Last weekend, I...

1. Went to the US OPEN and saw Nadal beat Verdasco. Thursday night. It was freezing. We scalped our tickets from a coupla dudes outside the stadium. Talked 'em down to $100 a ticket. Cash. Kathy sported me. She's a fab friend. Very keen on tennis. I was unworthy of such a gift because I didn't even know who Nadal was before Kathy came to town, but I enjoyed every minute. Especially the antics of Pat Cash in an expedition doubles match after the main event.

2. Morphed into NYC tour guide extraordinaire on Saturday afternoon. We explored Wall Street, the Museum of Finance, Battery Park & the Skyscraper Museum, Ground Zero (where a debate was raging over the Mosque), and Times Square.

3. Saw the show the "Fantastiks" on Saturday night for $20! We arrived late at TKTS for discount tickets and fortunately, there was a special "20 for 20" for the Fantastiks. I'd heard it was good from cousin Clin and he was right. Cute show. Oldie but goodie. Its been playing for 42 years!!! Off Broadway show with lots of characters and good songs.

4. Took the Chinatown bus to Philadelphia on Sunday morning. Two hours, door to door. $10 each way = $20 for the whole trip. Except I took a cab to Chinatown from 72nd because the subways were extremely slow and I wouldn't have made it otherwise. Cab ride = $22. Thus, entire trip = $42. Still not bad.

5. Went on a walking tour of Philadelphia with my sister Meredith, husband Jake, and baby Quinn. Fun times. Learned that Robert Morris practically funded the Revolutionary soldiers during the war, only to go bankrupt later, lose at speculating, and spend a few years in jail. Poor guy. Also learned that the "Columbia" part of D.C. = broad, general (feminized) version of Christopher Columbus! Jeepers, you learn something new every day. The baby was very fun and I enjoyed gooshing on him and trying to get him to love me. Great smile. Pictures coming soon. We also explored the Constitution Center and saw the preparations for Tony Blair's reception/ award ceremony to receive the annual Liberty Bell honor. ? Something like that.

This was one of the best weekends in a long time. I missed the Pete, of course, but was happy to play with friends and family! Most of the time, I go on bike rides and clean my house. Thats pretty much what this Saturday is looking like.

When your co-workers drive you CRAZY

So, this chick at work bugs me. A LOT. She's always bossing me around, unnecessarily. On stuff I already know how to do. She's totally unaware of how condescending she comes across.
The insanity is that she's NOT the boss of me; we're technically equal on the hierarchy. Plus, she doesn't quite have her bachelor's degree. Get my drift? So, the challenge is picking my battles, and I'm learning that she's simply OCD, anal and can't let little things go.
For example, I said that I would drop off a UPS package one evening, but then forgot. It didn't have to go out that day per se, but she sent me a scathing little reminder of how we should be careful to do what we say we are going to do. Okay... duh. My bad. Today I made a data entry error and this is what she emailed me:
"Allison, I had to go back in the spreadsheet to fix the below error. Please be careful and double check statements you enter for typing errors. You entered 20,044 instead of 20,004,095. We all make mistakes and it’s best to catch them/fix them early before uploading."
True. Everything she said is true. But we enter so much data, that one entry is not a big deal. I've often fixed her mistakes without saying anything. Because there are systems in place to catch them, and because I don't want to draw attention to her mistakes. So, there is the difference between us. Sigh... Last Sunday I spoke on the 10th Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Covet," so technically I shouldn't be coveting other peoples' co-workers. Hmmm... I will conquer.

Do you have co-workers that make you crazy? Now or in the past? What did they do? Did you resolve anything? Strategies for dealing with it? Clearly, the 'ol let it roll off yer back, be a duck thing is not working for me. Today at least. Maybe it will tomorrow. Oh, and we've already had a mediated conversation if you can believe that! It did not go well. She freaked out. But I was just asking her to lay off the demoralizing kindergarten approach to our job... didn't register... watcha gonna do?

A day at the beach!

The funniest part of this story is that Sarah went to the beach Friday afternoon, the day before our beach day - Saturday. You will understand why this is so amusing very shortly.

So, Peter was on call last weekend, which means he had to be available at a moment's notice to respond to emergencies of a maxillo-facial-dental nature. The hospital is across the street, which is nice, but he still can't plan anything that would take him away from the general proximity of our neighborhood for long. Thus said, I planned a beach day with my friend Sarah for Saturday. I slept over Friday night, and we stayed up talking until 2am, of course. We woke up at 10am and continued our conversations from the prior evening, lazily dawdling the morning away. Frittered is more like it. By noon we were breakfasting on chocolate cake and thought about packing up for the beach. We gardened, hammocked, frittered some more, and then realized that we'd probably miss the 1:50pm train departure to Long Beach, so we planned on the 2:50pm. Its an hour long train ride including a connection at Jamaica Station. So, we'd be there by 4pm. No biggie. At Jamaica, we jumped off, then connected to.... yeah, who knows. We got on the WRONG train, which we discovered to our horror about an hour into the deviation. Hmmm... we were instructed to get off, go back to Lynbrook and then get on the next Long Beach Train. There was a 40-minute wait for the next train to Long Beach. Oh well, good thing I spotted an Entemann's Bakery Outlet store just minutes from the station so that we could pass the time well. We did partake. And brought some home for the kids. I mean Peter. I mean... The station was surprisingly chilly, so we layed down in the last slivers of sunshine alongside the cement while our doughnuts settled. Aaaah. Eventually we got to the beach at 6pm. They don't charge you $12 after 6, so our timing was PERFECT! What a fun day! We were very relaxed and rejuvenated. I'm going back, but next time I'm in charge of getting us there. :)

The Jenns... My Good Ol' Friends

Last weekend I had a couple of girlfriends visit me. Well, technically they were visiting NYC and each other, and I horned in on their plans. Jenny Reeder and Jennifer Brinkerhoff were roommates back in AZ about 10 years ago. We all used to hang out. What inspiring and beautiful women! They are both working on their PhD's. JB teaches Institute in Tempe, AZ (she taught Seminary in the East Valley for nearly 10 years and her students rave about her). She's currently on her way to Ethopia for the third time this year! She's helping to bring a water pipeline to a village there so that the women don't have to walk 8 miles round trip daily to carry 40+ pounds of dirty water on their backs. She's also doing research for her dissertation on women and rituals. Jenny got a master's degree from NYU a few years back and currently lives in DC, where she is in a PhD program. Her area of study is women's history in the LDS church. Both of these gals are sassy, educated, funny, witty, and spiritual.

We ate at the much anticipated, highly awaited hamburger and custard place - The Shake Shack (make sure you request pickles on your hamburger to enhance the overall burger experience. JB got pickles and I did not; she raved and raved about her burger and I can't say that I did. Just saying is all). There's a Shake Shack in Madison Square Park and also at 77th/ Amsterdam. Yummy! The Afghan food restaurant was better, actually, and that one is located on 51st/ 9th Avenue; I can't wait to take Peter there.

On Friday night, I was having eye problems (I randomly tore my cornea and had to rest it as it was flaming red). So, I encouraged them to see Memphis on Broadway without me. The next day they got pedicures, toured China Town, and we met up at the Manhattan temple for a session. We saw Glenn Beck come out just after us... which was... interesting. I'm not necessarily a fan, and haven't formed a conclusive opinion about that.

Later that night we saw "In The Heights" and I was blown away. WOW! What a fun show. I loved it, even slightly more than Memphis. Living here in NYC, I got the quirks, the neighborhoods, the references (some in Spanish), etc. I highly recommend this one.

On Sunday evening we went to my friend Sarah's for a get together. Sarah used to live in Kenya (taught two years at a university there), so I wanted her to meet JB and to swap notes. It was a successful connection. Got home at 1am... what an excellent weekend!

Omniscience

My favorite scripture this week is 2 Nephi 2:24:
"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things."
Okay, WOW. "All things," stated twice is a very reassuring phrase. Our Heavenly Father knows the due dates for our bills, our spouses' idiosyncracies, what's on sale at Hobby Lobby, the circumfrance of the moon, when we are happily serving Him or not, and how long our toenails are. Big and little things, Significant or inconsequential things, He knows them ALL. How great is that? We can trust in Him because He is omniscient.

More pics from the trip

Pe

Pedicures with nieces Alyssa and Olivia, Posing with Herb and Laurine Cihak, Peter and I in our old place, Miranda's 15th birthday cupcakes, and Miranda with Quinn -Meredith's 11 month old son. He's a chunker! I think those two weigh about the same...

Spousal Abandonment

Peter and I moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan the last Saturday of June (about 10 miles north), and after one day of unpacking, I abandoned him! It was for a good cause, of course, as I was representing the both of us at both get-togethers for both sides of the family. Peter knew that it was, ostensibly, a temporary abandomment.
I spent three days in AZ where I was reminded that the "DRY HEAT" still feels like a blow torch when its 116 out. I got my hair done by my favorite hairdresser from years ago, gooshed on my nieces and nephews, ate at Ned's Krazy Subs (a family tradition) and Cafe Rio (a personal tradition), had in-house pedicures with my niece Miranda, saw ECLIPSE - the 3rd and newest Twilight movie with the sistahs, beat my brother-in-law Jake at numerous board games, and generally enjoyed being lazy.
On the fourth day of my vacation, I flew to SLC to spend a few days with Peter's side of the family. We went camping out by Oakley, where fortunately we had access to plumbing facilities and my brothers-in-law Curt and Gregor provided superior dutch oven cooking. [Featured above is Patrick posing with the dutch oven, or"frothy bacon" - all grease! Yuck! I mean Yummy!] It was posh camping. We went canoeing on the lake and attended the 75th Annual Rodeo in them there parts. The Rodeo was fun, despite the fact that I feel guilty enjoying a production founded on animal abuse. The announcer kept saying random phrases such as "Whoa Big'un..." to the larger bulls or horses, that became immediate fodder for jokes later on.
After two days of camping, I spent a couple of days in SLC at Nat and Pat's relaxing, working out, playing with darling Ava, eating at Red Lobster with the family before fireworks, shopping with the sistahs, gooshing on the nieces and nephews, seeing a midnight showing of ECLIPSE (see above description -yes, it was my 2nd time in 4 days) with the girls... and Gregor...what a sport, socializing at the family party on Sunday evening, and generally enjoying everyone's company and the antics of Eric and Patrick. The last song at the fireworks display was "America" by Neil Diamond. You know the one..."got a dream to take them there, they're coming to America. Today!" Eric leaped up in front of everyone and did a Rocky air punch on cue with "Today!", much to the delight and amusement of everyone, especially me. I'm still laughing.
I missed Peter A LOT, more than I realized I would and he reminded me that this is what I get when I abandon him. :) I got back a week later on the 5th where Peter and I had a sweet reunion and more boxes to unpack. Thanks for a very fun week everyone! I sure love my family and I'm so grateful to be a part of y'all.
In my absence, Peter started his new internship program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt and is liking it very much. He says its much better than the Brooklyn Hospital Center. More details to come!