The rest of NY & The Hurds' Wedding!

I have been meaning to get the rest of these pictures up here to share...

First off - Scott and I went to a Mets game Friday night! It was fun, and neat to see Shea Stadium, though I have to say I get why it's its last year... not the nicest stadium. But full of history so it was ok by me :)

Scott, holding 2 $8 beers. Yeah... when in Shea...

The field. IDK what's happening. Oh, and the Mets won... I will confess that we left early to get on the train back to Manhattan w/out waiting 3 years, and yes, I fell asleep on the subway. Sue me, I woke up at 3:45 that morning. You would have fallen asleep if you had a strapping young man to rest your head on too. :)

The next morning we met up with Scott's friends Anne and Matt who helped us navigate (er... ok, so we wouldn't have figured out the NJ Transit w/out them!) the train to Montvale. It was a fun ride!

Tim & Cara's wedding was so much fun! It was great to see all of Scott's college friends again - and we're super excited to go up to Maine in a few weeks for another one! Here are some pics...

The Bride & Groom's car, so cute!

Tim & Cara Hurd

OMG, CHAD MILLER! It was so much fun seeing Scott's old buddy... who is our neighbor to the South. He and his girlfriend live in Charleston and apparently visit Raleigh often :) Very cool.

Next up...the cocktail hour that was 2.5 hours. You're free to draw your own conclusions there...

Me, Scott & Heins

They're next! Ryan (though he'll always be Basehead to me) and Nicky.

Leanne (who I stole a few of these pics from - thanks!), Ed, Ginty and Christina

Kait, Ed and Anne

Not a bad pic!

Then... the reception. It was the most delicious food, a fabulous band and a super fun table too! I also recall more than my fair share of drinks...

Seeee! Fun table! I especially enjoyed the sitting down dancing to Earth Wind & Fire September. Very fun.
Kait, Matt, Scott, Jamie

The newlyweds! Anne & Kait... riiiight at the end of the reception. We didn't want it to end!

Ed and Scott. Side note: Blue shirts seemed to be the uniform for most males attending the wedding. Self pic from the drunk bus home. SOOO FUN! They had a bus take us all around (church, reception, hotel...) and the way home was hilarious! There was singing...mostly fun songs but I recall someone picking up with the Charles In Charge theme? What was up with that? :)

Next is the HOTEL LOBBY (bar, but isn't that in a song or something? I don't know my pop/rap all that well.)

Leanne & Ethan... these two make me laugh.
And I'll leave you with the quintessential Jamie/Scott drinking pic. We had a BLAST at the wedding and can't wait for the sequel in Maine next month!

I'm not going to go on and on about what a terrible trip we had back bc - hey, we've all had terrible airport experiences. I'll just leave it at this: We spent 24 extra hours in Newark, which I do not recommend. Esp if you're hungover.

Ode to Time Traveler's Wife

Yes, you remain my favorite book...if it's possible, I think I love this book even more than I thought I did previously when I read it a year and a half ago. I think it is positively exquisite. It's books like this that make me positive that I could never write one - the way that it's intricately put together and draws out emotions in me that I didn't know I had. Confession: I cried pretty much solid for the last 40 pages! I think it was sadder/happier the second time around, having a better understanding of the characters and knowing the ultimate ending, etc.

First off, it's NOT science fiction. Let me be very clear about that up front! My definition of SF is if it's "grounded" in reality (ie - if people teleport and it's not considered weird or abnormal, it's not SF. In this book, Clare is very much reprentative of "normal" people, and seeing the time traveling through her eyes enhances our understanding. Not SF.) :)

It's about Henry DeTamble, a time traveler and Clare Abshire, his wife. She meets him when he's in his 30's, after they're already married in the present, and Clare is a child. Henry meets Clare when Clare is in her early 20's and he's nearing 30. Are you confused? It makes sense when you read it. It's truly the most amazing love story, I am so sad that I'm done with the book, and definitely can't wait to read it again in a few months. It also really makes you think - by throwing one imagined concept - time traveling - the author really makes you ponder the reasons we do what we do...free will, causality, happiness, death... my head is still spinning with all of the beautiful and complicated things I read.

I'm really excited for our book club discussion in a few weeks. I just hope I don't cry. :)

And, another reason to get excited for Christmas this year, the movie is being released!! I think Eric Bana is a fabulous choice for Henry DeTamble, and Rachel McAdams is the perfect Clare. I just hope they can capture the essence of the book.

SO.EXCITED. for the movie. For real... I hope a trailer comes out soon!


Oh, and another movie/book opinion... I think Rob Livingston as Gomez is also a fabulous casting call. If they can write/direct a movie as well as they can cast it, might be a good representation of the book! Fingers crossed!

Obama! Thanks Casey!

OBV I did not take this picture...yahoo gave it to me. But I thought it was cool bc it's from the town hall last night in Raleigh and Amy and I were sitting right under the flag. We were riiiight under his right arm. We were kinda far back, and all of my pictures didn't really turn out. Lucky me, her fiance Casey couldn't go so I got to get into this "small" event. Only 2000 people! Tickets were free, but they were sold out within 2 hours last night. I thought we'd get a veep announcement, but that was just wishful thinking.

It was a great time, I just love hearing him speak. It was a town hall forum on the economy, so at times it was a bit depressing... but whatevs. He's a funny guy, I especially enjoyed when he said to be fair we had to go "Girl-Boy-Girl-Boy" in asking questions ... maybe you had to be there. He's very down to earth and witty - two important qualities to me.

Anyway, enough on the politics, but just wanted to shoutout to my political buddies - Amy & Casey. Thanks for the hookup!

Twilight

I am so thankful that I had this book during the whole massive delays at the Newark Airport debacle! This is the first in a series of young adult books...and while it's usually not "my genre", after hearing so much about the books from friends and seeing the crazies on the news waiting in line for the most recent release...I thought, you know? Maybe I should give it a try.

Did I LOOOVE it? Eh, not love. But I love spending time with it! (This is a funny back and forth Scott and I often do. "I love you"..."Aw, and I love spending time with you". I think it's from a tv show or something...maybe Friends?) ANYWAY, I just like as a good friend. I will most definitely read the next books in the series, I actually think it'll be fun to read these during school since they're kind of easier, being young adult lit and all.

Synopsis - it's a star-crossed lovers type story. It's about Bella, an angsty teenager who just moved to Forks, Washington to live w/ her dad. She and Edward kind of have this instant attraction when they meet, and a Pride and Prejudice type initial misunderstanding and stuff. Oh, did I mention Edward is a vampire? This complicates things (see: star crossed) ... he and his family are very interesting characters. I never thought I'd think vamps were good people. That's the gist of the story, and it gets very suspenseful and action packed at certain points. And there's a movie coming out this fall!

So yeah - I recommend it! It was definitely a godsend for an airport read, and would make a good vacation book for sure.

I'm on to re-reading Time Traveler's Wife... my declared all time favorite book. I somehow logged 100 pages already, it's so freaking good. I can't put it down even though I know how it ends and what happens. Definitely BETTER than I remembered it... I'm looking forward to our book club discussion!

NYC

So Scott and I just got home today from our weekend "up north" and we had a splendid time. I haven't gotten all the pictures up just yet, but I will share the New York City pics today, and post some from the awesome and super fun wedding from Saturday in the days to come. I know you're excited. :)

So NYC... we left super early to fly into the city. It was good...until the evening, but I'll get there. We arrived, did a great job figuring out the shuttle buses and getting to our hotel. We stayed close to the New York Public Library and Bryant Park, and apparently missed a free Jonas Brothers concert by a few minutes. Lucky us we got to see lots of tweenagers with homemade tshirts and signs for the Jonas Brothers. Whoever the heck they are... we're old.

Here's the Public Library - it was in the Sex and the City movie, as was the park behind it. I won't say what happened there as it's a key plot point/spoiler, but I recognized it!!! :)

After checking in, we embarked on our 2.5 mile (thanks google maps) walk to the Met, up Broadway, through Times Square and through Central Park.

Chanelling Michael Scott - the Best New York Pizza! Sadly, we said that every time we saw a Sbarro... we're funny like that.

I love the smell of advertising in the morning... hey! Does anyone know if there's a Starbucks around here anywhere? Or ...5?

I absolutely loved Central Park...I was kinda sad I didn't get to do a run in the park. There was some whining when we kept passing runners. The weather was fabulous too, esp being used to NC craziness & humidity. We saw a small portion of the park, even though it felt like we were walking there forever... it's so big!

This seemed to be a recognizable place... we actually saw a movie/tv show being filmed here.

As good a place for a self pic as any... :)

View down 5th Ave...gorgeous and probably really affordable housing on one side, and the park on the other. I assume it's affordable housing bc it seemed like those people had lots of money left over for nice SUVs and purses...Just an assumption.

This is the street across from The Met... I just thought it was pretty.

The Met! *Shocking* that it had scaffolding on it... like every cool attraction in Italy a few months ago. Guess NYC knew we were coming to town!! :)
Oh, the Met. We LOVED it. It seriously could have taken ALL day if we'd had unlimited time and attention spans, but we only had about 3 hours, so we hit the exhibits that were the most interesting to us. We started off with the awesome Egyptian exhibit, where they somehow got real pieces of pyramids and stuff and recreated them indoors...it was very cool. Mummies, tombs and pretty jewelry that was astoundingly old. So cool.

A tomb. It was ridic.
Uhh, the map was v confusing.
The American Wing... now I love my country and all, but it was just eh compared to freaking armor from 500+ years ago and pottery from 3000 years BC from Egypt. Just sayin...

But...you know, Scott does love a good bust (now that he knows what they are...see this story for explanation) . Exhibit A:

This was definitely our favorite exhibit - it was just awesome. Jeff Koons on the Rooftop - we have no clue *how* he made these pieces but they were just amazing. I guess it's abstract art... but we definitely loved it. The coolest part was we could photograph ourselves and the city through the art...see if you can find us!!!








Crazy Armor and Weapons exhibit...it was neat! They had armor from all over the world, and it was cool bc (obv) all regions were really different. Plus, if you know me, you know I heart guns (hah.)
Yes, there's a man with a audio guide passed out on that couch. Overwhelmed by the beauty of the art, I'd guess...

Roman sculpture garden :) Apple Store!! Yes, that's a line in front of it.

Pretty fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel. It looked like a decent hotel, I'm gonna check on expedia for it next time we visit. :)

...and we went to a Mets game that night... I don't have the energy to post all of them tonight too and I realize this is quite a lot of pics so I'll pace myself. :)