bedtime meltdown

Last month we took a family trip to San Francisco where we got to spend time with Isaac's extended family as well as some old friends. Isaac's aunt and uncle generously opened up their home to all 8 of us, and their kids kindly shared their old Thomas trains with Aaron. He had a fabulous time running the trains around the track.



Problem is, he was having so much fun that he didn't want to stop. He flipped out when we told him it was bedtime. It was one of those instances as a parent when I know I need to be firm, but I can barely contain myself. It was also hard not to provoke him. (I only did it once!)

Casimir Pulaski Day

Today is Casimir Pulaski Day.
Illinois schoolchildren rejoice.

+1 Chicago

In 2006...

- Isaac and I spent New Year's in Thailand with his family
- We visited San Francisco with friends
- We went to LA for Isaac's brother's graduation and and took a quick road trip to Arizona and Las Vegas
- Isaac got a new job and quit his job in MD
- I quit my job in VA to feverishly plan our wedding
- We moved up to NJ to live with my parents; Isaac then moved into our apt in NYC
- We got married!
- I moved from NJ/VA to our apartment
- We took a nice 2 week honeymoon to Hawaii where we hit the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai
- I found a job I like (!)
- We spent a week in Barcelona with Isaac's family

And in the lives of our families and friends...
...1 nephew was born
...1 brother graduated from college
...2 family members passed away
...3 family friends passed away
...4 friends got married (two of them to each other)
...3 friends got engaged (two of them to each other)
...2 friends had a baby (with each other)

It's been a very full year. Most of this stuff happened in the latter half of the year though. Actually, everything that's happened with our families and friends happened after we got married, which is a little weird. It feels like our lives were semi on hold during the wedding planning.

I'm writing this from our hotel in Spain - this trip has been a nice close to this eventful year. I can't wait to bust out some wedding cake for our six-month anniversary and start the new year when we get home.

music memories

For a lot of people, songs bring up feelings or sometimes memories. For me, they do this, but often I'll recall a very specific person or situation.

A few examples:

"Motorcycle Drive By" by Third Eye Blind - This song came up on my iPod the other day and I was transported back to senior year of high school around graduation. Specifically, I remember leaving Anike's graduation party to go to Suzanne's graduation party and listening to this song as I drove away in my old light blue Nissan Maxima with the song playing in the tapedeck from a tape that Sarah made for me.

"Clumsy" by Our Lady Peace - This song always reminds me of heading to the beach after prom and sitting in Elvina's Civic as we listened to this song on repeat.

"Barbie Girl" by Aqua - This always reminds me of sitting on the bus with the field hockey team as we came back from a game.

Now that I'm looking at this list and thinking about all these songs, I'm starting to realize that my strongest associations with music have to do with high school. It's probably because I listened to music a lot more regularly back then than I have since and also because I have fond and untarnished memories from that time period.

But I do have a few from college..

"Hot in Here" by Nelly - I always think of Tim C. and Lan singing the chorus in falsetto as we walked from the parking lot behind Boston Market to Rita's (or was it Rose Tea?) for a summer night snack.

"Drops of Jupiter" by Train - I always think of sitting in Neil's? car, as we were crawling the streets of Oakland, looking for parking so we could eat at India Garden. This song came on, and Isaac protested by jumping out of the car and walking to meet us at the restaurant instead. One of the many times he's surprised me with his random, vehement reactions to silly things.

And from childhood..
"Hold On", "Release Me", "Impulsive", "You're in Love" by Wilson Phillips - We acagirls loooved their music. It reminds me of leaving Joy's house to go somewhere whenever we had sleepovers there.

"Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice - Another one from Joy's sleepovers. We had dance moves for this one..maybe the first time I realized that I can't dance!