¡Olé!

I'm off for a week to visit the Southwest.  I have a few goals in mind for this trip, as follows:

1. Come back to New York as Estefania.
2. Eat a taco every day
3. Go for at least 24 hours without turning my phone on or looking at the internet.
4. At least once in every day, wear a bathing suit.

The only pictures I took this weekend.

For the past few months, I have made a new tradition for myself.  Saturday = Diet Dr. Pepper at McDonalds.  Most of the time, I go with my friend who lives around the corner.  It is one of my favorite things now about the weekend.  You know that life is good when all you want on the weekend is some time at McDonalds.  I mean, really.

Saturday night, I went to a Great Gatsby party downtown.

My friend, Amber, whom I have been friends with for nearly 13 years - we figured out that we are 4th cousins due to a polygamist ancestor.  Enough of that nonsense.  Back to Gatsby.  Can we just discuss though for a moment how that book is terribly depressing?  Not a single character has integrity.  Lame.  But here I am looking like Daisy Buchanan on the subway.  She rode the subway when she wasn't living in her mansion out on Long Island.  We are obviously twins.  

Brodster!

I shall never tire of the views from this rooftop.  If we can't party at a mansion on Long Island, this is a close second in places I'd like to spend my evenings.

Extensions

I've been thinking lately that I should change the name of this blog: Weird Things that Happen to Me

I'm going to let you in on a little secret about me.  Parts of me are fake.  My face for example, is most reconstructed, as I'm sure I have discussed on here a few times.  Also, my almost blonde hair?  A little spray of hydrogen peroxide, a little sun, and boom.  Blonde-ish hair.

Also, I sometimes wear extensions.  Kristy taught me about them.  Here is a photo of me the first night I wore them.  They add length and thickness to my hair that is amazing.

I apparently also needed an intervention about my roots.  

I mostly just wear them to church because who can wake up earlier than necessary to put in extensions to impress people in the office?  Not this girl.

On Sunday at church I mentioned to my friend that I was wearing my fake hair and she then asked if she could see it.  I took out a single piece - they are just clip-ins - and showed her how to put it in her hair, etc.  Nothing too complicated and no one was around.  About 30 minutes later I was riding home on the subway with a few friends, a woman and a man.  It should be noted that the man is single, and so he knows very little about women's beauty products.  My lady friend said to me - why is your hair so long on this side - and pulled an entire clip of hair off my arm while our male friend looked on in horror.  No big deal - just lost a huge chunk of my hair.

I just laughed and shoved it in my bag.  

Cover=blown

PS - If you want more information about my extensions, let me know.  I am happy to pass along useful information.  I'm wearing them in only one of the photos below.  Any guesses on which one?  

Funny in retrospect...

A few months ago I had a friend ask if I wanted to sign up to run a 10k in April.  Since I'm supposed to be signing up for the New York Marathon in a few weeks, I figured that a 10k would be good for me so that I'd actually get out of the house in the cold and start running again.  I have been running off and on with a friend in the morning so although I wasn't super prepared for the race, you know how this goes: if I am untrained for a race, I do well.  Thanks again, body.

Friday night was a late one and it wasn't even for some great gossipy reason, so we won't even discuss that. All you need to know is that I was up really late.  As in, I got 3 hours of sleep, maybe.  My alarm went off all too soon and I quickly found myself throwing on running clothes and running out the door to meet up with friends.  I was feeling good the first part of the race and pacing myself well.  As we were pushing up the second large hill at the top of the park, I knew that something was wrong.  Really wrong. You runners out there know what I am talking about.  And as is always convenient in a large race, there was a photographer. Exhibit A:

I walked with this look on my face a ways until I found a porta-potty and waited in line for about 5 minutes and the lady before me came out and said - just so you know, I used the last of the toilet paper.  Disaster.  I almost cried.  I moved on in pursuit of another toilet.  About a half a mile later, I came to a water station and miracle of miracles, my visiting teacher was there getting some water.  I told her my dilemma and she ran ahead, talked to a hot dog stand vendor and came back with some napkins.  She looked at me in an all seriousness said - "There is a dumpster over there.  Do you want to go behind it and have me guard you so you can do your business?"  Please pause for a moment and think about what just happened.  My friend just volunteered to stand guard while I went to the bathroom in the woods in Central Park.  I didn't do it.  I have standards, people.  We asked a volunteer where the next toilet was and she reminded me that the boathouse was just down at the bottom of the hill.  

Fast-forward about 15 minutes and I was running the last mile of the race and this was the look on my face as I was about to cross the finish line.  

You are welcome.

Because I always blog about it...

For the first time since I moved to New York (shocking, really) I saw Brandi Carlile last Friday at the Beacon Theater. She was amazing, per the usual.  At this point I feel like I know too much about it and it freaks me out a little.  Like maybe I know more facts about her than the friend I went with.  Weird.  

In semi-related news, the band that opened for her: The Lone Bellow was amazing and I have been listening to them non-stop since Friday.

In Which My Pinterest Party Dreams Come True

This weekend was one of the busiest I have had in recent memory.  Also, the best.  I love St. Patrick's Day. I think it is the best & most ridiculous holiday that we celebrate (as a world?).  Since I am 1% Irish, I must celebrate appropriately by dressing like a leprechaun, as follows:

Thanks for the boots, Shayla!

Then you will eat corned beef because it is a dessert meat, i.e., delicious.  Instead of making cabbage that no one wants to eat, we made kale chips and they were delicious. I love corned beef with all of my heart.

 I'm not yet ready to talk about how much time the rainbow took me to make.  I might have to reuse it for Easter. ...and all of the spring months.

Before the guests arrived at the party, Micah requested a piece of the rainbow cake that I slaved over all day on Saturday.  I obliged as long as there was a photo.  Take 1 was of us cutting the cake together while very lovingly holding the knife.  What a sport.  Also, we sometimes dress alike.

Ta-DAAA.  Rainbow! {insert jazz hands}

 {insert jazz hands again}

Rainbow Jell-Oooooohhhhh

And then I dyed all of the drinks green.  

Mila & Ethan came to the party all decked out.  Mila spoke right before me in church a few weeks ago so now obviously we are BFF.

Mila made a leprechaun trap and it was amazing.  Inside, rainbows galore.  The fact that she made this cake made my heart so happy.  

 The spread: 

{the apple rings were devoured before any guests arrived and those things that look like peas are really just green sixlets}

Jason & Court

Jane, klr, Megan & Nate

Lisa & Mark

Lisa & Brody

Emily, Lauri, Mila, Hailey, Ethan

Me and Micah {non-ridiculous pose}

Robert tasting the rainbow. 

 

Only the finest jewels for our guests...

Miscellaneous St. Patrick's Day attire

My attempt at making the friend wall look festive.  I say half a success.

Previous St. Patrick's Day Celebrations here:

{2009, 2010, 2011, 2013}

Also, thanks, Pinterest!

Like a voice rising from the dust.

This is no update unless you'd like for me to update you on all the television shows I've been watching.  I'm really liking my job these days and feel really lucky to still be in New York, even if it snowed last week and has been raining the past few days.  I am willing Spring here.

I almost wrote a post a month or so ago that would have been titled "How I broke up with 2 men in a week without dating them at the same time" or its alternate title "We argued about Noah's Ark: An essay on why I'm still single."  Luckily I didn't ever hit "post" and I just let the winter weather keep me tucked away until I was ready to move on.  I'm not depressed at all about it, but I've just needed some time to not think too much and not be too social.  A few years ago I had plans every weekend and was always on the go.  Right now I have zero plane tickets with my name on them and for the time being, that feels just right.

Since you are curious about what I've been up to, here are some pics to prove that I am indeed not writing this from the grave.

I have been visiting museums like it is 1999.

Museum of Mathematics

 {with Micah of course}.  I figured that if I didn't go with him, who would explain to me how these trikes really worked.

Mount Vernon Hotel & Museum  

Nothing fancy happened at this location, but I did learn about day hotels and that they existed in the countryside of New York (east 63rd street)

The Met.  

{aka my favorite place in NYC}

The MoMA.  Took myself there on a hot date last Friday.

 Museum of the City of New York

Fraunces Tavern & Museum to celebrate President's Day with my patriotic friends Alicia & Rob

Other random things that I've been doing include, but are not limited to:

Man Pageants

Watching Xanadu for the first time.  Whaaatttt?

Watching The Music Man with my roommate, who had never seen it before.  Whaaatttt?

{Shipoopee}

My friend's cat had kittens, so I go over to play with them sometimes. I lurve them.

My other friends had a baby and I got to snuggle with her for hours while they went to get something to eat with friends.  Cutest.  Also, we were twins that night.

One of my coworkers resigned so we went to Lure for dinner one night.  Holy yum.   Also, holy cat eyes.

Things that I've done lately and not taken pictures of:

• Attended the Banff Film Festival here in New York.  Amazing.
• The musical number at church last Sunday.
• In case you weren't sure if I'd do anything to impress a man, yes, I would go see Newsies for a third time with a cute new guy that I met last weekend and conned into hanging out with me.
• Attended the Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall.  My favorite act was for sure, this.
• Watched the Oscars
• Visited the Frick Collection.  Holy cow, Batman.  Get there if you haven't been.  How have I missed this for over 2 years??

Current Obsessions

This year I've started out with a highly unusual trend.  I haven't read a single piece of fiction thus far.  I'm not sure why I haven't ventured far into the world of nonfiction before.  I was an English Literature major in college, so Victorian novels have always appealed to me much more.  This trend started with book club in January when the suggested book for February was Nothing to Envy, which is a book about people who have escaped (and survived) from North Korea.

This may come across the wrong way, but when I was 22, I was filling out mission papers and trying to decide what to do with my life.  I had this overwhelming fear that I would get sent to Korea if I went.  I also decided that I would be angry if I wasn't sent to a Spanish speaking country due to my family's background.  So I moved to San Francisco and threw away the papers and never learned Korean or Spanish.  The whole point of this tangent is to say that I used to be afraid of Asia in general and their food and this book only confirmed my fears.  People.  North Korea is scary and their food is non-existent.  I couldn't put the book down.  Being able to read about a country that is so closed from people who grew up there is pretty awesome.  If you have any interest in North Korea, check out this book.

The week I finished the North Korea book, I was pretty sick and stayed home for 3 days from work.  To pass the time I ended up watching the first two seasons of Sisterwives on TLC.  Watching a family with a culture so similar to my own was very eerie and kind of freaked me out.  Later in the week I had some friends over to watch a movie and I fessed up to watching this ridiculous polygamist show.  Turns out my friends were fairly knowledgeable about the subject and thus we started an underground Polygamist Book Club.  So I read 2 books on the subject: Stolen Innocence and Love Times Three.  For almost a week straight I had dreams that I was a polygamist.  Remember that time that I was a polygamist? 

I am definitely ready for a break from stories involving people being trapped by a culture that involves abuse.  Sheesh.

And in case you want to know more about either of these things, here are some videos that I have watched more than once now.

• Inside North Korea part 1, 2, and 3
• A guy who was born in a labor camp in North Korea
• Did you know that there is a polygamist sect in Bountiful, British Columbia?
• Some very attractive polygamists

The devil's twins:

2012 Christmas & Holiday Recap

Who even reads this thing anymore to care that I'm a month late on Christmas photos?  I sent out over a hundred Christmas cards this year so if you are reading this, the likelihood that you also received a postcard with the below photo on it is quite high.  Many thanks to Scott, Liz, and Andrea for their help with this.  Seriously.  You guys = the best.

I spent quite a long time in Utah this year for the holidays since my new office is closed for the week between  Christmas and New Years AND someone asked me to stay a little longer for New Years.  It turned out differently than expected, but these kids were as cute as always.  

Christmas Pajamas 2012 - they were all clothed in sea life. You can't see it from the photo, but Sophie's pj's have whales on them.

Not twins - but they sure look like it.  Daniel was sick, hence the mask.

My mom framed pieces of LeOra's tatting for us for Christmas - each of the granddaughters got one of them.  Here is my sister with hers.

Daniel snuggled with me all morning on that couch.  He is the most snuggly.

Hannah got a new doll from my parents...and it is from Spain.  If you ask me, it looks like it is from the Dominican Republic.

Me and Soph.  Soon I will have to bribe her with candy to get her in a photo with me.

Daniel subsequently got in trouble after this photo was taken.  Never fear - he ate the olives.

Be still, my heart!

I wanted to get my hair done for a date while I was home, and Hannah hadn't washed her hair in who knows how long, so I took her with me to get a blow-out.  Aunt of the year!  I am now taking applications for nieces.

After!

And just because he is so darn cute!

Lest we forget Sam who eats cereal with fruit punch due to his weird food allergies.

And Will who has always been my guy.

And Riley who had this clock set and working within 2 minutes of opening it.

I was able to see lots of friends while I was home as well.  Somehow I spent most of every day (for about 5 days) with Rachael and we never got a pic.  (Only etched on my heart!)  Here are some pics of the people that I saw and got a photo with.  Many friends are not pictured.  Boo on that.  Uzi? Kristine?  All you other people? Jane? Sarah? Alicia? Karli? Liz? Why must I be so horrible at taking pics!??

Kim & I's yearly photo.  Some day I will put all 20 years of photos together...

I had dinner with Shelley & Kim 

I played cards with Brent

I lunched with Kirsten (and her peanut)

I hung out with Scott again.  I think that I saw him 3 times in the month of December; a personal record.  Also, Happy Birthday, Scott!

For New Years, I had plans with this guy.  Get excited. (not really)

We skied at Alta for the annual Torch Parade and it was actually really awesome.  Here are some photos that I stole from Instagram since my camera froze to death and the battery died on me:

So yeah - The fireworks going off a few feet away from us while we were on the lift, awesome.  Someone handing me a real live torch to ski down a mountain with, not awesome. Everything else about the Torch Parade, awesome.   Fighting over Noah's Ark in Cafe Rio afterward, not awesome.  Going to his friend's house for a party and playing reverse charades and having him kiss me in front of his friends at midnight, awesome.  Him taking me home early so he could go make out with someone else, not awesome.  

Cheers to 2013.