I’ve been spending kind of a lot of time on airplanes lately, and that results in two things: (1) All of these great ideas of things that I want to share with the world.  (2) A lot of things to catch up on when I get back into the office, and then I forget all of my great ideas, and then I am tired at the end of the day and don’t want to stare at a computer and try to remember my great ideas.  I think I’m going to start bringing a notebook or something on planes, because then I can write things down, but it’s kind of pointless now, because I’m going to stay on the ground for a couple months.  

Whoever came up with the wonderful world of emoticons is my hero.  


🙂


What a genius it was that figured out that HEY!  Putting a : before a ) and tilting your head to the left… Well I’ll be damned!  That looks like a little guy with beady eyes grinning, yes GRINNING at me!! 


😀


I’m not kidding.  


(8|


I EFFING LOVE TO USE EMOTICONS.


( 8D


Text message convo last night around 9 – 


Pete: Hot dog. I got hit by the tired monster!


Sara: Then go to bed.  You had a long week.  And a long weekend.  Don’t fight it!!


Pete: Forgot to tell you that I have enough Mountain Dew to last the winter.  So that’s helping me stay awake 🙂


Sara: Do you know what?  I’m going to dump it all down the drain if you tell me ONCE tomorrow that you’re tired!!


Pete: 8(


Sara: 8|


Pete: 8D


Sara: >8|


Pete: haaahahahahaha (8D


Sara: STOP TEXTING ME AND LET ME SLEEP -_-


Pete: 8( Ok! Sleep tight 


Sara: Seriously, stop texting me.


*Note: When I first opened the hot dog text on my phone, it just said, “Hot dog. I got hit…” because my phone previews the text before I fully open it to read it, but I read “Hot dog. I just got bit…” And when I first saw that little snippet, I thought OMG he got BIT by a DOG.  Reminder to self: read the whole message instead of skimming.


When I texted the emoticon of me sleeping like a peaceful angel -_- to Peter, I was going to send a text that said, “You should go to sleep too!” and then include an emoticon of HIM sleeping, but I couldn’t do this one    -_- because Peter does NOT look like a peaceful angel when he sleeps.


I couldn’t figure out how to make the emoticon of how he sleeps when I was falling asleep last night, so I just didn’t do it. 


But I figured it out.  Even though it’s not an emoticon.


Peter sleeps like this:

Everything that I know about New York I learned on Seinfeld.  For example: when Travis and I were trying to decide which airport to fly into – JFK or La Guardia – I knew that they weren’t THAT far from each other because in a Seinfeld episode, Jerry and Elaine’s airplane keeps getting re-routed back and forth between JFK and La Guardia, and George and Kramer have to drive back and forth and George gets all in a huffy because it was going to be the perfect airport pick-up, but not it won’t be because they have to drive back and forth so much.


Anyways, you can imagine how thrilled I was to see the Seinfeld Restaurant.  The REAL Seinfeld Restaurant.

When I called my dad and told him that I saw it, he asked if Jerry and George were sitting in their usual booth.  OBVIOUSLY.


So, my friend Travis and I spent 5 days in New York a couple weeks ago.  I was prompted to take the trip after receiving an email from one of my dear friends that I met in Ecuador when I was in the jungle, Bibi.  Bibi was taking a vacation to Canada and NYC and thought HEY!  Instead of buying a ticket to Amsterdam, Sara can just buy a ticket to NYC!!  


I initially invited Peter to go along with me, but “big city vacation stress [him] out… Except for Vegas”, so I invited my other boyfriend Travis to come along.  And we had a grand time!!  While I was in Ecuador, I made a lot of friends, and this makes travelling in the USA especially awesome.  Travis, Bibi and I were able to stay with our friends Peter and Carin.  They have a wonderful house built in the 1700’s with more than enough room for us to sleep.  They live in a town that is a 45 minute train ride outside of the city – which was really nice.  It was refreshing and relaxing to be able to leave the hustle and bustle of the city at night and fall asleep to the sounds of crickets instead of car horns.


Here are some pictures and maybe a story or two from the trip.  If you saw the album on Facebook – the pictures and most of the captions are PROBABLY the same.  Fair warning.

We sat and stared at this building for a while.

Sharpest angle in the city.

As we were walking around the city on the first day, we saw a lot of strange things.  I didn’t take pictures of a lot of them, because I didn’t want to get shot, but then Bibi talked me into taking this picture.  At first we thought this guy was a street actor, but it turned out that he was a homeless man standing with his head down so he looked like he didn’t have a head.  

It really DOES look like he’s headless.

 Since we were staying with Peter and Carin, we went grocery shopping.  

Cart for the groceries.  Cart for luggage.

Bibi started out pushing a cart, but then he would just leave the luggage cart while he wandered off.  I’m not just saying that he went to the other end of the aisle.  He went to the other end of the STORE.  That’s when Travis volunteered to just stand in the foreign foods aisle with both carts while Bibi and I went looking for food that we wanted.


I really enjoyed looking at all of the buildings.  Lots of old buildings.  Lots of new buildings.  My neck hurt by the time I went back home.

One of these things is not like the other…

As we mosey our way closer to the tent where we were going to skip the line, we decided to ask a nice police officer where exactly we’re supposed to go.  He was inside the gate on the side of the white tent where we wanted to be.  I showed him our tickets.

Paul: (looks at Bibi) Does Elvis know you stole his glasses? 
Bibi: Maybe you could let us in right here? 😀 😀
Paul: (opens jacket slightly to reveal a taser) If you get in line here, you get a free dose of electricity.
Sara: 8|
Paul: >:)
Sara: Is there ANYTHING that you can do?  
Paul: 😐
Sara, Bibi, and Travis: 😀 
Paul: :]  I’ll tell you what.  Go on the other side of the tent, and find Big Rob.  He’s big.  You can’t miss him.  He might be able to help you.
Sara: … (:D And who sent us?
Paul: … Paul.  Tell him Paul sent you.


So we went over and found Big Rob.


Sara: Hiiiiii, are you Rob?
Bibi: Big Rob?
Big Rob: Ye-uh. (He was a big dude)
Sara: *shoves tickets in his hand* Well, Paul sent us, and he said you might be able to help us?
Big Rob: Paul who?  I know a lotta Pauls.
Bibi: Paul with the electricity!
Big Rob: Uh-huh, cop Paul.  *stares at papers*
Sara, Bibi, and Travis: *stare at Big Rob*
Big Rob: Follow me.
Sara, Bibi, and Travis: *shocked faces* OK!


And then Big Rob ushered us to the front of the 3 hour line, and opened the gate.  And that was that!  We were in!  Amazing what a nice smile and some small-talk can do.


After going through the equivalent of airport security we finally made it on to the boat.







 


And then we were on Liberty Island.

Being tourists.

 

Just staring at people picking their noses.  Yes, I really did put in 50 cents.

This a church right near the site.  It became a memorial on its own.  The ribbons all have something written on them, like a person’s name and the floor they were on when the towers went down.  It was so sad, looking at all of those ribbons. This is one of the pools.  They looked like they would go down forever.  There are two identical pools, the North Pool and the South Pool.  They are the footprints of the World Trade Centers.

Strawberry Fields

 And then we went home and I was happy to sleep in my own bed.


I’ve seriously been working on this blog since last week, but Blogger is dumb and not cooperating, and it isn’t turning out the way I want it to, and it doesn’t look the way the I set it up when I push “preview” so whatever you see, like the large spaces and not lined up pictures, is NOT my fault.


I’m happy I’m done with this post, because I’ve been SO frustrated with it that I just exit out and one time I did that without saving, so THEN I was REALLY mad.


But now you know about my trip to NYC, and you can tell that I was sick of writing at the end, but that’s ok because now you don’t have to read anymore.  And if you made it this far, thanks.  I like you.

I’m working on the post about New York, but sometimes computers are dumb and make it hard to put as many pictures up as I want to.  So then I get frustrated and have to stop working on it before I throw something at the computer screen.  But it is in the works, and will be coming soon!!


This week, Peter and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary.  


On Monday, we went out for a nice dinner and looked all pretty.

We went to our new favorite restaurant called Fetaz that serves tapas and sandwiches and other yummy things.  The waitress asked what we wanted to drink, and I ordered first, and since we’re soooo romantic, I ordered wine.


Peter ordered Mellow Yellow.


When we decided what we wanted to eat, because we’re soooo romantic, Peter ordered three different tapas that we could share.


I ordered the Tyrannosaurus Rex sandwich (DISCLAIMER: It is not as gluttonous as it sounds.  It’s actually quite delicious and more the size of a Raptor.  Honey barbecue chicken, pineapple salsa and some sort of light, delicious bread.).


On Wednesday was the actual day where three years ago Peter asked me to be his giiiiiirlfrieeeeend.  


Peter’s been super busy with work and presentations and things, so I didn’t think that I’d be able to see him last night, but then it worked out that he could come to my apartment for a quick dinner.


I exercised right after work.  When I exercise, I sweat like no other and my face gets all red, and I disgust even myself.  But HEY.  I’m EXERCISING so SHUT UP.


Via text –


Sara: I just want to remind you that I am the least attractive (1) while I’m working out and (2) until I’ve showered after working out.


Pete: Well I’m heading over to see you now!


Sara: Ok, just remember how much you love me while you’re on your way.  At least I changed my clothes.


So then Peter came over and we were super romantic eating chicken wings and using 3428397 napkins.  He looked super put-together because he came right from work.  I, on the other hand, was much less attractive wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, and my hair slicked to my head, cheeks still slightly rosy.


But we took a picture anyways.  This is, after all, the first time that we’ve actually been able to SEE each other on our anniversary.

Thanks, Peter, for still liking me even when I’m in my least attractive state.


And also for letting my write about you on my blog.  Because I don’t know if I’d let you write about me.


PS: When I was writing about the tapas, I kept writing tatas, and it made me laugh every time.  Mature, I know.

Seriously.

I wasn’t going to post anything today about September 11.


But I’m watching the documentary on CBS, and crying again as they show footage of the towers disintegrating.


Most people remember where they were when the towers went down.  They remember thoughts, pictures, emotions.


I remember too.


I also remember, that two days after September 11, my mom turned on PBS.  And she left it on all the time, because she didn’t want us seeing all of those images over and over and over.


I’m glad that she did that, because even when I was 14 years old, I remember watching PBS after school, and feeling like at least one thing in the world was still normal and consistent.


Everyone on Facebook today is posting things like “Never forget”.


I don’t think any of us will.

My friend Kim and I have been saying this since we found out about Jenna’s pregnancy.


I couldn’t resist.