Comment on calling time of death to the NYC trip....

So I've loved all the blogging about NYC, but these pictures and videos have taken HOURS to post, although you probably can't guess that. It's a dang good thing I had two diet cokes at dinner or I'd be asleep right now. Maybe that's not a good thing. My point is simply this-I recognize that it's 'taboo' or whatever to publish a bunch of posts in a row because then people won't scroll down to read them-but I don't have the patience to wait anymore, and I'll be going back to work in a day and a half and I don't post on days I work-I'm too tired. So this is the last of the NYC pics....

Two people purchased Tiffany's rings during the NYC-one was purchased on Canal Street for the bargain price of $10. One was purchased at Tiffany's for the bargain price of $146.15 (that includes tax)-which is the real one, which is the fake one?





The ride back on the plane seemed longer, but wasn't as difficult, what with me not trying to get a night's sleep or anything. I planned on reading Stephanie Meyer's new book The Host, but instead I got caught up in an Office marathon-and who can resist Jim? I think I need a Jim in my life....

I hope you all enjoyed all the blogs for NYC-I'll post a few more pics intermittently-like the fun signs we saw and my ode to Felicity, but that's for a later date. If you want to see all of my NYC pics-check out my facebook page. That's so much quicker than posting them on the blog. Seriously.....

One Last Burst o' Rain

On our way back from Magnolia Bakery we ran into a slight rain burst situation. It had been sunny all day so of course we were caught without our umbrellas. We tried to run but we were laughing so hard it was a little difficult......

More vids since I could only post a couple on the last one...

After we ate at Grimmaldi's we regrouped at the hotel before doing our last cupcake run to Magnolia Bakery. It was a Saturday night so the line was just a little longer than it had been on Thursday afternoon. Good times in Greenwich.....

A few vids from NYC

I love the trip tracker on Delta-it was also useful on the Philippines trip, however the little animated airplane on that trip didn't seem to move as quickly as this one.

This is in Central Park-it's some dude dressed as an indian, or native american if you will, wearing only a loincloth (I don't think he had anything underneath it by the way) and playing his violin. Interesting things in Central Park.

Comment on Day #3 in NYC-a study in pictures....

Day #3 started with brunch at Max Brenner's, a chocolate restaraunt-Lisa and I endulged in waffles and fruit with syrup and chocolate sauce, while Jamie and Em had omlets and toast you could spread chocolate on-not bad. We also had to buy some chocolate to take home. This was definitely one of my favorite spots.

This would be my diet coke, which went un-refilled until the man brought us our check. Therefore his tip was not so great on my bill, a lesson I learned from my mom-if the coke is not flowing, neither is my cash.

Next we took a quick subway ride over to Canal Street, home of the knock-off purses. This subway pic was a typical site, Jamie reading the map to make sure we were going the right way, and the rest of us, well, resting comfortably having complete faith in Jamie-she was a great tour guide!

Canal Street was awesome-kind of reminded me of being in the Philippines-bargaining wtih the asians over purses-I prefer bargaining over the purses rather than actually having the purses. The only downside was I needed Joey and Mar and Rudy (our driver/bodyguards) to carry all of my stuff for me-Jamie, Lisa and Em weren't about to do it for me-even though I offered them a peso :o)

This was a constant thing for me on Canal Street-being on the phone and conversing with my mom and sister over what I ended up getting.

After our buying extravaganza we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff. This is our combined loot. My bag did end up weighing 15 pounds more on the way home-no big deal.

A Grey Papaya dog on the way to Central Park-it was a good dog-I think we each had two.

Ah, Central Park-seriously that place is awesome! Next time I want to go running there. We only saw a small corner of it-Strawberry Fields, the fountain, the relationship bridge (I don't think it's really called that but in all the romantic NYC movies people discuss their relationships on the bridge) and Tavern on the Green. I suggested eating dinner there-but nobody took me up on it.....

After Central Park we took the subway over to Brooklyn for dinner at Grimmaldi's, which was quite the wait, but the pizza was really good-and well, authentic. After that we went to Magnolia Bakery yet again, and then we were inf or the night. Such a fun day!

Comment on Day #2 in NYC

Day #2 in NYC, aka Friday, was very wet and very rainy. And when I say rainy, I mean water dumping out of the sky. I didn't bring an umbrella, but luckily there were street vendors galore selling umbrellas-Lisa bought hers for $3, I bought mine a few hours later for $5. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well (the non-existent kidney stone/unknown pain kept me in and on vicodin, no big deal) but I did make it out to Sephora and Tiffany's (a very long trek up 5th Avenue but worth it-especially since our purchases went up $15 after we got back to Utah). This first pic is Jamie and I taking a breather at Tiffany's. My purchase took me all of 5 minutes, but Em and Lisa took a little longer-not that we minded, it was nice to sit.

This is Me, Lisa and Emily w/our purchases-notice our very wet pant legs! Right after Jamie snapped this photo she got chastised by the security guard-apparently pics in Tiffany's is not allowed. Oh well :o)










That night we went to see Mary Poppins. It was a cool play-with fun special effects. Mary Poppins was my favorite Disney movie in elementary school so it was fun to see. Plus, let's be honest, the first question everyone asks after you get back from New York is did you get to see a play? I'm glad I can say yes!

The view of the stage from our seats-not bad. And the pic of me was before the play started-I won't lie, I was pretty glad to have naturally curly hair that day-it worked well with the wet weather.

After the play we made our way over to Serendipity-which was made famous by Oprah and by various movies like Serendipity and One Fine Day. We all got frozen hot chocolates-as well as mix to take home and make our own. Since we went so late we didn't have to wait in line which was amazing. The walk there was kind of sketchy-and so was the fact that one of subway stations we went to was closed. I was a little freaked out-I felt a lot better when we made it back to our hotel.









All in all this day wasn't bad, but we were just hoping and praying that the weather reports were correct when they said that Saturday would be sunny. I don't know if we could have handled two rainy days in a row. Seriously.

Comment on Day #1 in NYC

So after some regrouping after we got checked into our hotel (and a nap for me)-we took off for Times Square. The subway wasn't as scary as I thought it would be (riding subways has always been one of my biggest fears, kind of weird), and even though there was a subway purse snatcher on the loose-we actually didn't have any problems the entire trip.

In Times Square we were on the lookout for a bus tour-and I swear the bus tour salesmen could see it on our faces because we were acosted every 10 feet to purchase tickets-it was so ANNOYING. The weirdest thing was that after we purchased the tickets-we were never bugged again-the entire trip-isn't that weird?

I took tons of pictures of cool buildings that I might put in another post-the bus tour itself wasn't too bad-although I didn't appreciate the woman behind us who said she was "using all her willpower to keep from hurling over the side of this bus"-Jamie and I cheered when they got off at Little Italy. And then there was this lady we nicknamed Chris-she was very large and very loud and we sat in the back of the bus to avoid her-and after The Hurler got off the bus I noticed that Chris was puking into a bag. Seriously. I was glad when we got off the bus.

(this is me and Jamie on the bus-notice homegirl behind us with her hand and handkerchief over her mouth-I'm so glad Emily got this picture!!)

We got off the bus to eat at Carnegie Deli-which had the hugest sandwiches ever-but we were so excited to eat we forgot to take pictures of them! They gave a plate of pickles as an appetizers-they were pretty good.

After the deli we took the subway over to Greenwich Village where we picked up some cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery which were delish-and the line wasn't too long, we only had to wait like 10-15 minutes which was great. Then we went to a park area acrossed the street to eat the cupcakes, when we noticed a tour going on-turns out it was a Sex and the City tour-how fun is that?

(me and my cupcake box on the left, and the SATC tour on the right)

After Greenwich it's all kind of a blur-we went to NYU campus (look for that in my future Felicity blog) and then I think we went to H&M, and then we went back to the hotel, hitting Speedy's for dinner. Actually Speedy's Fresh Food Fast was the best thing to have so close to our hotel-it was around the corner from our Hotel acrossed from one of the subway stations-and we knew wherever we got off that as long as we could find Speedy's we could find our hotel. All I know is that I need a Speedy's here in Utah-I would seriously never cook again :o)

Comment on traveling to NYC

So many pictures, so little space. The NYC trip was awesome! I can't wait to go back-and since Becky (my BFF in Idaho) and her husband are moving to NYC in August so Brandon can attend medical school there-I'm pretty sure I'll be back sooner rather than later.

This is my suitcase-all packed and ready to go-it's quite amazing that it's not full. It's also quite amazing that it only weighed 30 pounds. I tend to double this amount when I go home to Idaho for a weekend. I'm pretty impressed with that.

Emily, Lisa and I are all ready to go at the airport-it's about 10:30pm and our flight takes off at 12:30. We thought that we'd get snacks in the airport-who knew that all the food places would be closed? So we ended up buying granola bars and whatever else we could find at the magazine stand. Great stuff.

After a long 4.5 hour flight that did not yield much sleep despite our wicked awesome blow-up neck pillows, the sun finally rose over the horizon and we landed at the JFK airport. We found Jamie immediately after getting off the plane (she had flown in from L.A.), got our luggage and a taxi and we were off to the city amidst morning traffic. I was pretty much dead by the time we arrived and so I took a nap while the girls went and got breakfast.

We stayed at the Herald Square Hotel, which, despite being a 1-star hotel (we were a little concerned that the pictures on the internet might not be accurate) we were so impressed! It was clean and the staff was nice, and it worked out really well for us-great location-close to a subway.

Comments on the big prep for NYC

So it's 10:10pm and I am all packed for NYC. I was going to post pics of the small amount I packed (it is amazing, my suitcase is about half full-which is conducive to purse buying in New York). I worked last night, got about 4 hours of intermittent sleep today (thanks allergies) and woke up at 2pm and ran a few errands, made a stop at the banks, etc. I did get in a quick 20 minute run before coming home and showering-and we are on our way! I'm so excited (it's nice to be able to say that)!

Comment on Kidney Stones vs. Muscle Pain

So the Monday night (the night after the previous blog post by the way-and I must say to Johnny Metropolis- I'm not schizophrenic-I only hear one voice and I recognize it as my own-thank goodness!) I went to bed with a pain in my back-which sometimes happens when I've had too much diet coke and not enough water-I woke up around 3am with the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. It kind of freaked me out a little since I couldn't touch that side or lay on that side-I imagined going to the ER and getting sent to the hospital which I think is the worst thing imaginable (and yet I'm a nurse, yet another dichotomy I suppose). So I layed there praying the pain would end.

By the next morning it had subsided and continued to lessen, although it still hurt ( would say it's gone from being a 12 to being a 3-4). I worked that night and decided that I would go and see the dr after my shift was over. So I called the office on my way home from my shift and had an appt. to see the P.A. in the afternoon. I called in sick to work because there was no way I could go to a dr at 2pm and have enough sleep to work a shift, plus it kind of hurt to walk.

So at my appointment I got to pee in a cup and have my blood drawn-two of my favorite things-plus I had the P.A. pounding on my kidneys (the exact thing I'd been dreading Monday night). It was determined that I should go and get a CT Scan of all things because I either have or passed a kidney stone, or I have muscle pain. Whatever.

So today was the day of the CT scan. It was at LDS Hospital-which I don't understand why I couldn't have gone to AltaView, it's just up the street-but I'm always up for exploring the unknown world of downtown life. I must say that it took longer for me to get to the hospital than it actually took for me to have the actual test done. But the hospital is up in the Avenues and I think it's pretty sweet up there so I didn't mind too much (plus I was starving after since I couldn't eat anything before the scan, so I stopped off at Spoon Me for some yogurt on the way home).

Anyway the scan itself was relatively harmless. I've taken several babies down for CT's but unlike them I wasn't strapped in for dear life. The machine talks to you-tells you when to hold your breath and breathe normally. I had been smart enough to call ahead to find out what I needed to wear-so I wore scrubs so that I wouldn't have to change into an embarassing hospital gown. The worst part was that they did the test in the ER since outpatient radiology was backed up. I was slightly terrified that I might see/hear someone throwing up, but luckily that didn't happen. The other worst part is that if this is muscle pain then I feel like a retard, although I'd rather have muscle pain than know there's a stone rolling around that needs to come out. Yikes! In about 48 hours I'll know. No big deal, right?

Comment on my dichotomy....

I can't sleep. It's 4:00am. Seriously.

First of all-I don't long for the past. I've gotten over doing that in my life. I like who I am now and I like who I can become and I wouldn't want to go back to who I was. That being said, I miss people. I do wish relationships didn't have to change even though it's just part of what happens in life. I think it's amazing how a few short weeks can have such a big impact on my life and what I want and what I know I deserve to have. It's crazy. But I won't say anything more on that subject, it makes me cry. Don't worry if this doesn't make sense to most of you-it won't and that's ok.

I miss my sounding board. I'm tired of trite conversations. Sometimes I feel like I'm going through the motions saying what is expected when I really want to scream everything that's on my mind. Even now I'm censoring myself. It's so frustrating. Not that I have anything bad to say, I just have so many things to say that won't be understood. I miss being able to just talk about everything without worrying about being misinterpreted. I miss having someone who can cut through my crap.

It's nights like this that make me think that I really haven't changed all that much. I still have a problem clearly communicating my thoughts. It's as if there's an elephant in the room, or on my chest, of all the things I have to say that I can't get out. So I'll try blogging it, well some of it.

Dichotomy: according to Merrriam-Webster dictionary: "a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities". I think I have a dichotomy of thought-is that how it's said? I'm not sure. I have two completely different modes of thought about most things that are completely opposite from each other and it drives me crazy. I let my fear get in the way, or maybe it's common sense. Draper has become my comfort zone even though part of me would love to live downtown because it's a whole different world-I mean what goes on down there? But I can't make myself leave. I think traveling to Boston and working there for a few months would be amazing but I'm scared to leave my hospital and move somewhere new, even just for a few months, because what if it's a terrible experience? I am not a risk taker. Going to nursing school and going on a mission were my definition of risks. I want to be in a relationship but I can't handle the thought of getting hurt-although really who can? I crave change and yet I fear change, even though I think you should do things that scare you because they make you stronger. I always choose the safe option even while I wish that I could choose the road not taken so to speak. It probably would make all the difference.

Well, that wasn't much but it's a start. My alarm, if it were still on, would be going off right now. I need to get ready for work. It's definitely a 32-ounce diet coke day, with some eye drops thrown in for good measure.