U-Haulin' to Texas

Kathryn and I finished our trip down to Texas a week ago. We left Sandy, Utah after sacrament meeting and stopped right outside of Denver and stayed with Josiah Roueche's parents.
Leg 1: The trip across Wyoming and down through Colorado took about 10 hours. As we got closer to northern Colorado, the drive was really green and luscious. Leg 2: The second portion of the trip continued through Colorado, across Kansas (extremely very boring), down through Oklahoma and eventually into Texas. Leg 2 was about 14 hours.
The trip wasn't so bad to be honest. The worst part was the ease of driving with our U-Haul. It was very easy to turn, which would be good normally, but made it very difficult to drive straight on the highway going 75 mph. At times it was a bit dangerous.
One thing Kathryn and I decided as we drove was where we will never live. We will never live anywhere in Kansas, anywhere in Wyoming (except the south-eastern tip or maybe Flaming Gorge, Wyoming), probably not Oklahoma and probably never New Mexico (it's just not that much better than the first Mexico to be honest). We didn't travel through New Mexico, but I have before, and we aren't living there.
In total, we took two days, 24 hours, and around $600 of gasoline. And the U-Haul wasn't cheap either. If you are thinking about moving, talk to us first and we can talk you out of using a U-Haul or Pods or buying a bunch of junk and hoarding it like starving squirrels.

Friends + Haircut = LOVE

While we were in Utah, I tried to see as many of my lovely friends as I could. Alas, I could only really see the people who came up to Salt Lake, but of course there is always room for Aaron, Ryan, and John's house.

Can I just declare my love for my friends? I seriously would be lost in life without these two wonderful girls: Becca Weed Severson and Kellee Leandra Fremming. Two of the most amazing girls ever. They make me laugh like no other and while others think I may be odd, these girls actually think I'm funny. At least they make me think they do.

Another group of girls I love: 344. My roommates in 344 of The Colony were AWESOME. That was one of the best years of my life. I got to see Miss Chrissy Barnes while in Utah because we were going to Bev's wedding reception. Oh, and we watched Last Comic Standing the night before. I also miss Liberty Baker, who made me laugh so hard we would cry. If only our walls or Turbo could talk, they would bust out laughing. 'Cause we were crazy.

Anyway, that's my tribute to some of my best friends.

On to the next topic...

I got a haircut!! That's right, after a year and a half of not going near a haircutting salon, I decided to cut and cut big. It's way different from anything I have ever done, but I'm getting used to it. Drew especially likes it when I curl it. Plus Bec, Kellee, and Chrissy all stroked my ego by telling me it looked cute.

The Last of the New York Fun.

Well, the time has finally come. We are officially done with the New York experience. It was definitely fun to go, but Drew and I agreed that we would never want to live there. We are now in Utah and have been since Wednesday night. It seems completely dead around here. Where are the thousands of people wandering around like in NYC? Oh well, I like it better like this.

For the last week in NY, Drew's parents came out and stayed with us. We had so much fun with them. I think they kind of wore themselves out, but I think all in all they enjoyed themselves. We showed them around, taking them to Times Square the night they came, to Grant's Tomb and Rockefeller Center and the American Girl Store (which was AWESOME) and the Empire State Building and the M&M store and the Hershey's factory (kinda lame) and then they went and saw Phantom of the Opera that night. The next day they had to wander around by themselves. Then we just kind of showed around. Sunday we went to Harlem 1st ward and Central Park and Little Italy. Lots of fun. And this was all a week after Drew's mom had surgery. She is a fighter.

Anyway, New York was good to us. I'm so glad we were able to go. Although Drew didn't LOVE his internship, I thinks it's better that we went. It looks snazzy on a resume.

Well, our next adventure is.........

TEXAS! That's right, we are officially going to Texas to work before Drew can apply to UT-Austin or BYU. We want to establish residency and since the standard of living is wayyyyy cheaper than Cali, we thought Texas would be more affordable.










Left: Drew;s parents licking a sucker at Dylan's Candy Bar. Center: Us at the Manhattan Temple. Right: At an awesome Italian restaurant in Little Italy.

That's it for now! More updates from Mansfield, Texas.

Carnegie, Canal, Lion King and Darcypants

The latter part of the week was pretty good. We went to a performance at Carnegie Hall, visited Soho and Canal St., and saw Lion King on Broadway.

Carnegie Hall
We saw the BYU Chamber Orchestra perform at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, which was amazing. The building was beautiful and the Orchestra played splendidly. It really was good. It was a 'good relations' PR stunt for the Church, actually. There were more than 100 ambassadors and dignitaries from more than 30 countries, and then the rest of us were members and other people that came. BYU has about 650 music students, with 400 performing in orchestras. There are five in total, and the BYU Chamber Orchestra has the best 49 students. They were pretty good. They performed Copland, Dayley, Rossini and Beethoven.



Canal St. and Soho
Canal St. is an area at the southern end of Manhattan infested with little shops with tons of stuff. When I say tons of stuff, I mean tons of the same stuff. Every shop is about 5 x 15 feet, with each shop owner selling perfume, purses, watches and shirts. I'm not sure if the merchandise is fake. Or if its stolen. Or if its fake, stolen merchandise, but it was cheap. Kathryn bought a few purses, we both bought some smellgood stuff, and I got a shirt. It was kind of fun because you get to bargain with everyone. They want your business so bad, that you tell them what you are willing to pay, and they will agree to sell it to you or not. If you can't agree, you just walk away. Kinda fun. Soho is one of the swankiest places in NYC (probably second to Fifth Ave.). The Tommy Hilfiger store had about ten racks of clothing and a live DJ spinning Usher. Naturally we went in to go check it out. Soho is filled with little shops and restaurants and I think we walked past Jay-Z and Beyonce. Not 100 percent sure on that, though.

Lion King
We saw Lion King on Saturday night. It was the one Broadway play that I wanted to see when we were planning what we wanted to do here (Kathryn's was Wicked). It is kinda different because the play is designed with muppet-like puppets and people. You have to use your imagination a bit to imagine the people aren't there, but its still pretty interesting to watch from an artistic point of view. Much of it is the same from the movie, with a few added songs. One of those songs is "He lives in you," which Kathryn and I saw performed by the BYU Young Ambassadors on our first date. It's originally about Mufasa, but BYU performs it and then sings "I am a child of God," focusing the message more on your relationship with Heavenly Father. It's cool.

We decided this week we will be leaving NYC. We want to go live where we can establish residency and pay in-state tuition for when we begin graduate school. We are still debating the pros and cons of going to Texas or California.

P.S. I watched 'Pride & Prejudice' (2007) for the first time ever tonight (I promise). To be honest, it was not that bad. I thought it was worth my time to understand why women go crazy about this book/movie/whatever else. And as an added bonus, once we start earning some money, I have a new idea for my new wardrobe. You can't be wrong if you can find a million ways to annoy a million women in such a short time, still end up with the girl in the end, and look this good doin' it.

Weekend Update

So... more exciting sightseeing news from the Peppers. Hopefully no one is bored out of their minds yet. Yesterday Drew and I went to the Brooklyn bridge and walked across it. It took about 15-20 minutes but we have recently realized that we walk a lot slower than the average person.

Once we were across the bridge there is this pizza place that claims to be the best pizza in New York, so we checked it out. Turns out...

it's pretty good. A huge lined formed once we got in line so it turns out that walking slow has its benefits.

Today we checked out Central Park and went by Tom's Restaurant. This is the famous Seinfeld restaurant. We have already eaten there and it's actually not too bad.

We also went to see the Phantom of the Opera on Thursday. I thought it was awesome but Drew claimed there were "boring parts in the middle." That's probably when he went to sleep. Although it was awesome, and obviously the music was AMAZING, there was this group of middle schoolers that were sitting right behind us and they were so annoying. They would make comments to each other and hit the back of our chairs with their feet. Honestly, you'd think thirteen year old boys would be able to appreciate something like that better.






Kathryn at Phantom, the infamous Grimaldi's, and the fatty line to get into Grimaldi's (can you see me?)


The Brooklyn bridge, Drew doing his Kramer impression, and Central Park

Capitol, Capitol

For Memorial Day weekend, Drew and I went to Washington DC with some friends, one of Drew's fellow intern-ites. It was another couple, Jordan and Candace, and we had so much fun. Candace had bought a "What to do in Washington DC book" so we were all set. We got up and left super early on Saturday morning. Traveling at any extreme part of the day can be scary in New York. Scary people are out really early and really late.

So anyway, we saw tons of stuff. And here is a list:

White House
Washington Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
WWII Memorial
Vietnam Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Reflection Pool
Holocaust Museum
Botanical Gardens
Smithsonian--American Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of Natural History
Capitol Building
The Nationals' baseball park



The White House, Drew and I at the Washington Monument, Us with the ORIGINAL Wright Brothers plane thingy.

Drew and I at the Nationals' Park, Me at the Vietnam Memorial, the Hope Diamond


We hit the ground running on Saturday and saw all the memorials because they are bunched together. It was really hot there in DC but it was such a difference to New York that it was actually kind of nice. We walked everywhere but luckily we got a hotel that was right by everything we wanted to see.

So Saturday was the memorials and then we decided to go to a Nationals game because we didn't really have anything to do at night. Then Sunday we went to church with one of Candace's friends. The church building was actually in Maryland, which I thought was pretty cool. We took the subway to get there. After sacrament meeting, we went and took a little nap and then we went to the National Mall, which isn't really a mall at all (I was only slightly disappointed). It's like a mall of museums. All the Smithsonian museums are on that strip of land so we saw those museums and then later that night we went and saw all the building lit up at night. That was really, really pretty.

Monday was our last day and we took a tour of the Capitol building and then went to the Holocaust museum where you go through as a person who actually went through the Holocaust. They give you an identification card and you go through as that person, seeing the Holocaust through their eyes. It was really intense and emotional but so worth it.

I think the thing Drew and I liked best about it was that almost everything was free. All the museums and tours were free. NOTHING is free in New York. They even make you pay to breathe. DC is so drenched in American culture and it is so beautiful. It was really refreshing to go there and have a respite from the noisy, chaotic life in New York. That was our Memorial Day weekend!

Yankees Suck! (really bad, actually)

Tonight was our first Yankees game.
A few weeks ago we went and bought fake-jersey t-shirts so we could fit in with the locals a little better (we thought it might reduce our chances of getting mugged as well). We bought Kathryn an Alex Rodriguez and I got a Derek Jeter one.
We were excited to go even though the weather report was calling for 90 percent precipitation. We bought ponchos and trekked down to Yankee Stadium anyway.
The whole experience could have been a little better.
We were crammed like little sardines in the subway for 30 minutes, then had to check our bags for $5 because no backpacks are allowed in the stadium. And it was raining.
Rodriguez (last year's MVP) was returning from being injured. Before he batted once, the Yankees were already down 9-0; he bats fourth in the lineup. The whole night was like that. Jeter was hit by a pitch on his hand in the third, and promptly left the game. Kathryn and I were freezing so much that we left early. But according to ESPN, all the players almost got into a fight in the 6th inning when someone else was almost hit twice. Crazy New Yorkers.
(P.S. I wrote a blog about a certain Canadian basketball player, but I got in trouble at work, so that is why that post was removed.)









Some of the ladies my appreciate this Derek Jeter photo. Kathryn likes Derek Jeter because he used to date Mariah Carey. This is Kathryn attempting to stay warm (it wasn't that cold).

Ten Things that make the PEPPERS smile.

1. Our Mac- what would we do without a computer? Buying the Mac was one of the best ideas we have had as a married couple. I would personally be bored to tears and Drew would go crazy not being able to check ESPN the minute he comes home from work.

2. The Bachelorette- Okay, so Drew doesn't like this show but I loved the last Bachelor so I hope this season DeAnna won't disappoint me. Last night I went to work out for the second time that day just so I could watch the show. And yes, it was a 2 hour premier, so I pedaled on the stationary bike for 2 hours. I need a new hobby.

3. NBA playoffs- I don't like watching these but it brings me joy when Drew is able to relax and do something he really enjoys doing. And he really likes hashing out plays and spouting off statistics with the other guys in the common TV room.

4. Packages from people who love us- We just got a package from my mama and it was one of the best things ever. Mail is always great but there's something about a package that just makes you warm inside. In the package there was a bag of Tootsie rolls, a bag of Rolos, a bag of gummy bears, a box of cookies, and a decoration for our apartment. I guess I'll have to start working out for three hours everyday with packages like that.

5. Working out- It's basically the one thing I do every day that makes my day worth while. Drew also LOVES playing basketball with the boys.

6. Being together- This is self explanatory. I am a greedy person. I like to spend my time with my husband.

7. Doing awesome things in New York- Yeah.

8. The I House Cafeteria- Although we are getting disillusioned now, there still are some good deals down there. And some good food. Don't let them trick you-the fajita and the quesadilla are the same thing!

9. Subway's Five Dollar Footlongs- What a deal.

10. The New York Public Library- Instead of buying a $15 book every two weeks, I get to read books for free!! Yes, I am a nerd.

Some Not-So-Awesome Things

Our lousy fan- It's not strong enough or loud enough.
The weather- It's gonna rain tonight. Again. When we are at the Yankees game.
Not getting paid- This is definitely the worst. I want to shop. Boo.

The Weekend of Museums and Italy

Friday: Drew and I finished up the Museum of Modern Art and saw the original Starry, Starry Night and a lot of Picasso's work and much, much more. We don't really appreciate the art, but we do enjoy
taking pictures of it. And of each other. But it was really cool. We ate at Applebee's in Times Square afterwards, so it was a pretty fun night. Except that it was raianing.

Saturday: Night at the Museum?? We went to the American Museum of Natural History with all of the BYU interns. It was cool to see all the things that they used for the movies Night at the Museum. We only had about an hour to look around, which is ridiculous because there was way too much to see. Anyway, it was neat and Drew got to see a lot of dinosaur bones.

Mama Mia!! After the museum we went to Little Italy with some other married interns (we like to stick together). We got a little lost and didn't think it really existed but finally we saw the green, red, and white flags! It was so fun and Drew said it looked exactly like Europe. We ate at Giovanna's and Drew had penne pasta with red sauce and I had tortellini with cheese and meat and red sauce. Soooo good. I can't remember the last time we spent that much on a meal. Anyhoo, that was the weekend report and this week we get to look forward to a Yankee's game. Yay.

Shea Stadium

Drew officially has enough time to start writing on the blog and I definitely think that this post should be done by him. But last Sunday I nagged and nagged him to post something to no avail. Then Monday he asked, "When I am going to have my blog debut?" So obviously he wants to write or he wants to drive me crazy. Maybe it's 50-50. So, Wednesday we went to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets play the Washington Nationals. I know I'm a girl and watching most sports is just boring in general but this game was MEGA boring.

Seriously.

There was A hit up until the sixth inning and then there were 2 hits. Wow. Then the Nationals hit a home run and then the Mets hit a home run. The cool thing about that was that a little apple came out of a hat when the Mets player hit the home run. When the other team hit one we just kind of watch as he ran around the bases. I wanted to cheer but I would have gotten the wrath of 10,000 Mets fans.

Cold. It was freezing, making me uncomfortable. When you're uncomfortable and bored, you're slightly miserable. At least Drew was there and even he thought the game was pretty boring. We ended up leaving in the middle of the 7th.

Wandering around New York

On Saturday we decided to go take a tour of the NBC studios and see a little of FAO Schwartz and all that jazz. But going to the city without a definite plan means that you are going to be walking around New York for a while. Which is what we did on Saturday. In fact, we wandered around for about nine hours.

It wasn't so bad, we actually found a lot of cool stuff. Well, first of all we saw the NBC studios, which was kind of a rip off but we got to see where they film Saturday Night Live. That's all Drew really wanted to see anyway. But the day kept getting better for him. We also found the Apple store and then we found the NBA store. I was a trooper and went in the stores with him and took pictures but other than that they were slightly to mildly boring. We stumbled across the ritzy part of 5th avenue. See, the part that is by Times Square is really not the cool part. It's actually really dirty. But the ritzy part has stores like Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Tiffany & Co, etc. That's the nice nice part of 5th. We didn't spend any money, because then we wouldn't have been able to live for the next month. It was fun to look around, though. It wasn't so fun that we did it for nine hours. My feet felt like lead by the end of the day. But at least it got me out of the house, since I sit at home during the week because a) I don't have a job and b) the weather isn't the greatest right now. At least that means more blog postings. And book reading.


This is Drew and I after about 5-6 hours of wandering. The other picture is Bloomingdale's.



Ahhh Tiffany's. We went in and looked around a little but we felt like we were too scrubby to stay inside. The picture on the right is 5th avenue.



Where we had a tour and the Apple store. The store isn't attached to a building, the elevator takes you straight down into the store. It's pretty cool.



The NBA shop. Whoopee. Radio City Music Hall was kind of boring. We just saw it and went into the gift shop, where everything was overpriced. Oh well, it's part of US history.

Book Review: Rebecca

So, I go this book from one of the most wonderful people I know, Miss Liberty Baker. She gave it to me because of graduation and she knew I had a big trip ahead of me (New York). Anyway, I was a little hesitant because it looked like a romance novel--I'm not a huge fan of sap. I read Wicked first because I knew we were going to the show when we got there. Well, I finished Wicked on Wednesday and so yesterday I picked up Rebecca, almost reluctantly. I read the back in preparation and all the sudden it hit me: true love. This book is the book Hitchcock used to base his movie Rebecca after!! Hello?!!! My capstone class was about Hitchcock--he was basically a genius. I started reading right away. Okay, so it does have some classic romance features like the long descriptions of things that could take two sentences. But I love it. I'm so excited and I should have know Libby would have gotten me an amazing book. I'm sorry Libby for ever doubting you. I never will again. But can you blame me? I mean, look at the cover. Red satin? And Kristin, it was creepy in the airport when you called what it looked like...exactly what it looked like. You should start a psychic hotline.

I'm only on page 80 out of 380 so I have a ways to go but I'm going to guess this book is going to be awesome, if I know anything about Hitchcock. But let's be honest. I spent four months with him, basically. Except that he's dead. Other than that, though, I feel like we are close friends.

Wicked!!!

Last night Drew and I went and saw Wicked! It cost quite a bit of money but that's the musical we really wanted to see here, so we figured it was worth it. I was so pleased, even though it leaves out so much of the book. It would have to have been about 5 hours longer if they had included all the details. It was soooo good. My most favorite song is Defying Gravity....so good. I was excited all day and I could barely sit still while we were watching it, I was so happy. We still have yet to see Phantom and the Lion King. Yay! We love Broadway musicals!!!

NYC!!!!

Ok, so Drew and I are officially in New York, as most people know. It is so crazy here!! We live in the upper Manhattan area, right next to Harlem. Drew and I actually went to the Harlem Family Ward today. It is something so different to experience, especially after being at BYU for the past four years. But no matter where you are, the Church is always true. Isn't that amazing?

Well, yesterday Drew and I went to Ground Zero. We thought there was going to be a monument but I guess they haven't made one quite yet. There is still some stuff from the original buildings standing. It was weird because there were people there trying to convince us that 9/11 was an inside job. There was also tons of vendors selling fake designer purses. I thought, Can't you do that somewhere else? I guess I think of Ground Zero as a more special place than that.

New York is something that I never could have readied myself for. The city is so big and there are so many people. Most of them don't even speak English, which I guess stands true to how it was in the beginning: a place of refuge for those from other lands. We use the Subway all the time. We don't want to pay for a taxi and we paid a lot for the use of a MetroCard, which allows you to unlimited access to the subway and the buses.

Yesterday we also went to our first Broadway musical ever!! We went and saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and paid for the cheapest tickets so of course we were super far away. But we had a pretty good view--well, except Drew because he had a guy's head in his way. But it was really magical and I am so excited to see all the other Broadway shows. We got tickets for The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, and we are going to try to get tickets for Wicked. I have to see Wicked while I am here. Drew doesn't really care--all he really wanted to see was The Lion King. Anyway, that's it so far!! I'll try to keep this as updated as possible.

We will include a list of the stuff we have seen or done so far. The craziest thing you don't really understand until you are here is how close all of this stuff is to each other. You walk down and every block you see one of these things (almost).

Things we have seen or done so far:
- Seen Mary Poppins
- Walked around Columbia University
- Went to church in Harlem
- Visited Ground Zero
- Seen the Empire State Building (Drew works inside)
- Bought stuff at K-Mart
- Shopped (kinda) on Fifth Ave.
- Wandered around Times Square
- Ate $5 Footlongs from Subway like 3 times
- Seen the (in)famous Apollo Theater in Harlem
- Had authentic New York style pizza
- Bought Broadway tickets for Lion King and Phantom
- Seen Madison Square Garden
- Viewed artwork at the Museum of Modern Art (Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Warhol's Monroe Pop art)
- Seen but not visited (and we plan to go and visit later): Rockefeller Center, New York Public Library, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Empire State Building, ESPN Zone, David Letterman, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park