NY baby!

Last time on my blog I took you through the riveting trip to DC and the events that transpired there. Buckle up, we're on our way to NY!

 I got to the bus station plenty early and got the best seat in the bus- front seat on the top deck. Extra legroom and a clear view the whole ride? Yes please! The white-ish blob you see between "North" and "New York" is a rock chip in the windshield. How in the world did a they get a rock chip in the middle of the second level windshield? That's one high flyin rock!

This is a sample of the view you get of Manhatten as you drive up the New Jersey coast. This is a shot of midtown from the bus. Note the Empire State Building on the right side. I have a puzzle hanging in my room with a night view of this view, only much better since the shot on my puzzle wasn't taken by a point-click camera from a moving bus.

Once I got into Manhattan I had a little over an hour before my next bus left. I got off the bus and realized that, while they do have a grid system, and I did have the address, it's a lot harder to figure out where you're going when you can't tell what direction is which. No mountains. No open space to look for the sun. Just tall buildings. Fortunately there was a Starbucks across the street so I enjoyed some apple cider while I google mapped my destination. How did people travel before google maps?
I still had some time after I figured out how to get to my bus so I took the metro up for a look at Times Square

Pretty much I got off the subway, took a picture, walked a block, got back on the subway, and went to my bus. But it was fun. I was by a bunch of theaters and saw the big adds for shows like The Lion King, and Wicked! I wish I had the time and resources to go watch them!

The bus ride up to Albany was pretty unexciting. I got the front seat again and slept/ read/ watched movies the whole way up. I got picked up by Sandi and family then went home and hung out for the night.

Peter, Saturne, and Zippi having fun posing for pictures.
Well, at least I know the kids were having fun...

Each day in Albany we'd go out in the mornings and do fun stuff, then we'd have to come home so Sandi could get the kids off the school bus and then we'd hang out at home. I got to meet a bunch of Sandi's friends and played with Peter, Miri, Zippi, and Alex a lot... at least when they weren't watching/playing legos. They looooove the ninja legos. It's always nice to get to kick back and relax a bit when on vacation. It's easy to get carried away with doing fun stuff.

Wednesday, after the 3 oldest kids went to school and Rob went to work, Sandi, Alex, and I went to see some stuff in town. We went to the New York State Museum. It's a pretty cool museum. It has a wigwam, some stuff from Sesame Street, a subway car, and a carousel. Guess which were Alex's favorites? The subway car and carousel, of course! Mostly the carousel. He tried to drag us through the museum really fast so we could go ride it.

Hanging out with the coyotes!

Ridin' the carousel!

After we finished we went out to Denny's for lunch and then got home in time for the kids coming home from school.

Thursday Sandi dropped me off in town on her way to institute. I took the bus out to the campus of the State University of New York in Albany. I took a campus tour and talked to one of the professors on campus. It's a pretty nice campus. They connected all the buildings (except the dorms) to each other by way of underground hallways, kinda UVU style but cooler. It was a nice visit, but I won't be going to school there any time soon. I had fun riding the busses too. It turned out that the bus I'd planned on taking back into town had a 2 hour break right when I wanted to go back, so I eventually found out which other bus would take me back to town and hopped on the next bus with that number... but I forgot to check if it was going into town or out of town...oops. I got a nice ride out to the mall though. I thought about browsing around the mall for a bit, but I was ready to get back home. It was getting close to dinner time! So I just got off the bus (end of the line, everyone off.) and then caught the next one a few minutes later. I think of all the bus systems and subways I've taken NY wins at most confusing. Both the subway in Manhattan and the buses in Albany were great, once you found out which one to get on... I forgot, I had some time before my tour at SUNY-Albany so I borrowed Sandi's ipod and did part of the walking tour of downtown Albany. It was really fun. As with most old towns, there were some really really neat buildings.  All with fun stories.

Friday we went to the NY State Capitol and took a tour. It's definitely one of a kind. They said it cost $25 million to build, which would be over a $1 billion in our day. It had 5 different architects and was never fully finished. Many of the carvings and such remain half done. It's a really interesting tour, but long. Alex had a rough time towards the end, but Sandi and I had fun.

A shot from the west side of the building. No dome on this capitol!

A very dark shot of some of the intricate carvings on the "Million Dollar Staircase".
Note Longfellow's face on the right and the smaller ones above and left.
The smaller ones were mostly faces of family and friends of the artisans.

Before, and after, our tour we went ice skating in Empire Plaza. Alex didn't quite get the hang of it, but he gave it a valiant effort. We ended up pushing him around on some buckets that he was supposed to be using to learn how to skate. Maybe next year he'll figure it out.

The fun ended a little unceremoniously when his buckets caught an edge and he went flying. Don't worry, he didn't get hurt. Just cold hands. So we packed it up, went home and watched the video of it a whole bunch of times = )

Then it was Saturday morning. I packed up, went out to the bus and got settled in. Sandi and kids were waiting to wave goodbye as we drove off, but we didn't drive off... for a long time. The battery had died and they had to call a service guy to come jump it. Sandi and kids took off, then came back an hour or so later and brought me lunch. While we were all enjoying our chicken McNuggets in the car the repair dude finally came and jumped the bus. Finally we were off. I even got the trip for free since so many people complained about the delay. The company just gave everyone a refund. Nice.

Once in NY I didn't have as much time as I had planned so I condensed my plans. I hopped on the subway and hopped off across the street from the temple. I've never seen such a wonderful sight coming out of a subway as that temple. It was actually a really nice part of town. I wish I'd had more time. I only did some sealings instead of an endowment session so I would have time for other stuff, but it was still nice. The temple part of the building is actually really small. It's only half of the building you see from the outside. The other half has family history and meeting rooms. There was a YSA regional conference going on in the other half that day. If I hadn't other plans I could've joined them.

However, I had made other plans. Remeber Fabian? From the bus down to DC? Well he gave me his card so I text him and we met up and he was my tour guide around NY. Plus with 2 bags, wandering around NY it was good to have someone else with me. We went down to Times Square again and he pointed out all the cool things to see. Did you know that they leave the new year crystal ball up all year long? They drop it, leave it all year, then replace it to be dropped for the next year.

Fabien and me on the Times Square Stairs. See, he's nice. Not a creeper.

That picture actually turned out perfectly. The screen behind me that's all lighted out was actually really skanky adds. Perfect! Only the good stuff in my picture!
From Times Square it was just a hop-skip-and a bit of a walk to Rockefeller Plaza. We watched people ice skate and saw the sign for the Radio City Music Hall. He knew a lot of interesting facts about the architecture and history of midtown. He was a great tour guide. We went up to the top of the Rockefeller building. The view was wonderful! It's a big rip off to pay $25 to take a really fast cool elevator up a really high building to see a really cool view, but it was worth it at least once. Plus Fabien found a coupon online and paid for my ticket anyway... so it was totally worth it = ) (Mom, no heart attack please. I was safe. I promise) So if you go to NY and are going to pay a lot to see the view, go to the "Top of the Rock" since you get to see this:

The Empire State Building

Which you don't get to see from The Empire State Building...
After that it was time for me to go, so we hopped on the subway to the Jamaica Station to catch the train to JFK... Wait, there are 2 Jamaica Stations? Wait, the one with the airplane next to it on the subway map isn't the one I wanted to go to? Oh, you take a bus from that one to the airport... and it only comes every half an hour... Taxi! Fabien got me settled in a taxi and I took off for the airport and made it with time to spare. The plane even left on time, and we got into SLC early! Good thing Michelle was already in SLC with a friend so she could come get me 45 minutes before she had planned.

It was such a fun trip. Thanks for reading my really long posts. I think I might have outdone Sandi for "longest posts ever" with this one. Thanks again to Christine and Sandi for all they did for me. It was great! Hopefully it won't be 5 years before the next time!

More Details From My Trip: pt. 1

I figure pictures are the best way to tell the story, so be prepared for a loooong post with lots of them. Enjoy~

Washington DC!

So, I took a red eye flight out of SLC to JFK. When I printed out my ticket it only printed out the black, and not the blue, text so when I got to the SLC airport I just looked for a letter/number combo and reasoned that that must be my gate number. I didn't notice another letter/number combo on the ticket... I got right through security and had time to mosey over to gate and there was only one dude there. I admit it did take me a few minutes to realize I was in the wrong spot, and I hadn't realized

 Notice the complete emptiness..

how close to departure I was, so I was sitting there bemused at the lack of people when I realize it was only 5 minutes until my plane was supposed to leave and there was nobody around. I realize my error and after consulting a nearby airport worker established that I was in the entirely wrong wing of the airport and I sprinted (as best one can with a big duffel bag) across the airport. Thankfully at the time the plane was supposed to be leaving it was still boarding the last 50 people, so I just hopped in line and pretended like nothing had happened.

  Once on the plane I was really dumb and plugged in my headphones to the personal entertainment system they have on planes now which resulted in me watching movies and soccer all the way to JFK and not sleeping, at all. Not a big deal, right, I've got a 4 hour bus ride too... ha. Anyway, with the plane leaving late it also arrived late and I had to rush to get to my bus. I met a nice family from Utah who I navigated the complexities of the transit system with until we got to the subway. I saw a sign to Penn Station so I told them bye and hopped on the train. Fortunately for me I made a mistake and took a train instead of the subway. This is good for one reason- I made it to my bus on time. If I had taken the subway it probably would have taken 20 minutes more to get to Penn, which I didn't have. So I meant to take the subway, but God was watching out for me. I got to Penn Station and had no idea where to go. They're seriously lacking in signage in New York it seems. A really nice guy saw me looking at a map and helped me figure out how to to get to the right exit and pointed me in the right direction to where I needed to go. Again I walked as fast as I could with a duffel bag, down the longest block I've ever seen in my life, and got there just a few minutes before departure. The guy in the seat next to me was name Fabien. He's a German working for Bloomberg's in NY and was headed to a birthday party. We had a good time and talked almost the whole way to DC. He thought it was really funny that I was taking the bus everywhere, and only for a week! So again I didn't sleep when I had anticipated. By the time I got to DC at noon I had slept a grand total of an hour since 6:30 am the day before. And I hadn't eaten more than potato chips and juice (Jet Blue serves potato chips made from blue potatoes! Radtacular to the max!) since dinner Friday either. I got food before the auto show, but not sleep. This created for a more happy, but not all together aware Aunt Fuzz, and by the end it was hard to stand up after sitting down in a car. But the auto show was the bomb! It was so much fun, and so many cool cars. A few examples:

 This car was painted super cool all the way around. Amazing artwork.

The coolest car in the expo. Just look at those doors! And it had screens built into the headrests of the front seats for the people in back. They were so seamlessly integrated into the seat Christine and Marriner didn't even notice them. They had some really cool music they'd turn on when they'd open the doors, and it attracted a big crowd. Good publicity work. And just look how cool the kiddos look. They were just doing that all on their own. No prompting involved in this wonderful shot.

 When we got back from the expo it took me a whoppin 2 minutes to fall asleep on the couch. Lillian was really funny. She decided I needed a blanket, so she found one and tucked me in while I was on the couch. Then when we were playing downstairs she informed me that my place was in the basket couch and she again tucked me in and we "took naps". Sunday was really nice for catching up on my sleep after church too. Christine and I watched a movie in Tagalog and relaxed. When we went to Teeny's for dinner Chris and Marriner let me drive their car. It was great. Driving in DC wasn't too bad either. I think it helped that I had navigators. I don't think it would've been as nice if I was on my own.
  Monday, while Lige was at school and Marriner at work, we decided to go see a few cool things I hadn't seen before downtown. We started with the Fredrick Douglas house then drove downtown to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and then walked around the tidal basin to the Jefferson memorial. Lillian and Ellis did a really great job of walking all over the place. They were sure tired by the end! Pictures-

In front of the Fredrick Douglas house. He had good style.

The bushes were blooming! It's only the beginning of Feb! But they were quite lovely.

It was so nice that we took a minute to sit on the edge of the river and finish our lunch. Of course we removed our shoes so they wouldn't accidentally fall in the river.

They love walking on the little ledges all around the many flowerbeds at the MLK Jr. Memorial. Also you get a nice view of the controversial quote from this side. I imagine it'll be really lovely in the spring.

A very cool branch on the walk around the tidal basin. Ellis was so scared of falling off, she didn't want me to let go, but then she put on this big cheesy smile so I snapped a picture really quick, before she lost her ability to put on a smile for the camera. Turns out she was more stable up there than she thought and she was actually smiling cuz she was having a good time up there. Guess I could've taken another pic that was a little more in focus...

Lige seemed to think that "duck & cover" was a good pose
for this picture. He originally wanted to be on the ground,
earthquake drill style, but we told him that was a bad idea
for pictures. I still ended up having to hoist him into the
picture cuz he kept covering his head and ducking...

 After that we had to hustle back to pick up Lige from school, then we drove of to Gravely point. It's a park right next to the runway of Regan Airport. The planes fly right over your head every couple of minutes. Today they were coming in for landing over our heads. We played a little soccer-ish game. Apparently it was me and Lill vs. Lige and Ellis. The winner of the game is in dispute though, Lige didn't count a lot of things as goals... We had a good time though.
After a yummy dinner we had FHE. I had demonstrated my lovely piano playing Sunday and it was requested that I demonstrate again as the talent portion of FHE. I was pleased to play the only song I know, Follow the Prophet. We had a lovely lesson by Ellis and played the Scripture Mastery Game, where I learned that I don't know my references as well as I thought.
  Alas, the time was spent and early Tuesday morning I was taken back to Union Station and proceeded to wait in line for quite a while to board my bus to NYC. The chilly garage waiting paid off and I got a really good seat- front row of the top deck. Extra leg room and nothing but window in front of me = )
Ah, DC is such a good time. I enjoyed it so much. I wish I'd taken 2 weeks off so I could've spent more time there. Thanks to the Merrills for their hospitality! And to Lige, Ellis, and Lillian all I have to say is "You guys are SILLY!" and I love yer guts!

Stay tuned for part 2, "Albany"...

In case you forgot...

On a piece of spam mail we got at our house the other day...

Whew, good thing I looked at this random piece of junk. Well, off to change my shoes!

The Trip

Whew, traveling is so crazy! It feels like it will never get to be time for the trip, then it comes and goes in a flash. A week never went so fast! In brief, I had a really good time. I spent much time with Christine and Sandi and their families. I got to see some cool stuff in NYC, DC, and Albany. And I rode a lot of busses and spent a lot of time sitting. Whew, stake conference was rough today after so much sitting yesterday! Here's a rough outline of what I did:

Saturday Feb. 4- Arrived in NYC and took the train to the bus station and took the bus to DC. Christine and family picked me up and we went to the Auto Show and saw some very cool cars. Then we went home and I passed out on the couch.

Sunday- Went to church and then to dinner at Marriner's sister's house. Christine and I also enjoyed watching church movies in Tagalog. We also ate rainbow sherbet.

Monday- Chris, Ellis, Lillian and I went to the MLK Jr and Jefferson memorials. Then picked up Lige from school and went to Gravely point and play soccer under the landing airplanes. Then for FHE I played "Follow the Prophet" on the piano for the talent. I then watched several episodes of Jeeves and Wooster before bed.

Tuesday- Got up, caught the bus to NYC. Took the subway to Time Square, took a couple pictures and took the subway back to Penn Station. Caught the bus to Albany. Got picked up by Sandi and family and enjoyed a nice evening at home, being barked at by their dog = )

Wednesday- Sandi, Alex and I went to the state museum where Alex was anxious to see the train car and ride the carousel. (which we did, eventually. Did you know that Cougars, elk, and wolverines all used to live in NY?) We enjoyed a lovely Denny's lunch and then played with the rest of the fam once they got home.

Thursday- I went into town by myself while Sandi did institute and a baby shower. I did a few stops on the walking tour of Albany then caught the bus to State University of NY in Albany. I went on a campus tour and talked to a professor. Looks like I'd need some other classes before applying for grad school in any science field. I should've taken physics instead of biology... That evening I went to the YSA institute class. After the class some of us went out and got pizza and talked for a while. I then got a ride home from one of the other YSA girls during which we got lost and drove around a lot. I then watched Thor. (Interesting movie.)

Friday- Sandi, Alex and I went on a tour of the NY state capitol ($25 mill. when it was built! Over $1 bill. dollars if it was built today! Wow.) We also went ice skating, where Alex didn't exactly get the hang of it and we ended up just pushing him around the ice the whole time. After the other kids got home we went and played in the park and had a yummy pizza dinner. Then a friend of Sandi's who served in Quezon City came over and we three chatted for a while.

Saturday- Got on the bus. Bus didn't start. Waited for an hour. Sandi brought me lunch. Bus started. Got to NYC an hour and a half after we were supposed to. Did sealings in the Manhattan temple. Saw Time Square, Rockafeller square and went to the top of 30 Rock. Went to the wrong subway stop. Took a taxi to JFK. Came home.

Whew. That's about as brief as I can make it. I'll write some more about details of some interesting things I did, but I'll save that for another post. I'll put up some pictures too.
I can't believe it's all over! I went so quickly. I'm just so glad I got to see my sisters and their families again! It was just a bonus getting to see the other stuff. Next time- Philly and Boston! 

Oh, hello...

"What? She didn't give up on bloggin yet? Strange... I was certain she had."
That's what'd be going through my mind if it was a friend posting a blog after so long not doing so. I'll actually be quite impressed if anyone reads this, if no one one but me will know (both about the post and that no one else read it) so no skin off my nose. If you are not me, and are reading this- I'm sorry this is my post. I'm certain it's going to be scattered, mostly topic-less and, most likely, a big waste of time. But- aren't most things we do?

Today I spent the greater part of my day at school (substitute teaching) reading a book since there was a student teacher. As I was reading I considered this list-

Things I would like to buy if I wasn't such a penny pincher:

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Great book. (I'll come back to this I think.)
• Both of Adele's CDs. Simply wonderful music!

So, this obviously isn't a comprehensive list. Though I suppose anything else I would buy would go under the title "Things I would buy if either didn't mind going into debt, was fabulously wealthy, or didn't mind being dirt poor" I think that one mostly includes sporting equipment and a jet plane. So, while I have to make due with borrowing books and listening to Adele's powerful tunes on youtube, I really can't regret the penny-pinching ways I have. I mostly credit my parent's incredible ability to be completely solvent on only a Utah teacher's salary. Examples of parents make such a big difference in the ability of people to be reasonable (in money matters and so many other things)

Um, not sure where to go after that...so- Thanks Mom and Dad. You're great!

So, the book referenced above. It sounds like a crazy name for a book, and it is, but it's a delightful book. It's written as a collection of letters, which is why I picked it because it's easy to leave off or pick up if I get interrupted by whatever. I think my favorite part about the book, aside from it's incredibly loveable characters (they're so endearing and there's no narration or real descriptions of anyone in the whole book, aside from them introducing themselves to new correspondents) is the incredible insight it gives to life during WWII. The events of the book take place directly after WWII, but much of the book is people describing events during the war. I just can't imagine the oppression that people lived through. I can't imagine how people could do that to other people. Each time I read the book I wonder anew at the trials people endure. It makes me so very grateful that, though we have known wars during out time, they have not been on our own soil or affected our lives in the way WWI and WWII did, especially those in Europe or Asia.
A while back I meant to write a post after a special Relief Society fireside my stake had. An incredible lady from Indonesia came and spoke to us. She was part Indonesian and part Dutch (Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch). When the Japanese invaded their island during WWII her family was first put under house arrest, then separated and sent to concentration camps. I had no idea that they had them in the Pacific, just like in Europe. This fine lady told her story from beginning to end without any hatred in her voice. Only love for those who helped her. Her mother was astounding. Their family was Christian and her mom never failed to live up to the teachings of the Bible and always taught others to do so. She described a time when her Mom stood up to the Japanese, was punished by spending a week in a pit with no food or water, and was preserved my a miraculous series of rain storms through the week. She never heard her mom complain. It was amazing to listen to all these stories and compare them to my incredibly easy life. Her family never turned against God, even with all their trials. To think some people turn away from God because of so much less. If people who endured concentration camp can believe in God and testify of the power of Christ, who am I not to believe them?

Anyway, I'll stop with the WWII thoughts, but I will recommend the aforementioned book. Ashley (sister) read it first for her book club, (which seems to be the source of most of my reading material lately as well) and I fell in love with it. I must admit, part of me really wants a Dawsey Adams kinda guy. Like I said, terrific characters. It also makes me want to write letters and read every book I can get my hands on. Maybe I need to find someone with no phone I can write letters too. (If they had a phone I know the letter writing wouldn't last long.)

This post is already to long and disorderly to read. I'll end. Have a lovely day.

Two things I saw when I got home

I saw two interesting things when I got home from school/Ashley's today:
#1:

A rooster. In our car park area. We are in the middle of the city. Where did this rooster come from?

#2:

My free, yes, FREE authentic replica RSL jersey with my name and number on the back. Direct from RSL in SLC. On a whim I text entered a Gatorade RSL sweepstakes and this is what I won. It even still had the tags attached! Yay! "I look so good!"

What a good day.

My Pumpkin

This both one of the coolest carving jobs and one of my nearest to epic fail I've ever come with carving a pumpkin. Not since the foot fell off of my headless horseman have I had so many breaks in my carving. I created this design by combining two others I found online. When I printed it out I actually thought it might be too big for my pumpkin, but about half way through poking the holes I realized I could've gone significantly larger (and it would've helped so much!) What we ended up with is an awesome design slightly too small on a pumpkin slightly too small for the details of the design. I got about half of it carved out last night after ward prayer but I had a job lined up so I had to go to bed at a reasonable time. I had been carving the flesh out inside as I did the design so the light could shine through and it created a pretty unstable surface that ripped pretty easily. Due to these problems poor Doctor Who lost one eye and his thumb. I kept them and hoped to be able to reattach them after it was all carved out. Then I went to bed.
   When I got back to my pumpkin after school today all the carved stuff had dried out and shriveled up like a pumpkin does after sitting outside for a day or two. The eye and thumb had also shriveled up and I thought there was no hope for reattaching them. Then I had the brilliant idea of trying to rehydrate them I soaked them in a cup of water while I finished carving, then I soaked the whole pumpkin face in my laundry bucket in shower. It worked! It all came un-shriveled and I was able to use 2 safety pins (they were the only pointy thing I had...) to reattach his eye. In the picture you can hardly even tell the safety pins are there. I think it turned out pretty well considering all the broken pieces and such.
   The image is of the 11th doctor with his sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS is in the back. First a look at what it looks like on the computer, where you can do fine details to your heart's content...

Now, the finished product-

"Bow ties are cool!"
Not to shabby, if I say so myself. I had closer up shots, but they turned out kinda fuzzy. Fuzzy pictures makes me feel like I'm not wearing my contacts, so you'll have to make do with the farther away one. I didn't get a really amazing costume this year (I was a Philipino table tennis champ = ) so I'm glad that I had at least one bit of Halloween awesomeness.