Easter Weekend

First, at the risk of sounding like a weirdo, I'd like to mention that after I wrote about Father Jonathan's blog in my last post, I decided to write him a quick email. Like I said, weirdo, I know. But he always encourages people to write in to him and I happened to see a blurb about the fact that he would be on Fox News that day to discuss the Gospel of Judas. And since it was during work hours, I was bummed that I wouldn't get to watch it. So I wrote him a quick email to ask if he would please discuss it in his blog. I figured a million people would probably ask him the same thing and my voice would just be a small one in the crowd. Well the next day he DID write about the Gospel of Judas, and then the day after that he published emails that he had received from people regarding it. Well, guess who's email he decided to publish? Mine!! I was in shock when I read it! I thinking that he included it so that he could reference the video file that was available for download containing his segment that was featured on Fox News. But anyhow, it was exciting to see my name and my home town (sort of) in print online. And just to know that he actually reads his emails... isn't that nice? Click here to read it and scroll to the bottom.

This weekend was really fun because my youngest sister Amanda came to visit! She got here on Thursday night and stayed until this afternoon. On Friday night we ventured down to Georgetown for some good mexican food at the Alamo Grill. Afterwords we walked around a bit and then decided to go visit Eric at work. Unfortunately we never ended up getting out of the car because there was a huge concert downtown and there was NO parking whatsoever. I seem to have bad luck with trying to go somewhere and then never getting out of the car due to parking difficulties. I'll have to share that story some other time, but it's a good one!

Anyways, yesterday we spent all day in New York City. The BIG APPLE. Anyone know why they call it that? (I have no idea, but it's not because it smells like apples!) The first thing we did was hop on a subway and head downtown to see the WTC site. I had been there once before, with my other sister Jessica, but it never fails to make you feel that kind of sick feeling all over again. To remember where you were that day and to picture all of the images in your head. It's not really a feel-good kind of place. But right across the street we found our smiles again... in a giant store called Century 21! This place was HUGE and we spent about an hour loading our arms with discounted designer jeans, shirts and even bathing suits. Our shopping spree came to a quick end, however, when we finally found the dressing room and observed the HOUR long line to try on clothes!!! There was no way were were going to stand in line all day (and no way I was going to buy clothes without trying them on since I usually only buy about a quarter of what I pick up), so we dropped everything we had and left empty handed. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Next, we ate lunch on a balcony at a cute little italian restaurant, and then we continued our all day shopping mission in Soho. A few hours and lots of bags later, we took the subway back uptown to the Empire State Building. This was where Eric and I got engaged so I couldn't wait to make a trip back up to the top again! But again, a long line thwarted our plans. The sign said that the wait time was approximately 2 hours! And we only had about an hour and a half left before we had to head back down to Maryland. So we actually did some MORE shopping, believe it or not, and then grabbed some dinner to eat in a park beside the New York Public Library. It was a nice way to end our day after walking for what seemed like miles and miles. Overall, we had a great time just hanging out together and talking about anything and everything.

Today we got up early for church and then had to start cooking for Easter dinner! For the first time, we had all of Eric's family over to our house for the big meal. Everything turned out great and the best part was that the weather was perfect and we got to eat outside on the deck instead of being cramped in our makeshift dining room. I love eating outside! It was a really, really good weekend!

Dying Easter eggs on Thursday night... Berkeley helped!

At the Alamo Grill in Georgetown

My favorite building in the whole world!

Amanda and I in Times Square