I'm leaving... on a jet plane :)

Today is packing day. And errands day. Tomorrow is my last work day, Sunday is saying goodbye day, and Monday is moving day!

That's about all I've got. So much to do, see you all soon!

Serendipity

I took two of the boys into the city today for some adventures... We went to Eric's office (REALLY cool!! He has a corner office on the 31st floor of his building -- with views of Central Park and the George Washington Bridge!), then we went for lunch to Serendipity. This was one thing that has been on my list since the first day I arrived (October 25, to be exact), and I finally made it! It was really cool, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is going to be in NYC -- for dessert. They are famous for their Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate -- and it's unbelievable! :) Soooo good! The restaurant itself is unlike any I've seen before. Check out their website to get an idea: www.serendipity3.com

Then we walked over to the Central Park Zoo. I had heard that it's pretty cool, but it didn't really meet my expectations. I mean, it's a zoo... but a pretty small one. We saw the entire thing in less than 40 minutes.

Katharina's back in town from an 18 day trip to Hawaii. LUCKY girl! :) I got to see her pictures yesterday, and now I would love to go there! It looks gorgeous!

Sarah's in the Hamptons for the next month. And she met Steven Spielberg!

Tamara just spent 3.5 days camping in Maine. She invited me, but I decided against it since I'm leaving so soon.

AND Ellen just got back from a week-long vacation visiting a friend in Canada. So everyone has been on some cool adventures lately. I guess I'm included in that "everyone" -- even though my adventures have all been to the city... 5 times in 8 days!

Much to do!

Whew! Moving takes a lot of energy! :) and moving day is still 6 days away. I have developed something I call "packing anxiety," and I'm determined to not get it this time. So I've been packing a little bit each day, trying to keep it under control. That way on Sunday night I won't be too overwhelmed. I'm sure I'll have about a million last minute things to do to finish packing my suitcases, but hopefully by then the major part of it will be done. Eric's taking me to La Guardia... we're leaving at about 5:00am. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep on Sunday night. I think I might be too excited!

I was thinking the other day if I'm going to continue this blog when I'm home or not... It's supposed to be about my life in Connecticut, but I guess I could always just change the title. We'll see how I'm feeling about it once I get home.

See y'all soon!

Trying to contain my excitement!

I've been trying not to think about July 30th too much. It's only a week away now, and I'm excited about some things I'm doing here before I leave. Plus it's going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone and everything here.

However, I can hardly believe that in just 9 days I get to go to the CAMP!! I can't think about it too much because I get soooooo excited! Our special spot on the eastern side of the Peninsula, with the soft white sand and beautiful clear blue water. I've been missing it so much out here.


Mom is going to pick me up from the airport next Monday and we're dropping my stuff off at home and going straight out there!! YEA :) I CAN'T WAIT!! I'm going to run onto the beach, lay on the sand and just soak it all in.


Lake Superior, HERE I COME!!
(This photo was last summer -- end of July/ beginning of August -- and as far as our attire: at the camp, anything goes! Heidi, Kristin, K, Lynne)

Theme Songs

I have a couple of them right now. Everytime HOME by Daughtry comes on the radio I feel like it's for me :) since I'm going home soon! (Plus I got to hear him sing it in person.) And the other day I heard the song (actually I'm not sure what it's called) with the lyrics "thanks for the memories..." and I feel like it's mine right now too! So think of me when you hear those songs.
August is already filling up with events and random things going on! I feel like it's already half gone, and it doesn't start for almost two more weeks! I'm getting very excited...
We may go to a water park on Monday with the boys. I have a feeling this last week is going to be very busy -- there's a lot of things Marcy wants to do. So I've been packing a little every day -- I don't want to leave it for the last day and have packing anxiety (something I've developed over the past year).
I CAN HARDLY WAIT to see you all!!

Tonight we're going to the beach club for a barbeque! I think I may go swimming in the Sound, but we'll see. It's kind of gross (not that clean, plus it's rocky), but maybe it'll be nice where we're going.

12 days to go!!

It's almost time! I'm really starting to do things for the last time... but actually I should let y'all know that we ended up going to the METS game on Sunday. They beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-2 (no, Ken Griffey, Jr did not play --- sadly), and we had a GREAT time! It was military appreciation day, so there were lots of festivities and we got free hats! It was such an enjoyable day at Shea Stadium. You can see the construction of their new park (Citi Field) right next door. Next year is the last year for SHEA. As we were walking in, I told Tamara and Sarah that the Tigers' third baseman Brandon Inge is my favorite player... and wondered aloud who the METS 3rd baseman is. I quickly found out that it's David Wright and he's really good, too. So he became my favorite Mets player. :)

Sarah, K, Tamara at SHEA

I've gone into the city three days in a row now (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday). On Sunday was the Mets game, Monday I went in with Sarah to say goodbye (she's gone to the Hamptons for a month) and go shopping. I ended up meeting up with Marcy and the boys at ESPNZone later and taking the train back with them. Then yesterday I took two of the boys into the city for some sight-seeing. We went to the Empire State Building and just walked around midtown. It's a whole different experience looking at the city from above when you know where everything is. The first couple of times I went up there (in 2000 and 2003), it was just a bunch of buildings, streets, cars, and people. Now I look around and know which streets I'm looking at and which buildings are which. Kind of cool!

It's a rainy day today, which is kind of nice. It's the first one of the summer for us (it has rained in the evenings before, but no all-day rains), so I'm enjoying it! We might take the boys to an I-MAX film, but we'll see.

One of my last Sundays

Tomorrow is one of my last Sundays here... and we're trying to decide what to do. I think our options are:
1. Block Island
2. Newport, Rhode Island
3. Mets game vs. Cinncinnati

Any one of the three will be lots of fun, so we'll see what we end up doing.

My thoughts are at home today. CONGRATULATIONS Carmen and Brent!! I hope the weather is cooperating for a beautiful outdoor wedding! :) Wish I could be there.

It's going to be a lonely week coming up. Katharina is in Hawaii, Sarah is leaving :(, and Ellen is going to visit a friend in Canada. So it'll be Tamara and me. One of her friends from Missouri is coming to visit, though, so I guess it won't be just the two of us. I move home 2 weeks from Monday!!! It's getting close!

Another Sunday adventure!

Washington, DC was so much fun!! But a looooooooong, exhausting day! I woke up at 5:00am, left my house by 5:30, took the train at 5:40ish but it was 20 minutes late. Something was wrong with it, so it took us extra long to get to Grand Central... took the Subway to Chinatown, then walked 5 blocks to meet the bus. The bus left at 8:00. We had some misunderstandings along the way (about people being left behind at a rest stop), so we didn't get to DC until about 12:40. Martin met me at the bus stop, and we proceeded to take in most of the city. It was a LOT of walking in the 100-degree heat and humidity, so we got lots and lots of water.

We saw President Bush!!! (sort of) We were trying to go and see the White House, but it was blocked off at first. So we waited a few minutes, and then saw a helicopter take off from the South Lawn. I read once that the only people that ever leave the White House this way are the President and First Lady.

So then we saw the White House, walked up a little to the Washington Monument, on to the World War II Memorial (it was my first time seeing it -- when I was there in 2000, they hadn't even started working on it), then the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial (where I bought a panoramic puzzle -- I can't wait to make it!). Next stop was my favorite: the Korean War Memorial, then on to the FDR Memorial (I had never been here, either. It's a lot bigger than I imagined). We walked along the Potomac to the Jefferson Memorial, then back to the Mall to the Natural History Museum (sadly, the American History Museum is closed for renovation), then to the Air and Space Museum. The last stop on this tourist trek for us was the Capitol Building. Then we stopped for dinner and made our way back to my bus stop. (I didn't go into much detail because that's really how fast we saw everything. We didn't have much time to stop and relax -- we had too much to do in a very short time.) Martin only had a 40 minute drive back (LUCKY!). I left the city at about 8:15 and arrived home at 3:00am. :S

It shouldn't have been that long, but I missed a train at Grand Central by one minute. so then I had to wait close to an hour for the next one. If I had made the earlier one, I would've still gotten home really late -- 2:00, so either way it was a long day. I was gone for 21.5 hours!! I met some really unique people on the bus rides there and back. The person next to me commented that that's what happens when you use the cheapest mode of transportation.


So I FINALLY got to go back to Washington, DC. and it was such a spur-of-the-moment decision. Saturday afternoon I was sitting around thinking about what I wanted to do with my 2 days off, and I decided I didn't want to waste them since I have such a short time left. So I called Martin and we made the plans to meet in the city. Going there for the first time was what really influenced me to become a history teacher. There was just so much history in all of the things we saw, and I just had to know more. And then once I learned about everything, I really wanted to pass on the knowledge and excitement to others. This trip reminded me of all of those feelings. so I can't wait to get back to that learning and teaching again!!

We love NY

On Sunday we had our last day together in New York City. Actually, the fourth ended up being our last day...
Anyway, we took about 40 photos around the city in our favorite places. Here are a few. Enjoy! :)

Times Square w/ one of the hundreds of police officers you see on an average day in the city.

Times Square!! (Sarah, K, Katharina, and Tamara. Sarah and Tamara are coming to the UP to visit for a week in August!!)

The Brooklyn Bridge (Katharina, Tamara, K, Sarah)

Unforgettable 4th of July

Thinking about yesterday (Independence Day), one word comes to my mind. Unforgettable. Not in a good way. But I'll definitely never forget yesterday. It was seriously like one bad thing after another. Something happened to one of my hips during the night - it's out of joint or something. and we planned to walk about a hundred blocks in the city... usually that's not a big deal (it's a normal amount of walking), but with a bad hip... it was a bit painful. then we got to our picnic spot in Central Park and found that the watermelon we had cut up earlier had spilled all over the bag. Yum. still not too bad though. It started to rain after awhile. We were under a tree, so it didn't dampen our moods too much. Then the ever-present problem of trying to find a restroom in NYC. soooo we went on a little walk, and ended up going into a cafe, sitting down, looking at menus (while we each went to the bathroom), and "deciding" we wanted to get something for take-out.

Here's our picnic spot in Central Park (conveniently under a tree).

The walk back was rainy... and my hip didn't last very long, so I decided to take a taxi (my friends all continued the walk). We met at Grand Central, and made our way to FDR Drive, where there's an unobstructed view of the East River. We found a place that looked decent (we had a good view of one of the barges that would be setting off the fireworks), and prepared to wait about 2 hours. We got sick of standing after about 2 minutes, so we put our blankets down on the wet, oily road and sat down. Only to be bumped into, walked on, crowded in... etc. I guess pretty much everything you'd expect from the biggest fourth of July fireworks display gathering in the country...

(This was our spot. I know I'm making a great fashion statement... )

I guess we didn't end up having a very good spot because right next to us was the rudest, crudest women I have ever encountered in my life. I'm still disturbed by her and my ears have been free of her comments and outrages for over 17 hours. I was seriously scared by the comments she was making, but by that time everyone was packed in (like sardines... or cattle) so we had nowhere to go. I really think I'm scarred for life. She spoke words I've never even heard before. and her 4-year-old son was right there with her. and other people had their children with them, within hearing distance of her, too. I'M SO DISTURBED. the fireworks were awesome. Or what we saw of them anyway. The smoke didn't clear right away so we missed out on some of it. The ones we saw were breath-taking!

I can't say I'm glad I went, because if I hadn't gone I never would've experienced the worst human (by far) behavior I'm even aware of. Maybe someday I'll look back and say I'm glad I did it.

So then we got on the train with our wet, messy blankets and wet clothes, bags, etc and made our way home by 11:30. When we got back, I realized I had left the sunroof partly open and it had rained off and on all day... so the car was soaking wet. :( By this time I wanted to cry. and get on the first plane out of La Guardia that was going anywhere near Michigan. I got home and had to clean up the huge mess of the day, and then I had a hard time falling asleep because of that woman.

I WANT TO GO HOME!

Unexpected excitement!!

Everytime I think life is going to slow down a bit, or settle down because I don't have many plans, something comes along. and this week is no different!! My friends and I are going into NYC for the fourth of July!! We get to watch the biggest fireworks display in the USA: the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks over the East River! :)

I'm so excited! I know it's going to be a bit crazy down there, but it'll still be lots of fun. We're also going to have a picnic in Central Park...

I still would love to be in the Harbor for the fourth, though!