The Record-Breaking Post

This is the most I've posted in one month sice I came home from England. I guess my life has got much more exciting in the past month.
Last night we had 6 extra people spending the night in our apartment. The fam went to Cape May for a week and stopped here on their way back. Mom and Dad got a hotel, of course, while 6 children, aged 4 to 15 spread out on our living room floor. Well, actually the 4-year-old shared a bed with Lindsey. She kicks horribly so I don't envy her that.
This morning we took them to the park to try to wear them out but it really tired me out more. I don't know if it's because we grew up in the country, or for some other reason, but the boys have no sense of sharing space. They are so noisy: yelling, screaming and pushing each other in the playground, completely un-aware that there were several other small children trying to use the equipment being quiet and good.
The real exciting news is that I bought a car! She's a 2008, black, chevy cobalt. Very pretty--haven't decided on a name yet. I got her just in time really, because Mom drove Daria back to Potsdam today.

The Last Wedding of the Summer

August 23 was Melissa & Aaron's wedding:
 
Hanging out before the wedding. It was such a perfect day for a wedding, but I was glad we were in the shade!
 
Me and Rachel played music for the wedding. I don't think Rachel was very happy when I let her music blow across the grass.
 
Me and the Bride!
 
I have to say although I've complained about it, I have enjoyed all the weddings I've been to this summer. This one was especially nice - the weather was wonderful and the park was so beautiful. Me and Danielle shared a tent (that we borrowed from Aaron) and camped out at the park with Melissa's family. It was just a nice weekend being outdoors and hanging out.

People Came to Visit Me (Part 2)

 
After exploring Troy I took Justine to some places in Albany. She climbed up on the legislative building to get a picture with the shadow people.
 
Me and Justine in front of the Egg.
 
Emire Plaza. The sun was shining through the rain. After this we found some secret underground tunnels (actually a bus station).
 
Then Arielle and Chris stopped by! I used all the produce I got at the Farmer's Market and made a fabulous Greek salad. We brought it out to eat it in the park.

People Came to Visit Me! (Part 1)

 
This past weekend Justine came to visit me. I used this time to explore and do some of the things I've been wanting to do since I moved here, but haven't been able to because of the plethora of weddings I've been invited to.
 
First we went to the Farmer's Market in Troy (I don't have pictures of that). I went a little farmer's-market crazy. First I went through all the booths once just to see what everyone had. Then I went through to the ones I wanted things from and tried samples of their products. Then I started buying. We bought fruits and vegetables, as well as two bottles of really yummy wine (black-raspberry and blueberry), feta cheese, organic peanut butter and some delicious crusty bread.
 
When we finally got worn out from the farmer's market (actually I ran out of cash and had to go to the ATM) we got some water bottles and sat down by the Hudson.
 
After we were refreshed we walked down the antique district and poked into some little shops, using this article as my inspiration, http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/travel/escapes/07trip.html. The only thing I'd disagree with is that Illium is not a great place to stop to eat. It's overpriced and the service leaves much to be desired. There are many other cute, more reasonbly priced restaurants to choose from. However, all-together it was quite a fun little excursion.

Suddenly Seymour

Laura tells me I need to blog some more... so, the new addition to the apartment.
Seymour:
 
At first I felt bad because it's just one little fish in a huge 2-gallon tank, but he just seems so happy in there. He never gets bored of swimming back and forth. I used to make fun of people who took pictures of their fish, but Seymour is just so cute. He's got a little black spot on his butt so it looked like he pooped his pants. However, the picture did not turn out too well, so I don't think you can see it.

3 Down... 1 to go

 

August 9 was my 3rd wedding of the summer: Jenny & Jake. Here's a funny story: I was actually present when Jake picked up Jenny for their first date. I think he wore a pink shirt and we all decided it was a pretty daring move for him. I guess it worked for Jenny anyway. On the way there and the way back (5 hrs on a highway) I drove through severe thunder storms including lightening splitting the sky. It was kind of nice because all the normal people drove slow so I could keep up a pretty decent pace. On the way back I actually drove through several amazing rainbows.

 

I took this picture while I was driving. I wish I'd thought to do this on the way there. I could have got some great shots of lightening.

Albany is Pretty

My apartment is right across Washington Park. I like to go running around this little pond. It's pretty, but I wouldn't touch my toe in it--it's completely green with algae and who knows what. But I see people fishing in it every day I'm there. The fish they catch are probably only 2 inches long. I really hope they don't eat them.
The theater

 

Ducks

 

More ducks

 

This duck thought she was a person. She left the other group of ducks to come hang out with me and Lindsey.

 

Well, I've been living in Albany for about a month now and I decided I want to start blogging again. I miss it, even though the few people who read this might get bored to tears. Where have I been recently? Williston, VT for Arielle and Chris' wedding; Potsdam to pack; Albany to move in and start work; Simcoe, ON for Steph and Ryan's wedding; and VT again to visit for 4th of July weekend. I've been fairly exhausted lately but have been enjoying living here so far. My apartment is right across from Washington Park so that's really where I've been spending most of my free time.

 

Arielle and Chris

 

Steph's Wedding

 

Playing Croquet (I seem to be doing that a lot recently)

 

Lake Champlain, VT

I'm Going to be a Bridesmaid!

I'm almost as excited as if I were going to be a bride... well ok, not really at all, but I am excited. Arielle and I have been friends since we were seven and by the time we were 12 we were sure that we would have each other as bridesmaids at our weddings (why 12-year-olds discuss this I don't know, but it seems to be fairly universal). Actually, between you and me I can only discuss weddings for so long before my eyes glaze over, but still, it's not every day that a childhood dream comes to pass.

We Three Kings

Man, I love those camels...

Why is it when we are little we hate things that we end up loving as adults? Kids hate eating, going to bed and bathing. As an adult these are some of my favorite activities. A few years ago I was baby sitting and I served chili for a meal. My younger sister didn't want to eat it, but I said she had to finish it. She excused herself to go to the bathroom, and then finished her food fairly quickly. I didn't think anything of it until I went to the same bathroom later and discovered a pile of chili in the trash can. Apparantly she had snuck her bowl off with her to the bathroom and dumped it. I thought it was actually pretty clever, although it would have been better if she had flushed it down the toilet--less evidence.
Last night another little sister refused to eat blueberry pancakes, claiming she didn't like them after eating an entire cup of frozen blueberries earlier. Kids are weird.

Is it still November?

I got the worst charlie horse of my life last night. It seemed like it lasted for 15 minutes--at one point I put my hand on my leg and I could actually feel the muscles twitching. It was really gross. My leg is still sore. Not sure what caused it, but before I went to work this morning I looked it up online to see some ways I could deal with the soreness and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Half of the websites weren't actually about the muscles spasm but were people's Myspace pages--annoying. After a couple minutes of searching I got something that said it could be from a lack of potassium and magnesuim, and it can be brought on by exhaustion and dehydration. Well, that could be true. I am making a resolution to drink more water and eat more bananas in the future.

Hobble Gobbling

Picture this: a 15-passenger van, loaded to the ceiling with duffle bags, blankets, pillows, and 10 people crammed in like sardines, careening down a windy road. Suddenly hysterical screaming comes from the back seat. "Gideon's throwing up!"
Suddenly the whole van is in an uproar with people trying to dive into the trunk to avoid Gideon's vomit which had no place to go except on the floor of the van and his shoes. 15 minutes later we stop at the first place with a parking lot and tumble out into the cold rain while Dad tried to clean Gideon off with a water bottle and a handful of kleenex. This was just in the first hour of our trip to NJ.
Actually, aside from the vomiting and Eliza kicking me in her sleep (we had to share a bed), it was a pretty good trip. I ate more than I thought was physically possible, but what else is Thanksgiving for?
A week prior to Thanksgiving I took place in a prediction walk/run to raise money for the Holiday Fund. You try to predict how long it will take you to go a certain amount of miles and the closer you are to your predicted time the better. The top five closest people won turkeys. I went 4 miles in 51 min... 1 min off from my predicted time of 50 min. It's kind of funny actually because I was convinced I was going too fast so I walked the last 1/2 mile to get closer to my time. Guess I'm slower than I thought.
I put the snow tires on my car today! All by myself! Except for Sam--he helped a little. Actually, I was supposed to go to the shop and have them put on my snow tires Nov. 15 but missed the date. Then it snowed and I needed them on soon so I just decided to do it myself. So between that and participating in my first run for charity I'm feeling very strong.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, but now we move onto Christmas. Decorations are already up and stores everywhere are playing Christmas songs. Guess I'd better get up to speed. Happy shopping, Everyone!

Completely Random

Ok, it's getting pretty close to the Holidays--a good time to bring up a good discussion topic. My sister recently gave me some cookies in this tin:

 

If the picture is a little hard to see I'll attempt to describe it for you. There is an idyllic, typical Christmas scene going on: a barn covered in snow, a starry night, a man and woman dressed warmly carrying presents, and a horse-drawn sleigh. Across the middle of this scene is a cowboy, complete with a lasso, and a giant star. What is happening in this picture? Was the cowboy picked up by aliens in Texas and then beamed down from space someplace in Massachusetts? Does the giant star stand for the lone-star state, or is it the star of Bethlehem? This is extremely confusing to me. Just thought I'd share.

Electric Typewriter

Hmmm.. I am a very unreliable blogger. I have been very busy lately--I work all the time it seems like. Two of my most favorite things about my job:
1. Using the electric typewriter. If you have never used one before you are missing out on one of the most fun things ever. Every time you push a button it makes a satisfying clack. Plus, when you hit enter, it gets really noisy and the cursor (I wish I knew the terminology for typewriter parts) moves back to the beginning.
2. Printing articles from micfo-film. It is really cool.
A few weeks ago I wrote something about how I looked too young to be working here and I should start wearing my hair in a bun, etc. Well, for the past few days of work I've been wearing my glasses and I have a white streak in my hair (residue of helping Arielle paint her apartment, but it looks like I'm graying). I haven't really noticed that it's commanded any more respect though. Maybe I should start bringing my knitting to work.
This has been a strange November so far. I'm hoping for snow soon!

My favorite time of year...

 

 

 

 

Shhhh...

So, I've decided its nearly impossible for me to be quiet in a library. Whenever I'm shelving books I drop at least one on the floor. I also knock down book ends and push my shelving cart into doors. Part of my job as supervisor (probably the most difficult and annoying part) is to actually close and lock up the library. This entails walking around the library checking every nook and cranny for cranky students and telling them that the library is going to close soon. Most often I get blank stares and a "ya..." It struck me the other day that because I look so much like a student that maybe they don't realize I work here and I'm just a self-important student that feels the need to go around and tell everyone when the library closes. I've been thinking about doing my hair in a bun and wearing my glasses to work in an attempt to look older.

This amuses me

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Crunchy Cons

One perk of working at a library is encountering a large number of interesting books. While I was checking in some books I came across a book with such an interesting title I had to take it home and read it. It's called Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or at Least the Republican Party). After reading that title I started wondering how this guy knew my family--and many other people in my town. Apparantly we aren't as strange as I thought we were and there are many other people in the world like us. Rod Dreher wrote the book after receiving a huge positive response on an article of a similar nature. Before reading this book I thought it was impossible to vote for someone who was against abortion, but for the environment. Now I see it doesn't have to be that way. A hugely interesting book and article.

I so want to say this to someone...