New York, New York

I went to New York Dec. 5-7 with my roomie Celeste. For further information, please see her blog. She wrote a very nice account of our trip, and I don't want to copyright infringe - or for that matter, write my own post.

Thanksgiving and other happenings

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Celeste and I dog/house sat. The dog, Bailey, is a chocolate lab that is super excitable. He jumped and ran a lot - and he was spoiled rotten. I was glad when we didn't have to watch him anymore. We also hosted Thanksgiving dinner at the house. Everything turned out fine, except we did have a minor turkey fiasco. Turns out their oven didn't really work, so Celeste had to take it back to our house to cook. We were planning on eating at 3:30, but didn't until 5:00. But all turned out in the end. There were 14 people there and it was a lot of fun with a lot of yummy food.

Kathryn moved in this weekend too. We're glad to have her here! But we had to move a lot of heavy boxes. She has so many books!

Saturday night Celeste and I went to the ballet. San Francisco Ballet Company performed Giselle at the Kennedy Center. It was very beautiful and sweet. I can't believe the things ballet dancers can do. Towards the end of the ballet the guy lead was picking up the girl lead like she weighed five pounds (she probably only weighed 90, but still). It was amazing and I'm glad we got to go. But I think I'll stick to salsa dancing.

Weekends are far too short

I love weekends - who doesn't? But they are far too short, especially when you have things to do all day long. Friday night I had a very pleasant girls' night out. I went out with five other girls to a Thai restaurant. The food was good - the funny part was afterward. Apparently we didn't leave a big enough tip and the waitress literally followed us out of the restaurant and asked us if her service wasn't good enough. I guess we didn't discuss well enough between the six of us to see how much tip we were leaving, and we had given her a 10% tip. We added some onto our bill, but it was so strange. I have NEVER had that happen before. And aren't tips conditional anyways. But whatever, I know it's how she makes her living. After dinner we saw the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. It had tons of action and I liked it - not as much as Casino Royale, but it was still good and Daniel Craig was still yummy.

Saturday I had play practice. All day. From 9 am until 5 pm. We got a lot done but it was tiring. Especially because I'm just getting over being sick and I had to prance around and sing. And the fire alarm in the church went of twice. We had to evacuate and the firefighters came, complete with gear and axes. Luckily the alarm just had faulty wiring, but it was annoying. And after the play we had a ward dinner - Thanksgiving style - so I didn't leave the church until 8 p.m. I was exhausted!

And then on Sunday I went to church, went visiting teaching, and to my friend Lael's birthday get together. So here I am again on a Monday, at work and I am totally not ready for it. Where did my weekend go?

Halloween Shenanigans

Halloween was a lot of fun. I dressed up, I hung out with friends, I party hopped, I danced. Joy abounded. Fun costumes - a toothbrush and toothpaste.




Having fun dancing. Go Lael, go.








Penelope, gypsies, and Nacho Libre.




And that's me. Yes, I know I'm hot.






Here I am with my lovely friends - Tina as a Renaissance woman, Heather as a swashbuckling pirate, and me as Little Dead Riding Hood.

Vote!

I voted today. Did you?

Birthday Bash, etc...

On Friday October 17, I had my birthday party. Friends came over to our house for food and chatting. I made salsa, my friend Ryan made a cheesecake, and my friend Heather made a beautifully decorated birthday cake. It was so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it. Almost. Quite a few people came over, and it was nice to see everyone and talk and be the center of attention.

After that six of us - me, Celeste, Kevin, Valerie, Jocelyn, and DC Kevin - went dancing at Cafe Citron in DuPont Circle. It was supposed to be salsa dancing, but it was so crowded and small, that it was more like moving in place to music. But it was still a lot of fun, minus the couple making out on the floor for half and hour and the creepy guy that kept dancing with me. But don't worry, I got away eventually. We stayed at the club until 2 a.m. and then we had to walk to Valerie's car, except she couldn't quite remember where she had parked it. We ended up walking in the wrong direction for a couple of blocks, but she realized and we did find it.

Saturday was my actual birthday, so I opened presents - movies and a cd from Celeste; a sweater, shirt, and boots from Alesha; a plaid coat and khaki pants from Mom; and forthcoming a workout dvd from Natasha. All very nice and I loved all of them. Saturday night there was a big singles activity at the Marriott in DC. It was a film festival, and some of the films were pretty funny - different singles' wards made and submitted them. Then there was a dance afterward, and I ran into my friend Kate Borg who I knew from Ricks and haven't seen here in, seriously, seven years. So that was great.

My birthday bash/weekend was a lot of fun. Unfortunately with the lack of sleep and weather change, I got sick. I'm going to blame it on my roommate because she was sick before I was, and hey, I like to blame things on other people ; )

Rock It Grill

Friday night I went out with my co-worker and friend, Jocelyn. The night started off interestingly with me running into the curb with my tire. Luckily nothing happened other than my hub cab being a little scraped. We went out to dinner, yummy Cuban food. Then we entered Rock It Grill.

Rock It Grill is a highly popular karaoke bar. We got there about 9:30 and it was already packed. We had to sit on stools by the pool table, which was amusing when people were trying to make a shot over by where we sitting. But no harm came to us via pool cue, thankfully. We signed up to sing, but the list was long. Some of the singers were really good, some just decent. We enjoyed listening and singing along. Unfortunately, they never called our names to sing. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then they started dance floor music. It was really smokey, so we decided to leave.

It was so packed that it was hard getting out. I did a little "which way are you going dance" with this big, tall guy who was holding a pitcher of beer and half drunk. It resulted in him spilling beer directly on my crotch. It was a good thing that we were leaving at that point, because it totally looked like I had peed my pants. And it was wet, uncomfortable, and it smelled bad. Gross. We just drove back to my place after that and called it a night. I was sad I didn't get to sing though - I was going to do an Elvis song. : (