NY cont'd... Is it the person or location?

Okay so you've all been anxiously awaiting to hear about my trip to NY. Just calm down! This girl is busy and I can't really expect the government to pay me to blog so I have to do it in my spare time, what is that, when I'm not working. I'm going to blog a few different times about my trip being that we packed so many different things into a little over 48 hours....

The trip started off at Dupont Circle where I waited to catch the bus up to the City that NEVER sleeps! I was way excited to get away for the weekend and to see Carrie and Carrie (McKee and Nygard) as well as an old college aquaintance (now friend), Katie. Yes, you just read that correctly. It was Katie, Carrie, Carrie and Katie. But let me tell my first adventure before I even stepped foot on the bus to head north. I was handing my ticket to the trip coordinator in order to get on the bus and all of the sudden I was doing a 360 and almost fell over. I look up to see what gust of wind could've been so strong to spin "Joe" (my backpack received a name b/c it was so heavy it was almost like carrying someone on my back) and me completely around and stumbling back a few steps before being able to catch my balance. But I see no hurricane, tropical storm, tornado or even a slight breeze. But what I do see is some woman storming off shaking her head. I can only imagine what was going through this 5'5'' woman's mind as she pushed me, and Joe, out of her way. What would give such a small woman (I'm using the term woman loosely by the way) the idea that she was justified? I'm gonna have to go with the fact that I must have looked like her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend that he just went back to b/c of her anger issues. That's the only thing I could come up with. It's either that or she was apparently having a really bad day and the two steps it would've taken her to walk around Joe and I just caused her way to much effort. The thing is, I DIDN'T EVEN SEE HER COMING.... I didn't even get a chance to get out of her way. There was no "excuse me miss" or "can I get by" or heck, even a "move!" would've been better than being made a tackling dummy. After I realized what had happened AND that she wasn't sorry, I thought to myself "I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be the rude ones. If it gets worse than that, I think I may just take the Metro back to Vienna."

Thankfully, it didn't get any worse. In fact, it got better. Being the tourists that we were, it was quite an adventure to get uptown, to downtown over to the Eastside and Westside. But the Carries were very good for the most part in figuring out what train we needed to take and how to get around... and when all else failed, we'd ask somebody. To our surprise, New Yorkers are very nice. The seem to be very proud to be from NY and were more than willing to help you take delight in their amazing city. I suppose that everyone in NY isn't like that, but as far as I'm concerned New Yorkers are A-OK in my book. Even a couple drag queens helped me find my way back to the Upper Westside after a long day of walking around in Chinatown. I got the full New York experience! I wonder if people were nice to us b/c we always had our map out and it was painfully obvious we were trying to make our way in this big city of theirs!! Either way, I don't care. They were helpful and nice and not once did I feel nervous when we weren't sure of our direction. Thank you New York, we enjoyed you and your residents!

More to come.... :)

New York New York....

I'm on my way to New York right now... I plan on posting updates and pics as soon as I can! I already have a story though.

Food for my soul

I have a friend. And I think everyone needs a friend like this friend in their life. Her name is Carrie and she is literally feeds my soul...through laughter, wisdom, Godliness, and love. It's been one of those weeks for me. You know, one of those weeks that you feel like your world is turning upside down and this can't possibly be MY life? Yeah, one of those weeks. But God is so good to me. He planned it perfectly. You see, Carrie lives out in Colorado. But not this week!!! God brought a little piece of Himslef to me through Carrie. I don't know how she does it but she somehow can put all of my of thoughts that I can never really put into complete sentences and help bring clarity and direction to them. If you only knew how hard of a task that is, you would be impressed. She is so wise and I admire and love the way she encourages me to continue to seek God and who He has made me to be through every situation in life. It's amazing how she can see God's story in everything. Well, I'm super tired b/c it's late so maybe I'll write more about how much everyone needs a Carrie in their life but for now I'm off to bed and am thanking God for His gift to me today! :) Hebrews 3:13-15!

Good bye Bywater, Hello BY WATER! :)

Well, it finally happened. Mom and Dad closed on their 3304 Bywater Ct residence. Quite an impressive feat if you understood what this means. They successfully removed every little "keep sake" that they have saved "in case we wanted to show OUR children's children" from the house. And then not only did they get everything out in preparation for that dreaded closing day, but they managed to make a 23 year old, well lived in home, back into an empty house with only a few reminders that the Scotts were once here (Cinder's claw marks on the front hall closet, mom's scripture in the kitchen, and of course, the bball hoop in the yard). We had to convince mom that it was okay to throw away the spice that she bought back in May of 1978 (that is not an exaggeration) for a recipe she wanted to try. Can you see why Dad's idea of putting a bomb in it and lighting a match looked very attractive at times? I'm pretty sure spices go bad with in a couple decades. But maybe I'm wrong. I've never claimed to be kitchen savvy. Granted her food is always off the chain (mom that's EBONICS for really good or wonderful), so maybe we could all learn something from her 30 year old spices!

Mom and Dad worked really hard to get everything done this past week. I would go over there periodically and help do whatever I could but in all honesty, every time I went over there I felt like Mom was Mary Poppins and their home was like her purse. More things came out of that structure than should be possible. I went over after the movers had come and gone and I swear I about fell over when I saw all of the stuff that was left in the house. I was like, "Are they coming back to get the rest tomorrow?" But somehow, we got it all out, cleaned and ready for inspection. Good thing for Dad, they taught him how to clean a bathroom at the Naval Academy b/c he was down on all fours with a toothbrush in hand ready to tackle the mildew anywhere in site! Poor mildew, it never stood a chance!

After the walk through it was time to sign the papers. This is the stuff Dad loves. He gets to show the world how organized he is and how together he has everything! If you know Dad (which all of you do) he has binders for his binders of organized stuff so this should be a simple deal right? Just go in, sign the papers and write a check for closing. Well I was wishing them luck as they realized that the closing was actually 30 mins earlier than they thought and oh yeah, Dad can't find his CHECKBOOK! WHAT?! My dad can't find his checkbook 30 mins before closing time???? "Who are you? And what have you done with my father!?" This is the part where I get to come in and be the hero. I actually knew exactly where his check book was b/c I had helped move all the computer and bill stuff to the Allen's house and I remembered seeing it when I was taking it out to the car! yay! The day is rescued and they rush off to their closing! IT IS FINISHED!

It was really weird to see our home so empty. That home has brought so many people together for so many years, which is I'm sure what it will continue to do with the next owners. But I guess that's why it was so weird b/c it's not our home anymore, it's someone else's. They seem like nice people and their son actually goes to Oakton, plays lacrosse, wrestles and is in the chorus. Not bad for one kid. But then again, he's only one kid. They probably won't have quite as many sleep overs, team dinners, baby showers (pretty positive about that one), Christmas parties (do you think anyone will just show up this year?), or game nights as we did but it will be home to them and I think they will love it just like we did. I don't think it's as much the actual house that we loved but the support, love, laughter and growth that we received from within it that makes us so fond of 3304 Bywater Ct. So see, you thought this was going to be sad... but my point is that we can make this new house into a home in a matter of minutes b/c it's not about the actual physical structure but it's about what's inside. And who knows, we may have a few more laughs and a little more love b/c Dad doesn't have to sit in Northern VA traffic anymore (Hallelujah!)!!! :) I will post some pics from the day as soon as I get them from Mom and Dad (maybe next Christmas). So for all of you who have called to see how closing went, there you have it. It went well.