Yesterday was probably the best NYC experience I have had yet, though I am in extreme pain from walking at least 50 blocks exploring.  This was our celebration for Jay's birthday, his graduation, and Christmas, all happening within two weeks so it had to be fun.  And damn, those were good times.  I don't know if any of you have been here before, but there are these waterfalls in NY hidden in between buildings meant to block out the loud city noises. I looove it.  I think it's such a good idea.  So we had lunch next to our first discovery.

Then we checked out the tree and watched people fall all over the ice and started heading down to the Village.  By the time we got to 30th Street, our feet were in major pain, so we stopped in this cute little cafe for coffee and brownies.  Realizing we were within three blocks of the Museum of Sex, we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  It was a bit awkward to say the least, but it was definitely worth the stop.  People would walk out of rooms saying, "Wow, I need to shower now."  I never realized how many different types of porn there were.  Anime, robots, animals, dominatrix...the list goes on.  Hahaha.

Having had our fill of disturbing adventures, we moved on to Max Brenner's.  Ohhhh my god.  This was my dream come true...a restaurant based on chocolate.  Wooow.  My heart almost stopped.  We got chocolate martinis, smores fondue with chocolate, peanut butter, bananas foster, and raspberry dipping sauces for our roasted marshmallows.  Best...experience...of my life.  Then we had this jar with cream, oreos, and peanut butter with some chocolate crunchies to go with our tea/coffee.  Even I have never had so much chocolate.  We checked out some of the kooky novelty shops and moved on to Stomp.  If you haven't seen Stomp yet, I highly recommend it.  They are so creative with their shows and really get the audience involved with clapping different beats.  I am a huge step dancing fan, so this was awesome for me, and Jay definitely had a good time too.  Even though Goliath was in front of us, we were fortunate enough to be able to prop up our seats since we were in the last row.  It was a perfect view. 

After the amazing show, we needed to drink away some of the pain from walking so we got some drinks at the pub across the street.  We did some research on the internet for hidden stuff in NY.  Did you know there are speakeasies that you have to go through all these secretive things to get  into?  Like some of them, you have to find a password and text it to the secret phone number to get into this basement speakeasy.  I was so interested in this idea that we just HAD to try.  So there's this place in the East Village called Crif Dogs, a hot dog place that is actually a speakeasy called PDT (Please Don't Tell).  You go down into the hot dog shop and on the left there is a telephone booth.  You pick up the phone, push a button and the back wall slides open to reveal a little bar.  Unfortunately there were no open tables, but it was exciting nonetheless. 

Then we walked around the block to get THE BEST PIZZA EVER at Mamani for 99 cents a slice.  Wooow, I think I would seriously go out of my way to have that pizza again.  So fucking delicious.  151 Avenue A, if anyone is interested.

Amaaaazing day.  Now lots of sitting for the rest of the week.

Blarney, Blarney, Blarney...

It was about this time last year that I went to Ireland, and I am reaaally feeling nostalgic about it.  The weather is the same, kind of cold but not enough to need to bundle up too much, we've been getting Christmas cards from relatives over there, and I found the CD I bought when I was in a Dublin pub.    Christmas at my Uncle Aubrey's and Aunt Mary's was such a good time, getting drunk every night, dancing all over the room to old music, sitting in their cozy little living room.  I want to go again now!  Anyone want to go to a pub in NY with me?  With live music?  And drinks??  I need it!

Especially since I'm done with the worries of getting into grad school, I really want to start socializing more, or at least doing something fun outside of the house.  As much as I love playing with the kids, I need to get out sometimes!  Even when I talk to Kristine, about 90% of the time it's talking about the kids.  I have to take a break from talking to or about children.  I didn't have enough money before, since stupid Lisa and Kyu live in NY and everyone else is like a 2-hour drive away, but I think I can spare a bit every once in a while now.  I'll just eat PB&J like the old times.  So hang out with meeee...please?

I'm officially accepted into Rutgers Business School!

After painfully sitting through hours of studying for the GMAT, then being forced to completely harass the hell out of the disorganized teacher I had do one of my recommendation letters, I finally received that beautiful large white envelope with the Rutgers seal on it.  I hate waiting for things like this, as I'm sure everyone else is.  This was the only program I applied for because it was the only NJ school that I could get an MBA in Accounting in without getting a BA in Accounting first.  The director of the program also said that as long as I didn't get a 500 on the GMAT, I should be fine with getting accepted.  But I couldn't help but have my doubts.  My family just assumed I would get in, and that really scared me.  If I happened to get a rejection letter, there would be some serious disappointment.  So as soon as I sent out the last part of my application, I talked to my dad about backup plans.  Even though he felt that would not be necessary, it broke down his high expectations a little bit. Now he's extra excited. Yaaay, 14 months of hell!

I had my work holiday party on Friday night, too.  It was amaaazing.  It was at the Palace at Somerset, which is basically the White House in Somerset.  This HUGE white building was surrounded by lit-up Christmas trees and decked with a giant wreath on the front.  We pulled up to the front door, and the valet service took care of that.  We walked up the stairs, and a man was holding the door open for us to be greeted with 10 employees displaying trays of many varieties of alcoholic beverages.  And of course we picked the worst one (Cherry Martini = Nyquil). Hors de'voures followed us around for the entire cocktail hour, and then it was time to eat some delicious food and dance the night away with my drunk boss and the rest of the finance department.  Fun times.

Ok I'll continue later.  I'm going to go see the kids see Santa. Cute!

Xanga Maintenance

Since I woke up to knocking my laptop off of my bed, I figured it was a good time to write a xanga entry.

After my seemingly neverending span of unemployment, I have finally gained some confidence in my new job as an Accounting Intern.  I'm still amazed I got this, being a Psychology major.  But whatever the reason, I am verryyy happy.  I find it very hard to believe there is a better job out there.  I work 9-3, have an hour for lunch, and my commute is only 30 minutes.  Aaaand I get $12/hr, my coworkers are awesome, and there are always happy hours and parties and luncheons.  It's great.  One of my complaints with my last internship was that I was expected to be doing work the whole 40 hours/week that I was there, but there was no work!  There is always work at this job.  I actually never even get to finish all the work I have, which is a good thing to me...as long as they all don't have short deadlines, which they don't for now.  I learn so much every day and everyone goes into a lot of detail explaining all the jobs they give me.  It really is an internship, where they are truly interested in teaching the field they hired me in.

I'm still loving living at my brother's house.  I come home from work and my niece will run to the door screaming "Fiona!!! You're hoooome!".  Then she gives me hugs and drags me into the living room to play with her.  And the baby has totally changed this week.  He has me rolling on the floor laughing.  Last night, he crawled toward me scrunching his nose and puffing in and out of his nose and clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth (all of the tricks he is proud to have learned this week).  Then he was sitting up, playing with a shirt.  I grabbed it out of his hands and threw it at him and then took it away and kept throwing it back at him.  At first, he was like, "Um...I was playing with that.  Now I'd like it back."  But then he started laughing hysterically as he tried to gain back control of his toy.  Oh my god, his smile just makes me melt.  He really is the cutest baby I have ever seen, smiling since the day he was born.

I went to my parents' house this weekend since it was Morgan's birthday party.  I have gotten so close to my dad these past few years.  I feel like our conversations are on such a different level than they were before.  We used to spend about 90% of the time complaining about my mom, but now it's just not fun anymore, so we've changed topics.  Now we talk about things in the news, his past career and my future one, just general conversation about anything.  I call him every day on my way home from work and we always have something to talk about.  He's really turned into someone I respect and look to for answers and motivation.  Not that I didn't respect him before, but he has changed a lot, as have I.  He has mellowed out drastically and doesn't make a big deal out of anything, and I have grown up and know, for the most part, what I want out of life.

My dad has been retired for 10 months already and he still has not taken a vacation, even though he is dying to go down to Virginia to his favorite vacation spot.  My mom can't handle going 6 hours away, feeling like she needs years to pack for it.  But, she doesn't want my dad to leave her at home alone either.  So, basically it's a lose/lose situation for my dad.  After he mentioned his interest in taking a trip down there, I immediately jumped on it.  "How about Thanksgiving weekend?  I'm off for 4 days, even able to leave work at noon on Wednesday."  I really want to go down there, and I know if he keeps planning to go by himself, it will never happen.  He said, "Ohh, yeah that would be nice.  I'll look into it."  When I called him today, I asked him again.  "So, we are going to Chincoteague, right?"  "Well, I'll have to put a little though into it.  It's just getting you-know-who to comply."  "What?!  You better say yes because I am already looking forward to it!  It's only four days!"  He laughed and said, "Yeah ok, then I will get it set up." 

So, things are looking good, except for my stupid teacher who is being a pain in the ass about the recommendation I need for grad school. *grumbles*  But that's for another day...

Good night.

I Ain't Got the Biggest Breastesses...

So not much has happened since my last entry, but I just heard something totally crazy and I was curious how other people would react to it.

My niece's friend is the ultimate brat.  I will refer to her as "Evil", which is the name we usually stick to.  She's 4 years old, gets everything she wants, still drinks from a bottle, hits my niece when she doesn't get her way, and is constantly whining because she will never be happy.  I love kids, but I don't feel an ounce of joy when I'm in her presence.  So anyway, I'm almost 100% sure she is the spoiled brat she is because of her mother's attitude.  She can't handle much screaming or whining, so she ALWAYS gives in.  Here's one quick example.  Evil came to our house the other day and Marinn was wearing her own princess shoes when they decided to play dress up.  Since Evil never shares with Marinn EVER, Marinn refused to hand them over.  "MOM!! I WANT PRINCESS SHOES!!!!"  Instant tears.  Her mom RAN HOME to get her shoes.  Are you serious??!  You say NO.  Play with something else.  There are plenty of toys.  Giving kids everything they want will make them so unsatisfied.  It is NOT doing them any favors.

So, back to what really shocked me.  Her mom went shopping with her last week to get some clothes.  Evil caught a glimpse of the bra section and wanted to try one on.  Her mom actually let her.  It's kind of putting an emphasis on the attraction to boobs, isn't it?  Four years old?? 

I'm really curious what everyone thinks of this, so please leave a comment!