No pictures again, sorry guys! Has anyone else noticed that I end up doing the exact opposite of what I say I am going to do with this blog? Oh well. Makes it more interesting for you the reader.

This weekend Rick and I went to DC to visit with the folks and to celebrate Easter. While we were there, I went to a book store and bought three new books-I cannot remember the last time I bought new books. Call me spoiled, but I had gotten used to Meghan just handing me a book to read. Now that that is not so easy anymore, I have been trying to collect my own books. On this trip I bought The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. In my current state of mind, I really am interested in reading non-fiction, especially if it concerns the author's journey through something difficult and vague-meaning there is no instruction manual for what you are going through.

The Anne Lamott book was a recommendation from Meghan (who actually told me to read the book sometime last year...well I am a little slow). I cannot put it down! Its so amazing and just right for me. Its like when I started going to the "Miracle Mass" in Finley where every Sunday I left feeling as though I had just had a conversation with God about my life. My roommates and I often joked afterwards that Father O'Malley was listening at our door during the week, getting his ideas for his sermon from our lives. While Anne Lamott's life is not a mirror image of mine, I do feel a very strong connection to her journey towards accepting faith and all that comes with it. She writes with such honesty about how hard it is to feel faith, to give up her power to someone/something else, to be led. When I am reading her book, I feel such relief and whats more, I feel a burden being lifted from me-this is how it felt to go to those "Miracle Masses".

I feel like I am speeding through this book and soon it will be over. This makes me really sad. I both love and hate that feeling, when you are reading something really wonderful and because of that you just cannot put the book down. I have this image of me forty years in the future, carrying this ragged and worn book around with me where ever I go...it would be like my version of the Bible, underlined, highlighted and ready whenever I need to refer back to it in a crisis:)

Good recommendation Meghan!

So a couple of months ago a friend invited us to this "meetup" where everyone was playing boggle. Even though I did not really like playing boggle (probably because I sucked at it;) I thought the premise of getting people together who enjoyed the same activities was brillant. I went online (www.meetup.com-now one of my favorite links) to see what other kinds of meetups were going on in the city and discovered (yay!!) a post-collegiate women's lacrosse team. I cannot tell you how exciting this was for me. Long story short (well ok, its already been a longish story), I have started playing lacrosse again! Hooray:) I am really out of shape but I just don't give a hoot.

In other news, Rick and I bought a Nintendo Wii! Wee!!
I am going to DC for my mom's birthday and Easter this weekend.

My birthday and our subsequent trip to California (in no particular order)

From top to bottom:
1. Celebratin' my birthday with my honey!
2. The Ladies!
3. From the Pacific Coast Highway-somewhere between Santa Barbara and Santa Monica.
4. Tigger and me!
5. I cannot tell you how happy we were to finally make it to that beach.
6. Rick enjoys his first In-n-Out of the trip...many more to come.

In no particular order...here are some of my favorite snapshots from the last six months.

From top to bottom:

1. Megan and I in Missoula, MT (isn't that neckless beautiful? hehe)

2. Megan is an excellent artist!

3. My dear sweet Lucy.

4. My first trip to Wrigely-I might become a Cubbies fan just because of this park.

More to come...

Changing the format of this blog yet again. My life at this point feels too complicated to put down in words...Maybe visual aids will bring more light into what my life is like here in NYC. Hope you all enjoy the new incarnation!

From top to bottom:
1. The Fordham crew at Mary and Danny's wedding. We do clean up nice don't we?
2. My pop and I at Thanksgiving.
3. Rockin the side poneytail at Mary's bachlorette.

Went ice skating tonight in Bryant Park...with our own skates!! woot! Though I have to say, the breaking in process is going to hurt. A lot. Luckily skating at Bryant Park is free if you have your own skates and its open until Jan. 15th So Rick and I can go a couple of times a week if we wanted to. Rick is really enjoying getting better at the basic tricks and whatnot. I am trying to show how but I am not a very good explainer of stuff;) On my side, I am having so much fun just being on the ice and sliding around. It brings me back to my childhood...when I was like twelve I got a pair of rollarblades for my birthday and I hardly ever took them off for the next three years. Every afternoon after school I would strap on my skates and head off for the basketball court-which was ideal for perfecting my little tricks. Hours would go by and I would just get lost in the wonderful feeling of gliding around in the fresh air. *sigh* good times!