Catch Up: CHRISTMAS AND NYE!

CHRISTMAS BREAK: I cooked, a lot. From homemade pizza (crispy crust anyone?) to steak to pecan pie to... well, I don't even remember because I was in a food coma. Since I had nothing else to do (yay! no school!), I cooked, and it was glorious.

In other news, Ryan and I went to NYC on December 23 and 24. Everyone says there is something about New York at Christmas time and I can confirm it's the truth! Buildings are dressed in bows and the night is a shimmer of sparkling lights. Despite freezing temperatures, our trip was top notch. We enjoyed the city, grabbed some chop sticks and gobbled up some amazingly delicious sushi, watched masses of people on the Trump skating rink, and fought the crowds to see the window displays on 5th street. We also found some deals at Gap while on 5th street. Thick winter sweaters for 8 bucks? Yes please! My winter wear doubled in that trip!

I'm not sure I brushed my hair Christmas morning...

You can't go wrong with Beatles Rockband.

We take the festivities very seriously. Antlers and santa hat are a must.

Ryan and I ditched NYC (before the HUGE snow storm, may I add!) and enjoyed Christmas at home in our apartment. It was nice to relax, open presents, eat popcorn, play games, and catch up on TV shows (Prison Break!). 

NEW YEAR'S EVE: Ryan and I played Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii...until 6 in the morning. We were in a particularly stressful part of the game around 12:00am...so it wasn't really a "Happy New Year!" until maybe 1:00am. DK, isn't that supposed to be for kids, you say? Flying a barrel holding an ape and a monkey through a cave full of gigantor-monster-sized bats is no easy task! However, I'm happy to say we reigned victorious the day before Spring semester began. It felt good knowing we have a jungle full of bananas again. 

Catch Up: SUMMER!

SUMMER: I started nursing school and realized quickly that I will have no life until it ends in August 2011. My summer consisted mostly of Pharmacology (nearly 3000 page book condensed to 6 weeks - 9 tests total. The last test covered 25 chapters and we were only taught approximately 3 of them). I am not sure I completely recovered from that course until mid-fall.

When the semester was over, I had 10 days to make up for my long lost summer. Ryan and I went to Viriginia Beach...and went camping. We packed up our little Hyundai, grabbed some supplies (like a tent), and started driving. Camping by the beach seemed so lovely, until we arrived. We were welcomed by 100% humidity, drizzling rain, and a damp ground. My poor hair didn't stand a chance. I was wild woman for a couple days. But, being the champ that I am, I helped set up camp and start a fire. This is the only day we took pictures, simply because I was probably in fight or flight response the rest of the trip (and I was afraid of killing my precious camera with the salt cloud hovering over our site).

See how wet it was when we arrived? The mat in front of our tent is soaked.

The rest of the days were drowned in rain and intense heat/humidity. The tent, although having mesh 'windows' on all four sides, kept the air completely stagnant and the only relief from this painful weather was to lie completely still on the damp sheets that covered our blow up mattress (I like the finer things in life). We only had one day that was sunny and gorgeous, and instead of sticking around the camping site or the camp site's beach, we drove to the pier at Virginia Beach. We sat on the sand, burned, watched schools (is that the correct term?) of dolphins swim close by, waded in the ocean, and indulged in all you can eat seafood. That evening we welcomed a cool breeze and sat on a grassy area listening to a pretty decent cover band. It was fabulous. We had a couple hours the next day that were nice, but we were both too burned to do anything else but read. I certainly was not reading in the tent, so we decided to invest in a beach umbrella and relax by the ocean. That was one of the best moments of the trip.

Then we trekked back to the muggy tent.

And then I think we both decided that sometimes it is just worth it to get the motel room.

New Years 2009 – Times Square Edition!

Ryan and I (and our friend, Dan) rang in the new year with about 1 million others in Times Square. While I am happy that we did it, it was so stinky (as is much of NYC)  and  it continually rained, sleeted, and snowed.  We headed for our pen at about 2 pm, and after about an hour of claustrophobia (thousands of people should not be this close together on the sidewalk. period.), we finally flew through security into a pen, in which we stood for 8 hours! And then, it was like we were all penguins, huddling together to survive.  Whenever the cameras came by our station, people would wake up from their freeze and wave furiously, beaming with smiles. Once the cameras were off, it was back to survival.

The entertainment was mainly for the TV viewers, not the people who made the long trip, suffering from the freezing cold weather…oh yes, it’s certainly a facade that it’s a party in Times Square! At least, we were stationed in the pen that was right next to the main stage and could see a bit of the action. We managed to see J-Lo, Chris Daughtry, and a couple unfamiliar acts.

The final 3 minutes of the year produced such a massive buzz, people suddenly lit up, forgetting how frozen they had become over the last 8 hours, and began counting down. This was the most memorable part of the whole trip. Fireworks blasted off the tops of the buildings followed by one ton of confetti. It was magical and hands down the best crowd experience ever!