Oh finals week....

I am actually ready for my final and have a few hours to kill. So......

Tagged! Rules are: Anything you have done has to be in bold. How much have you done?

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Been to the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on a train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Tied a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone's life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Visited Italy

Fall!!

Wow! It has been a while since I've posted.  Life has been good!! Super busy but still good.  Here are a few updates from what I've been up to the past month...

For Halloween we met some friends up in SLC and went to dinner and a movie. I am not a Halloween lover...actually, I have been called a Halloween grinch.  Corn mazes-lame. Dressing up-hate it. So we kept Halloween pretty low key. This is me, Blake, and Tawni at dinner.  Note: Spaghetti Mamma's-not the best choice for Italian food...

We went to the Joshua Radin concert at In the Venue.  I love LOVE Joshua Radin!! He seriously is so amazing! If you haven't heard his music you should check it out here or here.  You will love him too! Best part of the concert....we got to meet him!!!

We went on a drive to look at the fall foliage.  Unfortunately, we went just a little bit too late and missed all of the fantastic colors and caught just the yellow leaves.  My last fall in Utah...weird...

We had a fall pumpkin carving party.  I remembered that I like to clean out the pumpkin more than I like the actual carving...

I also decided to take a pre-thanksgiving break break and go to California for the weekend. Pictures and details to follow!

Starting from scratch all over again...

Once upon a time I decided that it would be a great idea to run a half marathon.  Me and Morgan went down to St. George with Tawni because she was running a half down there.  We stood at the finish line, watching people come in waiting for Tawni.  Turns out we missed her by like 2 minutes, but we did get to see all kinds of other people coming in.  We kept saying to ourselves...That person ran a half?!? If they can do it, so can we! That 80 year old man ran the half?!? We totally can do it! So I was inspired.  With the encouragement of my roommates I signed up and trained for the Salt Lake Half Marathon.  April 19th was the big day and I actually survived.  I'm just about the slowest runner ever, but I accomplished my 3 goals: don't stop/sit, no crying, and finish the race in one piece.  It was such a great feeling to know that I had just run 13.1 miles!! 

Then finals came. And a trip to Mexico. A trip to London. A summer in NYC. None of which involved any running. 

Now I find myself back in Provo. Back to the routine of school, work, homework, etc. And back to running.  Taking 4 months off from running was probably not the best idea.   I've decided to run the painter's half in St George in January. This week marks the first week in my training schedule.  Sometimes I can't believe that I actually ran 13 miles, all at once.  It feels like I'm starting from scratch all over again...

Quirks

Thanks Caroline!

Here are the rules: Link to the person that tagged you. Mention these rules on your blog. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yourself and tag 6 fellow bloggers!

1- If I eat something like skittles or fruit snacks, there has to be the same amount of each color.  If there is extra of one color, I'll eat the extras until all colors have the same number.  Then I eat them in order from least favorite color to most favorite.

2-I am terrified of being pushed into my trunk while reaching into it.  I don't know where on earth this fear came from, but I think about it every time I reach into my trunk.

3-I collect cookbooks from places I travel. These days I don't cook much, but I have shelves upon shelves of cookbooks just waiting to be used!

4-I love to re-read books.  Sometimes once just isn't enough. 

5-I am terrible with names, but remember birthdays.  When I meet someone, I usually have to ask their name 3 or 4 times before it sticks (terrible I know, I'm working on it) but for some reason birthdays stick.

6-I have an aversion to feet, especially socky feet.  Feet in shoes, ok. Bare feet, if they are newly washed and aren't near my face, bearable. Sock clad feet, yuck.

I tag Lara, Steph, Melissa, Lisa, Laura, and Morgan!

Love, Love

Fell in love with this shoe today!! Ruffles-so fun. Red! So fun! Love it.

The promised pictures

Alright...I really struggle with this picture posting business.  They go from most recent to least recent...enjoy!

Me, Laura, and Camilla-eating some fabulous funnel cake and fried snickers! Yum!

I am a hard core football fan now! Between the 3 home games so far this season, I've seen at 3 three quarters...ha ha ha

This is me and Laura by our front door on the first day of school!! My last first day of school picture!

Us at the temple for Allison's wedding! She was such a beautiful bride!

Kiersten, Allison, and me at Allison's wedding dinner!! It's been over 2 years since we've all been together!

My favorite part of our trip was the whale watching trip we went on in Cape Cod.  It was so amazing to be able to see those beautiful animals!

On our New England road trip we took a trip to Martha's Vineyard and rented bikes!! I fell in love with the house behind me!! I decided that I could totally be an east coast girl!

I got to play tour guide and show some friends around the fabulous city!! This is us on our circle line boat tour around the island.

A bunch of us girls at dinner at this fantastic Mexican restaurant, Iguana, in Midtown.  These girls were crazy but so fun!!

This is me with two of the other interns, Jordana and Bobby.  We all sat together in a little conference room and had way too much fun!

Ending a month of silence

I decided that it was about time to end my "month of silence." It wasn't an intentional silence...I am just a slacker and haven't posted for a while.  So what have I done in this past month you ask?

• I finished my internship with Deloitte in NYC.  I had a fantastic time and was so sad to leave!! The good news: I got an offer and will be returning in either June or August (keeping my fingers crossed for August) of 2009!!
• I traveled the east coast! I spent a week and a half on a great east coast road trip with some friends.  We went to Rhode Island, Cape Cod, Boston and Maine!! I had no idea the east coast was so green and beautiful.  I think the trip confirmed that I am an east coast girl!!
• I went to the wedding of my dear, dear friend Allison.  We have been best friends since we were 10 years old and she's like a sister to me!! It was so great to share her special day with her and to see her to happy and in love!!
• I spent some quality relaxation time at home.  I got a manicure and pedicure, caught up on all my fave TV shows, and reconnected with my domestic diva.  Thankfully after not cooking most of the summer, I still remember how to do it! I made an amazing lemon merangue pie and also tried a new recipe: mango sticky rice!
• I returned to Provo for my last year at BYU!! My last first day of school...
• I have become a hard-core BYU football fan. Ok. No not really. But I did decide that since it's my last year here, maybe I should try to have some school spirit and actually go to the football games.  I'm making good progress...I saw at least 30 min of the first game and stayed for 2 quarters of this weekend's game!! Perhaps by the end of the season I'll have actually seen an entire game...but then again, probably not. 
• I went to the Utah State Fair.  Quite the experience...large farm animals, more fried food than you can imagine, and great people watching...what more could you ask for?

It's been a great month that has brought a LOT of changes!! Now it's back to the daily grind of life as a student...8 months and counting.

ps-I tried to upload pictures but it wasn't working....I'll try again tomorrow...

5 more days

So I haven't been the best at keeping up on my blog! I will try to post some pictures from the summer soon!! I have only 5 more days here in the city. Sad.

Connecticut?!?

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I have been assigned to a new client at work! Hooray for hopefully actually doing some work, rather than sitting around all day!! But that's not the interesting part. The client I have been assigned to is located in Middlebury, CT. I am in New York City and lucky me-I get to drive to Connecticut tomorrow!!! Middlebury is in the middle of nowhere Connecticut. According to Google maps it's only 90 miles away, but it can take up to 2.5 hours to get there, depending on traffic. It has been about two months since I have driven. But that's driving in Utah. I have never driven in any big city before...and lets be honest, I really am not the best driver out there. This being said...getting to work tomorrow should be interesting...wish me luck!

Today...

Today was a good day! I was busy at work-I think yesterday and today are the first days that I have actually had work to do all day long! And today I even got to do work somewhat related to taxes! Perhaps all of those hours spent studying will actually pay off...perhaps not. Walking home from work I was stopped and asked for directions, which I could actually give! Hooray for not being completely lost in the city anymore!! I went and saw Wall-E tonight. Some people we went with absolutely hated it but I thought it was really cute!! I don't know if I could watch it over and over again, but it definitely made me laugh and kept me entertained. All in all it was a good day!

So it took about 3 weeks, but I love New York!! The first couple of weeks were super hard-adjusting to not knowing anyone anywhere I went, not knowing how to get anywhere, being in a place 100% unfamiliar. But then one day as I was coming out of the subway on my way home from work I thought to myself "I love being here!" After three weeks of being here, I could finally truthfully say that I love New York! I love being in a big city where you can find anything and everything you could ever want! I love the fact that there are so many different people here, from all over the world. I love the fact that I can walk to work in 10 minutes and that I haven't had to drive in over a month! I love working and living in the city!

Of course there are things I don't love: being so far from my family and friends, the gross subways when it rains (which is does A LOT here), the fact that there seems to be no swimming pools in the entire city (an essential for summer that I'm learning to do without), and fantastic Utah summer nights, just to name a few. But I guess you can't have everything...

Last weekend was a good one. Friday night we went to Battery Park to watch a production of Macbeth. It was really fun! They acted it out around the entire park, so they'd do one scene and when they changed locations in the play, the company would move to a different location in the park, kind of like an interactive play. It was a good time. Saturday we wanted to go to the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Apparently they view up there is really cool, and there's a fun exhibit going on right now. Unfortunately when we got there the roof was closed (because of rain...once again, who knew it rained so much here...) so we couldn't see the exhibit. Instead we took a quick trip around the museum. That place is amazing!! I could spend days wandering around! I definitely will need to go back and spend more time there. Sunday I met up with some dear family friends and caught up with them over dinner. It's always fun to see people from home here in the city!

This week is going to be a great one! We have a 3 day week and get paid holidays both Thursday and Friday!! And-my family is coming to visit!!! Yay!!!

Happy Friday the 13th

My Friday started out with me getting lost on the subway trying to find the bank. Normally I have a very good sense of direction. I never get lost at home (like seriously never). I cannot find anything in this city without a map and explicit directions on how to get there. And every corner, every street looks exactly the same-large office buildings with a Duane Reede somewhere nearby. So I hopstopped the bank and got directions on how to get there. I figured if I was the first one in the door at nine I could still make it to work and not be super late. I went to the station to find the right train. Turns out hopstop is wrong and the train I need doesn't come to that station. I look at the map and find another train that is going to the same place and hop on that train.

Lucky me-the train I get on is an express train and I need the local stop. Unfortunately, I realize this as we are speeding past the station I needed to get off at! I get off at the next stop and by this time, there is no way I can get to the bank and get to work ontime-so I just gave up on the bank. I look at a map and find a train that goes somewhat close to where I work so I go to wait for the B train. Several D trains pass by and 20 minutes later the B train is nowhere to be seen. I was hating the dumb subways by then and missing the days when I could get in my car and drive myself to work in 10 minutes. I finally decided to take a different train (which actually had a stop closer to where I work) and of course as soon as I decide to take that one, like 3 B trains come by. Finally, after I had been waiting for a total of about 30 minutes, the train I needed came and I managed to make it to work...


I had grand plans for Friday night. It was my cousin Leon's birthday and my aunt was doing a dinner for him with all of our family that I still haven't seen since I've been here. I was excited to see the fam and just relax for a bit. Around 2 pm our manager comes in with an enormous project that has to be done by tonight, and oh yeah, we have to go downtown to the office down there to finish it. I figured we'd finish by 7ish and I would still be able to make it out to Queens for the dinner. Oh wait. No. I was at work-babysitting the copy machine-until 10:30! By the time I got home I was so exhausted that I didn't want to do anything. So I called it a night and went to bed. Happy Friday the 13th.


On a good note, Friday was payday!!! Hooray for a well-paying internship, even if they are paying me to babysit the copier.

One way ticket to the Big City!

So it's official. After a quick trip home for the wedding of a dear friend, I am back in New York for good (for good for the summer...). I bought a one way ticket and brought out the rest of my belongings and am here until sometime still to be determined in August. It is still crazy to me that I am actually here and it is a bit more of a shock than I thought it would be. I have never lived somewhere where I literally don't know a single soul and it is quite the adventure. I'm excited to be here and excited to explore the city and make it home!!

Tagged by Jessica...

How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog.List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts.Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here it is...

JOYS:

01. Traveling!!

02. Being with my friends and family

03. Naps in the sun!!

FEARS:

01. Birds-they terrify me

02. Feet

03. Spiders

GOALS:

01. Live overseas at some point in life

02. Better my half-marathon time

03. Finish the quilt I started sewing last year

CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:

01. Planning fantastic trips

02. Reading the Phillipa Gregory series about Henry VIII

03. Taking pictures

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS:

01. Mint brownies are my weakness

02. I am a fantastic golfer...

03. I love dogs and want a little purse dog!

I tag Laura, Morgan, Melissa, Kerry, and Steph!

Some pictures from the past week and a half

These are just a few pictures from the many I've taken...

Boats on the Cam (the river at Cambridge). We took an hour long boat ride down the river, it was such a fun ride!

Jason and I in the famous red London phone booths in Cambridge.

Me, Jeff, and Ben experiencing the traditional english fish and chips at a pub in downtown London.


View of Big Ben and the Parliament building from the London Eye.

Not so good...

So obviously I'm not so good at updating this thing...I am still in London and absolutely loving it!! There is so much to see and do here I feel like I need 2 more months instead of only 2 more days! This past week and a half has been fantastic. We have seen and done so much!!! I have seen 5 shows (Sound of Music, Blood Brothers, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked), gone to two fantastic museums, shopped (of course), and walked all over London.

Today a group of us decided to take a break from the busy city and go out to the castle at Dover and the great white cliffs near the English Channel. We took a two hour train ride south of London and walked through a cute little city up to the castle. The view from the castle was incredible!! The English countryside is so pretty and green. It's just like you see in pictures-huge, rolling green hills dotted with sheet and cute little English towns. We walked around the castle for a bit and then headed out to the cliffs. When we first got to Dover the weather was terrible. It was misting rain and super windy (and of course I had neither a jacket nor an umbrella...). But luckily by the time we were ready to go explore the cliffs it had cleared up and turned out to be a really nice day. We explored the cliffs for a few hours, hiking and climbing, and sliding around. They were amazing...it looked like a scene from the Sound of Music or Heidi. After we had had our fill of the cliffs, we went back to the town, had dinner, and got back on the train to get back to London. It was a great day trip!!

We only have 2 full days left and so much still do to....visit the cousins, go to tea time, more shopping of course, visit the Tate Modern, see the city lights at night...and countless other things. Two more days to go...

In London!!!

I am in London!!! So far it has been fantastic!! The first day I was here I went on the London Eye, went to an amazing Egyptian exhibit, and went and saw The Sound of Music which was wonderful!!! I have never seen the movie all the way through so it was fun to see a live production and see what happens!! I will post pictures soon when I have more time on the internet!

Packing light + Erin = Not Going To Happen

So all my attemps at packing light have failed. I planned on taking only one suitcase to London, the lighter the better. Today while packing, it became painfully obvious that everything I wanted to bring, everything I needed, was not going to fit into just one suitcase. Alas, I caved and am taking two suitcases to London. With the help of my wonderful mother, I managed to pack everything (more like she managed to pack everything, I was "supervising") and am pretty much ready to leave!! I can't believe it's time to go already!! I am super excited for all of the adventures awaiting me in LONDON!!!!

I hate packing

I hate packing. Hate it! How on earth are you supposed to fit everything you need for 2 weeks (or 2.5 months) in one small 50 pound suitcase?!? I'm strongly considering taking only a carry-on and buying a two week wardrobe when I get there...

My first entry

So I have decided to start blogging so I can keep in touch with everyone!! We'll see how this whole blogging thing works out...I'm not exactly the most computer literate person in the world so hopefully I can figure out how to use this. More exciting posts to follow!