New York State of Mind

Dave and I had a great weekend in NYC. We loved it sooo much we wanted to leave a little piece of us in New York, so we accidentally left Dave's keys in Brooklyn! It really isn't a Shoave trip if there isn't a few mishaps! We started off our trip going to our Megabus stop, but when we walked up to where we assumed it was, there was a HUGE crater in the ground. A nice gentleman who probably saw our confused and concerned faces came over to assist us, letting us know that we were WAAAAYYY off. So with little time left we called a cab and headed to our new destination, the true Megabus stop! Dave and I have had mishaps like this happen almost every time we head out somewhere, once we even went to the wrong airport! But once we got to our stop, the rest of things fell into place.

Friday Night: We found out that the Mets were playing a home game, so we headed straight out to the ball field. Dave loves the Mets and grew up going to Shae Stadium with his father, this was his first time at the new Citi Field and seeing the Mets at a home game in years.  This was the most fun I have ever had at a baseball game! The organization does a great job in getting their fans active and engaged. I was dancing, yelling, and chanting with the best of them!

Dave and the Home Run Apple

Perfect Evening for a Baseball Game

Saturday: Our hotel bed put a spell on us and we didn't get up until around 10:30p.m. and didn't finally leave our room until noon. We started our day off by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Have you ever seen the Sex and the City Movie? Well near the end Miranda and Steve decide that if they both want to stay in their marriage and work at it, they would meet in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.....and.....they do! YAY! From this point on, I had always wanted to walk across the bridge, it's silly and girly, I know, but hey, sometimes that is what life is about. After walking across the bridge we went to Grimaldi's, which is a brick oven pizza place right under the bridge. It is very popular, the line was down the block. So Dave being the New Yorker he is knew of a different brick oven pizza place that was really delicious and famous. It was Lombardi's and has been in business since 1905, we still had to wait, but the pizza is worth the wait! After finally eating, we headed to Coney Island. I was excited to be able to take pictures and relax a bit. Haa haaa...WRONG! It was the Mermaid Parade and the whole place was PACKED with people, mermen, and mermaids. We walked around and then jumped right back on the train to head to Central Park. We went to Strawberry Fields while the sun was setting. We got to sit and relax listening to a group of John Lennon fans play guitar and sing different Beatles Songs. We walked further into Central Park and found the most amazing view of the city and climbed on the rocks to sit and enjoy it. It was very peaceful, it didn't feel like we were in the city at all. It was finally time to eat again and we headed off to Greenwich Village to a dinner Dave had went to as a kid.  Then finally late at night it was time to crawl back into our bed and have it place another spell on us. 

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

Coney Island Wonder Wheel

Sunday: Again the bed placed a spell on us and we had a hard time waking up and pulling ourselves out of bed! We started off the day with a ferry ride to Staten Island, which is the cheapest and easiest way to see the Statue of Liberty.  The weather was beautiful, it was so relaxing to be on the moving water ( I love boats, I think its cause I'm from MN) and thinking of how many people came into this country setting eyes on the Statue of Liberty and feeling they are finally able to be free of what was holding them back before.  After the ride to Staten Island and back we headed back to Central Park to see the Alice and Wonderland Statue. I have seen this statue is different movies and tv shows (Million dollar Matchmaker) and thought it was pretty cool. Dave had never seen it, so that was a plus too (it's nice for the New Yorker to experience something new in NY).  Next, we got on the train and headed to Astoria to meet up with one of Dave's college friends. We walked around Astoria Park, ate amazing Greek food, and shared a zillion stories! It was a great way to end our trip to NYC! 

Me and my little ducklings on the Ferry

I took 477 photos while in NYC for 2.5 days..its a curse for loving photography so much. One little shift can change the whole perspective. So keep a look out for different themed photo blogs featuring pictures taken during this NYC trip and the one in January!

Exhaustion

Oh goodness...I am exhausted! 

I feel like I shouldn't be, but I am! 

Today was my first day of not working

I did two workout sessions

cleaning

reading

watching hulu (LOVE IT!)

cooked

and packed.

Where am I going, you ask.

Dave and I are heading to NEW YOOOORRRRRKKKK 

for the weekend! 

We hope to:

go to Coney Island, 

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge 

(and then eat at a popular pizza place under the bridge),

do some kissin' in Central Park,

and hang out with Ranjit in Astoria.

I hope you all have a great weekend planned ahead!

90mph

This is how life feels right now.

Everything is moving fast, a little to fast if you ask me, and I can't slow down. I have to keep up with the traffic and all the moving cars (who seem to be speeding at least 15 miles overs the speed limit).  I know that if I really needed, I could put my blinker on, merge onto the side of the road, and take a deep breath. But sometimes it seems sooo far away, like I'm in the furthest lane over and the cars are going so fast I can't even get over one lane, I need to go over three before I can breathe, and I have so much difficult getting over one lane that I say F it and just continue with the flow of traffic hoping it will let up further down the road. 

From today on we have 5 weeks before we leave for Minnesota. Within these 5 weeks we only have 15 days where we are not busy..not yet, at least. The rest of the days we are mostly traveling, some for vacation and some to visit family. So that leaves 15 days to pack up our apartment, figure out how to move our stuff across country, get ready to live in another country, and still remain sane! EEECCCKKK..I feel like this is going to be a crazy, crazy month! So bare with me, I may be talking about this a lot on the blog!

But at least tonight we got some big things accomplished (yay for productivity!). We now have health insurance (mine is done tomorrow), a place to rest our little heads when we land in Australia (for at least two days), a determined budget to stay under when we are abroad, and someone to drive our uhaul across the country. So tonight I can rest a little peaceful..which is good because I need the sleep.  Tomorrow is my last day at work and I am a mixed bag of emotions about this. I foresee a few tears tomorrow as I close the door on my now empty office. 

How do you handle stressful situations? Have an moving tips?

.weekend recap.

This weekend, we didn't follow all of our plans. But we usually use our plans as a guideline, they are flexible, not ever really set in stone.  Friday instead of seeing Third Eye Blind we ended up getting ice cream and bowling a few games while dancing to the videos they had playing on the screen. Saturday I had a work meeting for a few hours and then met Dave for supper before the concert. We ate our favorite Cuban sandwiches, had a few drinks and then grabbed the public transportation to shuttle us to the amazing venue of Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is an outside venue and the weather was beautiful..not to warm and sticky, like it has been usually!  Sunday it was suppose to rain so Dave and I decided to stay home instead of heading into the Capital Pride Festival.  We slept in, watched Dexter, went to the pool, worked out, and then it POURED cats and dogs. Now we are relaxing and watching more Dexter...we are addicted!

Opening Act: Dawes  They were really, really, really good!

Opening: M.Ward with Dawes closing out the M.Ward set

BRIGHT EYES! What an amazing concert from beginning to end!

New Swimsuit! What do you think?

Pool Side Reading

I love relaxing by the pool with this man by my side.

P.S.

These are my favorite pair of shoes..and will be a summer staple! I have them in red with white polka dots too!

Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday

This is what my Friday night looked like:

Summer time outfit: CHECK! Plus this is the first year in FOREVER (10+  years) that I have worn shorts!

We drove around for 40min. trying to find parking for Celebrate Fairfax, where Third Eye Blind was playing. But the whole county of Fairfax also decided to show up...so no parking...and no show. What
to do next?

First Stop Dairy Queen! When it's warm outside I craaaave ice-cream. So I had myself a Oreo Brownie Earthquake, soo delicious!

Next Stop: BOOOOOOWWWWWLLIINNNNGGGGGG

OH my..Look at that score! It's the highest I have ever gotten( mine is the 139).I just may join the professionals next year!

Second game, not as great of a score..but still broke a 100! But from frame 6 to 9 Dave and I were exactly 10 pts from each other each frame and then we tied!

After a rousing 2 games of bowling we headed home and made ourselves a little drinky drink.

Then we settled down and watched a little Dexter. I snuggled up in my Weezer snuggie!

How was your Friday night? What did you do? Did you get down like Rebecca Black?

now THAT is how to start a weekend

So we checked off the biggest item on our to do list for Australia....

WE GOT OUR ONE WAY TICKETS TO DOWN UNDER!

Tickets are expensive...but hey, that is what you pay when you are traveling across the world!

It was a great way to start our weekend! This weekend we will be going to see Third Eye Blind, M.Ward, Bright Eyes, and then heading to the Capital Pride Festival! Don't worry I will keep you posted on how everything goes!

What are your plans this weekend?

Red, White, and No Blue

The photos are of the Chesapeake Ship that is stationed at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. The Chesapeake guarded the harbor from  the British waaaaaaaay back in the day! Whenever we go to the Inner Harbor I always find myself taking tons of pictures of this boat in particular..I think I am in love. It's the contrast of the colors and how each time I see it I am able to view different things that stand out and catch my eye.  

What are some things that catch your eye over and over again?