Week 1

I seriously don't think I have enjoyed vacation from school so much in my life.  This has been a fantastic 1st week off.

When we moved into this apartment, it was in the middle of a school term.  It's a wonder that we actually got in and got all the furniture squared away and got the apartment to a livable state under those circumstances.  When I got my first break, we spent pretty much the whole time partying in upstate New York, so the apartment wasn't really a priority.  Needless to say that it hadn't been cleaned since we moved here.  I don't mean cleaned like vacuumed and dusted and all that.  I've done that stuff multiple times.  I mean CLEANED- the kind where you wash all the windows and clean the bugs out of the light fixtures, and scrub the baseboards, and finally get around to cleaning out under the radiators, which I imagine haven't been cleaned under in several decades.  I know that's maybe not the way everyone might enjoy spending a break, but I have been absolutely longing to do these things so I got to work and, over the course of several days, I got it all done.  I take that back- I haven't deep cleaned the bathroom yet, but that is the one room that has already been deep cleaned since we moved in because it is the bathroom, and I couldn't bear to wait on a room like that.  I'll do it this week, but it seemed to be the bottom of the priority list since it has been cleaned really well before.  I did clean the bugs out of the light fixtures in there, which is very pleasing to me as they had been bugging (ha ha) me for months.  I even scrubbed my wood floors with a delicious smelling soap recommended by Zack's mom.  I had a blast.  I moved around all the furniture to make sure that even under the bed and the couch and so forth would be spick and span.  I took Lysol to the entire kitchen, cupboards included.  Mmmm, I love the smell of clean.  Basically, I just had fun. I think pretty much anyone, including those who have been here before, would walk in and notice little/no difference, but I know, and I am one happy camper about it. This week, I also went to lunch with some darling ward girls at Reading (pronounced Red-ing) Terminal Market (think National Treasure- the part where the woman ducks behind the counter of a little meat shop to hide from the scary bald man that's chasing her).  We went to a Phillies game with our friends newly returned from a 6 week tromp through Argentina and Brazil.  And then, of course, there was our weekend trip to NEW YORK!

We left Friday and took the bus to New York City, which is about a 2 hour ride.  It turned out to be a rainy day in New York, but we made the best of it and saw the sites anyway.  Friday, we mostly explored uptown.  We saw Grant's Tomb, went past about a million really really ritzy apartment buildings, and decided that we must return another time to go the the Met.  We beat around Times Square for a while in the evening, and had some dinner, and then we went to Wicked!  One day, several months ago, out of the blue, I just decided that I had to see it.  I don't know where that came from, but it came, so I read the book, and I bought the music (I wanna say CD but I just bought it on itunes), and I was all about it.  For a while, it looked like there was just no chance because, let's face it, it's just not cheap to go see it, and we are poor, but I eventually found sorta decently priced tickets (still expensive, but about as good as it gets) online, so we splurged and bought them, and Friday night, we finally saw it.  Woo hoo!  Loved it.  Very well done.  Happy ending (very unlike the book).

Saturday was also just amazing, except without the rain.  We started out in Times Square again and made our way downtown to City Hall, world trade center site, and, of course, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Due to lack of time, we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we would've liked on Ellis Island, but still enjoyed it thoroughly.  Next we explored Brooklyn (love it!  I would consider living in Brooklyn... Manhattan, not so much).  After Brooklyn, we took a little cruise out on the water where we saw this "art" display that is currently taking place called the NY Waterfalls- it was basically just 4 huge scaffold looking structures in various locations that pumped out water- not horribly exciting, but we enjoyed the rest of the cruise, with fabulous views of the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey skylines.  We wrapped up our evening with a nighttime tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and, at 11 PM, we hopped a bus back to our dear Philly.  I have to say that it was about the best birthday I have ever had.  No presents to unwrap, no cake to eat, but that's ok, because who wouldn't trade that for a fabulous NY trip, broadway play included.  I was exhausted when I got up this morning but 1 ridiculously long nap later, I am wide awake, and I am one happy girl.  We had one of our fun married couples dinners tonight with the peeps, and I have another week off sitting gloriously in front of me.  Sheer bliss.

Pictures to come a little later.  I am too lazy this second.