Wish I'd had Hermione's time-turner!

Four days is just not enough time to go back home, visit with an old friend, and see/do all there is to see/do in NYC... *sigh* A time-turner would have come in handy, but since I couldn't get my hands on one we just had to cram as much as we could into my long weekend! It was a BLAST and I am so grateful to have had the chance to go back and spend some time with my Squirley, catching up and reminiscing on old times. She's the little sister I never (biologically) had and though it's been many years since we last saw each other, it was like time had never passed. Friendships like those don't come along very often and are definitely something to treasure. (Love you Squirley!!! *MUAH!*)

Rather than some long and boring travelogue I will share some pics and highlights of my trip. Ready? Let's go!

Shirley and I wore these shirts to the midnight Deathly Hallows showing! (A play on the Brittish "Keep Calm And Carry On" posters)

Waiting for the movie to start with our wands!!!

Oh, and did I mention we got mani/pedis beforehand? Yup, I sure did ask for Harry's scar!

On the N train on our way into the city for the Harry Potter Exhibition!

Shirley & Will (her awesome boyfriend!)

Mr.Weasley's flying Ford Anglia!

Lookie, we're at Hogwarts! ;) Sadly we were not allowed to take any pictures inside, which is a real shame because it was an a-ma-zing exhibit with all the real costumes and props from the movies. We even got to play quidditch with some real quaffles! Soooo much fun!!!

Pausing for a pic (like the tourists I used to hate so much) at Times Square!

... and another one by the Empire State Building!

So many subway stations were just plastered with Deathly Hallows posters, LOVED it!!!

We ate a lot back in Queens, home to some of the best food ever! Here we are outside a Uruguayan parillada (grill) and bakery. I think we consumed 5 lbs of dulce de leche filled treats each!

Outside a yummy Colombian bakery where I got my favorite childhood soda, Postobon Manzana!

Squirley enjoying a Colombian empanada!

Postobon and an alfajor, life can't get much better than this!

We also had some great food in Little Italy and Chinatown!  Afterwards, we had the most amazing time doing an interactive LiveInTheater murder mystery called the 1873 Ryan Case. Basically you run around certain parts of the city (for us it was Chinatown/Little Italy) as "rookie cops" trying to solve a murder. You follow a map and are on the lookout for suspects and witnesses, all dressed in period costumes and in our case talking in thick Irish brogues. It was so much fun!!! After questioning them you return to HQ, are given time to discuss your findings, and the suspects/witnesses are all lined up for 2-3 more questions. Then you have to present your theory as to who did it, why, and how. Such a neat (and different) theater experience!!! 

We drove through my old neighborhood in Queens. Maybe next time I'll brave the ghetto part of Brooklyn I lived in for my first 13 years!

 Two blocks away, my stop on the 7 train.

The yummy treats I brought with me back home: Junior's Cheesecake (best in the city!), Uruguayan dulce de leche, and Colombian soda! Yuuuuuuummy!!!

All in all, a fantastic trip!!! We're hoping to be able to get together again next year (this time with Ben!) and hit up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! My parents don't live very far from Orlando so we can have their house serve as HQ with DisneyWorld/Hogwarts an easy drive away! WOOT!

PS> My review of Deathly Hallows is forthcoming. I must go see it a second time before I give my definitive opinion.  I still don't quite know just how I feel about the whole thing... I loooooved some parts, h-a-t-e-d many others. Striving for some cohesion of thoughts and feelings on this one. Stay tuned.

What was I thinking?!?!?

So I figured I'd take Micro over the summer and just get it out of the way before starting clinicals. Its a 5 credit class so its a doozey, even in a regular 16 week semester. I chose to do it in 8 weeks. I figured it would be no sweat after killing my Chem class (which I was terrified of!) NOT SO. Two days into it (and 2 quizzes later, with our first test coming up on Monday) I'm starting to wonder if I'll survive this summer. If I weren't working it would be no problem, but I'm at the hospital 4 days this week and at school the other 3. When will I study and get my hw done? Hmmmm.... good question. Somethings gonna have to give and I think it will have to be work. However, schedules are made for the month so I'm stuck like this until July. Baptist will not be seeing as much of me after June though... I've kept a 4.0 for the past 4 semesters, this class will NOT mess that up for me!!! ARGH!

I'm tackling this like I did cross country, small reachable goals. Survive one week at a time. Since we're pretty much having a test and 2-3 quizzes/week that's quite enough for me. I also am going to focus on my reward for surviving the first half of this ordeal. Guess what happens June 30th, exactly 1 month before the last day of term? Oh yeah baby, Eclipse time!!!

Speaking of, found another clip today and this one is about the wolf pack and introduces Leah a bit. She's such a pill...I think Julia Jones will do a fantastic job!



Anyway, Micro's calling, eeek!

Down South

I'm in South Carolina!!! That was the surprise. I flew in yesterday and surprised the crud out of my parents, it was priceless!!! :) We've been on the go ever since and I just wanted to take a moment to update real quickly... I'll be posting pics soon, its so beautiful here and I'm having a blast with all my family. I spent a few hours at the pool today with Elliot(14) & Douglas(12) and I'm excited to report that I'm gonna come home with one heck of a tan!!! WOOT! :) Little Alex (almost 2) is a doll and quite the handful but he's warming up to me and already cries when I leave the room without him... its so cute! Oh and Kong, their dog is just the cutest! Andres has him trained to pick up a ball and tear it to shreds when he's asked, "What do we do to the Boston Red Sox?" HILLARIOUS! Gotta teach Sirius the trick! ;)

Anyway, gotta run. I'll post pics soon!

Rifreakindiculous!

It is 103 degrees outside right now! We're only one week into summer. W-O-W

The dog days of summer

It's h-o-t here in Oklahoma. Icky, sticky, humid and hot. The pups don't really like to spend much time outside, and I can't blame them. I just got home from taking Ben his dinner at work and when I got home the dogs were all clamoring to be let in. Once inside this blessed AC'ed house, they pretty much just collapsed into pathetic looking heaps the first place the could find... 2 on the couch and one on the floor. Here are some pics, they're just so cute I had to share!

Sirius, asleep on the couch.

Luna, cooling off her belly & asleep on Ben's shirt and a blanket on the couch as well.

Mini, probably sulking because she can't fit on the couch and sleep there.

Hooray for Summer!

Not so much because of the heat... but because of all the yummyness that comes up out of the ground at this time of year. One such reminder of this was today when one of our patients came in and announced that he had brought everyone some freshly picked squashes from his garden! (No, not as payment!) Yummy, ripe, yellow squashes- homegrown! Very cool. I got about 6 of them to bring home and had some for dinner, oh yuuuuuuuum. ;) Not sure I'll be saying this after my 5th or 6th day of consecutive squash-eating, but we can't let them go to waste, now can we? So anyway... hooray for summer and all her nummy bounties!