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Saturday night we headed down to SoHo/East Village to see a comedy show. Before the show we went to Maria's favorite restaurant in the city, La Esquina. It's a cute little place on a corner, that only seats about 10 people; however, luck was on our side and all four of us got a seat.

We didn't end up going to the comedy show. Standing room only was left and it was a 2 hour show. Not my idea of fun. So, we opted out, went to a thrift store in the East Village where Maria and I both found some good finds, and then drank the night away at Big Daddy's with their delicious milk shakes.  

It was a really good night. 

Patricio Pistolas

Pat started at a new ad agency today! We are both really excited for the move and that he is working with another one of his BYU friends, Klane. There were a lot of things he did not like about his old agency, and even though he is moving to an equally big agency, we are hoping that they will be more "with it" and are able to give Pat what he is seeking.

I know there will be certain things about his old agency that he will miss, namely the people. I mean, how can you not miss people who make majestic posters of you with dinosaurs, rockets, wolves, and doves? 

I cannot express how blessed we feel to have jobs. Every night we thank Heavenly Father for blessing us with careers that provide for us monetarily and have the added bonus of us actually enjoying them! We are so lucky, and we know it. 

The winter that never was...hopefully

One thing New Yorkers NEVER take for granted is good weather. Mainly because a day with good weather comes once in a blue moon. However, New York was lucky enough to have a beautiful day this past Saturday, right in the middle of winter, or should I say the winter that never was.

Pat and I took advantage the beautiful day by walking to our friends house in Harlem. We took the long way through Central Park and just enjoyed the sunshine, non-humid, mid 50's weather. It is amazing how I feel like a completely different person when the sun is out and the temperature is reasonable. I don't even realize what I funk I am in, until the sun comes out and I suddenly feel like I can conquer the world.

We also celebrated the good weather by tagging along with Nate and Ashley Smith to New Jersey and enjoyed Chick Filet and Walmart! Now, life doesn't get much better than living the life of a suburban middle class American. 

My Semi-Annual: My Husband's Secret FB Life

As I have mentioned before, I probably only engage in the phenomenon of Facebook for about 10 minutes a week, only for the simple fact I get bored. That is probably because I don't have much to share, unlike Pat, whose Facebook page managed to keep me totally entertained during my 10 minutes of Facebook stalking for this week.

Look at what I found:

I am dumbfounded when Pat says he doesn't like his work, 
when I find pictures of him wearing a horse head.

FB Title: "My favorite part of the day." 
I will ignore the fact that it was posted by a female co-worker. :)

FB title: "The obscure awardosaurus"
When I see pics like this I just can't help to wonder how the heck this photo came about.

FB Title: "Kids playing."
Next time Pat comes home so tired from work, I will know why. 

Pat in the yellow mask...

Can you believe Pat get's paid to do this all day? 

Oh...the life of a Creative. 

Growing Old With Pat

i-phones can do anything! With this i-phone app, we just took a picture and within seconds Pat and I aged a good 50 years. You would think I wouldn't like the outcome, but I actually think I look really cute!

This just confirms my suspicions that Pat and I will be the cutest old couple, EVER.

MLK Jr. Weekend

This past weekend was such a treat because we were able to relax with good friends.

To kick the weekend off, I went to my friend, Casey's, baby shower. As with all parties here in NYC, the hosts were beyond talented and threw such a sweet party for her. One major highlight from the party were Kelsey's caramelized bacon strips on a stick. Let's just say life does not get much better than eating bacon on a stick.

Of course our weekend was full of football, as usual. I am really trying to be a good wife and not complain when we watch game after game of football, but let's just say it is hard and apparently I am not a good wife. However, I was getting a little into the whole Tim Tebow excitement. I mean, who doesn't love a modern day Christian hero? (Okay...probably a lot of people, but not me!) I have totally jumped on that bandwagon and even thought he was going to pull off another "Tebow Miracle" with the game against the Patriots. But alas, no such luck, or miracle rather. 

Next on the weekends agenda was hanging with Tommy and Amanda Smith. Tommy and Amanda just moved to the area but it seems like we have known them forever! Amanda treated us to her homemade cinnamon rolls, which I had not one but TWO helpings. It's a good thing that I know better than to set any healthy New Years resolutions, because there is no way I would have been able to resist those puppies.

Next, we continued out chain restaurant love with another set of Smiths, Nate and Ashley, by eating at one of my favorite NYC joints...I-Hop. Yup. I. am. super. classy. But let's just say, it NEVER disappoints. Plus, good company always helps, and we just love the Nate-Dawg and the Shug. 

Then to top off our friend-extravaganza-weekend, we hung out with our other favorite couple, Matt and Maria (we are so lucky to have the best group of friends here in the city. Really. The BEST!). We are able to just hang out and do nothing and have a great time. We went to Empanada Mama, which had some great arepas and empandas. Yet, alas, I am still on the search for an arepa that is as good as my Venezuelan friend's, Valentina's, mom's arepas. I haven't found ANYTHING that even slightly compares. I dream of her arepas.

I love three day weekends. One day really does make ALL the difference. 

Nutty Montee

Montee is nuts. This video just gives you a glimpse into what I mean.

Welcome to Canada

(Video courtesy of the best video blog out there: Shouldisendit2nate)

I know I have a weird sense of humor, since videos like the magic show kids make me practically pee my pants, but this video made me REALLY question my sense of humor. I mean, why did this make me laugh uncontrollably at work to a point where I had tears streaming down my face?

P.S. Ever since watching Beavers: IMAX (instant play on netflix) I have had a huge respect for this animal. Probably up there on my top 10 list of coolest animals.

P.P.S. And since I am on the topic of being really geeky and revealing my obsession with animals, we recently watched a really cool documentary on dogs, called Dogs Decoded (instant play on netflix). Definitely a good watch...if you're into that kind of thing.

New Years Eve 2011 {Times Square}

Yup. We did it. We saw the ball drop in Times Square on New Years Eve. And even now, after it is all said and done, I still don't know if it was really lame or really cool.

The day started out like the rest of the week, sleeping in and eating at a chain restaurant, but not just any chain restaurant but CPK-California Pizza Kitchen. When we were there, I realized that we ate at CPK years prior on New Years Eve, and I decided that this should become one of our traditions.

While we were there, Pat downloaded an App on his i-phone that allowed him to see a live video stream of Times Square. At 12pm Times Square was PACKED! We were planning on heading over there around 3, but once we saw all those people we got kinda nervous so we headed over ASAP.

In trying to prepare for the night and convincing our friends, Tommy and Amanda, to come with us, we ended up getting to Times Square at the time we had previously planned--3pm--it was a mad house.  There were thousands and thousands of people that had no idea what was going on or where to go, and we were right there with them. All the streets to get to 42nd and Broadway, where all the concerts were going to happened later that evening, were already at full capacity and blocked off. Some how we managed to make into one of several "corrals"along Seventh Avenue from 42nd Street (Times Square) to 59th Street (Central Park).

These corrals where quite interesting. The police would let a certain amount of people within a barricaded space on each block. Once in the corral you were not allowed to leave, if you did, you were not allowed to come back. This was quite a commitment since it was 4pm and we still had 8 hours until the ball dropped. Even though I was sure not to drink much water that day, I still didn't know if my bladder would be able to hold out (I did manage to talk my way out and back in to go to the bathroom, and thank goodness because I learned that my old lady bladder just can't hold out that long). After Pat's Thanksgiving Parade mishap, we also made sure that Tommy and Amanda didn't drink anything prior to coming either. Amanda was quite upset that she couldn't drink a sprite with her pizza and was craving a "lemonade" for the whole 8 hours, but I know she was grateful come 11pm and didn't have to pee.

2012 or bust

I think we played more Uno, in those 8 hours, than I have ever played in my life, combined

The 8 hours waiting for the ball to dropped went by both quickly and slowly. We were not able to hear any of the concerts that were happening during the evening, which was a bummer (it turns out that in order to hear or see all that you needed to be at Times Square at 6am). Every hour, starting at 6pm, they would do a mini count down and celebration for a New Years that was being celebrated some where in the world. This offered a bit of encouragement and excitement that gave us just enough to keep going.

We were really lucky this year because the weather was so unseasonably warm. The coldest it got was probably in the low 40's. So we thought, "if we were going to do this whole Times Square thing, this was the year to do it."

All in all, we had a great time being with our friends. We knew if we weren't there we would just be at home watching it on T.V. wishing we were there.

Relive the last minute of 2011 and the first minute of 2012 with us by watching this video:

Will I ever do this again?

No. 

Was it worth it? 

Maybe not.

Am I glad I did it? 

Most definitely.