Fun in the Big Apple

So I've been heading to NYC quite a bit in the last little while. Two weeks ago I met up with my Mom and her sisters for a couple days and two weeks before that my roommate and I spent a fun weekend there as well where in a chance of fate I got to see my Grandma, Aunt and cousin as well! So not only fun times in NYC, but fun FAMILY times!


Anyway, I haven't had any specific plans about what to do when there so it was fun to just play it by ear, which translated, usually means a lot of walking.


When I went with my roommate, our one main goal was to see a Show. I'd done my research before hand and our top choices were Wicked (which is sold out for the next trillion years), Mary Poppins, and Legally Blonde. Although Wicked is totally sold out, they do this cool lottery where 2 and a half hours before a show they have a drawing for 26 front row seats for only $26 a piece. If your name is drawn you can buy two tickets at that price. So of course we had to try both nights, but unfortunately we didn't get in... too bad, but luckily I saw Wicked on my first "real" trip to NYC (which should have been with my mom...). So, I'd found out about a discount code for Mary Poppins so we decided to try that out instead. We raced over to the theater and got great seats for only $45!! It was such a great show and so much fun! I highly recommend it to everyone. So that was the highlight of that trip, as well as having brunch with family of course. We ate again at V*ynl, the diner from the same "Wicked" trip. How fun to eat with family on the East Coast? I hadn't even known they were in NYC at the same time until the day we met up! It was so great to see them. Haven't uploaded those pictures yet, so I'll have to do that soon.


So two weeks later it was back to NY on the bus again, this time to see my Mom! Finally, Mom made it to NYC! I was so happy to be able to meet up with her and crash her sister-trip. My Mom and her sisters are such a hoot together, we had a ton of fun just laughing and seeing the city. The highlight for me of this trip was another chance to eat at Dinosaur BBQ, the delicious restaurant I visited on my first ever trip to the city. I'm glad that everyone else loved it as much as I did! So on to a few pictures!

With Mom and Aunt Paula around the NYU campus (my cousin Kelly went here).

Mom, Aunt Debbie and Aunt Paula on their way to see Wicked, while I headed back to Boston.

Me and Mom at lunch.

It was so much fun to be able to see family out here. I've been super homesick lately. Who'd have guessed I'd ever miss Utah and the West so much? So it was a much needed dose of family.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Halloween coverage. Coming soon, more updates on decorations and costumes!

Halloween in progress

Chemistry and Halloween.

That's what's been on my mind (if not always my life) for the past month or so now. And let me just say they are both pretty awesome. Well, Halloween is at least. Chemistry and I have more of a love/hate relationship. Who knows, it may swing either direction tonight depending on the grade I got on my test last week... *think good thoughts*.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the Chemistry, but get right into the good stuff. This year, Halloween is going to be awesome. Because my roommates and I have come up with the best "group costume" idea ever. I don't want to give too much away, cause it's kinda going to be a surprise, but I will have to give you something when I tell you what I've been up to.

I've been having a Halloween party pretty much since I turned 12 and my parents decided that was too old to go trick-or-treating anymore. Or was it 14? Can't remember. Anyway, except for a couple years at college and one where I was moving to Utah at the time, I've pretty much had an awesome party. Since moving to Boston I've had two, and I think they keep getting better. This year will surely be the best yet. We've got a whole theme going on.

Happily Never After

Yep, that's the theme. And it's gong to be awesome. If you can't tell from that what we're dressing up as, let me help you:

That's right, Disney Princesses. With a little bit of a twist. That's the part I'm not going to tell you, but I'm sure you'll put it together with the "theme". Anyway it's going to be awesome. We're turning the house into "The Haunted Enchanted Kingdom". Basically a Haunted Castle. I'm even mixing in touches from the movies... Take part of our centerpiece here:

See anything familiar? Like maybe a magic rose? Humm....

And here's a preview of the hall... ok just imagine it without the pretty flowers... those are coming down.

Here's a close up of the picture. I found this picture and printed it in segments, cut it up and pasted it together. Still to come is a spooky black frame around it.

These are the decorations on either side of the pic. I got these mini skulls at Wal-Mart for a buck each and made the little shelves from cardboard boxes (thanks USPS) and painted them black. Also still to come are more torches and brackets, black chandeliers (similar to these but way cheaper, since they too will be made of cardboard by me), a "drawbridge" (unfortunately non-functioning), a moat (aka fog machine outside near the bushes), tons of cobwebs, and lots of scary cheese cloth and white sheets on stuff. Oh, and a special treatment for the stairs that I won't give away quite yet. Let's just say, our house is going to be pretty spooky!

I can't wait! So much to do though before it's all done... I've taken on the responsibility of making all the princess costumes too. Huge list of to-do things for that. I'm pretty sure it will all get done though. I will be recruiting roommates to help with the rest of the decorating (although considering how anal retentive I am about things, I'm not sure how much of it they'll do).

So that added to Chemistry makes for a busy me! Man, there's a reason I only do parties once a year!

More pics to come so stay tuned!

Fairy Doors and Miscellany

Ok, so it's been a while, once again, but I promise, this time I'm turning over a new leaf... you know, since it's fall and they're all turning (ok, that was lame).

Anyway, I got some new apps for my phone which should make posing easier and therefore more frequent. Plus check out the cool pictures I can take with my phone now! I got a camera app that does really cool effects so you can bet I'll be using it more.

Speaking of cameras and pictures, I know I promised pics of my Utah trip, plus probably a ton of other stuff, but my camera is on the fritz unfortunately, plus I can't find my cable... so, my iPhone camera is my new best friend, but that means slightly crappier quality. I guess you can't win 'em all!

So the pic above is a little fairy door someone made, I mean the fairy's made on the Harvard campus near the music library. It makes me think of my mom and sis when I walk by.

I guess there's a word limit here so I'll do another post soon with actual info. TTFN!