Welcome back to Wedding Land.  Rachel and I will be your hosts as you iron out the details of your travel itinerary. Many of you have reached out to us with questions regarding airports, hotels, do you have to get a blowout to come to Long Island...etc.

1.  Of course you have to get a blowout.  You also must get a complete outfit made entirely of linen.

2.  The best airport choice is MacArthur Airport in Long Island.  It's literally a few minutes from the hotel.  Please let us know if you are coming into this airport, and we will help coordinate shuttles to get people to the hotel. Other airport options include Islip (Long Island), JFK (NYC), Laguardia (NYC) and Newark (I guess, if you like...really really want to see New Jersey. Warning: there are no gardens in Newark).  If you choose one of these other airports, let us know and we will put you in touch with other guests coming into this airport.  There are reasonably prices shuttles that will bring groups to Long Island.  Again... MacArthur airport is MINUTES from the hotel.

3. The hotel.  We have blocked rooms at the Ramada Inn.  You MUST tell them that you want to book as part of our block - Cappola/Popson Wedding.  The reason for this is because we have worked out a special rate with the hotel that is going to include a shuttle to and from the wedding.  If you would prefer a different hotel and to provide your own transport to and from the wedding you are more than welcome to stay anywhere you want.  However, we would love to meet everyone for drinks at the hotel bar the Friday night before, and we would also like to continue the wedding fun at the hotel bar after we all go back to the hotel after the ceremony.  Also, every other hotel in the area is a bajillion dollars a night.
                             
                                   The Ramada Inn
                                   1730 North Ocean Avenue
                                   Holtsville, NY 11742
                                   631-758-2900

4.  The day after the wedding we invite everyone to come relax at the beach.  Doesn't that sound nice?      We will pile as many folks as we can into our cars.

5. Registry.  No, we don't have one.

6. Shoes.  We will be on a lawn.  Be comfortable and don't get stuck.

7. We will be in a tent with fans, but don't kid yourself.  Dress for summer weather.

8. About the cocktail party the night before.  We would love to see everyone the night before at the hotel.  The wedding party will have their rehearsal dinner and then head to the hotel for cocktails and welcome hugs from 8-10 for all the guests coming in the night before.  Another great reason to stay at the Ramada.

9.  The wedding reception is BYOB.



10.  Ha-I'm kidding, that would be so mean!

Can't wait to see everyone!  Just an FYI- when we leave our apartment to head to Long Island for the wedding, this will be the last time ever leaving the apartment.  After the wedding, Rachel and I will be moving to Buffalo for school.  Therefore- please do not send anything to our Brooklyn apt after, let's say, July 15th.

If you are sending us mail, please send it to:

83 Old Orchard Lane
Orchard Park, NY
14127

Thank you.  The end.

LJ

Why study when you can blog?

You've thought we'd disappeared, huh?  It's hard to write an adventure blog when there's a strong lack of adventure in our lives.  Yet...I'm writing today. Hm.... Interesting.  Why would I do that?

....what...

..what is that...????

adventure???!!!!

Finally!  We have an adventure to look forward to!  After begging and nagging Rachel for months, it's finally happened. Its my birthday present.  Two slots for TOUGHMUDDER VERMONT!!!!!

We are in such desperate need of adventure!  We've recently moved into our full year lease apartment.  Unfortunately its finals month at school and I have little time to put any attention into the place so its not totally set up yet.  That will have to wait until my last finally is officially taken.  But there is a comfy rug in our living room and a brand new leather couch.  For some reason, I've found myself reverting back to my childhood and sitting on the rug with my back against the couch.  It's my $1000 dollar leaning device. It's beautiful but awfully slippery and I find myself more steadied and comfortable on the ground.  You can imagine how happy that makes my economical girlfriend :)

Our apartment is on the border of Boreum Hill and Park Slope.  Why do we always, always find ourselves on the border of neighborhoods?

We both love our jobs.  Thank God!  Rach works at the hottest new restaurant in NY, ABC Kitchen, frequented by Oprah, choice of Obama's dinner campaign, and owned by Jean Gorges.  Did you expect any less?
I work for Top Chef Boss Tom Colicchio at Craftbar just two blocks away from Rachel (which is ridiculously amazing and statistically improbable).  I say they're the coolest jobs yet as restaurant standards go.

School is okay.  I think I over did the credits for the first semester.  I think maybe I should have waited until the fall when we got settled with our jobs and apartment.  Starting school, moving twice and finding and getting settled into a new job was a lot to handle and I think my grades suffered.  Next semester I'll have a better idea about what to expect and what is realistic for me to handle.

In other great, school related news, Rach will join me at Hunter in the fall!!!  She's going to be a physical therapist. So competitive!  I say I wanna be a nurse and now she's gotta be a doctor!!!
Know what I say to that??
This just means our kids get a cooler, safer car when they turn 16!  It also means they'll be super safe at home.  When they're sick, they can come to me.  We're they're hurt, they can go to Rach.  Power couple in scrubs! Seriously, what's hotter than two lesbians wearing scrubs?!

We're liking the fact that we're making actual plans that will secure our future but we miss adventure way more than we expected.  I swear, I think NYC is on a different time scale then the rest of the country.  Time goes by so fast here!  I'm exhausted from work and school and there's always things "to do" when I have time off.  Sometimes I'm so tired and blow off my things to do, which means that my next day off I have more to do.  This is where Tough Mudder comes to the rescue.
Not only is it totally awesome because Tough Mudders are the absolute coolest and funnest thing EVER.  BUT!  Rach and I have noticed a cycle throughout the years.  Working out = us being happy.  And we only work out a lot when we have something we're training for.  Not that we're not happy, we're just really stressed and busy and even though we know its not the same, it feels like life did before adventure.  It's almost like adventure never happened even though we know it did.  Training for a Tough Mudder will get our blood flowing again.  We've also never been to Vermont and of course we're going to make a romantic weekend out of it, which we also desperately need.  It's going to feel so good to jump in the car and drive off to somewhere we've never been.  I think we miss that the most.  The whole theme of adventure was to experience new things on a very consistent basis.  Our schedules in NYC are not very conducive to doing that.  We've grown accustomed to needing that and when we don't have it, lots of tension builds up.  Not towards each other, just in general.  Actually, in regards to our relationship, its the best it's ever been.  We're incredibly happy and we're always on the same page. We just need some adventure and I already feel a relief just knowing that there actually is one coming up.  I'm at school and supposed to be studying, but I thought it was a good time to pop in.  (It's amazing the things I find myself doing when I'm supposed to be studying).

-lj

Don't worry it's not over til we say it is!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had an amazing and not-too-stressful holiday season. 2012 is a big year for us adventurers. Although we are temporarily turning in our travel shoes and slapping on our grown-up shoes we figured we would keep the blog going for anyone who is still interested in what we get ourselves into in this "real world" that everyone speaks of. And... Joanna is an incredible writer and will need a good outlet when she's stressed out with science classes. And... sometimes the spirit moves me to write an update here and there =) We finally made it back to Brooklyn and personally I am so happy to be back. New York is my home. I know where everything is, it's so easy to get around, and most importantly my friends and family are here. I wouldn't trade our traveling adventure for anything but there is a huge sense of relief to be back on steady ground. We are subletting a beautiful apartment just ten blocks from our old place in South Park Slope until May 1st. Everything is included which made for a very seamless transition. Then come mid-April we will be established enough to get our own place! More to come later....just wanted to say hi and we're still going!

Love,

Rach

travel light

Rach and I are currently in the process of repacking our car after the first half of our road trip. I thought it was best to stay committed to my "travel suitcase" during our time in Denver so I'm done packing while Rachel is trying to figure out how she got everything to fit the first time around. We've had a travel method all this time. For our road trips we each have of the smaller suitcases in which we live out of. The larger, "permanent" suitcases full of clothes we won't need for our travels remain in the car and untouched. We decided to take everything out of our car while we were in Denver so that our car didn't weigh a ton while we used it for the 10 days. I put my big permanent suitcase in a corner and haven't touched it while Rachel dove straight into hers. I'm done packing. I get to blog while I watch her pack. So far lots of success creating a good balance this road trip between fun and relaxation. AMC helped by putting on a 48 hour Rocky I-V marathon on television. I'm going to list my highlights of the trip so far so that I don't go into a big long narrative of each one, which I have a habit of doing.

My highlights so far

1. Seeing a few people of college in L.A.

2. Exploring the beach in Malibu with Christina and finding all the cool starfish. Also the big rock we climbed. (Sorry mom and dad)

3. Hiking with Christina and Rachel to the waterfall.

4. San Diego Zoo with Steph and Rach. (Even though we got to the tiger cage too late to see it)

5. Going into some random bar in San Diego to watch the World Series only to find it was a Bill's backer bar.

6. Seeing the homeless person selling lies for a dollar. (He was "selling Michael Jackson tickets and had good crack"

7. Playing drinking games around the kitchen table with Nick, Kim, Steph and Rach at the Army Post and then listening to Nick and Kim sing a song in the livingroom.

8. Listening to Rachel freaking out on the phone with Chase bank after realizing she left her ID, her debit card, her credit card and a piece of paper with both our banking account numbers on it at the last rest stop we were at.... 2 hours back.

9. Watching Rachel find all those things while she was still on the phone with Chase in the cranny of the car door.

10. Drinking beers in the hotel shower in Vegas.

11. Going to bed at 10pm and never leaving our Vegas hotel because we were drunk.

12. Taking Becca to see the mountains.

13. Going out to dinner with Becca and Liz at Rioja to eat artichoke and truffle tortelloni.

14. Seared kangaroo meat. (I hated it, Rachel liked it. I think it tastes like what you would expect dog to taste like)

15. Sushi with Julie and Kelsey.

16. Cuddling up and watching endless hours of Rocky movies.

17. Cheersing Rachel because she handed me a glass of wine while I'm blogging.

18. Getting my official Hunter E-mail address.

19. Running errands all day to restart roadtrip tomorrow.

20. Looking forward to everything to come.

Tonight we're going to Stella for dinner. Tomorrow we'll get up early and drive to Santa Fe for where we'll hang out for a little bit before we head over to Albuquerque. We'll spend the night there and head out early for Dallas. Thats supposed to be a pretty long trip and I really want to check out Roswell on the way. We'll see how time is I guess. Trips really going to pick up momentum now so we're pumped and ready to go! P.S-Rach seems to still be packing.

-lj

Away we go

Well...the day is finally here. I figured since I haven't posted in months and Joanna is busy putting on the bike rack that I would take on the responsibility of blogging before we depart! The best news about this morning is that our friends came to say goodbye to us but decided to follow us down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!!!!!! No sad goodbyes yet =) And... Becca is coming to Denver so definitely no sad goodbyes there. I'm happy to say that our eyes popped open at 6am ready for our adventure. We saved packing the car for this morning and it is complete. Shipping six boxes definitely helped with freeing up some space. I have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving San Francisco but mostly I am SO excited to get back to NYC and be with family and friends. This was a very, very cool city and it really grew on us. Our jobs were amazing and we met some pretty cool people. Between trips to Muir woods, our tough mudder adventure, countless walks down the wharf, and some of the best food we've ever eaten San Francisco's definitely on the top of my list. Sadly our video camera has bit the dust but have no fear, Joanna insisted we get a new one. I'm sure Joey will blog later with more details but for now we must hit the road. To all we're leaving behind, it's been an awesome adventure... to all those in our path ahead... can't wait to see you =) Love to all xoxo

-lr

Last Times

We leave early Tuesday morning. Our last day of work is Sunday and of course, we've saved everything we have to do to be ready to leave for Monday. Personally, I'm in the nostalgic phase of leaving an adventure city. Everything in my mind is based upon "last times". The last time I'll drive through China town with the windows down after dropping Rachel off at work. Singing in the car in between stop lights where I drop my volume and watch all the Asians dedicate themselves to finding the perfect produce. All of them picking their way from market to market rummaging through countless bins of vegetables, roots and fruit I can't identify, searching for an acceptable specimen. The elders, all always so hunched over, ancient looking and scowling as if nothing in the world any longer meets their standards. There's always several panic-sticken looking men and women, practically sprinting, carrying heavy suitcases or pull carts, trying to make a bus that isn't going anywhere fast enough for them to miss it. I enjoy my drive through China town- it's like driving through a wormhole into a completely different world. Today was my last time sitting on my blanket in Percita Park with a book, my eyes stinging with clumsily sprayed tanning oil. My time in the park is rarely relaxing because it revolves around trying to find a comfortable balance between reading without sun in my eyes and getting my face tan. This is never relaxing because the balance doesn't exist. The relaxation only happens at the times when I put my book down so I can rest my arm and watch all the dogs play catch with they're owners who only like to talk about what breed of dog they have. You'd think I'd have learned to just leave my book at home. The goodbyes and mapping out of goodbyes have started to happen at work. I hate goodbyes. I'm sick of saying them and feeling the sadness that wraps itself around them. The hub of construction right by my house shifted in the past two days which means my last turn left onto Bryant to go to my house was had without my knowing. I feel cheated. Besides my last day of work at a job that I love, the biggest last is going to be my last walk down the wharf in between Rachel's and my restaurants. I can't count how many times I've done it in the past five months and it's probably my favorite part of the day. There's street performers, sometimes sea lions if I feel like walking down Pier 39, about 20 languages happening around me and a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz the whole way. This last walk will happen tomorrow. From Fog City Diner to Cappuros, which is the favorable direction because the wharf gets busier the closer you get to Cappuros. Also I can take my time since I'll be coming from work rather than rushing toward it. Saying goodbye to my coworkers isn't even something I like thinking about. I've worked here the longest of all the places and these people are like my family. The only bad thing I could possibly say about this job is about the uniforms. White in a restaurant is silly and impractical. That being said, I couldn't ask for a better job or for better coworkers. Thank God I don't have to say goodbye to Becca yet. If I did, it would make this week a million times more stressful. Becca will be coming to Denver for a few days and I'm so excited to show her one of my favorite cities in the country. As sad as all these "last times" are, we're ready to go. We don't hate San Francisco. Actually, we've grown to really like San Francisco. But it's time to move on. I just found out a few days ago that I was accepted into Hunter College. At least that's what the recording sounded like when I sneakily checked the status of my application via phone. I'm 99% sure I was accepted to Hunter. I'm going to start in February and have about 8 classes to take before I can apply to Hunter's Nursing Program, which is one of the best in the country. I'm keep thinking back to an 18 year old Joey, showing her chemistry teacher a blank homework sheet in defiance. He would look at me, take a deep breath, mark something down, and move on. Once he walked away I would lean back in my chair and continue my conversations with my friends about rehearsal the day before and about rehearsal after school today. I was going to be an actor- I didn't need to know chemistry. .....woops. The average GPA of a student getting into Hunter's Nursing program is 3.5. Whats the difference again between an electron and a proton? I'm excited to actually find out if I'm smart if I apply myself. I'm telling myself I am. I'm also telling myself I'm lucky part of the Nursing School application is a personal essay. One thing is for sure- that was the 'last time' I get to get away with not doing my Chemistry homework. I wish I was able to savor that moment more...I feel cheated. -lj

Y Adventure

Today will be an adventurous day. Sadly, probably the last adventurous day in Northern California before we leave. Rachel and I are packing our backpacks for our Yosemite adventure this morning. Becca and Brett are on their way to pick us up. We can only stay one night but we're all very very excited. Please excuse my lack of fluidity and imagination with this blog- blogging usually only happens after several cups of coffee and I am functioning only on a few sips.

We'll be staying in a hotel tent- a tent with a wooden frame and canvas walls. I, of course, keep having flashes of bear encounters which is up there with "Joey's Top 5 Fears". When we return tomorrow night, I work everyday until the day we leave, which while stressful, is fiscally necessary. I absolutely promise to do a serious NorCal reflection as well as a briefing on our trip across the country (which is going to be amazing). Today though, I will be busy meeting nature as I've never met her before. I promise not to climb any trees Mom and Dad- at least not too high. ;) lj

Tough Mudder NorCal 2011

I should probably tell you about Tough Mudder while it's still pretty fresh in my memory. We woke up Saturday morning around 8am and finished all our last minute packing. We made extra sure we had all our energy bars and gu's, our gloves for good grip, our sneakers and our brand new outfits and white headbands. We decided that morning that it would be quicker for Becca to meet us here and keep her car in our driveway since our house is closer to the Bay Bridge than hers. We both woke up with lots of energy and were practically bouncing off the walls. It was finally here! I absolutely insisted that we bring the video camera. We have one and have barely used it this whole adventure! So dumb. Finally, Becca arrived and the first thing I did was grab the camera to capture our departure. We stopped for some breakfast before really getting on the road and I got to enjoy a pumpkin latte, which is one of my favorite things. And a pumpkin muffin. And a sandwich. A great thing about knowing you're about to do an event is that you don't feel guilty about what you eat beforehand. Rachel was driving, I rode shotgun with my latte in hand and Becca was sprawled in the back and we set off for our 4 hour roadtrip to Squaw Valley. The ride was beautiful and as we got closer we noticed a car on the highway packed with a bunch of dudes around our age. I had a strange feeling they were headed for the race too. A grabbed a piece of paper and wrote in big letters "Tough Mudder?". We got in the lane next to them and pushed the paper against the window. They smiled and gave us a thumbs up. About five minutes later our cars lined up again and there was a piece of paper against they're window this time. We got closer. We squinted. What does that say? "SEX?" Boys. Rachel laughed and Becca and I rolled our eyes. We gave them a thumbs up and drove on. We finally got to Squaw and realized it was almost at 7,000 feet elevation. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It looked like the movies. I kept wondering what it would be like to go snowboarding on these mountains and felt a touch of sadness that we were leaving before I could find out. We checked into our room, which we realized was a suite (sweet!) and we headed into the village (steps from our lodge) for some food. The small village was totally taken over by Tough Mudder. Most of the people had done in that day and were sporting the orange headband you're handed when you cross the finish line. People were also sporting limps. Lots of limping. Some people had scrapped legs, a few were on crutches. We would ask some people in passing how the race was. The response wasn't motivating. Everyone took a deep breath before answering and they would all respond the same..."it was long. Much longer than you think it's going to be". "oh....ok" we'd say. Lots of people told us to tape our ankles since its so rocky. Lots of people also told us to make sure we ate something with potassium along the way because cramping was a huge problem since our bodies were getting cold and wet so often. Not once did someone say "oh man it was awesome! I wish I could do it again tomorrow!" We were slightly weary of this "super long race" and we headed back to the lodge to sit in the hot tub. There were some tough mudders in the hot tub so we asked them how it was. Luckily, these people were super friendly and said it was lots of fun. They also told us how long it was, to tape our ankles and to watch for cramping. But at least they said it was fun! We headed to the room to relax a bit and went to get some dinner. The whole village was in party mode because so many people had already done the race and we felt a little left out. We headed home to make sure we got to bed nice and early. The next morning we woke up around 6:30. We got dressed and went outside to discover something that we hadn't anticipated. It was absolutely....freezing. You could see our breath in the air. We were told it was going to be 90 degrees. We were also told that the first obstacle of the race was in cold water. We laughed nervously about our discovery and headed to breakfast hoping that the sun would heat the world for us within the next three hours. Our start time was 10:20 so hopefully, the elevation meant the sun had super powers. We ate as much as could at breakfast and headed over to register. It was already warming up and we felt much more confident in the temperature. We got our numbers drawn on our heads with a sharpie, had number flags on our backs and returned to our room to stretch and gear up. We were all definitely nervous, but really excited too. Our biggest fear was that we didn't want to be cold for six hours, which is how long we expected the race to be. After about forty minutes and calls to parents we realized it was time to go. We walked over to the starting point where we stood with our group of maybe a few hundred people and an MC got us all jumping and excited. Before we went, the National Anthem was sung and it was the most I've ever enjoyed it. Most of the group I stood with were standing there because they had raised money for troops. I never feel too patriotic but I really did at that moment. After that was done, the music was cranked up again and the jumping continued. Everyone put up their right hand and repeated a pledge prompted by the MC. It went something like "Tough Mudder is not a race. It is a challenge. I will help my fellow Mudders finish the course. Comraderie comes before my finishing time. Tough Mudders do not cry. Babies cry." We jumped a few times more and it was time. Last high fives and nervous smiles. Here we go....its about to start....holy shit.....GO! And we were off. It was such a large crowd that the only people who had the option to run were the people right in front. It was kind of a slow shuffle out onto the course which was pretty anti-climactic. Good thing though because the course was immediately up hill. After about a half hour of fast paced hiking (most people fact paced hiked the whole thing- running was for super hero's only) we came to our first obstacle. It was a pit of mud blanketed with barbed wire. We had to army crawl through the freezing mud under the wire. It was really, really cold. But it was also really, really fun. We got out and continued. The obstacles were all really fun and also either very cold, or very difficult, or both. We had to submerge ourselves in an ice bath which is scary because your body almost stops working and you have a marine screaming at you to go faster. About half way through I saw one of the most touching things I've ever witnessed. A lot of people who do Tough Mudder are people from the army who have lost friends, have hurt friends and were hurt. I saw one guy with no hand fling himself over a wall like a one armed ninja. So anyway, we were hiking, hiking, hiking for what seems like forever and we noticed that we were coming up on some sort of a bottleneck. A team of about 8 people. One of them, was in a homemade wheelchair constructed of heavy duty wheels, a seat, a pair of crutches and handles on the side. Me, Becca and Rachel all had to stop for a moment and watch what was happening. There was a girl in the wheelchair with no legs below her knees. They were fake. Her team was carrying the wheel chair up and down the mountain. When they would come to an obstacle they would ALL complete it. They would carry her and she would use her arms and thighs to help. To make this clear...there were sections of the mountain, a lot of them, that you almost had to sit on your butt and slide down or scramble up because it was so steep. It was slippery, and rocky and absolutely no joke. If this girls wheelchair tipped over, which I saw almost happen a few times, there was going to be a serious problem with probably serious injuries. We watched them for a second and told them they were rockstars when we passed them. We stopped after completing the next obstacle to watch them do it. They all did. They all scrambled over and under logs in a maze of more barbed wire. Tears glassed over all of our eyes and we promised each other that we wouldn't once complain during the rest of the challenge that we were tired or cold or in any pain. I didn't see them at all after that. I would love to know how long it took them to complete the whole course which turned out to be around 13 miles and went up to almost 9,000 feet of elevation. Hands down the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. After almost 6 hours and about 25 obstacles, we finished the race all three of us holding hands and sprinting through the finish line. We jumped up and down and hugged and grabbed our free beer. All I could think was "Oh man, that was awesome. I wish I could do it again tomorrow." -lj

everything

First, I must say thank you to everyone who donated to Wounded Warrior Project. The race is on Sunday and I gotta tell ya... we're a little nervous. The Tough Mudder website says to work your way up to six miles runs, which we've done, and to be able to bang out 15 pushups in a row, which we can also do. However, something tells me that running 2,300 feet up a mountain covered in mud over the course of 11 miles might be a little bit harder than running a straight line up and down the San Francisco Bay...I dunno...just a gut feeling. Never the less, we're really really excited. Not only for the race but to go on a little 3 day vacation with our pal Becca. Also, once the race is over... the planning can begin. Oh yes...oh yes, we're getting close to the countdown ladies and gentlemen. The countdown...for the next page of our lives? No. The next chapter then? Oh yes, yes it must be a new chapter! But no. This is way bigger than that. Well....ok yes, I guess the road trip east can be a new chapter sure...BUT...once we hit the other coast of this big, beautiful (and I can tell you from personal experience, it is pretty beautiful) country, we're starting a BRAND NEW BOOK! A new volume to the Rachie and Joey Saga! I don't know about you but for us, "excited" doesn't nearly cover it. Want to know why ending adventure is so much more exciting than beginning adventure? Because once "travel" adventure number one is over...."life" adventure gets to start. Know whats gonna be in "life" adventure? Everything. In about three months, Rachel and I get to unpack our suitcases for the last time and start everything. It feels very similar to when you're about to graduate college and about to conquer the world, only instead, we're probably going back to college, and we've already conquered the world. Or at least the country. When I shut my eyes and fast forward 2 years, I see me and Rachel living in a very small apartment in Brooklyn, sitting on a love seat, with medical and anatomy books sprawled across the coffee table and plates containing discarded bites of a poorly cooked, but healthy, meal at our sides. We're trying to study but can't stop talking about what our future house is going to look like. We're laughing about how much easier it is to carry three plates to a table than carry five textbooks on the subway. If that Joanna shuts her eyes and fast forwards another two years, we're in the same living room, packing our old textbooks into boxes. We're carefully wrapping our wedding albums in tissue paper and putting those in boxes as well. There's another box in the corner labeled "scrubs" and I silently congratulate myself on my new job. We're moving into our new house tomorrow, our first house. It's small, but everything we've been dreaming of. Most importantly it has a lawn. Which brings me to my next fast forward. It's five years later this time and I'm inside our house. It's Sunday and its the first Bills game of the season. The game starts in a half hour. I'm excited for the game and I'm throwing a tiny Bills Jersey over the head of my favorite person in the whole world. I hand my favorite person a small, soft football and explain how important the game of catch is and hand in hand we're headed outside to the lawn for the very first lesson. So, why are we so excited for adventure number two? Because it's gonna be everything. -lj

in the mood for a quickie?

I'm sitting at the computer waiting for my friend Becca to come over and play in the park with me so I thought, hey, might as well update my friends. Last Sunday I played softball on my sister restaurants team and we won twice. I was MVP by default (I was batted in a lot) and had some of the best fun I've had since I've been here. I'm counting down the days to Sunday when i get to play again. Beers and softball at 10 in the morning on a Sunday is definitely on the top of my list. We play against other restaurants which for some reason, makes it more fun. I'm almost done with my new tattoo! I've sat for 7 hours total so far. It's on my right arm and is a half sleeve and its the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Every time I'm in the chair I'm amazed that I'm (well, Rachel) is paying someone an obscene amount of money to basically torture me. It's my birthday present and I was looking at it today and must say, its coming out beautiful. I kind of wish I had stuck with my original plan of a quarter sleeve instead of a half, but then everything would look smooshed and not as pretty. I'm hoping I only have one more session left. It's frustrating because I've been trying to work out a lot, training for race, and every time I get tattooed I have to take a few days off to heal. What else is new?...hm... I still like my job. Oh! How can I forget! I applied to college yesterday! I applied to four CUNY schools. It's basically just to take my pre-reqs for nursing school. I want to go to Hunter for nursing school so I hope I can take my prereqs there too. Uh oh. Becca is here. Guess we'll finish this up later. Adios! -lj