These are a few of my favorite things...

 My good looking man

New England fall (sorry I'm sure you're all sick of my pictures of leaves)

Fresh crisp apples

Bright fresh flowers from my beau 

Sassy red nails ; )

I would try and keep my blog real about how life is hard. But for the most part... it's pretty grand right now so I'm going to live it up until the tide turns!

A Little More Fall...

We saw a sweet old car driving down the road. It just looks to perfect in the New England fall setting don't you think?
I LOVE red trees : ) 
Dan picked me a flower, and we're really cute.
Cemeteries here have crypts and only standing up headstones, not our typical flat West Coast ones.  
We helped our friend Julie move this weekend and Dan proved himself to be an amazing car packer. He got it all in in one trip. That takes talent and I am glad I am marrying it! shoot dang!

So this weekend. 

Friday night Dan and I went out with some of girls that he was friends with in high school and they were a freakin' riot! We went down to Union Square area and we had dinner at this really nice restaurant and then we went and got dessert at this chocolate restaurant called something like the Bald Man's Chocolate place. Mom I will be bringing you here next time you come. You walk  in and the air is full of chocolate. The dessert menu alone is like 10 pages! and you can get regular food there too (i think with chocolate themes there as well). It was soooo good.

Saturday. We helped Ms. Julie Mack move. Dan showed his expertise in packing cars. I accompanied my friend Monica in carrying a huge box 10 blocks on a dolly. And Julie's only on the 2nd floor of a walk up (of which I was extremely grateful! :) That afternoon I met up with a friend from school and we worked on our project that is due on Tuesday. Very productive. I got cleaned up and headed out to CT. Dan picked me up with flowers and a card and we went to Boston Market (I had forgotten how much I loved it!) for a laid back hassle free anniversary celebration. Dan's happy he doesn't have to remember this date any more once we get married. Then we went back to his place and watched Star Wars Episode V because that's as about as romantic a movie as I can get him to watch! 

Sunday. Went to church with Dan's fam bam. Then we picked up Julie from the train station and away we went to explore the fall colors with her. Dan got a little lost, but it didn't really matter cause we wound up where we wanted to be and we got to see new places. It was a wonderful weekend. Now I am not looking forward to completing the presentation and starting the midterm paper that are both due Tuesday. Gross-o!

Newest Obsession

If any of y'all haven't heard of Ingrid Michaelson, I challenge you to turn your life around. I got to see her at a Hotel Cafe tour this last school year with Katie, Lauren and Rachel. She's just so great and normal. Her newest cd is called Be Okay and I adore it : ) I now have all 3 of her cd's and I can't get enough of her. Acoustic, folksy-ish without being annoying, fun beats, cute lyrics... quintessential walking through a wood with long princess hair, enjoying the birds and sunlight kind of music without the total commerciality (is that a words?). She has some real talent... listen to track 4 "The Chain" it is off the...chain? : )  I REALLY love her old albums Girls and Boys listen to track 1 "Die Alone" and Slow the Rain listen to track 5 "Morning Lullabies" and "Charlie" is about charlie brown and the little red headed girl=awesome!

Sorry for the rant but I love the muzack right now : ) 

St. Johns Cathedral

Looking down the nave (not totally sure this is the proper name or spelling...)
Candles (I just love these little physical reminders that someone is praying for you)
Very tall with lots of stained glass windows...
The stained glass was shining colors all over the place, it was really pretty
My moon, my man...dan (name that singer!)

So St. John the divine's cathedral is right down at Amsterdam and 110 while I live at Amsterdam and 119th. I had to visit of course. Dan I went yesterday after he was done with work and there was nobody there but us. I really like Cathedrals, I love the bigness and the architecture and the stained glass (I LOVE stained glass) They are really beautiful. 

The Reservoir

This is Dan's absolute favorite spot in Greenwich. It hold many fond memories for him with his hombres. We stopped by in our drivings to get some great shots... I bet they'd be even better if I had a digital SLR (hint hint : ) 

Save the Tata's

I just realized today that I get to be an aunt in 9 months. I'm pretty stoked about that cause I will have one cute little boy for a nephew!
Someday in the far far faaar away future this will be us... but in a really long time
Kate made the most awesome sign. It was quite popular with the ladies... and the babies?
um please excuse the stringy hair. It was really really windy but this is the only close up pic of us... and poor cold and tired Nicholas : (

Grandma Lovey and her Nichalou!

So today I once again ditched church BUT! it was for a good cause. Jan is a breast cancer survivor and she is awesome and (if I understood this right) she gets together a huge group for the walk for the Greenwich Hospital where she works in the breast cancer center... Anyways she's pretty awesome so we went to support her and I got to bond with the future fam bam. sweet rhino I say!

Friday Night

This pic is for my amiga Rachel. While in Spain Rachel realized that vegetables were not a strong part of a Spaniards diet, whereas for Rachel, it is her life force. We discovered these little vegetarian places all over Spain where you get a delicious pita pocket full of falafel and lettuce and fill it up at the vegetarian bar as many times as you'd like. They are really really good actually and I discovered one in Union Square so I made Dan go with me. He didn't like it as much, but I thought it was vonder-bar!
Dan and I also went to Barnes and Noble last night (we like to peruse book stores in our spare time). Here are my two new books. A wedding planning book : )!!!!! And an awesome book I can use for therapy with kids! It's about foster kids and adoptive kids and if I ever have clients in, you can bet your britches I'll be using this! 

Friday in NYC

It's a Friday night in New York City... I should be dying with so many options right? sigh... I can't figure out a thing to do... that doesn't cost a lot of money or involve alcohol...

My Sweet Sweet Julie Mack-a-doodle

This is my friend Julie Mack. I heart her, she is my wonderful Broadway friend in NYC. She is amazing and talented and someday she will be on Broadway and I will see her twice a week and never get bored with watching her awesomeness. This is us in my most harrowing NYC taxi experience thus far (I've only ridden in a taxi 4 times...)
We went to this funny burger dive in a fancy hotel that I can't quite remember the name of so won't put up here. Delish burgers though!
LOVE statue. These are fun. I kinda like these little reminders you find in random cities around the world about what life really should be about. (I am of course showing off my new bling : )
We walked past Radio City Music Hall which is just plain cool.
We got some sweet treats at Magnolia Bakery where their Banana pudding is to die for according to the sweet sweet Julie Mack. (I can't say either of my favorite Mack's first names without the accompanying last name cause it's awesome)

Yesterday on my day off Julie Mack and I went out and about. It was delightful! We got great food. We found cheap cute clothes (I got a whole new outfit appropriate for internship=hot dang sista!). And enjoyed good company. That night I met up with Dan and and a couple he's friends with (I guess it's my turn to set up the next double date). We got some Spanish grub (which wasn't so great but actually that is quintessential spanish style. All restaurant food is crap in Spain I discovered while living there and this was no different... huh). Then we went to a club and watched some of their high school friends perform. They were actually amazingly talented with multiple instruments each. Good times!

Now Politics... I hate them personally. 

I feel like a small conservative guppy in a sea of hungry piranha liberals and it drives me crazy sometimes! I feel like I can't express my opinion in any of my classes because the few people (well the one person, my friend Alex) who expresses a conservative view point is always round-aboutly attacked at some point in the conversation. I have never been able to understand this need many (not all) but MANY liberals have of attacking people and not allowing them to have their own opinion. 

I have strong opinions, nothing you say will really change them, no matter how long you argue with me and I hate arguing so I'll probably stop and nod my head nicely every few minutes so you feel like you're accomplishing something. I can see the point you're trying to make, I just have a different point of view! Now leave me alone and let me have my point of view without trying to tell me I'm a horrible intolerant person. Leave me alone with my own thoughts please!

Anyways... I feel better now : ) just needed to get that off the chest. Here's one little guppy swimming away yet again...

The Ring

Sigh... It's a round cut diamond with baguettes on the sides. It's modeled after the Tiffany's setting, and it's totally gorgey! : ) 
"Oh yes! I just got engaged! Would you like to admire my beautiful ring?"
Ah yeah suckas!
I do like him an awful lot.

The Engagement

The day started off being stuck behind a garbage truck assaulting our olfactory senses...
We surveyed the local beauty
We happily hiked, searching for a vista of the goodness of the earth
We reached that vista and Dan was so inspired by the beauty...
He proposed!!!!!

I am sure you all have heard the story, but here it is for posterity's sake : )

October 13, 2008

Dan and I have Columbus Day off (thanks Senor Columbus!) We make plans to go on a hike to experience the loveliness of New England's fall colors. Dan gets a suggestion of a nice short hike to a beautiful vista. We drive, we hike, we sit and eat. While eating lunch on the cute bench, swarms of people gather to also enjoy the beauty of the earth. Dan starts to wonder if we'll ever be alone and he'll get his chance! We finish lunch, I sweetly ask "Well what do you want to do now?" Dan replies, "Well umm... let's just sit for a while, no need to hurry right?" We sit, we wait, the people clear out. I look at Dan. His heart is pounding so hard I can see it through his shirt, and there is no color in his face whatsoever (poor thing). He starts his little spiel (you know, the one every guy says to butter you up and make you feel real good about yourself before they ask you to be tied to them for eternity : ) and mom keeps texting. I know he's trying to get some momentum going, and she must know what's going on... but here she is trying to act all non-chalant through text : ) (love you mama!). So I finally stop looking at the phone. Dan fumbles with his backpack trying to act like he's getting ready to start reading or something, and he pops down on that one knee and says lots of nice things (neither of us really remember what was said at that point much) and asks me to be his wife. I'm crying, nodding incessantly and love is every where! 

It was an unforgettable day : ) 

Pepsico Park Part 3

This was titled "Eve" and I absolutely loved it. So curvy and beautiful! 
Dan's favorite photo idea... such a boy : ) 
Trees...
Sunlight...
Goodbye for now! Stay tuned for another post after our Monday adventure. I think we're going on a hike or something fun cause it's Columbus day and we both of the day off. Thanks Mr. Columbus! 

Pepsico Park Part 2

Gorgeous ponds
RED leaves!!! 
So tender : ) 
Watch out!
We are lovers