Subway Tunnel Love

Klane's subway stop for work is the Rockefeller Center station. I transfer at that stop on my commute every day. Sometimes we meet below ground on the subway platform and ride home together. This is tricky since there's no cell service down there. We have a secret special meeting spot on the platform where we know we will find each other. It's always fun to walk down the subway stairs with the expectation of seeing a familiar, favorite face in a crowd of strangers.

Last Friday I spotted Klane waiting on the platform next to a pillar. Our eyes met and I walked toward him. When I reached him, he pulled out a bouquet of flowers from behind the pillar! It was the most romantic moment of my week.
I think I picked a good husband. I'm glad he picked me too.

"Let's take a picture!" "No wait, the train's coming!" "Just hold still!" (click)

Our lives have been very very busy busy busy lately. I wish I could post here every day. But the posts would say, "I went to work today. I got home at 7:00. We ate food. We played video games/watched a movie. Then went to sleep." That's pretty much it. Work, eat, sleep, work. Oh and church on Sunday. I've even worked a few Saturdays. These New Yorkers know how to work! Kind of nuts.

This week we are: attending company Christmas parties (to which spouses are not invited, unlike back home. BOOO.), feeding the missionaries, doing last-minute Christmas shopping, chaperoning a youth stake dance, visiting/home teaching, and gearing up for our trip home next week. Home! Next week!

monday night at the shack

Monday night. Spontaneous FHE date night. Shake Shack.

I love the shack at night, because I love the lights hanging from the trees. I also love the fall leaves. And I loved that there was almost no line, but it wasn't too chilly out. Every time I eat that burger I love it more.

Mostly I love love love the man sitting across from me at our little table under the lights. He is so good to me. I could never make it out here without him by my side.

he's HIRED!!!

That's right. This handsome devil officially has a real live JOB.

I've been waiting for the right time to do this post, and today is the day. Today is Klane's first official day as an Art Director at DDB New York! That is right, he got the job. We are thrilled and feel so blessed to have this opportunity! I'm so proud of my handsome hubby.

the way we do it in manhattan

There are many things we do differently here than we did in Utah. Buying a couch is no exception. None of this "buy a couch, put it in your truck and take it home" business. No, we bought a couch in a box!

We ordered our couch online from Home Reserve, the perfect solution for tiny-apartment-dwellers like ourselves. The couch is mailed in two 50 pound boxes, and you assemble it yourself! So much easier than hauling full sized furniture up stairwells.



My wonderful husband hauled both boxes from the UPS store to our apt, six blocks and two flights of stairs, for which I am eternally grateful. He is also pretty good with a power drill, which is kinda hot.




Home Reserve was awesome. The couch was so easy to assemble; all the pieces are numbered. And they even give you these nice gloves so you don't get splinters in your hands!




Put together the frame, add the fabric covering, and voila!



A couch! And don't worry, despite the fact that it's made out of particle board, it is actually sturdy. And an added bonus: it has storage compartments under the cushions! Perfect for our small space. We are loving having our apartment come together. It feels so much more comfortable now. I'm so excited for it to be complete so I can take pictures and post them.

Speaking of our little apartment, I have a funny story. We always thought it was 450 square feet because thats what the previous residents always said. But when we measured the walls to calculate how much paint to buy, we made a shocking discovery! Our apartment is actually closer to 325 square feet!!! When Klane told me, for a moment I felt like the walls were closing in on me. "Oh my gosh, this apartment is so small! How can we live here?!" But then I realized we've loved it for months thinking it was 450, and it's actually still the same size (even though my perception has changed). So all is well. Kind of a funny realization though.

live jazz on park ave

We like to meet up for lunch around 54th and Park. That's between our offices.
Monday there was a free jazz concert across the street from our usual spot. Sweet!

What could be better than hangin out with your best friend,
in gorgeous weather,
with pb&j's, a banana and sodas,
listening to live music?


Oh, and speaking of live music...
check out this fun video from our DC trip. I almost forgot about it!
National Symphony Orchestra, live at the Capitol:

on our walk to church

There are a lot of really awesome churches in Harlem.


Not exactly sure what this is talking about. Kind of funny though.


Me and my lover. Sunday best.


Inner City.

we went on a trip to DC

It was such a great time and a much-needed vacation with just the two of us. We loved it! We'll definitely be planning another weekend getaway somewhere else exciting.

The problem is, we took over 300 photos in the three days we were there, and they have to be processed before posting. I have now narrowed them down to 110 images. Working on choosing the ones I want to post, then editing. Whew! Expect more posts in the coming days.

a walk in the park

Klane and I had such a nice, relaxing Saturday together. We woke up late to the sound of rain outside, then had yummy oatmeal blueberry pancakes with peaches and cream. (They were amazing. Definitely keeping that recipe around.) We spent a lot of the day inside since it was raining, but we are loving this cooler weather. I know this summer was unusually cool for Manhattan, but the humidity and heat we did experience was quite enough. We're ready for cooler weather.

Later the rain stopped and we took a leisurely stroll through Central Park to eventually get to the Apple store. We definitely took the long way but it was so nice to hold hands with Klane and enjoy the nice weather. I've been wanting to see this famous bridge, so we walked by and took some pictures. Hard to capture, but it was pretty in real life.







At Bethesda fountain this guy was making giant bubbles and the little kids were loving it. It was fun to watch the wonder on their faces; so cute. There was also a wedding being shot, and I had to sneak a picture. I love anything wedding related, they just make me smile. The horse-drawn carriages were lined up and I thought the horses were especially beautiful. Seeing the horses made me miss visiting my grandparents' ranch in Hatch Utah!







After the park, we hit the Apple store and walked through some other stores between 5th and Lexington Avenues. It was so weird to walk through there at night; I am there all the time for work during the week, but it was like a completely different place at night. Kind of fun to see the night life side of that part of town. We rode the 6 train uptown and felt very grateful for our three subway lines on our side of town, compared to the one they have on the East Side. Maybe we're biased. I think ours are so much less crowded!

On the way home we picked up a classic New York style pizza from Giovanni's. Sometimes a giant, cheap cheese pizza just hits the spot.

we went on the roof in a lightning storm

Another big thunderstorm rolled through the other night. From our third floor window, the buildings around us block a lot of the sky. At the moment when the lightning seemed to be striking all around us, the thunder was so loud and buckets of rain were slamming against the windows, I suddenly decided it would be awesome to view this storm from the roof.

Klane was all for it. We donned rain jackets and climbed out the window onto the fire escape. (Yes, we are completely insane.) This happened to be the moment the storm was at its climax over our area. I've never been outside in that much rain, it was blowing sideways and honestly felt like someone dumping buckets over your head. We were immediately drenched, but excited. Each flash of lightning and the closely following thunder urged us to climb faster.

(these were actually taken on the way down, after the rain stopped)

At the second to top floor we had a better view of the sky, and the wind was blowing like crazy and the rain was still dumping. The lightning seemed so close! We were like, "This is so crazy! I can't believe we're doing this!!" That's when I looked up at the ladder to the top and imagined lightning striking it while I was climbing it, and we decided to turn around. :)

Our "scared faces." The rain smeared my make-up everywhere. But I thought these faces should still be documented.

We climbed down a few floors and let the storm pass a little before going all the way to the top. You can tell from our faces in the next picture how exhilarating the whole experience was. We had just reached the top and still were a little nervous about getting struck by lightning but really excited because we were seeing quite a show. Every few seconds, huge bolts of lightning were spreading across the sky over the city.

This was the only "lightning" shot I got, we only brought the dinky camera out into the downpour. If only we could've used a tripod and a long exposure!

By this point it wasn't raining so hard, and we were able to watch a spectacular lightning storm over Manhattan. It was amazing! Something I will always remember.

klane's first ny scout campout

Highlights:

~ Klane teaches scouts how to cook a perfect hot dog over ideal cooking coals. Scouts decide it's taking too long and cook their dogs over the camp stove instead.

~ Klane teaches scouts how to toast a perfect marshmallow over above-mentioned coals. Scouts become impatient and burn marshmallows. However, a few catch on and produce perfect lightly toasted mallows.

~ The group walks near the lake, and the leaders point out constellations. Some of the scouts don't know what stars are (aside from 'tiny lights in the sky') and leaders explain they're actually giant balls of gas burning billions of miles away, to much awe and amazement.

~ A discussion ensues while looking up at the heavens. Topics include God, the universe, the priesthood... and aliens.

~ Klane gets minimal amount of sleep while making sure scouts stay in their tents and out of trouble.

~ Klane announces he'll be fixing Egg McMuffins for breakfast and asks how they like their fried eggs cooked. Scouts have no idea what an Egg McMuffin is, and don't know what he means by asking how they like their eggs. He attempts to explain, they say 'we don't care, just cook them.' The first scout is served an egg over easy and proclaims that his egg isn't cooked because the yellow part is all runny. (?)

~ The scouts discuss music with their leaders. Klane impresses them by revealing that he loves Kanye and the occasional Tupac.



I asked Klane for more details, but he passed out on the bed before I got much more out of him. He's now been snoring for about 90 minutes. I do know he had a lot of fun, and that they also got to go swimming. I'm sure he's going to have a blast with this calling!

counting blessings

Sometimes I get sad and wonder why anyone would ever want to live in this big, stinky, noisy, crowded city. (It's usually on days when I've been cooped up inside the apartment all day. Tuesday it rained. All. Day. Long.)

But then I get to go to work, on Park Avenue, for heaven's sake. My walk there is beautiful in the morning light.



I get to work at a really great office. (This is it:)



I get to meet my cute husband for lunch.



I get to be married to this handsome guy.



We get to meet up with friends for dinner at a crazy cool restaurant.



And then I realize I should stop feeling sorry for myself because life really isn't so bad. There is a lot to be grateful for and although it's inconvenient and lonely and hard sometimes, living in NYC is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we ought to soak it up while we're here.

dinner and harry potter: a saturday date

After running past Dinosaur Saturday morning, we were both craving some barbecue. We decided to try something close to home, so we went to Dallas BBQ on the Upper West Side. The food was pretty good and the portions were huge. We'd choose Dinosaur over Dallas any day though, because their barbeque is better and they have a variety of yummy sides that come with the meal. However, Dallas satisfied our craving and that is all we ask.

After dinner Klane suggested we go for a walk. That's just what I was thinking! But instead of heading east into the park, he lead me west to wander through the avenues of the UWS. I think it's such a nice area.

When we got to Broadway he lead me toward the subway station. He said he had a surprise. (Did I mention I love surprises?) We ended up at a movie theater to see The Half-Blood Prince! I've really been wanting to see this movie. I love husband. He knows me so well.

{ I have to review the movie, because I absolutely LOVED it. Klane and I agreed that there were scenes where we felt like we were watching something we'd seen before, because they did such a great job of depicting it exactly how we had imagined it in the book. Oh, I loved it. I haven't read the book for a while, but I thought they did a great job of covering the whole story. Sometimes I feel like the Harry Potter movies are a lot of random scenes patched together, or that they add unimportant stuff but leave out essential details. This one was great. A few random scenes and things changed, but not bad. I loved the humor they brought in with all the crushes and drama between the students. These kids are becoming better actors and they had some hilarious scenes. I also loved how the movie was made for the fans. They didn't try to make it accessible to people who are unfamiliar with the story. They didn't waste time explaining basic Harry Potter knowledge or catch the audience up on where they left off with the previous movie. They just jumped in and told the story as if you know all the background. I think it was a great call to do it this way, because re-capping is boring to the people who really want to see this movie: the Harry Potter fans. Plus there was so much material to cover, they couldn't waste any of the 2 1/2 hours on re-cap. I think people who haven't read the books would still be entertained, however, because it isn't too hard to follow and there was a lot of entertainment in the relationships between the students. I loved it. I want to go out and buy all the books and movies. }