It's just been that kind of day.

Our Whirlwind Trip to NYC

So we boarded a bus around 11:35PM on Friday night.  It took exactly 16 minutes for us to realize that 7 more hours on this bus wasn't going to be comfortable.  Or fun.  Or as my friend Teresa put it: "This wasn't in the brochure."

I don't want to complain anymore than I already have.  So therefore, I will skip over the part of sleeping only 1.5 hours (roughly).  

I will also skip the part about how cold the first 3.5 hours of our trip was.  And how windy it was.  And how if you ever go to NYC you should stop drinking liquids AT LEAST 3 days in advance.

Because no one lets you use their bathroom.  Unless you buy something.  And even when you buy something, the bathrooms leave you with nightmares about what disease you might have contracted by your inner thigh accidentally making contact with the toilet seat.  And how you cringe the whole time at the thought of having to touch the toilet paper.  Or the soap.  Or the door knob.  

None of that.  No siree.  We are going to discuss only what fun we had.

First stop: Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, NJ - the bakery where the show Cake Boss is filmed.

Here is my friend Diane and her beautiful daughter outside.

Here are some delicious looking cupcakes.  (I had the peanut butter one.)

Construction around Ground Zero:

Our first stop in the city was the 9/11 Memorial.  The site was quite amazing.  There are two pools:  North and South and each has the names of all of the lives lost on 9/11.  It was a very humbling experience.

After lunch, we took a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty to see the sights:

As we were exiting, we saw this dock named after our favorite curly haired blonde.  Who slept through the majority of the boat ride.  But after a certain risque/embarrassing/hilarious photo of her in a bathtub surfaced on Facebook while we were at Wine Fest last year, we decided not to post the photo of her sleeping on the boat.  But it does exist, FYI.

And here we are together:

We went to Chinatown and stopped in a few shops.  

At the request of a certain Ghost-Buster-Loving cousin, we swung by the firehouse where Ghost Busters was filmed to take a few photos:

AND THEN.  We had dinner at the most delicious little restaurant that we kind of stumbled upon that I don't remember the name of.  But I ate Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese Penne.  It was absolutely delish.

Then we jumped on the subway and rode into Times Square where we made our last stop at the wax museum.  And to be honest, I wasn't particularly excited about this part either, but you guys.  It was the most fun.

Here is everyone trying to decide something.  I clearly wasn't involved in the conversation.

I talked to that guy that sits on the steel beam up above New York.

Woody Allen was there.

So was Frank.

And the Rockettes!

 But my favorite.  Mr. Springsteen.  I gave him a kiss.

Funny how I'm not concerned about pressing my lips up against this wax statue but had to hold my purse above my head in the bathrooms to avoid getting any bathroom-type diseases on it.

And Mr. Lincoln.  My most favorite president.

And I'm sorry to those of you who fell for it, but I didn't really meet Matt Lauer.  I just met his wax substitute.  

By the time our tour ended, it was time to head on home so we jumped back on the bus and rode back to Belle Vernon.  I slept a total of probably 5 hours on the way home.  I was so tired when we landed in PA that I almost abandoned my macaroons.  

Well I knew I left them on the bus.  You know, because I can't ever remember anything ever.  And I remembered that as I was pulling out of the parking lot but I seriously said out loud, "ABANDON SHIP!"

But then Diane called and said she had the cookies, along with Zach's neck pillow.  I said, "Eat the cookies, and I'll get the pillow some other time."

But Diane talked me off the ledge into pulling the car over and waiting for her to drive by and give me my cookies.

And then I came home and took 3 showers before crawling into my bed and remaining there until noon on Sunday.

The end.

This weekend is going to be like one long day instead of three distinct days.

I am fully aware that this coming weekend is probably going to be the most exhausting of my life.  AWARE DOES NOT EQUAL PREPARED.

I mean, what would you pack for a weekend trip where you won't have a designated bed but rather a bus seat, a neck pillow, and a throw blanket?

My packing list is obviously confused.  I need some of the things I would take on overnight trips (toothbrush, makeup, face wash) but not other things (shampoo, hair dryer, brush, clean bra?).

What am I getting myself into, you ask?  Well I shall share.  Some of my girlfriends and I are heading to New York City at 11:15PM via bus on Friday night.  We will arrive in the city early Saturday only to be dropped off like orphans with no home to explore the city alone all day.  Then in the evening we will get back on said bus and drive home, arriving super early Sunday morning.

At which point I plan to collapse on my bed and sleep until 6:30AM Monday morning.

Some of the questions/concerns I have about said trip:

1.  Should I take a sleeping pill on Friday night once I get on the bus?  I would like to get rest, but if that shit doesn't wear off properly I am SCREWED.
2.  Should I enjoy a Bloody Mary upon arrival?  I guess this answer depends on your answer to #1.
3.  What bakery in New York has the best cupcakes?
4.  Will I need a clean bra, or better yet a place to put it on?
5.  Should I buy a poncho?  It is supposed to RAIN and I am about 100% sure I will never see any of these people (other than the girls I go with) ever again.  Until at least May, when Zach and I go back.

I guess that about covers it.  Please advise.

Best Saturday.

I have a confession. My favorite Saturdays are the kind where we have to wake up "early" for something.

I know. That makes me odd and strange and maybe even a little crazy but seriously? The worst Saturdays are the ones when I lay around waiting for Zach to wake up for like 3 hours and then by the time he does I'm in a bad mood which is nobody's fault but my own.

So yesterday we had to get up "early" (8:30) however I had already been up for 2.5 hours. But that was no matter because today was the day we were going to our nephew's soccer game.

Here he is with Zach at our Eat n Park date after the game:

I ate a salad at EnP because even after writing in the blog about how I was going to "try harder", my last weigh in showed a 5 pound gain. Which actually made the beginning of this Saturday quite crappy.

Anyway - after lunch I took my brownie troop on a field trip to the Humane Society. And for the most part they were well-behaved and very gracious which I expected but was still very appreciative.

We swung by Angelo's to see the family and I caught up with a friend before heading home for a quick shower, before heading out again to go to another friend's house to watch the hockey game and play games.

And you guys. My friend Elise is the best pepperoni roll maker in the world. They are like two feet long and she made FIVE.

Also, I put my diet on hold while shoving like 4 pepperoni slices in my mouth.

And I made what can only be described as a delicious, somewhat redneck, cheese spread consisting of exactly one brick of (low fat) cream cheese, an entire jar of red pepper jelly, and club crackers. That's all.

Someone brought a classier version to our house once, using Brie cheese instead of good ol' Philadelphia cream cheese. It was delicious both ways. And easy.

We played two rousing games of Farkle before heading home.

I didn't waste a second yesterday. Except between the hours of 600-830, when I lamented my new five pounds, considered exercising about 40 times to no avail, and read Mindy Kaling's book.

And that, my friends, is the stuff great Saturdays are made of.

We'll definitely need to get this fixed before we have kids.

So when we moved into our new house, we (I?) waivered a lot before accepting the fact that our garage door doesn't have the sensor in it so if something is under it, it will still come acrashin' down and that the previous owners were NOT going to fix it.

That was a particularly long run on sentence so hopefully you understood that. If not, it will be there forever so take as long as you need. I'm here for questions as well.

ANYWAY So after one garage door incident involving the garbage can (SURPRISE, Zach! There was an incident with the garbage can!), I've tried to make it a habit of closing the garage door from the button on the wall, just to be sure I pulled my car in far enough.

And some days I forget and close it from the comfort of my car using the garage door opener. And on those days I wince in slow motion as I not-so-patiently wait for the door to come down past the trunk with no loud crunch.

If you thought today was going to be the day where the garage door smashed my trunk, you are wrong. I'm just warning you for when it finally does happen, because it will.

So I guess today could still be that day. It's only 7:59am. Stay tuned.

The Things Kids Remember

Yesterday my mom posted a photo of Drive-In speakers on Facebook asking my sister and I if we knew what they were.

Why, yes.  I do.  I also remember the time she and my dad took us to the drive-in and Doc Hollywood was playing.  There was a bare boob shot a few minutes into the movie and then we left.  

I was 7 years old when Doc Hollywood came out.  That was 21 years ago.

I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, but I remember going to the drive in and leaving after the half-frontal.  (What is that really called?)

Anyway.  I have another story about kids remembering strange things.

In October, I was teaching the girls in my Brownie troop about the founder of Girl Scouts.  I read them the story straight out of their Brownie book, not having read it before, not realizing that the story ended with Juliette dying of breast cancer.  The story explained she had a rough marriage too and that, at some point, her husband also died.

The story also explained how she founded scouts, and about all of these other wonderful things she did.  How when she was little she had to have gum cut out of her hair, how she lived in Georgia, how her birthday was on Halloween, how her favorite flower was a daisy, how she was deaf in one ear because of rice getting lodged in it at her wedding.

When the story ended, I turned to the girls and said, "What do you remember about Juliette?"

One girl raised her hand.  "She died."

"Um, okay.  What ELSE do you remember?"

Another girl answered, "Her husband died."

"WHAT ELSE?"

Crickets.

Moral of the story?  Proofread stories, even if they are in your Brownie book.  Also, kids remember all of the things you don't want them to and nothing that you do.

Beauty School Dropouts?

So every day on my way to work (oh hey! I got a job!), I pass the South Hills Beauty School in Dormont. And from the looks of it, it's not really the kind of place I'd like to learn anything about beauty. It's purple, and run down, and it's really kind of the opposite of visibly appealing. And a little depressing - especially on a cloudy day. Which is pretty much the norm here in the Burgh.

So every day I drive on past. And I think the above thoughts.

Well one particular Friday, two days ago to be exact, I was stopped at the light outside, thinking the above thoughts, noticing a beauty school student milling around outside with a big ol cigarette hanging out of her mouth. And then. Out of NOWHERE. A different student I hadn't even seen, reaches her head around the wall she had been leaning against out of my view - just enough for me to see her - and she HOCKS THE BIGGEST SPITBALL EVER.

It was the opposite of beauty. And from now on I am going to look the other way when I drive on past.