Brother's Place

My older brother came over yesterday and he saw that I was making a few things for decorating my apartment and he asked what he could do in his place. It got me to thinking and I just wanted to find some things that he could easily do in his own place that would spruce the place up. He is a bachelor so I was thinking of keeping it pretty simple but visually appealing. His place is pretty small, it actually used to be the apartment that Mark and I lived in before we moved to where we live now. He mentioned going to Ikea soon so I thought I'd just look on their website and pull ideas from there so that if he does like what I've come up with then he knows where to get it. Or he could try to find a cheaper version elsewhere... but I doubt he'd do that lol.

First off I'd tell him to stock his kitchen better, get matching plates, cups and cutlery  Second, get a cutlery separator! Those are pretty cheap and you can get one from Walmart, doesn't have to be fancy just do it! I know that he has his cutlery in a small drawer and his larger utensils in a larger drawer, what I would do (and did when I lived there) put the cutlery in the larger drawer and put your large utensils in a container on the counter next to the oven. Right where you need it plus it doesn't take up too much extra room. And also, Matt, get a lid for your pan because that pizza pan you are using is disgusting. OK now for the actual decorating part! We've got a bathroom, dining room, living room and bedroom. I'll focus most of my attention on the dining room and living room since those are the largest and most seen rooms in the place. As for the bedroom I'm not really sure if he wants to really do anything in there but here's what I'd do:

Bedroom

He has the bed in the middle so I'd either flank it with two night stands or have a night stand on one side and some other object on the other like a chair(with a tall lamp behind it in the corner), although now that I think about it that might not fit, its a very narrow room. So I'd say maybe just putting a lamp in that corner is best, but I'd get a more embellished lamp to make it more visually appealing. I found this one that looks really cool but it isn't embellished really, it just looks cool, so maybe I'd put a small square or round ottoman in front of it just for some more dimension. I have two ottomans pictured below but Walmart and Superstore are some good stores to take a look at for cheap options. 

From Canadian Tire $25

From Ikea $20

From The Brick $80 

Also something worth mentioning is matching bedding will make the room look a lot better too. I'm not sure what he's got right now but thought I'd put that in there. Also if there is room for it I'd but a narrow long ottoman at the foot of the bed, those can be more pricey though but it functions as making the room look more pulled together as well as good storage idea, 2 in 1 kind of deal.

That takes care of the furniture part of things, after that I'd move onto decore. I'd keep it simple because he's a bachelor, I would put either a large mirror or large canvas of some sort above the bed and keep it at that. Or if that looks too empty I'd put two smaller framed pictures on the other wall of the bedroom. I'm liking these:

This piece above the bed. Ikea $50

I'd flip this mirror the other way and

put it above the bed. Canadian Tire $40

As for the artwork on the other wall I can't find exactly what I'm looking for online (I didn't search very long though) but I really like the set up of this room below. I like the pictures on the back wall of the letters, I like that the one on top is slightly smaller then the one under it. That is what I'd do, find one larger and one slightly smaller, keeping them the same color or relatively close and frame them in black. 

I also like how simple this room is pictured above. There's a bed, two night stands, dresser, chair, desk and laundry hamper with some artwork peppered on the walls. Simple and to the point.


Dining Room 

First off I'd take the microwave off the table and put it either on the table or on a microwave stand. I'd put the microwave stand beside the counter so that its "in" the dining room. I think there may be a garbage can there right now so if it fits beside there thats what I'd do, if not then I'd just put it on the counter. It takes away from counter space yes but if you'd see his counters you'd see he just uses it for clutter anyway. So not only would it give him his table back, it would also help him to stop the clutter. Matt also has some lovely empty liquor bottles on top of his cabinets, if it were me I'd toss them, but if he insists in keeping them I'd keep the more cool shaped bottles, tear off the labels and space them more evenly above the cabinets to at least make it looks somewhat better. After that I'd take the table and put it in the centre of the room, if it doesn't fit nicely and think about getting a smaller table but lets work with what he's got for now. Then I'd get chairs! Right now there is a sale on at The Brick, 20% off all 5/6 pc. dining sets, that might be something to look at. I wouldn't go super fancy or spend too much on chairs, he doesn't even have any so its not like they'd get much use. But they are definitely nice to have. If he wants to go super cheap I'd even go as far as getting these:

Blurry from enlarging it but

you get the picture

Ikea $15

Moving onto artwork- Matt has a really sweet clock in there right now that looks like an oversized pocket watch. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and I'm still trying to steal it from him! (that blurry chair pic is giving me a head ache, I can see it in my peripherals). Dining rooms are so hard for me, I have no idea what to put in them so I'll just pull from pictures of dining rooms I've saved. I'd keep the clock there definitely, maybe adding something beneath it would be cool, like a floating shelf with some pictures, ornaments or some greenery on them. Or a big sailboat sitting on a floating shelf, now that would be cool! Although I'd probably just put that on the other wall and call it a day. I think a large picture on the other wall would be cool too, I really like maps and they seem to be manly for some reason so maybe a large framed map. The only one I found on the Ikea sight is super expensive but I did find this other one I thought was cool, but I don't know how Matt would feel about having Mona Lisa in his dining room...

Ikea $40

I think the color scheme of this picture is really cool too, I'd pull from the greys, blacks and reds if he were to do the floating shelf idea. Or if he had a centre piece on his table I'd also pull from the red for sure. Centre pieces tho... not my forte. I seriously suck at doing that so I wont even bother suggesting anything.

Living Room

First I'll say that I absolutely loathe the way he has his living room set up but I'm pretty sure he's not going to change it, so I'll have to work around that. One thing I will mention though is that putting a large artwork piece or collection of smaller pieces on the one wall would be a great idea but with the couch not right up against the wall I do think it would look weird. This is the layout of his space:

Maybe if he would put a long and low bookcase on that "dead space" wall and then hung a large piece of artwork above it, that could work I guess. Keep in mind he'd have to then fill that book case, I'd suggest movies and other decore pieces. I'd hang something like this up:

Ikea $40

(sidenote: I've been there :)  ) 

And for the book case I'd do something like this, maybe in a dark color tho:

Ikea $100

Or 2/3 of these side by side

Canadian Tire $35/ea. on sale right now.

Also in a darker finish. 

If he would go this route I'd also put 2 table lamps on either side of the cases to add some extra lighting, its also a great way to decorate with function. As for decorating the cases, I'd fill them with movies, books if he has any and vases and little trinkets. I know he has a baby cactus so sticking that in there and maybe adding some more is a great way to add some low maintenance greenery. I think the wall that is adjoining with the kitchen needs something on it as well as the wall where the T.V. and couch are by, but at the same time you want to keep in mind that just putting canvases up on all 3 walls could be a bit too monotonous.Switching it up would be ideal like putting a larger scale mirror on the kitchen wall and maybe 2 smaller framed pictures on the other wall. That way you have framed, and then a canvas and then a mirror. Or I would leave the wall with the T.V. and couch alone altogether. No need in going overboard, it is a bachelor pad after all. I might also put some sort of small shoe rack on that dead space wall, if it fits and looks good. A lot of people come in through the sliding doors (and even more so in summer) and it might be a nice way for people to put their shoes away and not be in the way of the door. Also another idea for that "dead space" wall is putting 2 tall shelving units up and skipping the artwork altogether. You could fill the shelves with baskets to put movies in and other decore pieces. This is what I'm talking about:

Ikea $50/ea.

Ikea $83/ea.

I like how both of these give it an industrious feel which says "manly" to me. I would

put them beside each other but not touching, I'd leave a good amount of space in between,

but not so much that you feel you need to put something there. 

If he would go this route I'd take that large canvas and put it on the kitchen wall and then put smaller framed pictures on the wall with the T.V. and couch. Possibly with some red in it if he went with that Mona Lisa canvas so that it ties altogether since its such an open space. I'd also put some throw pillows on the couches with some red in them and some small throw blankets. I know this doesn't sound very manly but trust me, when the ladies are coming over they will appreciate this, so your doing it for them not for yourself! 

Entrance 

The entrance is very tiny, this I'd keep simple, I think a nice side table on the small piece of wall that he has would be good, I'd stick a little dish on it for keys, maybe a vase or something decorative. In the closet in the entrance I'd stick a shoe rack inside so the shoes can stay organized and maybe 2 or 3 matching baskets on the top shelf for winter stuff and other misc. stuff. Also when I lived there I always wanted a mirror in the entrance, just something to give  yourself a last once over before you walk out the door. I'd go for something rectangular and then stick that above the side table. 

That's really all the ideas I have. It's so much easier thinking of doing someone else's space compared to doing your own ('doing' lol, the only word I could think of). Now all I gotta do is get Matt to read this... 

Ignorant Fool

*Disclaimer: This will be a rant/venting post, all views and opinions expressed are not to be held accountable against me*

For people who don't know me well it probably looks like I have a really hard exterior, I have a very dominant personality and often it can be easily misunderstood. It's also important to know that I'm sensitive too, I do have feelings and soft emotions and just like anyone those are things to take into consideration when judging someone. I am very strong willed and stubborn, I like things done a certain way- the logical way. If it's logical then it makes the most sense to take that route. Often people don't agree with me but that's because they may be looking at it emotionally and not logically. I'm also very sarcastic, this goes in hand with my sense of humor. A lot of people I know are sarcastic as well and we get along really great, sometimes this can come across as mean, maybe it's my tone of voice or facial expression, I'm not sure. Another thing to know about me is that my facial expressions are really hard to control, it's almost as if I have botox, except that my face moves, I just can't feel it. So if I'm thinking "this person is stupid" my face might show that, but my words wont. I'm not a mean person, I would never tell someone to their face in a serious way that they are stupid. But if my face does, well I'm sorry but that is the way I feel, I just don't mean for you to know that I feel that way (also its worth mentioning that I've been working on not even thinking those things about people, its been a work in a progress). I have to try very hard to recognize the way my face is forming an expression and stop it before it gets there all the way. But nothing, NOTHING pisses me off more the ignorant people! I've been told since childhood that I have an attitude problem, I know fully well I'm capable of harbouring ill feelings toward someone, I am also capable of reeling those feelings in. So a year ago when I was told by someone of importance in my life that I have an attitude problem you better believe that I got that problem in check. I worked very hard at beeing more cheerful and expressionless. Does that mean that I am not allowed a off day though? To this person I think not and that is not fair. If I have a bad day and I get asked a stupid question or asked to do something stupid I'm gonna let it be known on my face just how stupid I think that is. Will I proceed to voice my opinion? Of course not, I would never have such a bad day that I would do that.

Another thing that pisses me off? Manipulative people. I used to be one of those, I could use my skills very well to get the outcome that I wanted. I only used those skills about a handful of times for a more greater scheme but it was never used for bad. What I'm talking about is those manipulative people that use their skills for bad. I've encountered a few of those people in my lifetime and believe me, they are no longer a part of my life. So when you take a manipulative person and put them next to me and get me to tell them things about me such as I have an attitude problem, and I'm bad at explaining things to people so often it takes me a little while to get my point across, it's cause for a conflict. I was recently yelled at, and I mean full on yelled at, right to my face, for reasons that I'm still confused about. I was asked a question, and I was answering that question as best I could and all of a sudden I was yelled at. And then that person stormed out. I was left sitting there very confused, and then very angry. What adult in my age range would actually yell at a person in that situation?!? I'm still dumbfounded. With the whole situation it just doesn't add up. Then the next day I found out that this person had told another person why they yelled. And I found out that they lied and the other person believed them. So because this manipulative person knew that I had problems explaining things, knew that I was told I had an attitude problem a while ago, used that knowledge to their advantage to cover up why they did what they did to make me look like the bad guy. Two against one, what am I supposed to do? I tried explaining my side to this other person and they didn't seem to buy it, they were siding with the manipulative one. Of course they would, a manipulator is always good at getting people to side with them.

That's kind of where that situation is as of right now but let me share my thought process. Like I said at first I was angry, and then I got really hurt. It really is a hard blow to take when someone attacks your character. I had to assess myself looking from outside the box to see if there was any truth to what was told. After sorting it out myself I went on to talk to some other people, they too didn't agree with what was said. So after confirming that I wasn't as bad of a person as they were making me out to be I started wanting revenge. I'm in a very sweet spot to be able to make this outcome a bad one for this other person, and I wanted to execute that plan so badly, but instead I prayed. I prayed for calm, I prayed for peace and good feelings, and I gave my problem to God. Obviously it's still on my mind since I'm writing about it but I no longer want to do anything bad because of it. I'm above that, I will not stoop to a pathetic childlike level to get some feelings of satisfaction. That would be artificial and it's not who I want to be. So instead I will rise above and I will ignore this person as best I can and continue to take the higher road. I am a good person, flawed most definitely but I am good. I will not have some insignificant (to me) person tell me otherwise. I feel foolish for even questioning my own character because of it but I think it goes to show that I am an honest person and I will correct things within myself if my attention is brought to that. So you, person I will not name, can go on being ignorant but I hope one day you learn the consequences of your rash decision making. Maybe it's time you take an honest- outside the box- look at yourself. And that goes for all of you ignorant people.

Home Away From Home

I just got back from my trip to New York, NY and let me tell you, it was amazing! It was unlike any city I've ever explored before, just incredible. I've lived in a city before, a small city (Winnipeg) and I hated it, but New York.... New York I could see myself living in. I didn't want to leave, I didn't miss anything or anyone (sorry family), it just felt right you know? I wish I could live there, or at least live there part time. I will definitely be going back, again and again and again. If I could make it a yearly thing I most definitely would.

The flight there actually wasn't that bad, I get super motion sick, I hate flying. The flight back was a different story though. Anyway, we get to the airport in Winnipeg and everyone is super chipper (we got there in the morning before anyone had time to get pissed off), people were complimenting (my nails) and joking around with us (pretending there were problems with our boarding passes, oh you airport jokesters you!). We make it past security and go to get something to eat at TGI Fridays. It was gross and very onion filled. We make it onto the plane and fly down to Minneapolis where we had a connecting flight to New York. Once we touch down in New York we realize we hadn't planned out how exactly we were going to get to the hotel, we knew we didn't want to take a cab though because it was quite a distance away. As we are standing around looking like lost puppy tourists a man approaches us asking if we need a shuttle, well yes! Yes we do need a shuttle! So we shuttled it on down to the hotel in a van with the a nice young man. He's playing some kind of rap/R&B in his CD player and as we hop on in we notice it's skipping, so I kinda skip to the next song but it too is skipping, at that point I just leave it because I have no idea how New Yorkers act. Will this driver jump down my throat because I touched his dash? Will I get yelled at or called nasty names? Will we get kicked out? I had no idea. After he's done loading everyone in he gets in the van and notices his CD is skipping, says something along the lines of "aw man, it's skipping" and I, with the big mouth, say "ya I skipped to the next song for you but it was skipping too so I left it" Ya Des, that makes sense, be worried about how he'd react and yet outright tell him what you did!! What can I say, I'm honest... I guess? Stupid maybe? Anyway, he just laughs it off, turns it to radio and we are on our way. Well then! New Yorkers are nice, I decided that right then and there. As we start driving though I realize that New Yorkers drive ANYWHERE they want. You wanna be in two lanes at once? You go right ahead! You wanna cut someone off? You go right ahead! You wanna honk your horn in futile attempts? You go right ahead! You get the picture, I decided right then and there New Yorkers are crazy... nice, but crazy. We laugh and make some remarks about the driving in New York to the driver and he just goes on about how everyone is crazy (see, he even thought so... I did think he too was crazy but I didn't say as much. You never know how a crazy person is going to react to being called crazy :s )

                 *I'm going to interject right here to let you know this is going to be a

 long post. I wanted to journal while in NY but didn't get the chance to so this is 

my way of journaling to myself. So either suck it up and read or just skip to the pictures.

 OR go to facebook and look at the pictures and click away cuz I already got

 the "view" from you on my stats page muahahaha* 

                                                       

We make it to the hotel (oh it's night time just to paint a clearer picture for you),  and it looks like this:

I don't really have pictures of the hotel room, it really wasn't anything special, like seriously, the bathroom was tinier then a 1 bedroom apartment's bathroom, and the rest of the room wasn't exactly super spacious. But the view from the hotel room (4th floor) looked like this:

Glamorous, I know. (even after Fergie did a song

spelling it out, I still have trouble spelling

glamorous)  

Almost immediately after arriving in our hotel room we freshened up and got something to eat from the hotel cafe, then set out on foot to Times Square. We were only about half a block away from it, almost right away Elmo comes up to my friend Melissa wanting a picture, so she strikes a pose with elmo, as she's doing that another character came up to her and posed with her too. After the picture they asked her for money and not knowing thats how things worked she just said she didn't have any money and we quickly walked away lol. There were SO many people in Times Sq. I wonder if any of them were even true New Yorkers... probably not. Who would want to walk that square shoving through people and walking into shops with "I love New York" merchandise?! That's when we started to realize that not only do vehicles do whatever they want, so do people. People were walking eeeeeverywhere, and crossed streets whenever they pleased. They didn't need a lit up walking man to tell them when to move, they moved to their own liking dammit! I already knew I could fit in, drive how you want? Check. Walk when you want? Check. I came there with an already half adapted personality, all I needed to do was live there for a bit to completely adapt to my surroundings. Which wouldn't be hard, I am well on my way to eat, sleep and breathe New York. After seeing what Times Sq. had to offer we headed on down to Starbucks for some free wifi! Checked in with the people at home and went back to the hotel for the night. 

After settling down for the night and gushing about how we couldn't believe we were actually in New York we all tried to get some sleep. As I'm laying in bed, trying to get comfortable with the too big pillow I start noticing the sounds outside. The walls in the hotel were like paper, we could hear the ding of the elevator clearly, people walking off and giggling or talking to each other. On the other side of the wall, the one facing the street we quickly realized we were indeed in the city that never sleeps. Delivery trucks were making their rounds, beep beep beeeeeeep as they reversed their big trucks. Garbage pick up as well, you could hear them breaking to slow down, the motor shifting gears at they sped up. And as I'm laying in my bed with my own thoughts I hear the quiet patter of hooves on a horse with a police man sure to be mounted atop it trotting on by and I smiled. As my smile grew larger it slowly turned into a laugh which got all three of us laughing before we all drifted off to sleep. That first night was horrible, among the noises all around us the beds and bedding weren't comfortable either. Thankfully in the days to come we'd be so exhausted from walking everywhere that we all slept pretty hard after that. 

The sites that we saw were the Empire State building, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, NBC Studio tour, Grand Central Terminal, T.V. and Movie tour, Brooklyn Bridge, and we did stumble upon ground zero but it wasn't actually in the plans so we didn't venture into that. Some random places we went to were Starbucks, Barney's (just to say we've been to Barney's), Serendipity (but only the entrance, they were packed and not taking reservations), Starbucks, a rotating restaurant (won't ever do that again- motion sickness), Magnolia Bakery, Forever 21, Starbucks, McGee's (McClaren's from How I Met Your Mother is inspired by McGees), Canal Street, Shake Shack, Smith's Restaurant,  the subway (not to be confused with the restaurant), Olive Garden (best food I had out there, probably because it's familiar lol), touristy stores of course, oh and Starbucks. 

Canal street was an interesting experience. Nellie was sitting beside a women on the plane who had said if we wanted to buy any knock off bags that Canal St. is the place to go. You say knock off and bags in the same sentence to me and I'm down without question! After we stumbled across the street on our way to the Brooklyn Bridge we decided to check out some of the shops. Our first shop experience definitely let us know the tone of the street. They come up to you and ask what you want, you take a look at the bags hanging and kind of hum and haw, then they ask "Do you like Micheal Kors?", C'mon lady, do we like Micheal Kors? Of course! So Melissa shows the most interest, this lady knows she's got Mel where she wants her. She tells her that they have any style she wants. Mel points to one bag and says, do you have a Micheal Kors that looks like this? The women says yes but it's in the back she has to go get it. Then proceeds to tell Mel the price to see if she will take it. Unknowing to the way this operation works Melissa tells the women she need to see the bag before she can commit. The women says ok it will just be a few minutes. As she tells her coworker to go "get" the bag we stand and look at the other merchandise. Then Nellie and Melissa notice that when she said "go get the bag" it actually meant- we'll take the style of bag you like and put a Micheal Kors label on it while you wait. When the bag is done the women shows Mel the bag, but she makes sure she keeps the bag low, almost under the counter. That's when it dawns on us that this isn't exactly legal. Melissa tries on the bag and as she is I'm watching this other women, she nervously glances around her just dying to quickly make this sale. Melissa however is still unsure and is taking her time. Melissa lets the women know she's leaning towards no and that's when the women quickly goes down in price. Melissa starts to barter with her, as they are bartering I notice that the women has put the bag back on the hook, the lowest hook and facing the label inward. Melissa gets her down to where she's comfortable and takes the bag. The women wastes no time in shoving the bag into a solid black bag, takes the cash and hands the bag over to Melissa. A look of relief on the women's face that she didn't have to house this bag after the label had already been put on it. I wonder if they would have thrown it out.

After Melissa's purchase we set out to find a knock off Louis Vitton bag for moi! We walk into a store and a women approaches me asking what I'm looking for. I tell her and she hands me off to a male co-worker. I tell him I'm unsure of the style I want and he shows me a card with all the styles that he gets from a binder in a stack of other binders. I point to one and he tells me he wants $80. I tell him I don't want to spend $80, he asks  how much I do want to spend and my two friends tell him I want to spend around $30. He immediately walks away from me. So I take that as a no and we proceed to walk out of the store. As we're walking out the man taps me on the shoulder and says to me "you'll never get a bag with those two around" offended at him insulting my friends I ask why and he says "you're not going to find a Vitton for $30" I reply back with "ok" as I shoot him a 'your stupid' look and walk out quickly. Plus it smelled really bad in that store. In another store I tell the guy I want to spend $30 and he tells me "It's a Louis Vitton, $80 is a good deal" and I say "but it's not a real Vitton so that isn't a deal" and he just walked away from me. So that experience was very interesting to say the least. The next day I ended up finding a fake Vitton from a man with a table on the street corner. He tells me its $45, I say how about $40 (that's all I had on me and $40 was way better then $80 and still close to $30) he says deal and shoves my new bag into a solid blue bag for me to proudly walk away with a huge smile on my face! 

I'll just post a few pictures now of our trip and just say a few things first. At Madame Tussaud's we actually got to touch the wax figures, this was espeically cool because in San Francisco they also have a wax museum (which isn't nearly as good) and you can't touch the figures. In the Empire State building we had gotten fast track passes, or so we thought, so we actually ended up staying in loooong lineups. That is what started our sore feet problems. We seriously walked everywhere, our feet were so sore after the first day and didn't get a chance to heal the whole trip. It was nice to be able to explore the city in that way but it was kind of a love/hate thing. If I go back to New York I wouldn't want to do the line ups at the Empire State again so if I were to go with someone who wanted to go there I'd be sure to buy the fast track, it is definitely worth it. I also wanted to say a bit about the subway. It was seriously so awesome! It was a lot cleaner then I thought it would be, still dirty, but a lot cleaner then I thought. It was like a whole other world underneath such a great city. It's hard to explain in words but each time you walk down into the subway each entry looks different. Sometimes it's small and cramped, other entries are huge and full of stairs and white tile. After going on it once we got the hang of it, it was super easy and also very cheap. I'd travel this way more so next time but I'd also like to know exactly where each entry to a subway is before I go. Sometimes it took a bit of walking around to figure out where one was. I thought it would be really creepy and sketchy but it really wasn't. All the people looked normal too so we were never scared or creeped out. When you line up to get onto the subway you gotta make sure you get on fast. Not only are there people walking off but there is people walking on and the doors don't stay open for long. Sometimes the subway conductor was really easy to understand but other times I had wished I was more like Lily and able to speak conductor (How I Met Your Mother reference). New York hot dogs from the hot dog cards on the streets are the best. Starbucks are almost literally on every corner. Roasted almonds and cashews from the carts on the streets are a must try. If someone tells you that you haven't experienced New York until you have been to Shake Shack you tell them they are a liar and walk away. You can't take photos in the NBC Studio's but honestly I'd say it isn't even worth going. You wont see a celebrity no matter how hard you wish it and it's only an hour of seeing about 2 sets and the control room. And not even having pictures to prove you were there? Not worth it to me anyway. We also so the Ghost Busters fire hall on our TV and Movie tour, along with the apartment from I Am Legend, where Beyonce and Jay-Z live, the Friends building, along with a lot of other buildings we drove too quickly by to take a decent photo- and if we did happen to get a half decent photo, forgot why we took it in the first place. Finding out New Yorkers were actually very nice was so awesome, at one point I was walking down the street without a jacket on and one women yelled at me "put your jacket on" and I replied "I'm hot!" and a man close by yelled out "I'll say!" highlight of my day for sure, thank you grungy oldish guy for appreciating my beauty! Every time we got bumped into people were saying sorry and excuse me, it was so refreshing to be away from the mennonite attitude. Listening to the people drumming on 5 gallon pails in the subway. 

I think that is all I really wanted to say about New York, it was an amazing experience, it went by far too quickly but I know in my heart that I will be back and that makes me happy. Maybe I'll adopt an american child so that I could live there... does that work? 

Times Square

First meal, it was pretty tasty. 

On a Jumbo Tron type of thing in 

Times Sq., we're in the bottom left

corner in black brown and grey. 

Baby Spice and I. 

Sometimes I hang out with Gaga.

One of the few pics I got for proof.

Really good fries- not so great chicken fingers

Unfortunately the only hot dog I had the

privilege of eating.

Best cheesecake ever! 

Didn't have caesars so I had to get

a bloody mary and now that I think of it that's probably what

I should have ordered when I went to Mexico cuz they had no idea

what I was talking about when I said ceaser. 

Had to pick one of these up. 

Starbucks potty graffiti

Pistachio (pretty good!), Caramel something and 

chocolate. 

Ghost Busters fire hall 

Will Smith's place in I Am Legend

The Library that we were too late to go inside of. 

One of the coolest subways we went into. 

Empire State Building

View from the Empire State building. 

Inside of Grand Central Terminal. 

Inside of Grand Central Terminal.

Madame Tussaud herself.

We love pretending to eat Lucy's batter. 

Hanging out with the girls. 

Hanging out with the boys. 

Interesting story: It looked as though all the hotels would

put their laundry into these bins and on the sidewalk and it would

get picked up by delivery trucks who would take it somewhere else

to get washed and then returned after being cleaned. 

Almost full shot of the apartment building that Will Smith

"lived" in for the movie. (And Mark, if your reading this, he didn't actually live

there during the movie, it was shot on a set, they just used the outside

of this building. Normal people actually live there). 

A shot from the outskirts of Central Park.

Cab ride in a real New York cab!!! 

Brooklyn Bridge. 

Fooled you! We aren't actually talking. Fake it

till ya make it! 

New world trade center. 

Caesar salad at McGee's, not that great. 

Another shot of the outside

of the library. 

The ceiling in the Grand

Central Terminal.