Happy Halloween!!

So, I realize my last blog was really whiny and I apologize. I am, by no means, deprived while living here. I love it and there are so many great things about it. Like tonight for instance. They shut down our street and had all kinds of people, kids, and families walking along the street and trick or treating at the store fronts. It really was a fun sight.

Last night we hosted our ward young single adult (YSA) Family home evening (FHE) and we carved pumpkins. Rachel and I created this witch profile holding a jack-o-lantern.

This is me and my friend Manny at work. We were both in the holiday spirit today.
BTW I work on the top floor... you can kind of see our great view!

A Different Way of Life

So everyone "back home" asks me what it's like to live in New York City. The standard answer is "It's very different..." so I'd like to elaborate on the differences and the modern conviences I miss from back home and things I feel like compaining about...

• Dishwasher- we don't have one, we wash and dry ourselves!
• Washer/Dryer- another appliance we don't have access to. We actually have to lug our laundry bags down the street to the Laundromat and bring lots of quarters!
• Garbage Disposal, everything goes in the trash instead which brings me to the next point...
• Trash- picks up twice a week, but we cant just throw it in a dumpster any old time.
• Microwave- Something else we don't have :( No TV Dinners, No Popcorn, No way to reheat certain leftovers.
• Plumbing- don't worry we DO have indoor plumbing, the drains are just very slow. Plus we can only use 1-ply toilet paper.
• Air conditioner- this only applied during that first month we were here, but we should probably invest in a unit before summer arrives
• A Car- enough said
• We just barely got our cable hooked up, but for three months we watched everything in static
• 3 girls + 1 bathroom= Chaos
• BTW its freezing here now.

Those are just some of the things I've had to adjust to. But the people are also very different as you can imagine. Instead of saying wait IN line, people here say wait ON line... which is bizarre to me! They also have accents but they don't realize it. Some guy at Bloomingdales asked if I was from the midwest because of "my accent"- what is that supposed to mean. Then last night this older, bigger, italian guy at the security desk of a building said I was "beautiful, bellisima!" His son, who is 22 apparently brings home "skeletons", and he doesn't understand why he doesn't bring someone like me home. He was very difficult to understand but I got the jist that he appreciated my "healthy" figure. It was really funny to me. People are nicer than I expected, there are a lot of helpful people here, so hopefully that breaks your stereotype of typical "new yorkers".

Well, I've gone on far too long. I am off to a ward chili cook-off right now.

A Little Bit Of Everything

(Left)Me at Washington Square Park... when the weather was still nice.

(Right) The girls and I at Serendipity III. Yummy! :)

(Left) Rachel and me outside our apartment building, before a night out on the town. Yes I am wearing the same thing in the picture above on a DIFFERENT day. I am ashamed.

(Right) Me and my Vegas Roomies at Macayo's before I had to go to the airport.

Welcome Baby Maxwell

HEATHER HAD HER BABY!!!
So Heather was due October 4th, so I scheduled a trip to Las Vegas for October 5th... just hoping I would be there to see her son. But when I spoke to her a week before, she hadn't had him and thought she wasn't close. So I dealt with the fact that I wouldn't get to see her baby this time, but I could spend time with her before she went into labor. On Saturday we got to hang out and have dinner and we kept joking that she would go into labor soon... and I didn't for a minute think that she would! Then Leslie (her Mom) called me Sunday morning with the news that she went into labor! I couldn't believe it. So, I took my sisters car to the hospital (luckily Nathan showed me where it was the day before) and was there waiting all day for Maxwell to arrive. He finally graced us with his presence at 6:36pm. He was 7lbs 13oz and 20 1/2 inches long, and oh so adorable. I was so happy that I was able to be there and share in this amazing experience!