Celebrations

On Saturday we went to Pepe's (a famous pizzeria in New Haven's Little Italy) to celebrate Ryan Pue's 30th birthday. Unfortunately Ryan wasn't able to join us. However, he did threaten our lives if we did not eat at Frank Pepe's at least *once* before we left New Haven!



After some amazing New Haven "apizza" we enjoyed a stroll around the lovely Wooster Square park and then had some delicious gelato at Libby's where we also bought some canolis to go (of course). After that we had to walk home again....and while the three miles there was very fun it's not always fun to have to walk another three miles to get home. Especially with a gut full of salami, sausage, pepperoni and bacon.

Time to Brag

I just have to brag about my amazing intelligent diligent husband. He got straight H's on his "report card" for the fall semester. We're definitely putting that one on the fridge. We've known about three of the H's for a while but he finally received his grade for the fourth class just last week. Apparently the professors can grade papers and turn in grades whenever they want. Now we just hope that his professors for SPRING semester turn in his grades in time for him to graduate on May 28th.

In case you're wondering, an H is good - the best, in fact. It was a little confusing at first. His first paper last fall had a big red H on it and we wondered if that was even worse than F but over here the grading scale is Honors, High Pass, Pass, etc......

strange sightings

The other week Sameer and I were walking to an evening lecture when we saw a frantic undergraduate running past us wearing a curly wig and carrying a large plastic cornucopia. A few minutes later we saw another one. Later that night as we were walking home we saw another student standing on the sidewalk blindfolded. We tried not to laugh. It must be that time of year. I think it was actually very fortunate that we didn't see anything worse.

Hey how you doin' ya wanna fried dough?

Boston...what a friendly city. This was only MY second trip to Boston - both have been far too short. I was there for about 3 hours a few years ago with Kasey. This time we were there for about 24 hours but unfortunately my experience was a bit tainted due to a bad throat/sinus infection that led to 9 days of incessant coughing. Thankfully, I am better now. My coworkers no longer sneer at me and suspiciously ask if it's contagious AND I am no longer sleeping on the couch.

So anyway, we had a delightful time once we reached our hotel. (Doubletree in Downtown Boston - my first experience with Priceline proved successful) Reaching it was quite a project though. You see, I had convinced my parents to rent a GPS system with their car. I thought it would be nice for navigating the one way streets in New Haven and it helped me to worry about them a little less when they were driving around without us. It ended up being great. We called her "the lady". In fact, I miss the lady. She guided us all over the place - from Mystic to Newport and home again through the back roads of Rhode Island. She's great for spontaneous excursions when you're already out and can't print up directions. All week she was a tremendous help. Sometimes she got impatient with us when we disobeyed her (every time we missed a turn she let out a half-sarcastic, half-exasperated "Recalculating...") but for the most part we all got along really well. But Boston - (the "walking city") has the most confusing roads ever. Even the lady couldn't figure it out, mostly because a lot of the roads are underground and she gets confused when we go underground. She sent us all over the place and we went through the same tunnel several times, swung around to Logan airport, paid several hefty tolls for roads we never meant to be on and finally found a nice person (who worked in a toll booth) who gave us perfect directions to our hotel. The lady seemed jealous. We put her in the trunk. (Note: I am not endorsing that you always and everywhere put your lady in the trunk whenever she disappoints you).


That night we had the best lobster bisque at a quaint little restaurant. I want to go back just for that bisque. The next day we had a lovely breakfast across the street from Boston Common, went to the JFK library then walked around downtown until it was time to leave. Everyone we came in contact with was SO friendly - at the hotel, at the T stations, on the T, everyone. Our favorite was the man selling fried dough on Boston Common. If you ever have the chance to eat fried dough in Boston do it.

Boston charm. I guess it must be the locals - they convey such warmth and chattiness and it seems to rub off on the tourists so everyone is happy and talkative. (At least it was like that for us) Every time we were on public transportation we were talking to strangers. Two girls on the subway even took our picture. That was a little weird but very funny. What a sharp contrast after having been in Manhattan the day before (there, they are more likely to take your camera). NY is fun but Boston, Boston is charming and lovely and friendly and sweet and I just can't wait to go back. The best part about Boston: the accent. It's amazing. A little of it trickles down to Connecticut so a few of my coworkers have a touch of it but almost everyone has it up there. It's pretty hard for me not to smile upon hearing it. We will be definitely be returning before we move.

Lighthouse Point, New Haven

Manhattan. Highlight of the day: Watching the snow fall gently in Little Italy as we sipped cappuccinos and indulged in decadent canolis.

Can you guess where this was taken?

Last Sunday

Well I thought I might blog everyday that my parents were here to give the family back home a play by play... it was a nice thought. Instead I'll reminisce a bit about the highlights from the week.

Sunday, April 1- we took my parents to our church service. We warned them that our service is a little (okay - a lot) longer than what they're used to at Grace Baptist. The service was great but the sermon seemed to go on and on that day. There actually is a biblical text that captures very well what the experience was like:

"And there was a certain young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor, and was picked up dead" (Acts 20:9)

Just replace "Eutychus" with "Sameer, Whitney, Steve and Sue" and replace "Paul" with "Pastor Graham" and there you have it. After the closing hymn and announcements our pastor came to the front and apologized profusely, explaining that his watch had stopped and he didn't realize it until after the sermon. God had also made the sun stand still for Joshua, but at least they could pass the time by killing some Amorites.

Afterwards we walked downtown for lunch and a beautiful grilled chicken wrap with swiss aroused me out of my theologically-induced coma. By the providence of God, the honey-mustard in my wrap was accidentally replaced with *wasabi* mustard -- God breathed into my nostrils (and sinuses) the breath of life. And it was quite tasty.

We spent much of the remainder of the day at Kohl's and Bob's Discount Store looking for comfortable shoes for my mom. Poor mom - she thought that the nice "comfortable" heels she wears to work would fit in nicely with our pedestrian life. Oops. One day and several miles around Mystic and Newport taught someone a valuable lesson: namely, comfortable heels after a mile feels more like Chinese foot-binding. I actually can't believe I didn't warn her about this. Sorry mom, it's completely my fault!

By the way, here is how we often blog. I (Whitney) write the post and it's really boring. If Sameer is too busy, it stays boring and I publish it. If he has a few minutes, he edits it and gives it his magical Sameer-touch. Given the way our personalities have affected (infected?) one another, it may not be as easy as you think to discern which bits come from whom. But you should still try and guess - it is good practice in redaction criticism, whereby you attempt to use literary criteria to determine layers of editorial activity within texts. Okay that last part was clearly Sameer.

Or was it?

Okay, yeah, it was.