on the almost 3 hour flight how useful an iPod would have been. I've really got to get my hands on one of those. It was a really smooth flight and the weather was good for landing. Here is a picture from the plane window:


After searching for the correct baggage carousel, we got our luggage, went to ground transportation, and caught our shuttle to the West Side Inn. We were early for check in so we had to wait about 30 minutes before getting our key, but the nice guy working at the desk kept us company telling us about the high cost of cigarettes there. We went to the room, which looked exactly like it does on the website. (www.westsideinn.com) It also smelled of fresh paint and was very warm. We ended up having the windows open every night because it was so warm. After we checked in, we headed to the subway (the 1 and 9, which we became best friends with during our time in NY). We went to Times Square, basically because we had no other ideas, and we were really hungry. At this point it was 4 p.m. and we hadn't eaten since 6:30 a.m., so needless to say, Jenn was HUNGRY. I wish I had a picture of my face when we came out of the subway and stepped into Times Square. It was a priceless moment I can't ever get back. Just the shock of taking it all in-the huge buildings with big lights and people everywhere. I must have looked like a kid in a candy store for about 30 seconds. We were on a mission though, so the first place we saw (Planet Hollywood) is where we went to eat. I didn't even care that I was going to have to pay $12 for a burger-that's how hungry I was. It was really good though. After that, we wandered around the area for a bit. It actually was pretty cold, and it snowed that night (which ended up being the only day of snow, but not the only day of cold). Here is a picture of Ine and I in the snow:

We were all pretty beat from the early morning and wanted to get a good night sleep before the crazy week begun. Ok, that's all I have the energy to write for now-obviously I try and tell too many unimportant details-but this is more for my own memory. Feel free to read as little or as much as you'd like-or leave mean comments saying I write too much. That'll be fun too.

It is the end of post office lines...

Well, the day didn't start off too great, but I've realized that worrying about things I can't fix doesn't help at all. My car is very messed up again-frustrating. I hate car trouble because I can't fix it myself. I like to think I'm pretty self-reliant (apart from the whole trusting God thing), so when I can't do something myself, I feel defeated. Despite this, my day did go on. I drove my dad's car to work, after dropping him off. That meant that I didn't get to go to the gym this morning, but I'll feel better if I get to run tonight. I went to the post office on my lunch break. The line was very long, so I'm very thankful for the new automated postal machine that allows people to send their own packages. It is very easy to use, and I don't know why more people waiting in line didn't try it out. I actually overheard people in line complaining about the slow workers. They should have followed my example. I didn't have to speak to a single employee of the post office to get my package sent. Now that's the kind of thing I could get used to. Trust people to do their own stuff, so when it is done wrong, it's no ones fault but their own. You can't get mad at the post office when you weighed and shipped your own package. Ok, enough about the post office. I got a surprise this afternoon from Chelle. She brought me a Frappuccino® from Starbucks. It was great-yummy even. So the day is almost over and I still haven't written a post about New York, but I will try and work on that tomorrow in my spare time. I promise it is forthcoming, Katy.

(On a side note, when I was spell checking this entry, it suggested I replace "Chelle" with "chilly". Funny, huh? Maybe that will catch on as her new nickname. What do you say Chelle?)

:-)

My surprise date with Tiffany

Last night I had plans to go out with Tiffany. This was so we could share our NY pictures with each other. She called me that morning to ask where I wanted to go, but we decided to just think about it and decide later because we had no good ideas. I called her when I got off work that evening and she informed me that she had a 'surprise date' planned for us. I was a little worried, mostly because you never know what to expect with this crazy chick. So she picks me up and off we go. She says, "I hope it's ok, but the place we're going is about 30 minutes away." I said I didn't mind. I was intrigued really at this point to know where we were going. I asked if she had ever been to the place and she replied, "Well, I've been to this place in other cities, but not this particular one." I decided to sit back and enjoy the ride. We hadn't been in the car but a few minutes when we got to Hwy. 31 and she said, "Oh, we need to go on this road." I asked if we needed to go east or west and she didn't know. She had some directions that were printed from mapquest, but she wouldn't let me see them. I said, "Well, if you go east we will go to Kilgore or Longview. If you go west we will be headed to Athens." She said, "Ok, we need to go west." At this point I knew we must be going to Athens, but I still had no idea what our final destination would be. We arrived in Athens and she begins looking around. She starts turning into the parking lot of McAlister's Deli and I had to laugh. Tiffany and my sister are the only 2 people I know that work at a place and still want to eat there all the time. She then tells me we had to come all the way to Athens for McAlister's because her boss in College Station needed her to pick up some salad bowls since they were out at her store. After spending a good amount of time in McAlister's, we decided to check out a local coffeeshop. Now if you know about Athens, it's not really a city known for, well, anything. Tiffany had heard about this coffeeshop on the square so we headed downtown, which only took about 3 minutes because Athens is so small. We looked in the window and saw an older man playing guitar and several other people in their 40's or 50's watching him. There were also a few other young people scattered around the room. We hesitated only a second, then walked in the door. We were standing near the door when a guy working there asked if we wanted to order any coffee. We declined, then Tiffany said, "Is there a sign up sheet to play here?" Yes, Tiffany, the self-proclaimed up and coming artist wanted to play in Athens. He said, "Well actually, you need to talk to that guy over there" and he pointed to a man in a black jacket. We walked over and Tiffany inquired about playing. He asked if she had a tape, which she doesn't, but she said she could get him one. He said, "Well, if you don't have a tape, you could come in a few weeks when we have an open mic nite. We will be picking some people from that to play a whole set. Can you play for 2 hours?" She laughed and said, "Well...I can talk part of that time too!" Anyway, more details were given about the open mic nite and we headed out the door. As we're walking out, I whispered to Tiffany, "You just got your first gig." Her reply was simply, "You did not just say that." All in all, we had a great, fun time in Athens, Texas. I didn't really think that was possible, but hey, with Tiffany, the world is viewed at a different angle.

Christmas continued...

Ok, I'm going to finish writing about all the Christmas hoopla today that way I can move on to the trip to NYC. Christmas with my mom's family is almost always interesting. My mom has 3 sisters and 1 brother and along with them come their spouses and children. One aunt was missing this year along with her husband and kids, but other than that, it was the regular crowd. My aunt Beth does have a new boyfriend, so he was the only new face. Everyone gathered at my parent's house for lunch on Christmas eve. The plan was to eat lunch, open presents, chit chat, then go to the Communion service at a local church. Before we opened presents, my grandmother read the Christmas story just as she does every year. My cousin Brendan, 5 yrs. old, asked her where the Easter eggs were. We had to explain to him the difference in the 2 holidays and I think he walked away more confused than ever. Anyhow, I love my grandmother. Over the years I've really seen how God uses her and she is really an example of godly love. After hearing Luke 2 read beautifully by my grandmother, the kids were ready to tear into their presents. Brendan being the youngest there took it upon himself to go ahead and not wait on anyone, and just open his gifts. Eh, life goes on. I got gift certificates, which is what I asked for. I'd rather not make a list and have people search for things for me. At least not my extended family, because it would probably get mixed up and I'd end up with a Carmen CD or toe socks.(inside family joke-*insert laugh or confused look here*) After all the gift exchanging and opening, the kids jumped on the trampoline, we all had dessert, then had to get ready for the communion service. The service itself was great, however, Brendan was sitting in between Ine and I causing a big disturbance. He was loud and I know he was bothering people around us. We did our best to quiet him down, but he had a lot of questions about communion.
Here are a few pictures from Christmas with my mom's family:

Ine and Brendan-He calls her his girlfriend. It's sweet, except Brendan doesn't even talk to me now. Yeah, just forget the cousin who has changed your diapers for the new girl.

Cory and Molly-Yeah, when they were little they kissed to see what it was like. They will always be the 'kissing cousins', even if they were only 5 when it happened.

Anyway, after that, my family went home and we all opened one gift. It had been a long day so we went to bed pretty early. Christmas morning was typical for us, except we had one addition, Ine. She had never experienced an "American" Christmas so it was fun for her. Also, my mom tends to spoil us so she wasn't used to getting so many gifts at Christmas. We all got more than we could have needed. My mom made pancakes for breakfast and we all just bummed around most of the morning.
Yes, I have some Christmas morning pictures too.

Cory on Christmas morning (sorry about it being so small-I was trying something new. I don't like it.)

Mom on Christmas morning--I'm sure she'll LOVE that I put this picture up of her in her robe.

Daddy on Christmas morning

Darling Lindsey on Christmas morning

Ine on Christmas morning

Me on Christmas morning wearing Cory's pants that are way too big, but very comfortable.

O Christmas tree

That afternoon we went to the movies, a tradition we started a few years back. We saw 'Meet the Fockers'-no, not a Christmas movie and I would not suggest watching this movie with your parents. Later that day my friend Jessica came over too and the 3 of us (jess, chelle, and I) opened gifts and we played Trivial Pursuit 90's edition against my sister, brother, and Ine. Of course we kicked their butts-oh yeah. Ok, this post is getting mighty long and un-fun because there are no pictures. Maybe I'll add some later, but for now I'll just say we had 2 more families to have Christmas with: The Runnels and the Peters. The Runnels are a couple my parents spend a lot of time with and go on a cruise with every year. We had fun playing with their huge dogs though.


The have 6 of these dogs. I'm pretty sure they could bite my head off if they were mean, but they're the sweetest dogs.

The Peters have been in my life since I was born so it's always fun to be with them. We got to play Trivial Pursuit again but my team lost-and yes, I'm bad loser. I rebounded though when we played later. I teamed up with Kevin and we beat the pants off Lindsey and Ine...oh yes, we rule. This post has exceeded what I imagined, so I'm going to go for now, but I promise I'll add some pictures tomorrow since I have to work anyway...on a Saturday. No, I'm not happy about it either.

Ho, ho, ho...

Well, now that it's almost a month after Christmas (or so it seems), I've decided to try and recap a few of the moments enjoyed over that time. I guess my first Christmas celebration was with Woodgate, my old church, on the 18th. A lot of us gathered at the Peer's house for games and food. It was fun-some of us played Cranium while the boys played Xbox. It was my first time to play this game, but I really enjoyed it. I suppose that whole evening was a little bitter sweet because we all knew the next day was going to be our last service as Woodgate Community Church. I really love all the people I met while going to Woodgate so I hope we are all able to stay in touch. I know I'll still see the Peer's, and probably Brad too...and hopefully Beth. Anyway, in another post I may go into more detail of my search for a new church family. My next holiday shindig was with my Dad's family. This is always interesting because his brothers are pretty strange. Bobby and his wife Desa are always late...never fails. My grandpa brought his girlfriend, Diane, who my family has actually known for many years, way before she became my grandpa's significant other. (On a side note-isn't it sad that my grandpa can find a girlfriend and I'm still young and can't find a decent boyfriend? I think it's because my standards are higher...Yeah, that's it.) My uncle Jimmy was there too with my only cousin on my dad's side, Catherine. She's a freshman at the University of Florida and probably partying a lot, but she's a sweet girl. This is actually the only time of year that my dad's family gets together so it's pretty awkward at times. Everyone comes in, eats, then gets the heck out of dodge. Of course us few grandkids did manage to get some money from our grandpa. My grandpa also told me that night, as he was walking into the bathroom, that he was going to have to put his dog to sleep. By the time he came out of the bathroom, I had forgotten to ask him why or to elaborate. I'm still sort of confused about this because when I was at his house, the dog seemed a little under the weather, but not bad enough to put him under. (Side note: When I did ask him about this later he said it was because the vet was trying to cheat him and wouldn't refill a prescription for the dog. It came down to him not wanting to pay $35 for another visit. Old people are really cheap sometimes.) Nothing too exciting happened though with my paternal side of the family. Of course no Christmas will ever beat the year when my grandpa brought free casino gifts to us as our presents. It was a true white-trash Christmas, but also a memory I'll never forget. I know my grandmother was rolling over in her grave at this sight. (I don't really think dead people can see us, but if she could, she would have been rolling over, ok?) I'm running out of time so I'll have to write about the other celebrations at another time, but hopefully the few of you who read this can enjoy it. Have a good one...

Boys are funny...

It's been a fun couple of days of RA training. I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of little brothers when I'm with some of these guys. It's great to get to know them all though and they're a fun group. If I was 18 again, I'd love to go hang with some of them. Yesterday we had training during the day, and when we finished up in the evening we had dinner and a movie. We watched 'Garden State' even though us girls had to fix the vote to get that movie shown. This is really the fun time of my job though. I get to be around all the fun people, see them all together, and not just when they come by my office randomly. Even though we dread training when we are preparing for it, I'm glad for the time when it's here. I'm not really ready for the boring days of sitting in front of the computer, but I know those are just around the corner. I know I've promised some stories of the holiday break, so I think I'll try and do that soon. Maybe in a few minutes-but it has to be a new post because of the subject change. It helps me anyway...so keep reading and I'll try and do my holiday times justice on here.

It's a very mad world...

"I'm not sure it really is in our nature to be with someone for the rest of our lives just because you made this pact. You keep going as long as you keep growing. When that dies, we do."-Brad Pitt

It's so sad how marriage is viewed these days. Why is it that people grow apart instead of together? I surely hope that if or when I decide to commit myself to another person that we will both value that commitment. I can't stand the thought of divorce, no matter how common it may be in this world. I know there are always circumstances that can make this the only solution, but it seems that for the most part, a lot of people don't try to make it work. Instead they decide that they've "grown apart" or have "irreconcilable differences". That's all I'll say on this because I'm obviously no expert being that I've never been married, but I just felt compelled to say my own thoughts on this.

Some girls really don't mind...I promise!

So today I had to go to Sam's with my co-worker to get supplies and food for training. We took my 4-runner since it was raining and Brett(the co-worker) has a truck. No good-don't want soggy bread. Anyhow, we were loading up stuff in the car and Brett says, "Maybe that guy should take a picture." I had no idea what he was referring to so asked him about it. He told me that there was a guy staring at my butt. He acted as if this automatically made the guy a jerk. Well, I'm here to tell all of you that I don't care if a guy wants to look at my butt. Frankly, it's flattering. Now when you start making crass comments with all your buddies, that's not so flattering. So guys, look all you want.

Ok, so that's my random story of the day. Katy, I promise I'll write something more substantial when I get a break soon. I have to go to Waco tonight and all I have to say is someone better bring me to Fuddrucker's!

Sorry Kat-y

Ok, So I took a sabatical from blog writing, at least that's my excuse for not writing the past few weeks. Katy, I promise to write soon and plan on including Christmas and all that New Year's fun in NYC. Just be patient and I'll return after a week or so.