Weekend of Service

I had a very busy weekend. On Friday night, I went to see a performance of The Vagina Monologues because my former roommate was performing as the narrator. I enjoyed it more than I thought it would and felt much less awkward than I thought I would. On Saturday morning, my fellowship group and I went to a church in Brooklyn to serve breakfast to homeless and needy people. We had a great time sharing in the joy of a hot meal with men, women and children from the neighborhood. One 75 year old woman even showed us her dance moves as she tried to teach one of us the Samba and sang show tunes. She was fabulous!

I spent four hours Saturday afternoon locked away in the NYU library working on my capstone project, which is basically a business plan for a publishing venture that I am supposed to present to a mock panel of venture capitalists in order to get my Masters degree.

On Sunday morning it was back to volunteering as my roommate and I spent the morning in the church nursery. She worked in the 3-year old class, and I got to be with the newborns. It's been a while since I spent time with kids, and I cherished getting to hold and play with the babies. Since we missed our normal service time by being in the nursery, we went to the evening service where we also volunteered with more people from our fellowship group as ushers.

Busy, but a weekend well spent.

Maybe you had to be there

Dustin and I love to argue, or at least we argue all the time. Today, it was over the color of his pants. I thought they were brown, and he said they were gray. I conceded that they could be considered charcoal, but what was hilarious was when we walked over to our co-worker, Sally, and Dustin asked, "What color are my pants?" She replied, "Green."

Flickr Mosaic or What I Did Today

I blame Becca

1. Whoa...Amber is the color of your energy..., 2. Manna, 3. Walking on Glass - Pismo Beach, California, 4. ~ Duck Dance ~, 5. David Boreanaz, 6. Still Life - Cherry Zero, 7. Maybe the last one..., 8. small pizzookie, 9. Izu with two of his seven cubs, 10. Wall Of Peace - Moscow, 11. Edinburgh A-Z (2) : A is for Astronaut, Explorer & Dinosaur., 12. Joe the Horse

want to make one of your own?

step 1: go to flickr.com
setp 2: in another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
step 3: choose 4 columns, 3 rows
step 4: answer the following questions in the search bar of flicker. pick your favorite one on the first page and paste it into your mosaic

1. What is your first name? (Amber)
2. What is your favorite food? (Cheese)
3. What school did you go to? (Horizon)
4. What is your favorite color? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (David Boreanaz)
6. Favorite drink? (Cherry Coke Zero)
7. Dream vacation? (something tropical)
8. Favorite dessert? (pizzookie)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (a mom)
10. What do you love most in life? (God)
11. One word to describe you. (quirky)
12. Your nickname. (Arizona)

Me as a Superhero

You can be a superhero too: The Hero Factory

NYC Elephant Walk 2009

Someone told me last year about the annual Elephant Walk, but I didn't make it out. I wanted to be sure that this was one thing I did before I moved away from New York, so last night five of my friends and I stayed up until after 1:00am on a weeknight (hey, we're not young undergrads anymore!) to see this once in a lifetime sight: ten elephants, nine horses, and two ponies walking across 34th street in Manhattan.

When the Ringling Bros. circus comes to town, their mile long circus train is too long to come into the city. If it did park at Penn Station, could you just imagine trying to get all those elephants up the escalators? So, every year the circus train parks in Long Island City and the elephants walk through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and across 34th Street to Madison Square Garden at about midnight.

It was a chilly night at 32 degrees, so we waited inside a Dunkin Donuts on 34th between Madison and Park in anticipation of the elephants' arrival. We went straight after class, so we had a couple hours to goof off.


Poor Laura came after work, so she was unprepared for the cold wearing just her scrubs and a jacket. When we ventured outside as the time drew near, we had to find creative ways for her to stay warm, like standing in a phone booth to block the wind.

Finally, just before 1am, the elephants approached our spot.


Photo via semyon's flickr.

Unfortunately, my little camera and the lack of light doesn't do this justice, but it was so exciting to watch all the elephants walking trunk to tail so close to us. As they passed, we started walking along toward the subway, and people were running to keep up. Elephants walk surprisingly fast, faster than they look. The whole night, we just heard people randomly yelling (in anticipation, for the arrival, and for the parting) "Elephants!" It was a great experience, feeling that we were part of this New York tradition, waiting with hundreds of other strangers just to see elephants walking in the street. Definitely fun, and definitely worth the lack of sleep. Thank God for coffee!

Stealing coworkers

Last week someone took my Coke Zero out of the fridge at work. I was a little peeved, but I realized that leftover sodas from meetings often get put in there (though Coke Zero is never one of the sodas provided). So, I started putting my name on my drinks. No biggie.

What I can't for the life of me figure out is who is taking the drinks from UNDER MY DESK!! I bought a case to keep at the office, and I put it under my desk at my cubicle. It's easier to just grab one from there each morning to put in the fridge, but I know there were three in there when I left last week, and today there was only ONE left!! Hello? Do people think I'm not going to notice? I'm pretty sure it's the woman who cleans our floor, as I know everyone who works close enough to me to come by and see that I have the soda. Either that, or it is some mysterious elf or leprechaun. It remains a mystery, but I will have to find a new safe spot for the future.

It's Official or Wedding Invitations and Babies

I mailed our wedding invitations last week and also told my boss that Michael got a job at Nationwide Insurance, so we're moving to Ohio. That makes everything feel very official. Of course, the wedding planning has been in the works for a long time now, and Michael was offered the job earlier this year, but now that people are invited and my boss knows I'm leaving, it makes everything feel so much more real. May is going to be a crazy month for me. I'm going to rent a car and drive from NYC to Columbus, drop my stuff off at our new apartment and continue to Bloomington for Michael's graduation on May 8th. Then, we're both headed up to Chicago for my brother's undergrad graduation on the 11th from Wheaton College. Back to Bloomington to get Mike's stuff, drive it to Columbus, drop it off and turn around and drive across the country to Phoenix to get ready for the wedding on the 23rd. Our honeymoon will be in Hawaii from the 24th-29th. Then, we'll drive back to Columbus from Phoenix. I hope the Previa is up for the job.

On a side note, a crazy high number of people I know are having babies. My boss is having twins, and they're due on the same day as the wedding, though she's not on the guest list. My roommate's sister is due on May 21st (the roommate is invited but not the sister). On the guest list, however, are four pregnant women- due May 14, May 25, early June, and late July. I hope it's not contagious :-) I'm not ready just yet!

This sparked my curiousity, and I discovered that August is actually the most popular birth month according to the U.S. Census, with 387,798 taking place that month in 2006.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm>

Also, I am in love with the census website. There is fascinating information there! For example: Facts for Features: Mother's Day

Crazy Love

At 22, Leslie Morgan Steiner seemed to have it all, a Harvard diploma, a glamorous job and apartment in NYC, and a handsome boyfriend. But this golden girl was hiding a dark secret. She'd made a mistake shared by millions, she fell in love with the wrong person. Crazy Love Leslie Morgan Steiner Book Trailer

returning crumbs

When you open a new bag of chips and half of the bag or more are in tiny pieces because some careless worker smashed them in delivery or stocking, or some inconsiderate customer smooshed them trying to reach something else, don't you just want to return the bag? I do. I want to take them back for a bag of whole chips. Alas, that is entirely too much effort for food that isn't even good for me.

My Life in Song

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title.


Pick Your Artist: Jewel

Are you male or female: Stronger Woman

Describe yourself: I’m Sensitive

How do you feel about yourself: Innocence Maintained

Describe where you currently live: 1000 Miles Away

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Barcelona

Your best friend is: You Were Meant for Me

Your favorite color is: Deep Water

You know that: Who Will Save Your Soul

What's the weather like: Becoming

If your life was a tv show, what would it be called? Life Uncommon

What is life to you: What’s Simple is True

What is the best advice you have to give: Jesus Loves You

If you could change your name, what would it be: Adrian

Your favorite food is: Sweet Temptation

If only I had a chicken...

I think I've seen similar tactics on other animals. I wonder if you could find something surefire for people...

Christian the Lion and SoulPancake

I know it will never happen and it's not a good idea, but I've always wanted to own a big cat. Just check this out:


Another cool thing out there is this new website that recently launched. Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight from The Office) helped create it, but I like it for much more than that reason. I like the idea and the responses I've read so far. Check it out: SoulPancake

I Need Spring Break

When spring break rolled around in Arizona, the temperature was already in the 70's and 80's and the perpetually sunny skies were, well, sunny. To me, spring break was more about the break than about spring. It was a week off of school and responsibility, time to take a mini-vacation, catch up on stuff or veg in front of the television.

I now realize that spring break is for the rest of the country. People don't just flock to Cancun, Panama City Beach, and San Diego because they have a week off. They do it because so called "spring" looks like this:

my street

my office building

Madison Square Park

Monday morning, I woke up to a winter wonderland. What a way to start the month of March! Even though weather.com advised people in New York to stay indoors due to the extreme cold and the still falling snow, Dustin and I made our way to work and even took the time to capture the morning on his new camera.

The Spam Cheer