Report on Vacation--Just the facts

Yipee for vacation! Yipee for extended family reunions!!

My week in Michigan was everything a vacation should be: relaxing, beautiful scenery, bonding with wonderful family, fun activities.

This is the beach of Lake Huron. I have officially changed my position to liking the great lakes better than the ocean--the freshwater is a refreshing change and there are NO jellyfish. There are enough waves to keep it interesting, but not enough that they require any energy at all. Why oh why did I not appreciate Michigan more when I lived there?

I got to go canoeing. It was super fun. I have included here a picture of my niece because she is way cuter in a canoe than I am. I will spare you the story about how cute she was at first and how cranky she got at the end (but if you want to hear the story, I am happy to tell you if you ask). The fellow in the back is my awesome brother-in-law Josh.

Here is a small, random sample of the extended family with whom I bonded.

And yes, there were even education opportunities. This is me and some cousins and an aunt by a wanigan at the Lumberman Monument State Park. In case you're wondering, a wanigan is a floating cafeteria for the lumbermen who worked the river--camp was too far so they'd eat at the wanigan and sleep on the ground on the bank of the river.

After the official extended family reunion, I got to spend a day in Saginaw with part of my immediate family and part of my extended family on the other side.

Joy of joy of joys I got to go blueberry picking!!! The local place is a berry farm/ used book store/ travel agency. Seriously. And it is awesome.

























Our family rule growing up was "No pick-y, no eat-y." Now as an adult-ish person, I am beginning to understand the beauty and wonder of picking and eating your own food. Another highlight of the vacation was watering Mom's container garden on the back patio (not pictured). There is just something about the smell of water coming out of a hose that is so intriguingly different from the smell of rain--perhaps part of the memory of summer recreation as a child.

And because no one other than me cares, I will skip over the account of me finding and buying a skirt that I'm fairly sure I recognize from the premortal existence.

Have a nice weekend!....What? It's not the last day of your work week?

Tomorrow morning I take off for my vacation at Lake Huron (which is not as pretty as Lake Michigan but is still very pretty, as you can see below)

It's a good thing I will be wearing flip flops the rest of the week because my feet are swollen to the point of not fitting into my ultra comfortable ballet flats. (My instinct is to make some sort of a pregnancy scare joke here, but I just can't figure out how to pull that off, so I'll skip it.)

(I know this doesn't really fit in here, but I just want to say regarding my sunburn-- that I WAS wearing sunscreen (spf 50) which I reapplied throughout the day.)

Another shout-out to Michigan--everyone there has air conditioning. Yipee!!

Also my niece Ellie (who I'm sure you'll be happy to know talks in complete sentences) will be there

Family reunions are pretty much the best.

Things to be thankful for

1. I got to go to my favorite beach today.
2. The many, many, many, many, many, many jellyfish that were there did not sting.
3. I chose to leave the beach when I did.
4. Ibprofen.
5. That my roommate has an air-conditioned room where I can hang out so my sunburn doesn't hurt as much.




























6. That my lower back and upper thighs escaped the sun's wrath.
7. That I have not been this badly sunburned since 2004.

Reason 70,000 that I love my life

Subtitle: the new sink strainer

The strainer in our kitchen sink broke a few months ago and has not been doing its job properly. I've been waiting for the super to bring us a new one. All my my hopes and dreams were realized when this morning he gave me this little bit of brilliance:
Yes, that is a rainbow-colored hot air balloon. Yes, the name of the product is "Strainer Art Decorative Sink Drainer." Yes, that is Mona Lisa as their spokesperson. And yes, you read correctly, the price was a mere 99 cents (reduced from $4.99).

I can't say that I love the strainer, but I can say that I love that this is the strainer they gave us.

What I was up to last week

Last week 50% of the administrative staff at the firm were on vacation. One day, we were down to only 33% of the staff being there. Obviously, the amount of work needing to be done held steady. It was very busy but for the most part not overwhelming. The hard part was not having time at work to get important non-job related things done--blog, read blogs, email correspondence, pay bills on line, write thank you notes, do on-line research, etc. This made my non-work hours seem much busier. Plus, I had fewer non-workers hours--last week I racked up seven (7) hours of overtime, putting me at a grand total of 42 hours worked all together! I don't know how you people do it! I love love love my 35 hour work week. And did I mention I got time and a half for those extra hours? My life is pretty stinkin' wonderful.

My after-hours life was pretty much the same as normal, but just so you all know what a typically week is like for me here in the big city, I will give you an outline.

Monday--straight from work to FHE where everyone shared their favorite book. Afterwards Alejandro accompanied me to the supermarket where they have 39 cents/pound watermelon. I went home and watched some 30 Rock with Ashley. I can't remember for sure, but I probably stayed up late watching my latest obsession Friday Night Lights (which I highly recommend to everyone). I can stay up crazy late because I don't have to be at work until 11:00 (allow me again to say how much I love my job). And I made cinnamon rolls (accidentally used baking soda instead of powdered, which decreased the quality substantially but they were ok. I think they'd be great with the right chemicals.)

Tuesday--after work I went to my new favorite place Trader Joe's (it is out of my way but I've been introduced to their very yummy, very affordable all-natural peanut butter and I made some other good discoveries while I was there. I laugh that I have become a person who shops at "all-natural" grocery stores.) I was planning on heading straight to Institute ("Teachings of the Living Prophets") when I got a phone call offering me a free ticket to a ballet if I could get to the Lincoln Center in 20 minutes. I was about 40 minutes away, but due to three separate public transportation miracles, I managed to arrive on time. this picture must be from the second act. so lovely!

Wednesday--had a friend over for breakfast. After work, I did laundry (keep in mind this involves carrying a month's worth of dirty clothes down three flights of stairs and a block to the laundromat. but mostly we are just thankful to have one so close. everyone doesn't have it that good.) I then made dinner (chickpea cutlets YUM!) for a friend who came over and we had a nice visit. (I didn't have a picture of my famous chickpea cutlets, so I'm including here a photo of some of my black bean burgers. I am getting awesome at make-your-own fake meat. Thank you wheat glutten!) After she left, I fell asleep on my bed with my contacts still in. I think. I know I did that at least once this week.

Thursday--woke up early to work in the temple before work. Worked until 9:00pm. After work I walked up to Chinatown to get on the subway (only about a mile) so I could spend more time on the phone with my sister. I got home at 11 and watched some 30 with Ashley and then some Friday Night Lights by myself. This might also have been the night that I made peanut butter cookies (my first time using a commercial egg substitute).

(goodness, is this post dragging? well the week SPED by, although it did leave me needing a nap which--spoiler alert--I never got)

Friday--went straight from work to the play 39 Steps which was very nice, especially for a long-time Alfred Hitchcock fan like me. A cast of four played about 150 different roles. It was funny and cute. (those of you who have seen the movie might recognize this scene from the chae on top of a moving train.)
I then walked up to the Columbus Circle to get on the train. I stopped at Whole Foods for some goodies and made the exciting discovery that they list all the ingredients for their bakery items!! Bagels really are vegan!! Yay!!! And I tried a type of pastry that I'd never heard of before but I can't remember what it's called now. Then I went home and watched 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights until early morning.

[editor's note: I normally don't watch nearly so much TV. This is a fluke. Ashley and I have the goal to watch every episode of 30 Rock this summer while we live together and I just discovered FNL and it's addictive (in a good way. it makes me very happy to watch such a good show)]

Saturday--after 4ish hours of sleep, I woke up and headed to Brooklyn for a regional Institute Retreat which was inspiring. For the sake of brevity I will skip over my two major subway misadventures of my trip to Brooklyn. After the meeting I wandered around Prospect Park for a bit (it's like the Central Park of Brooklyn). Then I went to the accordion festival which ROCKED MY WORLD. Then more of the standard (as of late) TV fare.

Sunday--After church I was able to squeeze in a 20 minute nap before Ashley and I biked to Central Park for a picnic. We biked back and I was super hungry so I made cornmeal waffles (amazing how eggy they were since there were no eggs involved). Then I made my standard Sunday night calls. I'm not sure what else I did, but I didn't get to bed until 11 so I must have been very busy.

Just a normal week in my life. Except extra time at work.

Things to look forward to this week:
Accompanying a friend going to the temple for the first time
Invasions of the Body Snatchers at the Brooklyn Bridge Park
Out-of-town friends for the weekend

"Just keep those boys away from your accordion!" *

(*as spoken by Mr. Harold Weir in the Freaks and Geeks episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers.)
Subtitle: Bliss on the Hudson

About three months ago, it came to my attention that I love accordion music. This realization came shortly after I established for myself a strict "give money to all subway and street performances involving an accordion" policy. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about the Manhattan Accordion Festival.

Let me just say that the festival was about 100x better than I was expecting. And I had high hopes going in.

The setting was pier 70--a picturesque pier jetting out into the Hudson, surrounded by sailboats and kayaks with a lovely view of the New Jersey skyline. There was a gentle breeze and little waves. Standing by the railing in the late afternoon sun, listening to the Irish accordion band, watching the little kids dancing in front of the stage I had a moment of pure bliss. Pure bliss I am telling you.(this photo was taken either before or after the moment of bliss, but this was the basic idea. the lady on the left is not involved in the telling of this story. The bike is Ashley's--I was guarding it.)

I went with my roommate Ashley. Here's us and the stage during the Irish accordion band:

We were also there for an Albanian Accordion band and a Columbian Accordion band. We unfortunately missed the accordion band that played song by the band Queen. I will catch them next year for sure. My favorite was the Albanian band. I would talk about how much I loved them, but I feel like mere words would sully the purity of my love for them so I will not. I also loved that the Irish band played a drinking song that I knew from my St Patrick's Day CD and i got to sing along. I don't know why exactly but I really love drinking songs. They just seem so happy.

So in honor of the accordion festival and my love for drinking songs, I will end with my favorite drinking song from my childhood. I believe it is German in origin:
In Heaven there is no beer.
That's why we drink it here.
And when we're gone from here,
Our friends will be drinkin' all the beer.

The end.

New life goal: Eat more squash

Because it is yummy.