Our First Tannenbaum

Lindsay: Today we got our first Christmas tree!  After school, Christopher and I drove over to a place on Ridge Avenue and picked out a tree.  The people were really friendly and let me look at all of the trees so that I could pick out one that I like.  A few days ago, we went to WalMart and picked out some sparkly decorations including jingle bells, bows, balls, and  star with glitter, of course.  I made sure to bake some cookies and pick up egg nog for the tree decorating.  Chris wheeled the media cart into the living room and put on Rudolph for me which made me very happy. 

We couldn't make the top branch any shorter, unfortunately, so the star is tilted and it looks really funny. we had it up on the highest bow, but I couldn't get a picture of the whole tree with the star included that way.  It was hilarious.  By the way, Chris is amazing.  He managed to fix strands of Christmas lights to hang on the tree.  He's pretty handy. 

Christoper's B-day

restaurant week fall 08

DUCoM Does the Academy of the Sciences

Lindsay: This was another orientation event which was kind of neat.  DUCoM rented out the Academy of the Sciences and had lots of food, drinks, and dancing.  For me, it was another Quizzo team reunion which was fun, and a night of avoiding the REAL mummy the museum had on display.  I do recall riding a turtle of some sort and Chris took a picture on his camera because just like always, I forgot the camera and Chris didn't want to bring it anyway.

White Coat Ceremony

Battle in the Commonwealth: Phillies vs. Pirates

Lindsay: I enjoyed going to the Phillies game via big yellow school bus.  This was a special occasion: I ate chicken fingers.  Delicious.  We sat by ourselves until PJ and Katie, Chris' friend and his wife, showed up to the game.  I met his friend Kevin who was pretty funny.  After the game, we got on the bus and ordered pizza from Minguzzi's in Manayunk and had a late but delicious dinner.  

An Evening on the Moshulu

Lindsay: I really enjoyed the first week of medical school for Chris.  There were a couple of things that I was able to go to with him that I really enjoyed.  The first was called "An Evening on the Moshulu."  The Moshulu is a boat that hosts dinner parties and events.  It's anchored on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware River just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge.  We drove to Queen Lane and took shuttle busses to the Moshulu.  We arrived in style in our big yellow school busses and got on the boat.  Much to my surprise, the beer and wine was open bar and no one was carding.  So much for designated driving...

Throughout the night, I met a few new people and hung out with some of the summer Quizzo team.  I think that I was the only person on the boat who was not studying medicine or already a doctor.  Explaining that I was an undergraduate studying music was interesting.  

After the first two Coronas, a glass of wine and a Yuengling went down way too easily.  The DJ seemed to be playing all of my most favorite songs (I know what you're thinking), so I danced and got Chris to dance for just a little while.  

Unfortunately, there was no food to be heard of on this boat, and my liquor was hitting me hard.  We got back to Queen Lane on our way cool yellow school busses and neither of us were sober enough to drive.  We had to walk from Queen Lane to Christopher's apartment at 12:30. I take full responsibility since I was supposed to DD and definitely regret what I did.  After the mile and a half walk back to the apartment, my feet had never hurt so bad in my whole life.  I was wearing pointy-toed heels and actually walked a great deal of the trip barefooted.  I had blisters all over my feet.  Christopher wasn't too pleased, but I have to admit that I thought this was pretty hilarious.

Julie Andrews

Lindsay:

After writing all of these blogs, I'm noticing a pattern...Chris takes me to the best concerts.  A few months before this concert, Chris gave me a Philadelphia Metro listing all of the concerts at the Mann Center for the summer of 2008.  I picked out a bunch, but the one I wanted to go to was the Julie Andrews concert.  By the time Chris was able to get tickets, he had to pay a lot more than he thought he was going to at first.  I thought it was so kind of Chris to get the tickets for me anyway.  He really knew how much I wanted to see this concert.  

When Julie Andrews came out on stage, I was completely star struck.  She and the other performers sang several Rogers and Hammerstein tunes during the first half of the concert.  The second half of the performance was a World Premier of a mini-musical.  Julie Andrews was the narrator and the actors sang songs.  It's amazing to have Julie Andrews tell you a story.  I loved it.  At the end, she sang "My Funny Valentine" and "Edelweiss" which both made me cry.  I was so happy that I got to see her perform, but still a little sad that the songs had to be rearranged for her because she couldn't sing like she used to.  I loved every second of this concert!

Chris:

Hoping to repeat the Itzahak Perlmann magic, I told Lindsay to see if there was any concerts that she wanted to go see this summer.  Naturally, she never looked so after a month or so (and long after all the cheap student tics had sold out) I insisted that she pick one and she chose Julie Andrews.  At least I have heard of this one before...  The timing of the concert turned out to be perfect, falling on the one day of that week when I did not have an orientation event.  I am not the biggest fan of Julie Andrews (what with being under age 50 and male) but the show did turn out to be pretty entertaining and Andrews is in much better shape that I would have imagined.

*Note: I most certainly did check that Metro.  It sat on my desk in Chris' office with big stars and circles around the shows I wanted to see.  :)

Christopher's Dream Finally Comes True!

Chris:  It had been kind of a rough summer to this point, with my future completely up in the air and a job search not going particularly well.  At work that day, however, I got the phone call that I had been waiting for, and did a lot of celebrating.  I wanted to see Lindsay's reaction in person though, and I knew that she was coming over after work, so I specifically did not call to tell her.  Independent of that, me and my coworkers had been going to play quizzo at a bar in Manyunk on Wednesday nights, and we had been planning on all going out that night anyway, but that night was definitely more special.

Lindsay: 

Despite the fact that I usually don't talk to Chris during the day, I called him while he was at work to see if I should come to Philadelphia for Quizzo night and a voice lesson. I went to my grandmother's with Randi that day to hang out. It started to rain, so we went to Philadelphia earlier than we needed to. Chris' apartment had just been burglarized, and I really wasn't happy about being the the apartment, so I called to tell him that I would meet him at the Ugly Moose after my lesson. He told me through a text message (which he NEVER does) that he had a surprise for me. I bit the bullet and told Randi that we would just go to the apartment. In the car, I told Randi about what the surprises could be. Chris had told me he had a surprise for me several times over the summer, and it was usually flowers or something really nice that like. Each time, I was hoping more than anything that he would tell me he had gotten into medical school. That's the only surprise I wanted since February. We couldn't drive to the house fast enough.
DUCoM's Newest medical student and his friend, Z.

When I walked in the house, he told me that a friend, Z, was coming to Quizzo with us. Knowing that Z wasn't the surprise, I still said, "Is Z coming my surprise?" He said very calmly, "No. I wanted to tell you that I got into medical school." I started screaming and picked him up and twirled him around. And then I realized that he didn't tell me where! After asking, he said, "Drexel." DREXEL!!! I was so happy. Thinking about this still makes me smile!

Toronto trip

4th of July trip

Six Flags trip

MMS graduation

Baseball games

moving to wayne ave

Lindsay turns 20!

This was definitely one of my most favorite birthdays.  On Saturday, Randi, Chris, Meme, Mommy, and Jenny all wished me a happy birthday.  We had cake and I got some presents.  Randi made me a really nice video on iMovie, and Chris got me a flashdrive.  On the flashdrive was a powerpoint card which was really cute, and my real present: a ticket to the Phillies Game on April 11th!  I was really excited.

Chris slept over, and on the next day, my 20th birthday, we headed to New York together.  I went to a dress rehearsal for a performance of the Mozart Coronation Mass in Carnegie Hall and Chris went to the MoMa with Renata.  I still have the card she gave me, which I thought was really sweet.  Bryan also called Chris while I was in rehearsal to wish me a happy birthday which was so thoughtful.  

After my dress rehearsal, I met up with Allie and Jackie, two sisters who I went to high school with.  It was Jackie's birthday, too.  We walked through Times Square, and when I stopped briefly outside of the Virgin Record Store, I saw five CDs wedged in the lid of a garbage can. SWEET!  I got some free CDs for my birthday.  I eventually found Chris who had brought me some breakfast bars so I could have a little nosh before my sound check and concert.  

After the soundcheck, Jonathan asked me if there was a Starbucks nearby because he was craving a latte.  I told him there was one just east of the backstage entrance to Carnegie Hall of 56th street, so I ran down there with a 20 spot.  This was the first thing Jonathan had ever asked me for, and the Starbucks was closed!  But...the stars were aligned that day.  The guy who was closing the store let me in and gave me a free large latte for Jonathan!  It was awesome!

I told Chris to meet me outside after my portion of the concert because I thought it was the second half, but it wasn't.  I snuck up to the box seat he was sitting in, but he had left!  I called him and he came back, and we heard a Haydn piece in G Major, and another piece that brought tears to my eyes.  Box 35, where we were sitting, is smack in the center of the tier.  The sound was amazing and I'll never forget this wonderful birthday present.

After the concert, we went to Rosie O'Grady's and had a huge dinner.  An old buddy of mine, Chuck, was there and I hung out with him.  The Soprano soloist and her family were there.  This is especially interesting because she is a Temple graduate and her parents went to Virginia Tech.  I went up to the bar and they wouldn't serve me (long story), but that's why I have Christopher! I handed him a dollar a couple of times and he turned them into Cosmos.  It was a great night and great birthday...one of the best ever.  

Valentines day

The Secret Trip

I couldn't wait to go on the Secret Trip!  Since Chris didn't like that we didn't leave at a reasonable hour for the Vermont trip, I told him that he could plan the next trip without me.  I thought I had an idea of where we might be going, but the truth is that I really didn't know at all. 

We got up pretty early and drove in the rain towards our first stop...McDonald's breakfast! Chris kept telling me that we were going somewhere I had never been before on the first day, so eliminated that we would be going to Cooperstown, NY to see the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Even though I had been there twice, that was our first stop on the Secret Trip. The Hall was empty which was really cool because I had time to look at and read all of the exhibits.  

After we finished up at the Hall of Fame, Chris and I got in the car and drove through some pretty crazy weather with tons of fog and rainbows.  It turns out that we were on our way to Rochester to spend the night at his house.  When we got home, we had some dinner with his dad.  Guida's pizza was delicious.  That evening, we hung around his house where I met his dog, CJ, and all of the birds.  We played some Scrabble in the living room with Chris Sr. until we went to bed.  Before we went to sleep, Chris asked me where I thought we were going on the next day, and I was right when I guessed Niagara Falls!

Going to Niagara Falls was a blast.  We parked in a nearly empty lot on the New York side, then walked around to take a lot of pictures and purchase shot glasses.  I decided I was starting a collection.  It actually wasn't too cold that day, so we were able to do a lot of walking around.  We took many funny pictures, and then I convinced Christopher to walk to Canada!  At the time, you didn't need a passport to go from the US to Canada.  We beat the deadline by about 20 days, so we were able to cross over and have lunch where the grass was greener and no one carded.  *Note: If you go to Canada and order a pint of Molson, you will receive not 16 ounces of Molson, but 19.3.  Gotta love the metric system.  Also, the alcohol content of Canadian Molson is higher than American Molson.  It's wonderful (until you get your tab).

After I was nicely buzzed, we walked around Canada for a while.  I bought my 2nd shot glass for my collection and we eventually walked back over the bridge to the US where we encountered an unhappy US Customs officer who wanted to know what we were doing together if Chris was from Rochester and I was from Jersey.  I think she was just bored.  We played a little more Scrabble that evening and before leaving on Sunday morning. 

Christopher really did a great job planning this trip.  

Holidays 07 - NYC

Renata's B-day

New years in TS