Four States in 24 Hours

Two weeks ago, Boyfriend and I spent a Saturday driving all over creation.

Leg 1: New York to New Jersey. We drove to my uncle's house to pick up my TV from college. I've been storing it in his attic for the past 2.5 years. I promised the TV to my brother but have been too...I'm not sure if the right word is 'busy' or 'lazy'. Regardless, we decided to finally get it done and I got to see spend a little time with my cousins.

Leg 2: New Jersey to Delaware. Boyfriend's grandmother lives in Delaware. We have be meaning to visit her forever. Since we were already gonna be driving around this seemed like the perfect time to take her to lunch. It was actually a lovely visit and made us both wonder why we don't do it more often.

Leg 3: Delaware to Pennsylvania. We dropped the TV off with my brother in Philly. I got to see how truly disgusting the living quarters of college boys are. My mother would faint if not for the fear of what is festering in that carpet. Then we went to visit Boyfriend's friends that just had a baby. She was like a cute little ball.

Leg 4: Pennsylvania to New Jersey. We visited Boyfriend's sister this time. She and her husband made us a delicious dinner. We spent the night because we had enough driving for the day. Actually, Boyfriend had enough driving and I had enough sitting and playing DJ with my ipod.

We headed back to New York the next day. We were exhausted and Boyfriend was strung out on caffeine but this was probably our most productive weekend in months. I think it was definitely better to bang it all out in one day instead of dragging this out over multiple weekends.

Next drive on our list is Rhode Island for Christmas. While we are in that neck of the woods we'll visit my grandfather in Hartford and my friend in Boston. We're just checking things off the list all over the place.

My Ring

O, and the main reason we were destroyed after our tour of the least exciting states in the Northeast was because we got engaged the night before! We were up late celebrating. This is why even though we spent most of it running big errands we had been putting off, it was still an amazing weekend :)

Have you seen a ring nicer than mine? I haven't.

Lemme Smang It

This ridiculousness became the anthem of my Thanksgiving.  I love my crazy family.

How Murder and Nudity Ended My Thanksgiving

I'm on the flight back to New York from Atlanta (thanks for the free internet Airtran) and I am shocked and appalled!

A guy sitting across the aisle and one row in front of me is watching a movie on his laptop.  I don't know what movie it is but there has been a fully naked woman on the screen for the past 15 minutes.  First she was having sex, then she was chasing after her partner and trying to shoot him, then she was running from some masked man who actually killed her partner, and finally she got killed.  All naked.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was the nakedness or all the killing that disturbed me more.  It's not like I'm against movies with nudity and murder.  That isn't the point.  The point is that we are on a plane.

What if a child were in my seat!?  The poor thing would be traumatized or worse yet not care at all.  Kids these days are growing up too fast.

Either way there should be a thing called plane etiquette.  Not watching inappropriate movies should be right after keeping your hands to yourself.  Did I mention the woman I sat next to on the plane to Atlanta grabbed my thigh when the plane landing startled her?

What is wrong with people?

London Calling!

I'm going to London in a month!  Boyfriend has to go for work and he is bringing me.  Yup, he's a keeper.  I haven't been back to London since I left after studying abroad there in 2007.

Because I can't contain my excitement, the other night while I was dreaming I made a list of everything I need to fit in the week that I'm there.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Ben's Cookies
2. Trafalgar Square
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery
5. Tate Modern
6. UCL
7. British Museum
8. Oxford Street
9. My British Friends
10. My British Family
11. Nando's
12. Boots (to buy tons of their perfectly sized vaseline tins)
13. Wagamama
14. Brick Lane
15. Ben and Jerry's/Belgian Waffle stand by Bond Street Station
16. Fruit corner yogurts

Trust me.  All these things, places, and people are awesome.  Some mainly hold sentimental value for me.  But the others have concrete reasons for being great.  The restaurants are delicious and affordable.  The desserts are the ONLY desserts in England worth contemplating.  The museums were the first I never got bored in.

I never made it to the British Museum - which I why it's on my list.  Fruit corners are soooo delicious.  The milk tasted better in England too.  I'm not sure what the good dairy is about but I sure did miss my favorite yogurt.  They were my breakfasts since I reject beans on toast and all other horrible brit excuses for my favorite meal.  I think the beauty of the perfect travel-size vaseline tins speak for themselves.

I'm sure the list will expand.  Any suggestions?

Update:  I forgot to put Strongbow on the list!!!  Pubs and Strongbow!

Update:  We didn't go to London.  Boyfriend didn't have to go for work anymore.  I'm kind of glad it worked out this way.  Now we can go next year when there isn't a blizzard going on over there.

Fall Fail

This fall I had aspirations to take weekend trips to Boston and Philly (obviously not on the same weekend).  This was a totally reasonable and easily executable goal.

So why didn't it happen?  PURE LAZINESS

I really really really wanted, and fully intended, to go both places.  I want to see my brother in Philly and give him my old TV (which I promised him a year ago).  Also, a group of my favorite people are living in Boston now (a place I have never been). 

True, none of those people are going anywhere so the timeliness of my trips wasn't important.  I'm sure that was a blow to the motivation voice that whispers in my ear.

I think what really propelled me into failure was Australia.  Australia was an amazing trip but it was so much traveling.  When we got home, all I wanted to do was be at home.  The best time each week to enjoy being at home is on the weekend.  I just wasn't ready to give them up.

Of course now it is too late to make this fall a weekend trip success.  I'll be traveling for the holidays so it seems like my best bet for Philly and Boston is January or February.

This is exactly what I wanted to avoid because Boston in the middle of winter sounds horribly cold.  O well.  I did it to myself.

Wanted: New Friend (Must work for airline)

I feel like plane ticket prices keep going up and you get less and less for your money. 

On American Airlines to and from LAX in economy you don't even get peanuts!  That is bullshit.  That flight isn't short.  Plus, I refuse to spend $10 to get 3 Pringles.  To add insult to injury I could smell them baking cookies for the people in first class.  I nearly lost my mind.  Boyfriend witnessed me take a very big step towards madness.  I thought I was going to turn into the Hulk, bust into first class, backhand the flight attendant, then stuff every single cookie into my mouth. 

With this experience fresh in my mind I wondered how much more it would cost to fly at least business class when we go to Scotland next year.  It costs 3 times as much! There is no way I'm paying that much extra money.  They would have to do a lot more than bake cookies for that to be worth it.

My new solution is making best friends with someone that works for an airline.  Then they can give me the hook-up and I can fly in freshly baked cookie bliss.  No shirt ripping or backhanding necessary.

Lucky Bastards

I'm convinced Australian school children are the luckiest kids around.  Besides getting to live in a beautiful place they are never in the classroom! 

Everywhere we went in Sydney there were kids on field trips running around.  I'm not exaggerating at all.  EVERY SINGLE PLACE!  They just muck about in their matching hats.  Tons of them all over. 

When I was in school fields trip were a rare thing, not the norm.  Lucky lucky bastards.