Easter Sunday

Heidi and Justin blessed their darling little girl, Sydney Grace Bunker on Easter Sunday. I'm so glad I was able to attend the blessing. She's such a sweet girl! I just couldn't help staring at her all through church. She has a full head of gorgeous dark hair that she loves to run her fingers through. Its the cutest thing! Here's a picture of us after the blessing - unfortunately, warm Easter weather is far from what we had!! It was freezing - and very windy, as you can see in the picture.

Courtney & Kirk invited me over for a wonderful Easter dinner, so I headed over there after church. We had a great meal thanks to Courtney and some new recipes that she found to try (YUM).

Trey is such a happy little boy, always full of smiles and laughs. He was my little buddy for the night. It was lots of fun playing with him - especially since he spent half the night trying to figure out who in the world this stranger was making funny faces at him!

He's still much too young to try to walk, but I thought I'd see how he liked that ... he was too busy staring up and laughing at me to try to think about anything else though!

He sure does love his bouncy chair though - he went crazy as soon as I put him in it.

I stopped by Heidi & Justin's on my way home to visit with them for a little while longer. I just can't get enough of these babies! She has gotten so much bigger since last time I saw her too. She is so happy too - she has the cutest little smile and laugh! Isn't Sydney's hair adorable?!? I just love it - all of it!

I was very excited to celebrate Easter this year since I missed it last year. Ok that's not entirely true ... last year I was in Europe during Easter. What an incredible experience though. Sharyn, Liz, and I spent 3 days in Rome and then a week in Malta. It was incredible to be there during Holy Week and to witness all the celebrations that were held. Saturday night before Easter Mass, they hold (about) 3 hour processionals in all the major cities. We went to the right - men dressed in robes carry huge statues (it takes between one in Mosta, right outside the Mosta Dome - the picture to the 6-8 men to hoist these statues on their shoulders) depicting the last week of Christ's life through the streets of the city as music is played and narrative is read. It was a neat experience to see how the entire city united in their faith in Christ and celebrated his life, Atonement, death, and Resurrection. But, we were very happy to spend Easter morning with the local LDS branch in our traditional way. They had members from every continent except Antarctica! We spent Easter evening back in Rome - where we opened our Kinder Easter eggs in our hotel room.

The Easter Bunny actually paid a visit our house this year - and even left jelly beans on my piano keys like he did when I was growning up! How did he know?!? :)

Small Reasons To Smile :)

Florida won the NCAA Tourney for the 2nd straight year. Wah-hoo. But more importantly, Ohio State lost :) ha ha

But the best news of the day is that Baseball Season has officially begun!! My boys the Braves pulled off a win in the 10th inning, thanks to the 2nd homerun of the game by Edgar Renteria. I just hope they can keep that kind of playing up and have a good season this year. No more not getting to the playoffs like last year.

My hometown boys didn't fare so well ... both the Nationals and the Orioles lost. But that's ok, that's the beautiful things about baseball - there are still 161 more games to go :)

Spring Break in Arizona

Since I don't get a real spring break, I made my own this year and went to visit friends in Arizona. I just had to see Lachelle's new baby Ellie, and it was a good excuse to go out there and enjoy the nice weather! I have decided that travelling in my life is just never as easy as it sounds, yet I continue to do it! My back was still hurting a little, so sitting on a plane for that long wasn't the least bit appealing to me, but I survived. I flew from DC to Salt Lake on Thursday night - along with my Institute teacher, my bishop's daughter, and another guy in my ward (I can't take that flight without knowing someone on it!!) and went from there on to Phoenix. Ironically, it took almost as long for me to get to AZ from Utah as it did for me to come all the way across the country when it was all said and done!

It was pouring in Phoenix when we landed, but I was ok with that since it meant that things would cool off a little! Just as long as it stopped raining for the baseball game we were going to on Friday, I was fine with it! Well, I waited for my bags. And waited. I hate checking luggage, but these days with all the restrictions on liquids/gels, you just about HAVE to check things. Then they changed carousels, and we all moved. I started wishing the pink and white polka dot suitcase that kept going around and around was mine. The bags kept coming, and I kept waiting. And waiting. Until finally the belt stopped, and it was one other guy and myself left standing - no more bags in sight. We went to talk to the Delta baggage guy, who assured us that he would find them in the computer - just as soon as he finished tagging all the unclaimed luggage ... unclaimed because those people's flights hadn't even arrived yet. Well, my suitcase was on another flight that would come in later, and since Lachelle had already been waiting for about an hour by this time, I gave them Nicole's address and told them to deliver it when it arrived. At 9:30 the next morning, I finally got it ...

Lachelle picked me up and we went back to her house so I could meet little Ellie. She is so stinking cute!! Nicole was already there when I got there and we hung out for a little while and then went back and crashed at her place. Friday we had to hang out until my luggage came, since I couldn't really do anything until I had it! We met Lachelle and my cousin Stacey for lunch at a cute little place in downtown Mesa. We didn't have a long time to catch up because ...

Nicole and I headed to Hohokam Stadium for the Cubs-Giants spring training game. There were sooo many people there, so we had to wait in traffic forever to find a nice man to let us park in his driveway (after we paid him of course). Of course there were lots of scalpers trying to sell tickets - our favorite was the guy that said "need a ticket?" And we nicely said no as we kept walking right passed him. Then he said "need a man?" ha ha That's Spring Training baseball at its best! :) The game was great - the Cubs won, and since that is their 'home field' it was great - although all the little boys around us were huge Giants fans, and knew pretty much everything about every player on the team! Maybe if Barry Bonds would have played it could have been a different story. Hmmm.

Friday night Lachelle, Rob, Ellie, & I went to Cafe Rio, my favorite restaurant on earth! I have to take advantage when I'm near one to go since it is a little piece of heaven. Ellie's first Cafe Rio experience was very exciting ... she slept the whole time! Good thing loud noises don't phase her :)

On Saturday, Nicole and I went to get massages (since my chiropractor told me I had to get one ... that's one doctor's order I'll willingly take!) and then met Lachelle at the mall. We found the cutest little dress for Ellie to wear on Sunday (I thought I'd teach her young ... just like her Aunt Shanna ... to buy new clothes for church every week! ha ha But since all of her other dresses were still too big for her, she needed it. Its never too early to learn the art of justification either)! I went to a ward BBQ with Nicole, and then we hung out at Lachelle's that night watching a movie and playing with Ellie.

I went to church with Lachelle on Sunday - and thank goodness for Ellie keeping me warm during Relief Society! She is so cute,

I could just hold her all day (and practically did - sorry Lachelle)! I gave Ellie many-more-to-come photo shoots while Lachelle was cutting fruit and Rob was playing X-box ... I love her little face in the one on the left! I think she was sick of me taking pictures of her :)

Ellie spent a good deal of the weekend trying to figure out who this other person holding her all the time was ... my favorite is when she tries to suck her thumb. With a little help, she can do it for a little while, but she's just not quite sure what to do with the rest of her fingers, and when it comes out, she starts flailing around trying to get it back. Soooo cute!

I went with Nicole to dinner at her parents house with all her cute nephews, and then went to see Stacey and Ryan for a little while. Then we played Settlers at Lachelle's house before crashing that night! Lachelle took me to the airport on Monday, and that began my journey home ...

I was suppossed to have an hour and a half layover in SLC, so my mom was coming to the airport to meet me. Well, it ended up being about 3.5 hours, which was fine with me because that meant that rather than hanging out at the airport, we went home house for a few minutes to hang out with dad and Josh. Kelli left work early to come and visit me for a little while too! It was a very welcome break from the airport and planes! :) I also got to see mom's new glasses ... and tried to steal them for myself (I really liked them)!!

The only bad thing was that it meant my flight didn't even leave SLC until 7pm, putting me back in Virginia at 1am ... then waiting for my luggage (which did come this time, thank goodness!), and then taking a cab home. I wasn't about to make anyone come get me at that late hour - which I started second guessing when I had Mr. Chatty Cab Driver on the way home! When he asks what smell I am wearing because I made his whole cab smell good, I start to get a little worried! But, I survived and even ended up giving him a pass-along card when he dropped me off. By that time it was 2am and was simply elated to be back home in my comfy warm bed!! No doubt though, it was a great weekend and a perfect getaway - just when I needed it!

St. Patrick's Day

Technically its not St. Patrick's Day anymore, but I still feel like I should post something since I was planning on having some fun experiences (and pictures) at the Shamrock Festival in Virginia Beach this weekend! Instead, I spent most of St. Patrick's Day sleeping and relaxing with either ice or heat on my back ... trying to do anything that I could to get rid of this awful pain. Thank goodness for NCAA basketball games!

I did make it to the pool, thanks to Katie. We sat in the hot tub for awhile and boy did that feel good. I made sure the jets were shooting right on my back and that was exactly what I needed. I walked a couple laps in the pool just to get my muscles moving a little, and then sat in the sauna for a little while as well. Then we ventured out to the movie theater to meet a few more friends to see the new Sandra Bullock movie "Premonition" ... all I can say is I have no idea how in the world people come up with movies like that. SO WEIRD. After it ended, we all just kind of sat there and Jeremy looked up the review on his phone and we all laughed hysterically when he read part of the review, and I quote "WTF?" Enough said! Wow.

And now its time for a little reminiscing about Ireland, because of St. Patrick's Day :) I spent Thanksgiving in Ireland a couple years ago with Sharyn, Liz, & Katrina. Thanksgiving morning we left our darling Bed & Breakfast in Killarney and went to Ross Castle, at the suggestion of the couple running the B&B. When we got to the Estate, we met this cutest little old man who gave us a tour of the surrounding grounds, including a little hike up to a gorgeous waterfall on his horse & buggy. He was the epitome of what you would envision an Irish man who had lived in the same little old house on a mountaintop his entire life. He sang us Irish songs, talked to his horse Sally, and told us all kinds of interesting stories about Ireland and his life there as he lead us around that morning. Maybe we should have stuck around for the rain to stop so he could have lead us to the pot of gold at the end of his rainbow :)

No time to wait for a rainbow though ... we had to go to Blarney Castle before the day was over ... because what's a trip to Ireland without kissing the Blarney Stone? People often ask me why I'm upside down ... well, its because the Blarney Stone is actually on TOP of Blarney Castle. So, this man that is holding me around the waist is paid to do this all day - hoist tourists from the top of the castle down a couple of feet so they can reach down to kiss the famous stone that has been kissed by people's nasty lips for hundreds of years! Don't worry, we sanitized our lips afterward!! According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). hmmm ...

Though I'm not fully aware of why we are supposed to wear green to avoid being pinched on St. Patrick's Day other than that is the color of the Irish, I do it. When we were leaving Ireland, we had some time in the Dublin airport to kill. We also had some Euros that we needed to spend. I saw this necklace in a gift shop and decided that since I never had anything green to wear, I would buy it - and then at least every year I could wear a shamrock necklace that I'd bought in Ireland on St. Patty's Day.

Well wouldn't you know that the year after we came back, green hit the fashion scene again and now I have about a million choices when it comes to wearing green. Green shirts, jacket, purse, workout clothes, and even my running shoes have green stripes on them! One of my favorite green purchases was last year on overstock.com ... my green Simple shoes ... they are super comfortable and a great addition to my shoe collection. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day (a day late) - and here's to a new, healthy week!! I'm not Irish, but I could sure use some of their luck right about now.

Chiropractor & Caps Game

Thank goodness for connections ... I was able to get into the chiropractor yesterday and she told me it was muscle spasms. She did some electrode therapy on me, ultrasound stuff, a drop table thing (obviously these are all very technical terms that I am using!!), and some alignment (cracking my back in lots of spots) ... I am still not able to move so well, but it did help. I will go back on Monday, hopefully feeling better after all the icing and heating pad therapy I am doing this weekend! I have a lot more empathy for people with bad backs now ... NOT fun!! Even doing the smallest things is really hard - like I couldn't bend over to wash my face last night, and laughing too hard hurts (but I am glad I have friends to make me laugh so hard that I know that!!)

I was supposed to go to Virginia Beach this weekend with a bunch of friends and run in the Shamrock Festival 8k this morning. Well since I can hardly walk, running was definitely out. As was sitting in traffic and driving for 4+ hours in the rain/snow. So instead, I went to our ward activity - the Washington Capitals vs. Toronto Maple Leaves hockey game at the Verizon Center - with Katie B., Katie H., Jason, & Dean. Hockey games are great fun! I didn't really socialize much with everyone else there since I basically just stayed in my seat the whole time ... but it was still fun! Katie B. gave me a heat pack to wear around my back and that helped (and made me realize that's a great solution to being cold all the time)! I always have my camera with me but forget to take pictures, but I did manage to snap one at the end of the game ... here's a peek at our Friday night fun :)

My Back is Whacked?!?

Today was the day. Back to the gym - healthy and strong - for my training appointment. Michael can't handle any more drama from this client!! I woke up and stumbled out of bed and thought 'hmm, that's weird, my back kind of hurts' but didn't think much of it, ate my breakfast, and went to the gym.

I checked in with Michael, did a 10 minute elliptical warm-up and felt a little sore in my lower back, but nothing all too bad. I told Michael when we started training that my back hurt, so he stretched me out quite a bit before we started into training. Walking lunges kind of bothered it, and so did the step-ups, so he had me lay down on the mat and he started pushing down at different points and then told me that I had a big knot in it, and I wasn't doing anything else today. So we went into his office and he called his chiropractor and left a message, only to find out that he's out of town for the weekend. Another trainer came in and he asked her what her chiropractor's name was, and left her a message on her cell phone. He gave me both phone numbers, and I went on my way. I called Dr. Jenn on my way to work and left her my work number, and I'm going over later on today to see her. Hopefully she can help me figure out what is going on! I am supposed to be running in a race tomorrow ... and I would really like to be able to stand up straight first! I didn't think this kind of stuff was supposed to happen to you until you are 'old...' I'm not so sure I want to face that reality yet!!

I am really not sure what happened. I've been running the last few days, but never felt any pain or anything until I woke up this morning. Its not like I even fell asleep on my couch watching basketball last night like I thought I was going to! Maybe I slept on it funny - but seriously, what was I doing in my sleep to feel like THIS?!? I guess now I can add chiropractor to my list of doctors ... hopefully that's the last addition for awhile!!!

Let the Games Begin!

Its March 15. Excitement is in the air, and its not just because Spring is finally coming. March Madness is upon us.

"The selections have been made, the first game has been played and now it is time to kick off the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship in grand fashion." (http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/mens)

Who will be the surprise this year? Its anybody's game, that's what's so great about the Tournament. Last year we watched George Mason take the country by surprise in their run for the championship - it was extra fun for us here in Fairfax since GMU is just down the street! We've got lots of 'local' teams in it this year ... Georgetown, George Washington, VA Tech, VA Commonwealth, Old Dominion University, Maryland, and let's cross our fingers that BYU doesn't embarrass themselves too much :)

HOORAY for The Big Dance!!!!!

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News...

I am pretty sure that not many 27 year olds can say that they have been to a cardiologist, let alone FOUR ... I, on the other hand, can. Hooray for me! After informing my doctor of what happened yesterday, they wanted to see me first thing this morning. So, I went and they told me that it was another episode of vasal-vagal syncope (how's that for a name?) which I am prone to - obvious from the tilt table test that I had about a year and a half ago (and passed with flying colors, meaning I passed out within about 5 minutes of it, when it should be a 45 min test) - nothing is 'wrong with me' or whatever (I beg to differ!), but it is just something that I need to watch. Basically my heart is working really hard, like the chamber walls banging into each other, and then when I stop, my brain tells the heart to stop working so hard - which causes the blood to rush away from the heart and pool if you are not still moving, which is apparently the wrong thing for your brain to tell your heart to do.

So, he gave me a prescription for a beta blocker, which will essentially not let my heart work as hard. I asked him if this would affect my performance or anything that I do at the gym or otherwise and he said no - he has lots of marathoner and triathlete patients on it and they say that their heart rate just doesn't go as high but other than that they can do everything they normally did. I don't know but its a start I guess. He didn't like the other options of drugs that the last doctor talked about with me (one of which was prozac or zoloft - yikes) so he said to try this. He gave me the lowest possible dosage and said to cut it in half and start with that. So we'll see what happens.

He also said that even a little dehydration, being tired, and time changes/zones can affect it because your body is thrown off its normal routine, so I guess I'm just one of those people that needs to be extremely aware of what I'm doing! The good news is that when I went to pick up my prescription at Costco tonight, it only cost $2.79. Finally something in the medical world that doesn't cost and arm and a leg!

And now, some of the hilarious comments people have made to me regarding this:

"Why do you keep going to the gym if you keep passing out there?" -Tom, my boss

"At least you can say that you passed out in the arms of a man..." -Mike, my other boss (and to be exact, it was an Italian man)

"If you don't make it out alive, can I have your townhouse?" -Matt, my partially-wishful-thinking brother

"You should ask your doctor if the medication will affect your ability to love, since your heart isn't working as much as it did." -Matt again, always thinking of reality

On the bright side, I did go to the gym after work today and ran 5 miles on the treadmill - no lightheadeness and no passing out. Now that's a beautiful thing :)

Passed Out.

syn·co·pe [sing-kuh-pee]:
Pathology. brief loss of consciousness associated with transient cerebral anemia, as in heart block, sudden lowering of the blood pressure, etc.; fainting.

No this is not a vocabulary lesson.

About two weeks ago I when I got my hair done, Jennifer (my hairstylist extraordinaire) asked me if I'd had any more problems with my passing out ... I was pleased to inform her that I hadn't had another episode since I went to the hospital over a year and a half ago to take the 'tilt table test' that my cardiologist recommended for me after a few passing out incidents. Maybe that conversation crept into my subconscious and my body remembered what an odd sensation passing out is ... because ...

I met with my trainer, Michael, at the gym this morning at 6:30. We did a few sets of walking lunges and then went to the squat machine. I did my first set of 20, got a drink, and did a second set of 20. When I finished, I felt a little weird - as in lightheaded. I stood there while he talked to me and asked if I was ok. I couldn't really say anything, so he said 'put your arms around me' so I did - and then I told him I think I needed to lay down. Well the next thing I know, he is talking to me and I am laying on the gym floor with towels under my head. WHAT?!? He said something about my legs giving out and I was completely gone. Then I realized that it had happened again. I passed out. He told me not to move, that the paramedics were on their way. Crap, not this again. I was not about to be taken out on a stretcher to the emergency room again (ok its only happened once, about 3 years ago, but still - once is more than enough for my lifetime)! He said they had to call 911 since I'd passed out (for liability purposes) - so we sat there and waited.

They came - all of them - I think there were 2 paramedics actually working on me - one taking my blood pressure and pulse, and one hooking up the portable EKG, and others who were looking and waiting - to see if they should use the defibrillator and the stretcher that they brought in. Unfortunately (or fortunately probably), the one hot paramedic was part of the Fire squad, who was obviously not needed, so he left after they realized that I was ok. Then another girl pricked my finger for a glucose test while someone else took my blood pressure again as I sat up. Vitals were fine, my color was back, and I felt ok, all things considered. All but one of the paramedics left, and he had to get some information from me and I had to sign something saying that I had refused service to the hospital. He told me that he didn't want me driving, and that I couldn't leave until I had another liter of water and some food in me. Then they left and I went with Michael from the middle of the mat into one of the offices, so that I wasn't as much on display as I had been!

Michael walked over to 7-11 and had one of the other trainers come sit with me to keep me company while he was gone. He told me he wasn't sure what had happened - that he just saw Michael holding me, so he thought he was giving me a hug (he does that) and then he said it just kept going for like 15 seconds, so he thought that maybe I was crying or something, and then he saw him helping me to the floor. I am sure that was quite the sight to see! Luckily mostly everyone else there was in their own working out zone, so I hope I didn't cause too much of a scene! Then Michael came back, slapped down a granola bar, a banana, and some orange juice and said 'start eating kid!' So we sat there and talked for awhile while I ate and he told me more details about what had happened ...

Apparently I was holding onto him pretty tightly and he was talking to me and I wasn't really responding after I told him I thought I should lay down. Then he said my hand started shaking and my eyes rolled back into my head - and he said that I was as white as he has ever seen. Then he said that all of a sudden, the tight grip that I had vanished as my legs gave out and I went totally limp. That's when he helped me to the floor. Luckily I was already holding onto him when it happened - otherwise there could have been some serious damage done! He said that he's seen a lot of people passing out (he's a trainer, played football, was in the Army, and has lots of good drinking stories) and this was the worst he has seen. Yikes, that makes me feel good. Not really a good thing ... he said I was out for two or three minutes - I don't think it was that long, because it always seems like longer than it really is, but what do I know, I was unconscious!

Nothing like starting off a week like that! I told Michael he is going to fire me as a client - two months ago I kicked him in the groin (accidentally of course ... swinging my leg up onto the leg press ... aaahhh!!), last week I slept through my alarm and stood him up (after being sick for a week and missing training sessions for that), and now when I finally do show up, I pass out on him!! Now if that's not the ideal personal training client, I don't know what is ;)

So now its back to the drawing board to figure out what is wrong with me. I left a message at my cardiologist's office this morning so we'll see what they have to say. It could very well be a combination of exhaustion from a weekend with kids, possible dehydration (since surely I wasn't drinking enough water in the last few days), and this time change throwing my body off since it was really like 5 when I got up this morning rather than 6, even though I did get 8 hours of sleep last night ... unfortunately rationalization isn't going to make what happened any different though! I passed out at the gym, again. I wonder if there is some kind of world record I should be pursuing for this ...

My Celebrity Look-alikes

So I know that this has been around for awhile but something today reminded me of this and I thought I'd go ahead and see who this website thinks my celebrity look-alikes are. Kind of funny ... anyway, here is My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com.

Today's Blog is brought to you by the Letter 'P' and the Number '2'

I babysit from time to time, and usually come away with a funny story of some sort. Last night was certainly no exception.

The twins will be 5 next month, so they're in pre-school. This week at school is all about the letter P - so every day they take something that starts with a 'P' to show the class. Last night we were brainstorming 'P' words to think of what they could take today. One of them already took a penny, another child in class brought a Power Ranger, we found a (plastic) pie and a stuffed panda, and just when we had decided that Emma would take her new pony (My Little Pony) and Margot chose a piece of pepperoni pizza (a plastic one of course), Emma came running upstairs to tell me of the great idea she had come up with ... "I know, we can take 'pee pee' to school tomorrow because it has TWO p's - we can just 'take it in a jar' for everyone!" Ok I am not a parent, but aren't there times that you just bust up laughing when a child says something like that? I couldn't help myself last night.

Every time I babysit, I gain more and more respect for all you moms out there who do this every day! I guess you just pick your battles - it was pretty easy to see that I chose not to fight this morning since Emma got out of the car for school this morning wearing a green velvet dress and hot pink cowgirl boots ...

Russ' Anatomy (a la Grey's Anatomy)

Our friend Russ' birthday is tomorrow, and when we told him we wanted to throw his birthday party, he decided that he wanted a 'theme party.' After much deliberation, we came up with the Grey's Anatomy theme since he loves the show, and people tell him that because his hair started getting a bit long, he looks like Dr. McDreamy. That's where the idea began, and we ran with it...

With Jenny, my master party planner roommate, and Becky, our hilarious and oh-so-creative friend, the 'Party Planning Committee' (just like on 'The Office' ha ha) was in place, and soon the ideas began to materialize ... invitations that looked like a doctor's prescription, scrubs, surgical caps and masks, tongue depressers, cotton balls, bandaids, gauze, candy to look like medicine, pill containers, real medicine, Operation, etc. Russ loves sandwiches, so we decided that's what we'd serve for dinner - along with some other 'hospital cafeteria' like food ... single-serving chips, jell-o, and canned drinks. Of course everyone had to eat their food off of styrofoam trays. The only dessert he really likes is cheesecake, so that became his birthday cake. Jenny made some cheesecake with raspberry sauce and Christine & I made Lachelle's brownie cheesecake recipe - a big hit!

I came up with a great party playlist (if I do say so myself) on my ipod for the event (with a little help from Christine, Jenny, and iTunes) ... we had the entire first and second season soundtracks from the show on it (most of which I put at the end because they were a bit more mellow), but then added our own fun party songs, including such doctor/hospital/painful/body appropriate songs such as 'Dr. Feelgood,' 'Bad Case Of Lovin You,' 'Toxic,' 'SOS,' 'Smack That,' 'Listen To Your Heart,' 'Your Body Is A Wonderland,' 'You Make Me Sick,' 'Bootylicious,' 'Every Breath You Take,' 'How To Be Dead,' and Weird Al's 'Like a Surgeon...' quite the funny mix!

Christine came down from NYC for the party (since I was talking about when I was up there a few weeks ago), and it was fun to spend the weekend with her, though we weren't really able to do much other than run around a bit & get ready for the party (sorry Christine - at least you did get to go to Hunan Chef though)! The few people that didn't know us well walked in and asked if we were really nurses since we had scrubs on (ha ha) - or maybe they were just trying to make us feel good by saying that! But regardless, we had a great turnout, and it was a fun (and funny) night!

Back to 'My Roots'

Ok well not really, this is much darker than I think my roots have been since I was about 4 years old when my hair started lightening up. Yes, it is spring, but it is not summer yet, so I decided to keep my hair dark for a couple more months. I don't remember the last time it was this dark. That's what I said at Thanksgiving when I dyed it dark for the first time in, well, ever I think! But this time she did it a shade darker so that when it lightens up (and it will), it is still pretty dark. So ... its a little shocking at first to look in the mirror and see myself, but its a fun change. Luckily I trust my hairstylist 100% - and she does things that I would never think of on my own. But hey, there are only so many things I can control in my life, so why not have a little fun with them right?!? You've gotta keep things interesting somehow! :)

Batter Up! Its Spring Training Time Again :)

A few wise words from my good friends at mlb.com ... :)

"The wait is over. A fresh season and a new start begin today, with four Spring Training games.

Time for the beautiful game to move back inside the lines.

Hot Stove, make way for hot smashes. Time to turn away from contract issues, and to turn two. No more getting overly excited about batting practice. Here comes baseball without a cage!

The smell of freshly-mowed grass and of grilled hot dogs, the sounds of bellowing vendors and of cracks of the bat echoing off berms, the sights of managers sitting outside dugouts and pitchers running sprints on the track ... baseball's senses are all about to flood back in.

A fresh prologue to a fresh season gets under way on Wednesday, under the glare of the Grapefruit League sun and under the fronds of the Cactus League.

All but two clubs will be in action on Thursday, when Wednesday's isolated notes will be more like a full-blown fanfare.

Gradually, all of spring's alluring storylines will play out between the lines.

New marquee faces in new places ... Alfonso Soriano with the Cubs, Julio Lugo with the Red Sox, Carlos Lee in Houston, Gary Mathews Jr. in Anaheim, Jason Schmidt in Los Angeles, Bengie Molina and Barry Zito with the Giants, Mike Piazza in Oakland's DH shoes and Braden Looper in St. Louis' rotation.

Old faces back in familiar places ... Randy Johnson with the Diamondbacks, Sammy Sosa with the Rangers, Andy Pettitte in the Bronx, Mike Hampton with the Braves, Mark Prior on a mound.

Indeed, America's pastime is moving back into the present. Unwrap at will."

Now, THAT'S something I can smile about on this last day of February. Play Ball!!

Sick of being Sick

I didn't get a flu shot this year. And I have been sick 4 times. Do I wish I would have had one? Well, I'm not jumping to that conclusion so fast ... I have a friend who got the so-called wonderful flu shot, and he has also been sick 4 times. I told him last week that I was ahead of him, having only been sick myself 3 times this season. Yup, I spoke too soon - and found myself coming down with it again. So now we're even. And I call a truce. I am not typically one that likes to end things in a tie, but in this case, bring it on. I am sick of being sick. I don't even know why I keep getting sick in the first place. I am getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising almost every single day, and not super stressed out over anything in particular ... so I am just not quite sure what is at the root of all of this. It is frustrating, but what can you do? Keep drugging yourself up and enjoy the pj time I guess!

It probably didn't help much that I went ice skating on Saturday night - it was a big Institute activity and we thought we would go to support and well let's be honest - to see who was there. When you're single you still have to play the game every so often! Well, it ended up being one of those times that I dread ... it seemed like everyone else was 19 years old, and we all completely felt like the 'old people' who are still single going to these activities. Kind of depressing! At least I had some good friends there with me to laugh about it with :)

Sunday morning my phone woke me up. I answered only to find out that church had been cancelled. What? Of course I was still in bed and hadn't realized that the rain I'd been hearing all night was actually freezing rain, which now had 3-4 inches of snow on top of it, and it was still snowing. So, the roads were horrible, and the parking lot at the church was a mess (uncleared), and church was cancelled. The first thing that came to my mind was (this is horrible) "great, now I don't have to figure out what to wear to church!" But frankly, it couldn't have come on a better day. I really needed the day to worship from home and RELAX, which is something that I am not really good at doing unless I don't have another choice. Well luckily for me "Gone With The Wind" was on tv yesterday (so now I really hope for Heidi's sake that her little Scarlet isn't the drama queen that the original was) and that's right, its one of those classics that I'd never seen before. 4 hours later ... I feel much more educated. Unfortunately that is what my friend Ben was subjected to when he came over - watching it with me coughing in the background!

So yeah, I am officially ready for spring. Or at least for a new month - March can't come soon enough!!

Snow & Ice Storms

Who knew that a seemingly small amount of snow could be so tricky?? Well ... after living in Virginia for four and a half years, I certainly know that it can be! This winter started out very mild - we had record high days in January and a week of 60's and 70's. But, that was too good to be true ... the last couple weeks haven't been above freezing, and with the windchill, its been in the single digits many mornings. I know, I know, I lived in Utah for ten years, but something about the East coast makes the cold just that much colder. It goes right through you because of the humidity in the air. It sure looks pretty on all the trees when it snows though!

The snow itself isn't the tricky part - but its when we have what they call "wintry mix" storms - freezing rain that turns to ice - it gets bad. Parking lots turn into ice skating rinks and if you don't shovel your steps like we didn't yesterday (when we got home from work it was completely frozen solid), this is what it looks like when you open the front door in the morning ...

Hold on to the railings or you'll slide right down the steps like I almost did last night when I was taking the garbage out! Its a losing battle because even if it starts to melt during the day, the minute the sun goes down and the temperature drops, everything re-freezes again.

Its kind of cool to walk on the snow and realize that you have left no pathway behind you since the snow is completely frozen underneath you. Makes all those days at the gym seem like they are paying off (ha ha) ... but then once you realize just how much weight it would take to smash that snow, it puts it all in perspective ... check out these pictures of my car ... if a car doesn't crush the snow underneath it, then I'd say its pretty frozen!! Its kind of hard to tell and looked better in person, but you'll get the idea. And no, I didn't just tilt my camera to take these :)

These are the days that I seriously reconsider my occupation ... not because I don't love my job, but because teachers here get all kinds of days off! There have only been two days of school this week ... and it didn't even snow last night! I guess it is kind of dangerous for buses to be treading the roads, but come on ... too bad all the kids that are out of school can't even play in it since its completely frozen. But at least now we have some snow on the ground ... if its going to be this cold outside, we might as well have something to show for it!!

NYC

I love New York. The the hustle and bustle, the crazy people, the shopping, the food, the theater, the complete reliance on public transportation, and loud noises. Yes, something traumatic usually happens when I head to the Big Apple, but that's all part of the fun and appeal of it.

The first time that I went I ended up being by myself for a few days (which ended up being great, since I got to do and see everything that I wanted to do, without worrying about anyone else's schedule ... am I selfish?!?) since no one ended up being able to get away for a few days when I could. But hey, I had a free apartment in Brooklyn and I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to go explore a new city by myself. Of course I wasn't going to let friends bailing on a couple days stop me from going to a sold-out Yankees game, watching a Mets game by myself after a long day at Wall Street and the Met, sitting on the sidewalk on top of a subway map (like it was going to protect me from the dirty sidewalk or something?!?) with a bunch of other crazy kids trying to get student rush tickets for "Aida" (that's how many years ago it was!), and figuring it all out on my own. I did meet up with a girl that I'd met in church that Sunday in my cousin's ward in NJ and her friends - and we toured the Empire State Building and went to see Les Miz like we were old friends. I guess that's where the NYC adventures began and I think it was a sense of empowerment to know that I could tackle it on my own.

One of the classics was going to NYC at Christmas with Heidi and Anne - we left at 4 in the morning and drove, and toured around all day - and I mean ALL day - we went to the Rockette's Christmas show at 11:30pm - and slept for a couple hours before getting up to catch our 5:30 train. Well somehow in the mess, we only had two train tickets rather than the three that we needed - so I ran out to buy another one before the train left. Well, when I came back the lights on the train were blinking, and I was running as fast as I could pounding on the windows of the train cars until finally the combination of my pounding and the train's speed ended up pushing me over on the train platform only to find myself at 5:30 in the morning yelling "STOP!!!" at the top of my lungs as the train whisked off into the tunnel, at which point I realized all I had was a credit card with me - because my cell phone and purse were with my friends on the train heading to New Jersey. It turned out ok, Heidi and I still managed to catch our flights back to UT from DC that night - despite my swollen knee and the arthritis-like limp that I enjoyed for a couple days!

Then there was the time that I met some friends there and Nicole and I were driving another friend's car back to DC - well it was a stick shift car and I don't drive them, so Nicole drove it, which meant that we had to come all the way back to my house rather than dropping her off at the airport in Baltimore to catch her flight - and of course we overslept at my house (even though we only slept for an hour). Maybe not so smart to not get any sleep that weekend (I took the Chinatown bus from DC to NYC at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday morning and met them in NYC that day - and then we didn't leave the City until about midnight) - but that's a lesson I seem to have to learn time and time again.

The Chinatown bus is an experience in and of itself, and after riding it with Ashley and fighting our way to secure seats, being forced to watch a Chinese variety show followed by Rambo, I have decided that I value my life too much to ever embark on that journey again. I discovered the Greyhound bus, which doesn't leave and drop off in sketchy Chinatown, but rather at an actual bus station near Union Station in Washington DC (which isn't as scary as you may think), and drops you off at Port Authority - smack dab in the middle of Times Square in NYC, right at a major subway connection. And for $35 round trip, you just can't beat it. Maybe one day I will suck it up and pay for the luxury of riding Amtrak, but I can't bring myself to spend upwards of $200 for a weekend trip when I know that once I turn on my portable dvd player, I lose track of the fact that I am pretty much the only white female in a cramped space with smelly people surrounding me.

I really didn't intend on this becoming a saga about NYC drama ... but rather an update on my most recent trip to New York. Christine lives in Manhattan and I hadn't seen her in a few months, and Kristin & Kurt were going to be there for the weekend, so I decided to go up. Kristin and I were roommates for 2 years at BYU and I haven't seen them since their wedding 3.5 years ago, so this was the perfect opportunity. Perfect except for the fact that it was FREEZING cold there - but that's besides the point (but explains the puffy red coat that I donned for the weekend)!

I took the lovely Greyhound bus again - which is not so bad once you watch part of a movie and sleep for 2.5 hours only to wake up finding yourself going through the Lincoln Tunnel! Not bad. Of course there is the random lady at the bus stop who talks to you for 20 minutes about the ballet in Brooklyn that she just saw and the guy on the bus who tells you that you look like a movie star, but that's part of the charm of NYC.

On Saturday, Christine and I went to the TKTS booth and stood in line to get tickets to a show for the night. Luckily, they had tickets for "Hairspray" available, which was the same show that Kristin & Kurt were going to, so we snatched those right up. We met K&K back at Christine's house and then headed to dinner at Tony's Di Napoli - a fabulous family-style Italian restaurant that Christine chose for us. Yum! Then we went to the Neil Simon theater for our show - which was simply fabulous! "Hairspray" is such a fun show - it just makes you want to get up and dance in your seats (luckily for everyone there, I do not dance). Diana DeGarmo from American Idol was in it, as was Christine's favorite Ashley Parker Angel (from O-Town) and it was just a great entertaining show and a fabulous way to spend a Saturday night!

After the show, we went back to Times Square to go to ESPNZone for dessert. Great friends from college, a million television screens with every possible sporting event on, and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Sunday ... need I say more? Heaven :) We stayed there until they kicked us out because we were having so much fun together and probably subconsciously because we didn't want to go back out in to the cold again! So after bundling up again and heading back onto the streets, we took one last look at Times Square, got our token tourist picture, and parted ways at the Subway station.


So I guess nothing too traumatic happened this time in NYC - I won't go into the drama of the woman at the bus station not accepting my ticket since Amtrak sent it to me in another language and missing the right bus ... I survived and made it home just fine. Thank goodness for Season 2 of The Office on DVD, that's all I have to say!! Maybe I'm starting a new trend of less-traumatic travels - or maybe something big is just bound to happen soon! Only time will tell ... for now, hooray for seeing old friends and renewing friendships across the country :)