The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Some of the joys about living in NYC is the amount of shows that get taped in this city, and the amount of free tickets given out.

For Xmas this year my dad gave me a wonderful present...4 tickets to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The joke about his present to me was that he was reserving them at the beginning of December and he wasn't sure if the writers strike would be over. He did well choosing a date and also since it was so far in advance we were hoping i'd be able to get out of work, not have a conflict with school and that waiting in line wouldn't mean i froze my buns off. Well 2 of the 3 worked out...i did freeze my buns off!


I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to a taping of a show such as this, but it is a very interesting experience. It all starts by waiting outside on the street--arrived at 3:30 (even with reserved tickets) out in a line for 2 hours, you get the reminders, no garbage, go to the bathroom you can't once you're in, no cell phones, no cameras etc etc etc. Then you are let in 5:30-6ish (i follow rules so i had my phone off and had no clue what time it was), next you sit some more in the freezing cold studio, BUT you listen to rockin' tunes...now i understand why everyone at Ellen is dancing before she does her show, finally they bring out the "pre-show". This comic, already forgot his name, was pretty funny, but he's everything about a comic i hate...demeans people, but he got the crowd worked up....THEN the main event. Jonny S comes on does his own chatting with the audience thing (SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!!) and the show begins.
Basically we sat for 30 minutes, cheering and laughing as they filmed, waiting for commercials, special guest and guest correspondent. ps: Elliot Spitzer being the butt of all jokes was GRRRRRRRREAT!! Way to go prostitute ring scandals (ps:pretty sure the election is on the back burner for now). And that was it....we left at 7pm....what an afternoon!

You know those types of funny where you smile so hard your cheeks hurt, or your front teeth dry out....maybe it's just me, but i was loooosing it. I had such a great time and now i'm trying to plot a trip to chicago to see oprah or any other live show in the city here....great fun!

Updated: Adventures at W110th St.

The construction has begun and pretty soon will be done. They built a crane on top of the scaffolding that protects the pedestrians and sidewalk ....seriously!!??
They built it up and it's attached to the side of the building (does that seem safe after the roof fell off due to wind, i think not)
I missed the removal of the roof molding as i was at work, i couldn't exactly skip work for days on end hoping something would happen, but it happened successfully.

Now i want you all to know that although this is a very big crane i do not live too close to it. I'm sure many of you have heard about the tragic crane collapse on the upper east side...really sad and scary since this city is full of huge cranes. I feel safe with this crane, and don't worry, since the instillation of the crane on the roof of the scaffolding i have def. not walked underneath and now i have zero intention of walking anywhere near that crane....super creepy that it's attached to the side of the building!!

ps: the size of the crane is hard to see...it's probably 40 feet long, the metal structure it stands on is at least 10-12 stories tall, the metal cubes that are stacked are 3 feet by 3 feet. I don't get the physics of this thing. Those window cleaning platforms seem safer than this!



orange=crane platform

Adventures at W110th!

I may not be leaving my apartment doing cool New York things, but not leaving my apartment yesterday had me seeing an architectural miracle/nightmare. While all you Torontonian's were drowning in snow we were drowning in rain and CRAZY winds....well if you ask my friends on the east side it was only windy on the west side so i'll rephrase that, the west side of New York had CRAZY winds. I'm not good at giving measurements to things like wind so i'll just show you in pictures.

This was taken last night (Saturday) at 8:15... notice anything different? look at the top of the building...no it's not a jumper...although it kind of is.



A daytime picture may help

What you see here is the top of the buildings fancy roof molding which has blown off, or is hanging on by a thread....and thread is not an exaggeration...this thing was flaaaaaping in the wind....creepy stuff!

My friends were waiting for me to meet them at a bar at 9 and at one point i called and said i may not come because there was potentially a really crazy thing to see happen...how would they pull up 20 feet of roof molding? But then i thought about how i had been home writing for most of the day and i was a real dork if i spent the rest of my night not writing, and not out with my friends, but standing at my window watching cops, firemen and a few other of NYC's finest do their handy work. Well after talking to my doorman on the way out he promised to give me the low down when i returned. His comment "You're leaving? But look at this...your friends should be coming here and they'd better appreciate what you're leaving for them". I told him they would appreciate it, but i also knew they were probably placing bets on whether i would show after calling so excited that a huge chunk of my sidewalk may be demolished by a falling piece of roof molding.

When i returned home nothing had changed, a few less cops, it seemed like they had some how tied down the roof to the side of the building. I asked L. my doorman what happened and he said, because you know how doormen know all, they were going to bring in a crane to fix it. Who knew when that would happen, but how else would it get done. I went to bed knowing that by not holding a window side vigil i may miss something, but i also had faith in the fire department that they knew how to tie a piece of roof to the side a building well enough that i wouldn't miss a thing. I was right.



This was taken at 12:30 pm Sunday...it's hard to see the scaffolding on the sidewalk, but that's what's happening so far.


They aren't any closer to removing the piece of roof, but now it's so much clearer as to how scary this really is!! Thank goddess they put up the scaffolding to protect the pedestrians below...ps: i have no intention of ever walking underneath that scaffolding, i saw how it was built...pieces of metal siding and plywood....oh yeah that's safe and will protect me from the gravity force of a huge piece of roof.


I'm assuming more work will come to remove this slab of roof/molding whatever you call it so this blog will be updated when the whip out the big guns. Tomorrow could be interesting...should i skip work for this?

answer: what is a lot . Thanks for reminding me!

Question: How pathetic am I?

So I was reading through my favorite blogs and was thinking about how much work it is to post everyday. How do those bloggers do it?! Keep us entertained and make us keep on clickin' back to them. Anyways this led me to see when i last posted, Feb 22....holy crap what the hey have i been doing that i haven't posted since Feb 22?!!! Do i not do anything fun any more? Do i sit at home in my apartment silently clicking away at my computer not exploring the great city of new york? The answer would be yes alec that would be right. What am i doing? The answer would be the reason i'm living in NYC....flippin' school!!

Here is my day

8am(i will not tolerate ANY comments on how i get to sleep in, i'm a princess!)-wake up to a really lame radio station which on multiple occasions makes me laugh because it is soooo lame and therefore so am I

8:30- get out of bed, watch today show, check email (do not respond because i'm a terrible person), make a breakfast i don't find filling (can anyone recommend a good breakie that doesn't involve nut products and has enough protein to last the morning? please no meat and eggs are tiring)

9:30-get ready for work. really this isn't too hard but i have to decide which outfit or pair of jeans i don't mind getting completely yucky. The right shoulder of all my shirts is always spit stained and most of my jeans have food stuck to them...goooo dark pants!
The other part of getting ready is estimating how much school work i'll get done at nap time. If i'm lucky it's 30 minutes of me time, time to make lunch and time to get some reading in. So do i lug the 10lb text to work assuming i may not get lucky that day and i'm just carrying around weight, or should i be optimistic and bring it...who knows, maybe the kids will sleep at the same time (fat chance) and they will both sleep for 2 hours and not just 30 minutes (fatter chance). I always vote lug the text because i am an optimist and i'm the queen at convincing E. we should sit and read our own books together and N. gets a bottle feeding on one leg and "Meeting Children's Psychosocial Needs" gets the other. I swear i'm a good nanny, but some days i'm a bit selfish....really they don't care and E. will always tell me if she isn't having fun "E. no like this, let's play".

10:30-board train to work trying not to touch any dirty poles (ie: all surfaces in the train are dirty) and also trying not to be touched inappropriately by someone taking advantage of the over crowdedness which is NYC's trains.

11-arrive at work. Along with removing my shoes i remove my normal tone of voice because it appears babies are like dogs, they respond to high pitched sounds. They laugh and smile and make the funniest noises which my voice just doesn't do unless annoyingly squeaky.

3:30 or 6-leave work, exhausted, dirty, smelling of a combo of poop and formula oh and all to frequent aquafore in my hair (the kids have killer excema, that stuff works miracles so i deal). Also if you're thinking, how does it get in your hair? You've clearly never been with a 2 year old or baby. No body control and they touch EVERYTHING!!!
Riding the train to school I escaping into my Ipod listening to Ira Glass' "This American Life"...often i end up laughing out loud making me look like the crazy one to avoid on the train...i play that well

4:45 or 7- start class. Either start time i'm in class until 9 pm. Thankfully i'm in class with my fabulous friends so it's like social hour x2 or x4. My saving graces of the day!

9:15-head home, eat dinner, read emails, attempt at responding, do dishes (realistically i look at them hoping they will get done on their own), do homework ...time really flies by before bed

12:30-1am- go to sleep knowing i get to do it all over again tomorrow!

That my friends is what i do, day in and out. You are right technically i shouldn't be sleep deprived, but i loooove my bed and i love my sleep so i'm usually completely exhausted at the end of the day. I also don't want you to think i'm actually in my apartment all the time, but who wants to hear about a movie I saw, or going out for drinks at the dive down the street. We can take a vote i'll write about it, but it won't be pretty.

I promise i'll do something fun soon so you can hear about my adventures, but for now it's just paper writing and reading. Here is hoping "reading week" as we canadian's call it will be a blast...read: not having to go to school in the afternoon, hangin' with friends and catching up on my DVR'ed shows!

RENT

This week has been a week of the old/younger me meets the new/older me and it's all been very cultural...new york style. Spice Girls on Monday, and RENT on Wednesday.

For those who are unaware RENT is going dark, i believe, in June. They leave here and are traveling around to ensure everyone gets a chance to hear an amazing soundtrack and see some great acting. Toronto is on that list of places visited.

When RENT first came out in Toronto it was crazy popular for high schoolers to go, get the cheap tickets and watch over and over again...that was not I as i was in boarding school, but I have seen it twice prior to my last Wednesday show and i just love it as much each and every time! The passion of friendship, family and the love between the couples, i could cry for Angel and Collins every time.

For those not able to see the play in the final days, the movie has all but two of the original RENT actors and while it's not the same i still liked it, heck i listen to the theatre soundtrack regularly to feel like i'm there!

Next on the cultural agenda...American Cup for gymnastics

I have been officially Spiced!

Some of you could care less about this so just skip this blog because i'm about to become that screaming teenager i once was (and clearly still am!).

I SAW THE SPICE GIRLS!!!!



It was an amazing moment, i was jumping up and down with my friend Lauren, screaming and my heart rate was through the roof. The costumes (by Galliano), the routines, the choreography, the back-up dancers, the set and of course THE SONGS!!! ahhhh i nearly lost my voice from singing along with a few thousand of my closest friends.


One of my favorite parts was when Cruz Beckham was breakdancing during Mama...he's THREE!!!! AND i guess they have never pulled ALL the Spice kids up on stage. UBER CUTE and he's such a brave rock star of a kid!!!

I was telling my parents about the concert and they made the comment that it was only an hour and a half...my response was, it's entertainment, there is no variation, no originality or anything during the show...BUT it works and it's amazing!! Part of the reason why they are soooo great is that it's full of cheese (phony hugs and hand holding), amazing choreography they know to the T and the costumes which link them all together as a girl power group and make them look Amazing with a capital A!

This group was me in '96, full of energy, feeling the girl power and loving life (oh wait it still is!)....i'm so happy to have seen them especially since they are wrapping it up for good this time (i'm thinking a Grammy performance 30 years in the future, you know the academy loves that stuff).

Mission Accomplished

Next on my list is Madonna!

MPD + 2 party girls +drag queens =good times

So i have a visitor this weekend and it's great because it forces me out of the house for longer walks all over the place it also means i'm guaranteed a good time.
Place: Meat Packing District-->aka area for clubs and dancing
Time: much too late
Setting: a 3 story dance club playing bumping beats, sweaty and over crowded
I bet you're wondering why we would ever want to go to this place, it seems really bad...well it was until we hit the lowest floor and found where all the queens and gay boys were chillin'. This by the way makes for the best parties...they love good tunes, dancing and they always look great. In the presence of the queens we saw a walk off (think Zoolander), pose offs and of course dance routines. And the gay boys wanted to make sure we were having a fun time and that we come and chill with them. ahhh yes good times!

OH and get excited Spice Girls is tomorrow and a post will follow soon after that! ahhhhh i'm about to Spice up my life...again!!

translation from Canadian to American

So i've spent a lot of time in the US prior to my adventure to New York, but i've never come across so many differences and NY isn't that far from Toronto...here are some of the words that have come up in conversation.

litre- clearly there is a difference for canadian's and american's but i never realized people would get so confused when i said i was going to buy a 2 litre container of milk...ounces and quarts...what the hell join the rest of the world please (yes i'm being culturally insensitive, i just slapped myself on the back of my hand)!!Oh and litre is written on the milk containers, but it's written litER and not litRE...why even bother

lanyard=gimp- so there are some words that translate and others that people are mystified. Lanyard/gimp is that plastic string stuff that kids use to make bracelets, key chains (Napoleon Dynamites little girl friend made gimp key chains for those familiar with the movie and not gimp). So gimp just might be a "slang" word because i heard someone call it, boondoggle...yeah really boondoggle...but hey, gimp...that's pretty dumb too

plasticine=playdough (expect Waaaay better!it's firmer, dyed great colours with acrylic paint). So this one came up in my block building class, the teacher was discussing how kids use plasticine to make realistic objects when he stops mid sentence to explain to a bunch of teachers/child lifers what plasticine was. I leaned over to my friend and jokingly said, "so what you guys have never played with plasticine before and need a break down". She looked at me and said, "Um yeah, pretty much". Ahhh, oops. okay. Oh and did you know you can be allergic to plasticine...no idea what is in it to make someone allergic, but yeah you can be.

Pancake Tuesday=Day before Ash Wednesday or Mardi Gras (but really means nada here). So of course since i'm soooooo religious (read: not religious at all, but takes advantage of certain things) i need to celebrate one of my favorite Catholic days, Pancake Tuesday(Which i learned is just Canadian, Australian and British...huh, surprising). Basically i eat pancakes for dinner (this may have just been me and my family doing the dinner thing, but i looooove breakfast for dinner). So when i went to wish my friends happy pancake tuesday(i do these type of things) i got a few blank stares and a response of, don't you mean happy mardi gras? Ummm noooooo comeon of all the days the US should have taken from the Brits this wasn't one!! Oh and for your information IHOP referred to it as "National Pancake Day"...nice try IHOP

Franglais=French and English at the same time. So i've got this bad habit of talking and every so often throwing in a french word. IE: "Shannon you there?" "Oui Oui" or "call before you come up SVP"...of course it has no meaning here, but i never realized it until once again i got blank stares. Also how can people use RSVP and not know what it means...IT'S FRENCH!! But don't worry a little drinking=shannon whips out the spanglish, oh and that makes sense here...but just barely.

GIANTS WIN...New York erupts!

I'm not even sure where to begin when talking about the Super Bowl...is it with the new love of my life (no not football, but Eli Manning...without his sweaty teen stache), the hilarious advertisements or the rockin' Tom Petty and his weave. Ahhh Super Bowl an event which i have always enjoyed, but now i can say that i actually understand and thoroughly enjoyed it! A tradition we Child Lifers will continue. Since no one wants to hear about the play by plays...because really i've already forgotten most of the technical stuff...i've compiled a list of my favorites things about yesterdays game


10) Even before the game started people were yelling and honking and my grocery store was sold out of all the Bud beers...wait is that a regular new york day though?

9) The red carpet...So my friend Kegan laughed at me when i asked about a red carpet for a major event such as this, he scoffed "it's football". Then when i arrived at the party he said, so did you see Ryan Seacrest's red carpet....WHAAAATT...yeah well i guess John Travolta and a few others walked the carpet before taking their seats at the game, and i missed it!

8)I'm not poking fun at Bill Belichick because he's the coach for the rival team, but i have a few questions regarding his sports wear. This being the cut off sweatshirt. My friend Erin had a lot of issues because of all people who could wear anything, he chooses the cut off sweat shirt and not a nice vest with a monogrammed Pat's logo...hehe, yeah right

7) Paula Abdul and the entertainment- So Paula did a rather "interesting" performance...a flashback to her opposites attract era, but she is now 20 years older, but paula still has an amazing body and she really does try work that stage. BUT Alicia Keys, ahhmazing...ah i can't wait for when she does a half time show! Oh and Tom Petty warmed my heart. I love to see he and the heart breakers still getting their groove on...but his weave was a little bit bizarre who told him it was okay to wear his hair like that.

6)HD football watching...It's like being at Imax. The colours are so vibrant, it moves so fast, it's like being at the game...it's the ONLY way to watch sports i've decided.

5) food...ahhh food-Super Bowl=lots of food and boy can a bunch of girls bring it. polenta chili, choco filed pretzels, real onion dip, mini pizza's, ginger bread...and beer ahhh beer.

4) Advertisements- my theory was due to the writers strike the ads would be amazing...not amazing, but still here are some of my favs...Doritos and the catching of the rat, the talking etrade baby...the Sobe thriller lizards...and the 2 Jackie Moon (will ferrell) budlight ads (ps: budlight, go suck one, hehe)...well you check them out and decide...sooo many that i was laughing over
http://www.spike.com/
ps: for those who know me, the Fedex carrier pigeon commercial haunted my dreams last night, chills...what sick ad exec. okay'd that ad?!

3) How the MVP gets a car...WHAT...isn't there no I in team? ps: isn't a Caddy Escalade gone hybrid a bit backwards...does that not equal a regular cars gas consumption? just checkin'

2) The NY Giants won...of course it makes the list of favorite things about the game

1) "House" after the game- let's be realistic here "House" is always number one for me even if the Giants did win

Blue 42, Blue 42, hut hut huuuut---what does that mean anyways?!

Here is what i know about football and the super bowl (i must defend myself first because basketball is my sport and not football....nothing like beefy guys bashing into each other! Yeah that's hot! )
Back to the list

1) there is amazing entertainment, halftime show (ps: Tom Petty this year...is Paula Abdul still performing? that would be great!), fireworks and pre-game entertainment. Great stuff, but i still think Prince is numero uno!

2) Advertisers spend MILLIONS on these crazy advertisements (beer and cars) which i've never been fortunate enough to see during the actual super bowl, only afterwards on the internet....gooooo Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

3) Getting to host the super bowl is like getting to host the Olympics...a pretty big deal figured out years in advance...yeah Arizona, woop woop!

4) pre-show does not equal the red carpet like my favorites the grammy's, oscars, SAG...you know...i still don't know what it means, but i've been told if i think red carpet i'll be disappointed. I'm gearing up for lots of old video footage, yeah( can you hear my excitement!)

AND FINALLY!!!
5) I will be watching my very first super bowl in the USA this year(i've watched many in Canada)...and i'm sooooo excited!!


So if any of you are like myself...not in the football know and i'm telling you now...the New England Patriots and the New York Giants are playing against each other this Sunday Sunday Sunday (do you hear the echo?). There will be a post game wrap up report...oh don't you worry! I would never disappoint!

Walking in the shoes of others...something i must practice more

I consider myself a taller than the average woman at the height of 5'8", but today walking down the street i managed to get into a mass of about 8 models and felt pretty darn short. How did i know they were models, well other than the fact that they were 6' +, sticks, wearing cropped jackets, black leggings, tights or nothing and enormous heels you start to assume.

This is when i started wishing i paid more attention to the models on Project Runway, or America's Next Top Model (although i'm pretty sure that's finished) because these are probably the only models who are a)poor enough that they are forced to walk amongst us "short" people b)not being harassed by the paparazzi and c)hanging out around Pratt/union square area.

Anyways, i felt kinda (but only a little bit) bad for them...soooo many people were gawking at the dolled up, skinny sticks as they paraded down the street...oh and it was freezing....why aren't they in more clothes they'll freeze to death, but i guess freezing to death is better than starving to death. I wonder which will happen first to these ladies? Not a life i envy.

ps: did i mention i'm a bad person...you'd never guess from this sweet face

Let us compare

So back in the fall (November to be specific) i posted a picture of New York's Central Park and the changing of the leaves. I thought you'd all be curious to see what it looks like now...kinda depressing, but still oh so beauteous.
Oh and this is the EXACT same location for both pictures

Block Building 101

Soooo what did you do this week... WELL i went to a week long block building class and i'm a convert(be thankful i didn't say a convert to Scientology)! I don't even really know how to start explaining the amazing things about blocks, but if you're interested to hear me go off on it give me a shout. All i can say is that it brings out the most amazing things in children!

Anyways, there were 4 Child Life students in this class of 15 and of course since we looooove each other we did our final-grade determining (just kidding) block building project together. We were told we could build ANYTHING within 30 minutes (do you know how hard that is!...such pressure). We chose to create a fantasy hotel resort. Our resort had a grand entrance with elaborate driveway, a semi circle hotel with a view onto the pool which has a water slide and swim up "snack bar"(read pool bar). There are colourful towels and floating raft to relax on, oh and of course the cabana with cabana boys to wait on us...this is a resort aimed at da ladies...but we do need some handsome single boy guests to keep us company too ;) ahhh girls can dream. During these chilly winter days enjoy and drift into our fantasy resort... the more the merrier.

CAN I REALLY!? hehe

"you could WIN A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY"
Always nice receiving mail directed at those NOT living in the city...and yes if i ever won i would use it on those who are DYING to come to the city again!! (cough Jodi)

3 more down!

I started up calling the title of this blog 12 down with 6 to go, but i found it kinda depressing because i still have soooooo many left!!

BUT because i'm always an optimist i called it 3 more down...yes i'm referring to the turkey legs STILL!

Just call me Martha because this took me FOREVER to do, but isn't the crust so goldeny!!!

Next on the list of things to make...turkey soup, for now i'm loving the turkey pot pie, so far it's been 3 solid meals and i'm not bored yet! Anyone wanna come for dinner?!

Home is where you lay your head...the debate

During my visit in Toronto i had a friend kinda get upset after i made the comment, i can't wait to go home to new york. She asked how could i call NYC home when i had only been there for 4 months. It made me think, at what point do we start calling another place our home? Is it as basic as the place we rest our head, a place to call our own for a certain period of time, or is there a bond that forms between city and person.

I'm still thinking, but i'd love to hear thoughts

nothin' like a little texas fun!

Some of you may know that just about my entire family lives in various parts of the great (vast) state of Texas. We rarely get to see everyone and this year we made a quick and dirty visit. We hit up 3 cities (actually it was 4 when the weather in Amarillo proved too difficult for the plane to land and we landed in a city 2 hours away, to then drive to Amarillo).

Right, so in Austin we celebrated an early Barnett Christmas with 20 of our family members...actually that would be a small part of our rather large family. I think we average around 40 or 50 people when we are all in full force, who knows when this will actually happen (possibly never). Many of my cousins and I haven't seen each other in over 10 years and now they have babies. We Barnett's have growed up good!

Next off to Dallas where one of my mom's brother lives, as well as my grandmother. My memaw (my (me) grandma (ma)...get it?) was taking a wee vacay to Canada and sadly we missed her, but we took advantage of all her pre-made food and cozy house. Since my memaw was out of town and we were in Dallas for Christmas day my mom (update: dad thinks/claims it was his idea) thought it would be funny if we stayed at this over the top hotel called "Gaylord Texan". The Gaylord family is responsible for the Grand ole Oprey and a few other "classy" joints. Well, at the Gaylord Texan they are BIG into decorations! Huge trees, big "interesting" displays of longhorn cows in outfits, and a miniature train village all decked out as a snowy winter in Dallas (although there is generally no snow in Dallas, it was pretty chilly!) Well mom did a great job because evan and i started referring to it as Texas Disney world, or a long lost Vegas hotel because it was quite the site with daytime tourists. We wouldn't be surprised if a ride is put into this hotel in the near future because it's just so ridiculous. Oh and if staying at the Gaylord Texan wasn't enough Christmas dinner was had at the hotel sports bar. A 54 foot flat screen tv, lots oh margaritas (oh wait this was every night here in Texas) and my favorite was mom having a chilly cheese dog. Meeeerrrry Christmas!

As i said already we initially planned to arrive in Amarillo by plane, but in classic Amarillo form wind, ice fog and general nasty weather forced our plane to land in Lubbock. Lubbock is clearly an important airport and I know why. Any plane trying to get to Amarillo lands there as it is only a short Texas drive away. Although is has a measly 4 gates and one baggage claim it does have a well stocked Starbucks (NO dunkin donuts), which means it gets enough customers willing to pay inflated coffee prices in that airport they want to keep happy (Amarillo has one Starbucks for the entire city). I was only too happy to get off that plane and drive to Amarillo to get our luggage at 11:30pm that night via greyhound bus, don't ask, it's just too ridiculous.

Amarillo has raised many Barnett's and a few Chisholm's (my mom's side). Therefore there are lots of memories and stories from locations all over this city.
See that house, that's where i grew up, oh and that house is where my friend ___ grew up. Oh and there's my high school, Oh and there's the place where Mimi ran over the cat, and there's where Jim had his store and granddad's practice.......
It goes on and on and on and for the amount of times I've driven around this town/city it is still a mess of roads and memories, much too confusing to follow. It is guaranteed that while in Amarillo there will always be lots of laughing. It never disappoints!

As my Texas tornado of a visit wraps up i think about the the slogan for Texas, "Everything is bigger in Texas" and it couldn't be more true. Bigger to go cups, bigger servings, bigger hair, bigger cars (SVU's!) and sadly bigger people. I'm going to add a few more to this...bigger smiles (straighter thanks to my granddad and uncle), bigger hugs, and bigger love. The people I've met in Texas and the family i have here has shown me what passion and love really is. If only there was a way to spread this type of love...we will call it Barnett love.
Well during the holiday season and the approach of the new year i send you all lots of Barnett love because we Barnett's love bigger since we are from Texas.

xo

Hula Queen

There is a book that I read to E. called Ella sets the Stage (my birthday prezzie to her and now the most over read book in her bookshelf, this is beside the point). The premise of the story is a talent show. Ella doesn't think she has a talent like all her friends who can sing, dance, perform great puppet shows etc. What ends up happening is that her talent turns out to be helping people with a bunch of random things. I have to admit I identify with Ella with her lack of talent...until Friday night... i may have found my only talent.
HULA HOOPING!!
Yes i found my talent AND also managed to help out some of my friends. At this restaurant we went to the other night (Tortilla Flats) they have a hula hooping contest. Anyone who can hoop for 2 minutes straight (on the restaurants doubled up hoop) gets a round of tequila shots for all their friends. While watching all these girls (one boy) try and fail i was feeling like i'd be another fool to attempt, but with a few drinks under my belt i was fearless (that is what tequila likes to do). I started gyrating my hips, bumped a table while starting, recovered and i was on a roll...all i have to say is 8 people were mighty happy with my talent. A few people at the bar were so proud they bought a few more rounds.

My friend recorded the whole thing and if i'm talented enough i'll try to post the video...but I think we know my talent doesn't lie in computers, but in colourful plastic hoops.

tongue twisters

So i realized that some of you may actually be entertained by my adventures with E. and N. (the kids i nanny for) and i thought i'd give you a funny/ bizarre E. story. It's been a while and they are pretty much the other half of my life these days.

So E. hasn't been sleeping much. She's supposed to be a light sleeper and the baby will still wake up in the night crying ie: no sleep for the whole family. Today during one of her many melt downs when she was trying to tell me something and i couldn't understand through tears, she starts with her jibberish which sometimes combines a hebrew song (I've since learnt this from her mom) and today it was
"MAH MAH MAH Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers MAH MAH MAH"...riiiight, okay. So my response was,
"HEY ELLIE....mellow out....She sells seashells by the seashore"...she stares at me, laughs and tries to copy it, but opts for peter again.
I'd like to remind you all that she turned 2 a week and half ago.

The End

Is this really necessary!

So this is the building i live across from...it's gorgeous but someone thought it would be great to mess up my view by postering their window in not white or black bristol board, but FLORESCENT GREEN!!
I have had guesses that maybe the person has a festive picture on the other side you know a Christmas tree their little kids have made, but how do you explain the duct tape then? Bright blue zig zagging across where their pretty tree would be...i don't know, but the amount of rules that exist at the apartment at home in Toronto would mean this would be vetoed so fast their head would spin..
Oh and at night while thankfully the florescent window is muted there is a Christmas tree recently erected which has coloured lights (not my choice) and then has flashing green lights...that's great, good for you your tree is bright and colourful, but it's so bright and colourful i can see it out of the corner of my eye when i'm sitting on my couch.
Wow...rereading this i realize i sound a bit cynical (bah humbug?)
On a lighter note my white lights are up as is my Christmas wreath..oh and the Christmas carols are aplayin'