Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Home Repair Take 1

Expectations:


Scene 1:  A boy and a girl sitting a dark living room.  A ceiling fan has been removed leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling.  Between the boy and girl sits a disassembled fan and a flash light.

Boy
This should be easy.  We already have the old fan down, and this fan says it should only take 5  minutes.  We'll have this up in time to watch the football game.

Girl
Great!  Let's hop to it honey!  I'm so excited that in 5 minutes we'll have a new ceiling fan!

Scene 2: 2 hours later.  Both the boy and girl have sore shoulders from holding the fan for hours.  Both are arguing at each other.  Both are in the dark with a light from the iphone flashlight app. 

Girl
(After the 100th time of dropping a black screw) I quit. Leave the damn hole.  I'm over the 5 minute fan. (Stomps away)

Boy
Please don't leave me here to hold up a none working fan while you throw a fit.

Scene 3:  An hour later. Boy and girl cuddling on couch and enjoying their new ceiling fan and watching the last 3 minutes of the game.


Monday, September 20, 2010

Big Announcement!

This is the hardest post I've ever written.  I don't typically write about my feelings and this subject has a lot of feelings involved. *sigh.*  So, here goes.

We're moving.  To Dallas.  I know so many of you have moved away from home.  That this isn't a big deal, but it's a really big deal for me.  I've lived in T-town my entire life.  I went to college here.  And even though I've talked about moving and starting a life in another city, it's very overwhelming to actually do it.  I'm freaking out and a big ball of emotions.  I cry, I'm happy, I try to convince myself that it's all going to be ok even though I don't have a job.  It will be ok.  I know that and I truly believe we're making the right move for us at the right time.  But it doesn't make it any easier.  Does that make sense?

Any ways, I'm hoping to see a lot of people that I take for granted that I'll see whenever.  I'm working on getting my  house on the market and I'm unemployed come after Friday. 

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A Church Brewery, a Wedding, & a Keg

The whole reason Dave and I opted to go on vacation was because we were invited to a wedding in Pittsburgh.  I'd never been Pennsylvania and had the wonderful idea of just making a vacation trip out of it.  On the last leg of our trip was Pittsburgh and the wedding.  We didn't get to do a whole lot of sight seeing but still had an awesome time.  The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and lots of dancing and laughter.

We found an old Catholic church that was converted into a brewery.  The atmosphere was awesome.  Back when the steel industry collapsed, Pittsburgh became almost deserted.  They found this abandoned church  and turned into a brewery.

Dave with his tall friends.  This is what the groom's side of our wedding part looked like.  

 

On our way to the rehearsal dinner we got lost.  Shocking right?! I blame this one of technology since the iPhone kept telling me to go the wrong way on a one way street.  It took an extra hour to get there. And we got to cross the bridge, go through the tunnel, and see the ball park and football stadium twice!  The rehearsal dinner was at an amazing vegan restaurant.  The restaurant was also a thrift store.  So we got browse and eat!

And finally here's the bride and groom!
During the reception I dropped my camera and it no longer worked.  So you'll just have to imagine everyone dancing and having fun!

The next morning, Dave and I were to fly home.  We had secured a ride from Mich.  However, the night before Mich decided to drink a little. He created a drink that we all named the Meeche.  Which was vodka on the rocks with a lemon wedge.  Somehow Mich ended up with the reception keg.  He also didn't drive his rental car back from the reception, so it took 15 minutes the next morning to find it.  After we found the car, disposed of the keg and picked up two extra people we were ready to hit the airport.  Only it was 45 minutes till the flight took off and it was a 15 minute drive to the airport.  I was freaking out, but we made it in time. Only to sit on a plan for hours because I didn't realize I booked the flight that went from Pittsburgh to Orlando to Houston.  OMG!  It was a long flight!  We made it home early evening and all and all we had a great time.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Fun Stay in the Big Apple

Vacation Day 2 in Philly started off better than Day 1.  We got a ride to the train station, we saw more of Philly.  We saw Betsy Ross' house.  Which by the way she was married three times.  Ross is her first married name, yet she made the flag during her third marriage.  Yet, they're not sure she actually made the flag because she didn't tell anyone until she was like 80. It was her son who petitioned for her to get recognition, so there's still a bit of mystery in regards to who made the first flag.  So there's a bit history for you!  We then found a bar and watched more of the LLWS.  Ohio was in the elimination game, so of course we cheered them on again.  And again they lost. 

Day 3 we went to NYC!  I love New York.  We took a train from Philly to NYC. So easy.  We got a cab that took us to the Amtrack station and we bought our ticket and got on the train.  It was an hour and half.  So much more room than an airplane and they have plug-ins for your phone and computers.  If you haven't taken a train, I highly recommend it.

Once we got to Penn Station, we had to maneuver over to Time Square.  We needed to get to Queens to drop our bags off at the hotel so we weren't walking around Manhattan with luggage behind us.  We easily found our train, it was of course the stop that would give us issues.  As you know from the previous post we have issues getting lost at train stops.  Our train decided to drop us off at Citi Field. Which would've been fine if it were 6 at night and we were going to the game. Not ok when we want to get to our hotel which is not at Citi Field.  Turns out we got on an express train which means they skipped our stop. 

So we followed the crowd off the train station and low and behold we end up at the US Open. We were the only people at the US Open with bags.  We didn't go inside, but we did see some practice courts.  From there we finally got on the right track and found a Holiday Inn and took a cab to our hotel.  I make this sound like we took a 15 minute detour.  It was more like an hour to an hour and a half.  We looked ridiculous walking around in Queens with luggage behind us.

We get back to Manhattan and have lunch with another of Dave's cousin. I'm so proud of Devin.  He's working for NASDAQ and has really tackled living in NY. 
Here's a view from his building.  Awesome right?
After we congratulate Devin on his awesome job and awesome view of the city, Dave and I wander around.  We end up in Bryant Park (wishing it was fashion week!).  We chilled there for a bit as I discussed Project Runway and Dave politely tuned me out. Then we found the Brooklyn Bridge. Even though I'd been to New York a few times, I never walked the bridge.  That was a long walk to view point.  We didn't make it all the way across to Brooklyn.  But it would've been fun to ride a bike across, so maybe next time!  The day was beautiful and there were tons of people outdoor biking, skating, and walking.  I loved it!
From there we went straight to Citi Field where we saw this guy!
We saw the Mets play the Marlins.  David Wright got a 2 run home run in the first inning.  Dave was ecstatic.  Even though the Mets didn't win, we had a blast!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Day Rite-Aid Saved My Life - Vacation Day 1

Dave and I flew into Sunny Philadelphia.  Actually, it was 11pm so there was no sun.  We stayed outside of Philly in a lovey town called Havertown.  His cousin graciously offered up his home even though they went to the Jersey Shore.  We already asked for autographs, videos, and reenactments.  They assured us that it was nothing like TV and sounded a bit offended that we were disappointed.

I had already decided that unlike previous beach vacations where we grab a book, trashy magazine, and towel and lay around all day, that we're going to site see and be tourists and do really fun stuff.  So that morning at 8am Eastern time I tried to wake up my husband who refused to get up.  At 10:30 we were finally ready to leave and be big kids and take the train to the 69th Street Station.  Havertown has their own station, which according to the cousin is less than a mile from where we stayed.  Instead of finding that station, Dave and I walked almost 3 miles directly to the 69th Street Station.  That was fun. And we were hungry and I thanked Jesus that I thought to not only pack tennis shoes, but actually put them on my feet that morning.

Once we caught the train we easily found the Independence Hall stop.  We saw history. We learned history.  We saw Benjamin Franklin's grave.  I thought it was creepy that people paid tickets to walk around a graveyard.  We did not do that. Instead, I stuck my arm through the fence and snapped the pictures.

After our site seeing we found a cute little bar and watched the Little League World Series (LLWS).  We decided to cheer on Ohio, mainly because their cute little 13 year old pitcher wasn't having a good pitching day and we really wanted to see a come back.  *Spoiler Alert* Ohio lost.  We left the bar.  It was around 8:30pm when left.

On our way home we decided that we were going to get off at the Havertown stop so that we didn't walk 3 miles in the dark in the outskirts of Philly.  On our way back both our phones ran out juice.  We felt like big kids, in a big city, taking a big train.  We exited our train at the Haverford stop.  One thing I forgot to mention is that we didn't actually know our stops name. We assumed that Haverford is directly related to Havertown and it must be close to where we're staying. WRONG!

Instead we wandered around suburbs for hours.  If this was a TV show and Dave and I were contestants, we would've been the couple arguing and snipping at each other about being lost.  Our relationship would've been on tabloids and we would've had to go on a talk show circuit to defend it.

One cute thing about Haverford is that they don't believe in sidewalks.  They also don't believe in putting a the train station near lights or stores.  So when we exited the train station and didn't have a working phone to use google maps or call someone, we just picked a direction.  We walked through neighborhoods without sidewalks.  We walked by Havertown College which gave me the false hope that we were going in the right direction.  We eventually found stop lights and businesses.  We walked into a gas station and they didn't have maps or phone chargers.  We couldn't get a cab because we didn't know where to tell them we needed to go.  Didn't have an address or phone number because they were in the phone. Side note: After telling this story to someone they asked why we didn't look up the cousin's name in a phone book. That never occurred to us.  We're too dependent on technology.   Same deal in the CVS.  Only several people were trying to help us, but since we couldn't give clear directions it was hard tell us anything than, no this isn't have Havertown.


We eventually found a Rite-Aid in Ardmore.  I love Rite-Aid.  It saved my life and marriage. They had maps and chargers!!  I went to the maps and Dave headed for the chargers.  I bought two chocolate bars and opened the map in the middle of Rite-Aid and sat on the floor to try to figure out where we were and where we need to be. Dave bought a battery powered iPod charger.  It was the only Apple charger they had.  It of course didn't work on Dave's phone. However, it did with mine.  Only you had to position the batteries just right in order for it charge the phone.

Here's a map.  I encourage you to pull up the larger version so you know how incredibly far off we truly were. 


View Larger Map

We finally got it juiced up enough so that it would turn on.  We called one of his cousins who lives next door to where we're staying.  He of course needed better location points than the Rite-Aid in Ardmore. So we left Rite-Aid and thanked them profusely for carrying maps and charges and chocolate.  We came to a nice little corner which was housing a homeless man.  Dave's cousin was on his way.  I was therefore in charge of holding the phone while it was charging. Turns out I suck at that job.  I dropped the phone along with the charger.  The phone immediately died and we couldn't get the charger to work with the phone again.  I was desperately hoping that Dave's cousin did not need more directions to find us.


He didn't. We survived and made it home at 11.  Thankfully, the Phillies were in the 16th inning and that's why his cousin was up late.  Otherwise, his phone would've been turned off and we would've lived in Rite-Aid to never blog again.