Bringing Back Thankful Thursday with Fine Fall Days

I find it amazing how our lives intersect with past friends that we never thought we'd see again and somehow pick up our friendship right where we left off. Such was the case this week. I've known Heather since the second grade, I believe. We were in the same classes in church and though we weren't ever in the same classes together at school, we did stay friends until I left in the spring of 1995. I never thought that I would find her again, but low and behold, we not only found each other (thank you facebook!) but she took me up on my invitation for a visit! I picked her up at the crack of dawn in Philly and we decided to explore the city. Even though I live an hour and a half away, I've never done so. We started off at Penn's Landing with the gorgeous sunset....


We wanted around downtown (at one point, when we had our map out, a nice lady actually told us about a nicer road just a block away-I guess we looked like we were asking for trouble). Here are some choice shots from downtown Philly:



We hit the Market:

Then we hit the historical sites:

Independence Hall


We also went to the Mutter Museum, but they didn't let us take pictures.
We meandered home through Lancaster county...




The next day we went to Hershey and the outlets, then headed up to mom's place.

It's the milk chocolate (TASTY TREATS)

On our way up, we hear this horrible scraping sound, so we pull over and find my exhaust pipe completely broken off from the muffler. So we strung it up with an old belt and headed to K-Mart. We tried an epoxy-that fell right off after a few minutes driving- then we tried duct tape-that only last a little longer- So we finally got a metal dryer vent and some more glue. It's still detached from the muffler and you can hear me coming from a mile away, but it doesn't drag! Here's the before and after of our efforts (well, mostly Heather's).


We spent the night in New Haven and then headed to NYC the next day. Here's some choice shots from our day in the city:
With Mommy

Pretty fall colors in New Haven. Connecticut is gorgeous this time of year!

We stopped at the beach briefly on the way.



We walked all around the southern tip of Manhattan.
Ground Zero hasn't changed much in a year.

Lots of "Self Inflicted" shots around the water and on the ferry.....





And then of course, Times Square:



Needless to say we were home a little late and fell right asleep! The next day I had to work, but on Wednesday, we met up with another childhood friend, Dessi, at a local pretzel factory and then we headed over to Gettysburg:

I should probably have posed for this one side saddle, but oh well.



Oh, and we did manage to get over to this small little town about 15 minutes out of my own town. This isn't a joke, people:

We were thinking of you during Intercourse.


Ok, I'm really sick of this post. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'd better get back to work!

Fall Lineup

Okay, I know it's a little silly to get excited about fall because of tv shows, but that's just how I am-looking forward to a show makes my whole day better. So since it's premiere week next week and all of my lovely shows are coming back on, I thought I'd share with you which shows I'll be watching.
Monday night: House
Tuesday night: NCIS and for some inexplicable reason, Sons of Anarchy. (I think I just really find Charlie Hunham hot)
Wednesday night remains unfilled at the moment. Suggestions anyone?
Thursday night is rough because there's so many! My top two are Bones and Grey's Anatomy followed by Private Practice and then Ugly Betty. I might get in to Vampire Diares if Amanda keeps DVRing them.
Friday night: Ghost Whisperer (but this is mostly because there's nothing else on)
So, is anyone else watching some of the same ones I am? Any suggestions for others? Really, isn't tv great? It's like free movies! Yay fall!

The Real Me

I saw this on a friend's blog (well, okay, she's the sister of a friend and I really don't think she knew I was blog stalking her....I blog-stalk a lot, people, just so you know) about how she was sick of fakeness and so she put up a blog of things that are really and truly her, whether good or bad. Well, I like that idea. I know we're all trying to present our best selves, but sometimes it helps to just say to ourselves, "Here is how it is, for good and not-so-good." So here's your little glimpse into the real me (even if you didn't want to know) in the hopes that more people will feel comfortable with who the real "them" is too.

*I get nasty in traffic. I mean nasty. You will hear words come out of my mouth that would make a sailor blush. I grew up in a very rural area and despite my frequent visits to Mesa and Phoenix, I never got used to all the people and bad drivers. No, this isn't saying I'm a perfect driver, it just means that my tolerance level while driving in very low, so watch out if you're the passenger. (You should see me driving in New York...)

*I make a mean pecan pie. You're all welcome to try some, but you'll have to be around during the holidays because that's the only two times a year that I make it. Any more would be extremely hazardous to my health.

*My exercise of choice (because I don't seem to have a choice in the matter) is to take a two-mile walk through my neighborhood with my pal Luther. I've never been able to keep up a strict exercise regimen in my life and it's not all that hard to convice me not to go on any given day, but it hasn't stopped me from trying....and trying....and trying.

*I'm not a very good cook. I did not get my mom's great skills and it seems evident that I never will. I rarely enjoy something I've cooked.

*I'm a sucker for purses. Thought you already knew this about me? Oh,no you don't. Take a peek in my closet-the obsession runs deep. Unfortunately I can no longer afford designer purses at $200 a pop, but I can still look.

*I always thought I wanted to be married-until about a year ago when I realized that I'm actually really happy being single and the idea of being married really terrifies me. The idea of sharing my life with someone just seems like too tall of an order and the responsibility of children is daunting. I'm hoping time will cure this, but for now, I remain unattached on purpose.

*I love cats. Really, I'm going to be one of those silly cat ladies that never marries, never has kids, but walks her two dozen cats on a leash every night at dusk.

*I love the Mormon faith, and I really feel like I belong there, but I really struggle with some of the teachings of the church that don't coincide with people I love and things I feel in my heart are between God, Christ, and the person and no one else. I won't ever leave the church, but sometimes I strongly doubt many people in it.

*I would rather work for a very low pay (just HOW low is classified) and completely love the job I have than drudge through college and get paid a lot more for a job I hate. I sometimes feel like getting a degree is expected of me and if I don't live up to grandness, certain people in my life (you know who you are) will be disappointed in me, but I'm okay with that.

*The only time I give a crap about money is when I don't have any. If I have enough to get by, I'm fine. You always want more, right?

*In the winter, I sleep with a space heater on my bed so that I can keep nice and toasty. Completely illogical because I don't pay for heating in my apartment, but it's an indulgence I've yet to give up.

*I shower every morning, but I still like to take bubble baths just about every night. Probably not good for my exema, but it's another indulgence I hold onto with everything that I'm worth.

*The code I live my life by is the golden rule- "Do unto others..." I wish everyone would.

And now I have to go live real life and head back to work. If anyone else wants to share "real" tidbits about themselves, I'd love to hear them!

Yard Sale, Hershey Park, and......Swine Flu?

I'll start out with saying that the end is near. The end of summer that is. And it's had me thinking about my lack of blog posting and how I just don't really have an excuse for it. I mean, it's not like the blog police comes to my door if I don't keep up with it, but I made it a goal to write at least on Thursday's about what I'm thankful for, and that just hasn't happened. In my defense, and I think you'll all agree with me, this summer has gone by at lightening speed, but is that REALLY a defense? C'mon Heather, focus!
So, anyway, two weeks ago mom and I had our big yard sale. (Well, okay, it wasn't that big, but it felt big to us) I'm surprised it didn't kill us. Mom made some very cute signs (which I neglected to take a picture of) and it was very well attended. The only thing was the hagglers. At eight in the morning, this lady is buying my old TV, and, ok, it does have a red tinge to the picture, but ten bucks is a deal, right? THEN she wants my VCR-fabulous! I'm not kidding, the woman kept haggling with me for 45 minutes about giving them both to her for ten dollars. I'm sorry, I think fifteen is a good deal. I told her 13 was the lowest I'd go. It went on and on and she wouldn't leave. She finally took it for thirteen, but it was so not worth the effort. I know she was thinking that if she just pushed hard enough I'd give it to her for the price she wanted. Nope. I didn't. And the worst thing is she didn't really speak english. Altogether, though, we made $230 and we didn't even sell our big stuff like the bookshelfs and my day bed, so another one might be in the works. That evening I took a four hour nap and woke up with a little sore throat. By the nighttime, I was completely full-blown sick. And I mean sick. I was achy and sniffly and all of those lovely flu symptoms for four straight days. Skip ahead a week and I took Mel to the Infectious Disease Doctor. We're talking about how we all got sick since we last saw him (my case was definitely the worst) and he casually mentions, "Oh, you probably had Swine Flu". Umm, 'scuse me? I didn't know it was that common but he seemed pretty sure. It wasn't ever diagnosed, but that's a pretty scary thought, don't you think? And I never knew.
So anyway, after I spent a week recovering, Amanda B and I went to Hershey Park! We'd been planning this all summer, and so I was really excited. For those of you not in this neck of the woods-Hershey Park is not only where they make the famous chocolate, but it's also a theme park and water park. Amanda's husband works for Hershey so we got free tickets. We hit the water park first, but there was so many people that we waited in line 99.9% of the time (for one ride, we waited for two hours) that we decided to go to the coaster rides. We rode one (SOOO much fun!) and when we got off, we were told the rides were all shutting down because a storm was coming. So we went to the factory and took a little ride that shows how they make the chocolate. At the end, you come to this huge chocolate store where everything Hershey's is available. YUMMY! We went back to get the rest of our things and got caught in a MAJOR downpour. We tried to wait it out, but it didn't work out so we called it a day. It was a ton of fun, though, despite the roadblocks.
Too bad summer's coming to a close. I might have to spend Labor Day in the mountains just so I can make summer last that much longer...
Enjoying a little shade.


Getting ready to ride "Farenheit". I wasn't smiling, I was biting my lip.

Amanda's husband subjects her to enough of these rides that she wasn't nervous at all..

I summoned up enough courage for a little smile...

NOW do you see why I was panicking? (the photo is sideways, by the way)

These are the LOOOOOONG lines we had to contend with all day long. And this is not even the whole line.

I don't really have any words for this one.

Can't blame us for enjoying a little chocolate, can't you?


The massive rainstorm that cut our day a little short.

Summer Fun

This summer has been a great one! Not only because of the seventies temperatures we've been having, but all the oppurtunities to spend with family has been so wonderful. And now I'm officially done having fun because I'm officially poor. No, I don't mean low on money, I mean "Oh crap, how in the world am I going to even LOOK at that stack of bills in my 'In Bin'?" but it's all been worth it. Last monday, I went with my friend Amanda B. to Bethany Beach in Delaware. The waves were quite unforgiving and the sun was shining as it's supposed to, and we had a blast.



Then on Friday, I went up to NYC to visit with Ryan and Monique who had come in for Dev's play. We had dinner friday night with mom, then on saturday, went to Devan's play. I'm so proud of him!!! He's written a brilliant and very heartfelt play. See his blog devanhite.blogspot.com for more information.
I'll save the soliloquy about driving in New York City (mom and I did it every day and yes, it's every bit as bad as you'd imagine) because there's not much to tell other than I hate cabbies and the like. Mom and I managed to visit Central Park on our last few hours there and saw Bethesda Fountain (watch "Devil Wears Prada" or "One Fine Day" to see it) and the Dakota where John Lennon was shot. It was an amazing and very tiring trip. Here's some pics from it. And now I'm off to make money.

Ah, my beautiful Coach bag from Macy's-if I had three hundred + dollars to blow, it would be all on you, my lovely.

A New Table

So I moved my computer out in my living room and realized that I needed a bigger desk-no really, you should have seen the one I had it on before. It was more like a lamp stand. So I went to Salvation Army and found one that was the right size (albeit hideous in appearance).


On saturday, mom and I bought paint, hardware, and fabric, and here's the end result!

Grateful For Freedom!

I've always been grateful that I live in this country. As a young teenager, it came in the form of delinquency-I flipped off an officer. (Don't think less of me, this guy was so completely and unnecessarily rude to my mom that I felt it only my duty to let him know how I felt) It struck me as we resumed our drive that in many countries around the world, I would''ve been arrested and possibly even killed for my disrespect. Now, as trivial as this occurance may seem, my young and not-so-innocent heart was struck at how lucky I was. For the simple freedom to speak my mind. What did I do to deserve this gift? Why is it that there are so many who don't have it? I can't answer those two questions. But I've remembered that experience for my whole life. The only thing I can do is recognize it and give thanks to those who have given it to me.
So for this time of year that means almost as much to me as Christmas, mom and I celebrated together. We had plans to go to the Capital, but due to a very obnoxious paper that my mom had to finish, she didn't end up getting here until saturday morning. We decided it would be too stressful to try and get down there, so we thought we'd have a little fun around town. We ended up at a cherry orchard and picked some absolutely lovely cherries.





We joined Aunt Sherma, Uncle David, and Grandma for a cookout that night. The next day, I pulled everyone (Mom, Grandma, and yes, even Dad) out to the porch for a smores cooking. It wasn't quite what I had expected (who knew that charcoal isn't the greatest for smores?) but we still enjoyed gooey goodness.



Later that night mom and I went to the big fireworks show at Long's Park. This is an incredible show and only those who have seen it know what I"m talking about.



Every July fourth, I try to revow to never take my freedom for granted. There may be MANY issues we have with our government or the way things are handled, but I want to keep it in the uppermost of my mind that I can at least state my opinion and be heard and not silenced.