New Year!

So, this year, Joseph and I rang in the new year in Austin with our two best friends and newlyweds: Alex and Allison (also Jimmie and Dan, who were two added bonuses). We had such a fantastic time "crashing" their friends' party and dancing the night away in drunken revelry. It was definitely the best way that either of us could've imagined ringing in the new year.

"Stolen" photos from Deanna:

Joseph, Alex, and Deanna (the hostess)

Me, Jimmie, and Allison

We spent the first two days of our year with some of my family members (Aunt Nancy, Uncle David, Emily, and David). We enjoyed perusing the Riverwalk and walking around the Zoo looking at animals. We both had a really great time and were very happy that they came to visit.

I've tried my best to eschew resolutions the past few years. However, this year I decided to make just two:

1. Put more of myself into what I do. This may mean being less lazy with the things I do or, alternatively, it could just mean making sure I dedicate more time to my work to ensure that everything I produce is the best I can make it.

2. Be a better friend and keep in touch better. I really want to talk to people more. I feel so isolated at times, and I realize that a lot of that is (unfortunately) myself being so busy that I can't/don't find the time to build and maintain the friendships I have. I'm hoping to start calling people more and setting aside time just to keep in touch, even if it is weekly webcam knitting lessons from my favorite knitter and whoever else wants to chat!

PS - I apologize for the lack of pictures recently, but my camera just broke and I haven't been able to upload pictures onto my computer.

Christmas and Sugar Doll Blogger

Merry Late Christmas! I've had a pretty decent vacation down in Texas the past couple of weeks. We spent a few days after getting here with my parents, Brandon, Kristen, and the baby, while I tried to finish up a paper for a class. We then went up to Austin for Allison and Alex's Christmas party, Ultimate Truth with Annie (and everyone else, too!), and then Polish Christmas Eve with Joseph's mom.

I've got to say, I'm starting to enjoy the Polish Christmas Eve meal more and more every year. It's vegetarian, because the Poles don't eat meat on Christmas Eve. However, there is a fish dish ... which is a-okay with me, because I still eat fish. It was absolutely delicious: there was barscht (sp?), asparagus, peirogies, potatoes, cheese, artichokes, salad, wafers and honey. I think I was in heaven.

We spent Christmas day with my parents, and Joseph's mom drove down from Austin to join us. I'm not-so-secretly very happy that she has come down the past two years, because it allows to me to still spend Christmas with my family and to let her spend Christmas with Joseph. Unfortunately, we didn't do a "traditional" Christmas, where we spend it with my Uncle and his family, but maybe next year we'll be able to make that work.

Since Christmas, we've been hanging around San Antonio, seeing people and spending time with Brandon, Kristen, and the baby. She's absolutely precious and I'll post pictures soon!

Now, onto New Years! With a few exceptions, I'm thrilled to say goodbye to this decade and everything that has come with it. I'm not hoping for major life change, but I'm looking forward to what 2010 has in store. We'll be spending NYE with our two favorite people in the world, in our favorite place in the world. So, we're pretty excited.

A while ago, Kelsie tagged me for the Sugar Doll Blogger Award thingie. So, sorry it's late, but I wanted to make it into a New Years reflection piece, so here it is:

The Fabulous Sugar Doll Blogger Award

The rules are simple: Post the award on your site, write 10 interesting things about yourself, and then pass it on to 10 other bloggers. *Note* This is where I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of just writing ten things about myself, I wanted to write ten reflections about myself/what I did from 2009:

1. Despite all of he amazingness that 2009 has brought, it's also been a very, very hard year for me. I am very happy to see it go.

2. This year, I was blessed with my first niece. It was a surprise for all of us, but my little brother and sister in law have been great parents and she's the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

3. This year I watched as two of my best friends got married (one in Hawaii and one in Las Vegas), two of our cousins got married, and as two good friends got married. It was a busy year filled with a lot of travelling.

4. This year saw one of my cousins moving to New Jersey to take on a new job. I have been so lucky to get to know her and spend time with her in the past few months in a way that I could've never hoped for before.

5. I'm two semesters closer to completing my law degree!

6. I've been so fortunate to have wonderful people to share my love and happiness with. While I may not always be at my *most* happy, I am so thankful that I have such great people all around me.

7. I got to climb up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty! It was much easier than it was in 1996, when I did it the first time, and much more fulfilling as a "New Yorker"

8. I got to visit my brother three times this year, which was incredibly exciting for me. He lives in Montreal, and it's such a great city.

9. I am fortunate that I have been continuously employed throughout the year. Not only that, but I have really enjoyed both of my internships, although maybe not every day of each!

10. And as of Jan. 5th, Joseph and I have been together for three years (!). I know that's not technically from 2009, but it's so close it really should be ;)

Hope you all have a fantastic New Years and I'll see you in 2010

Finals (Boo)

It's that time of the year again: finals. There is nothing like spending 12+ hours a day in the library for two or three weeks. It's enough to make a girl lose her mind. Imagine: seven days straight about chapter seven bankruptcy, automatic stay, and avoidable preferences. I'm about ready for Christmas break.

I'm taking a brief respite from studying just to say hi! Here's what I was up to before going into super finals mode:

Trip to Connecticut! We hiked up a big hill/small mountain the entire height of the waterfall. It was so pretty. I really do enjoy visiting Connecticut, it's just so pretty. Makes me wish I had a car so I could just take random car rides through the state. I have a sneaking suspicion the rest of the northeast is similar, but I've yet to find out.

Christmas Tree! Sure, we won't be in NYC for Christmas, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy 15 days of Christmas Tree loveliness, right? It's missing the star on top, but luckily my mom/brother sent the one we bought at last year's after-Christmas sale to us. Although I don't have a picture, rest assured it looks fantastic on top of the tree.

Photo collage! Joseph and I really want to have more artwork up in our house. We don't have a lot of money to purchase someone else's artwork, nor do we really have the time to make an attempt ourselves. So, we opted for a photo collage on "top" of our mantle. This collage's theme: friends. We (okay, I) ordered about 300 pictures of various events, so we can guarantee an endless stream of pictures for us to cycle through!

I also got my graduation pictures, as I only have one more semester of law school left!!!!! However, I haven't scanned those in yet, nor will I likely post them up here. If you're interested, you can let me know.

We're leaving for Texas on Tuesday and we can't be more excited. I look forward to spend lots of time with Amy, my family, and Allison and Alex (lots of A's). I also hope I get to do everything I want to do in both Austin and San Antonio. I need to force myself to get out of the house!

Thanksgiving 2009

So, given that last Thanksgiving Brandon and Kristen came to New York, Joseph and I packed up to go to Montreal. We decided that the best and most cost-efficient way to go was to take the bus up there.

Okay, so this isn't the bus, but it is on the way to the bus!

It was a long, uncomfortable journey, but we made it up by Wednesday morning, happy to be there!

The spread was a little different than last year. Joseph has become a vegetarian (not my doing, but I'm very proud of him nevertheless), and thus we made veggie pot pies for ourselves and Brandon and Kristen had chicken breast ... so they wouldn't be stuck with a fridge full of turkey and only a few days to eat it. The pot pies turned out pretty well, although just a little dry and in desperate need of some spice. Both of those were totally my fault and I can fix them in time for Christmas, which may be their next appearance.

Yum!

We also had a not-so successful caramelized apple pecan pie. It's hard to tell where I went wrong, but it turned out tasting like smoked meat (although no one else agrees). At least it still looked pretty:

See? It doesn't look disgusting!

In the end, we had a lovely time and I already miss Brandon, Kristen, and especially little Amy.

Testing!

Pre-Thanksgiving Thankfulness

It was a rough week. I had two papers due this weekend (one of which is due tonight ... and I'm still working on it!) and the whole week previous was filled with lots of busy social dates and school assignments. So, in anticipation of coming out of a week of craziness and into a week of "relaxation" I offer to you a few things that I've been thankful for or happy about recently:

1. I'm thankful that my Journal note is finally out of the way! I have turned in my final copy and shouldn't be dealing with it for a while. On the downside, I'm very optimistic about this other paper that I'm still working on. Part of me would absolutely love to get it shopped around and maybe published somewhere else. However, it would need a LOT of work ... and I don't know if I'm quite up for that at this point in time!

2. I'm thankful that I get to see my beautiful niece (and my fantastic brother and lovely sister-in-law) in a mere two weeks!

3. I'm thankful for beautiful fall days, even when I can't fully appreciate them. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. I was happy I got to ride my bike around, if only to the store. I did learn an important lesson: I need a basket for groceries ... trying hold the bag was disastrous!

4. I'm thankful for Joseph. As much trouble as I put him through, he's always there for me when I need him the most. Not to mention, he totally indulges my crazy dreams.

Labor Day!

In keeping with our late-summer tradition of travel, we decided at the last minute to spend Labor Day in D.C. with my ex-roommate, Briana, and her boyfriend Matt.

WWII memorial in the shadow of the Washington Monument

We spent a lot of our time going around D.C. and just hanging out with Briana, Matt, and their friend Jes.

After we spent our first night going to watch Matt the waiter at a bar in Dupont Circle, we spent our second morning climbing the Billy Goat Trail in Maryland.



It started out deceptively easy. It was a nice, scenic stroll along a canal and then started out as a light hike up a few rocks.
See? Nice and scenic!

Straight and narrow

... Then the trail took a turn for the worse:

Craggy rocks only a billy goat could love

However, we triumphed and made it to the more beautiful parts ... before taking the "emergency exit" a treacherous half-mile later.

Victorious!!

It was equally scenic one-quarter of the way through

On our way out

At least there were shells to detract from the unexpected terrible-ness of the hike

Later, we went to Jes' for a surprise birthday party for Briana. I don't have many pictures, but it was definitely a fun time for all. The next day, before we left, we stopped to see a few monuments in the rain. This really entailed the WWII monument, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.

WWII Memorial (I went to the ground-breaking ceremony in 2000!)

We repped Texas at the WWII Memorial

We walked along the reflecting pool to visit the Lincoln Memorial

With President Lincoln

On our walk back along the reflecting pool back to the car

All in all, it was a really nice and relaxing weekend away!