Family Visit

Living away from Utah has made me really come to appreciate my family when I'm there. I was the first time I had been back to Utah since the end of April, when I flew back for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. WAY TO GO MOM AND DAD!!!! This last time I was out was relatively close to my birthday so the family celebrated my birthday while I was there. Talk about a birthday that lasted the whole week! So cool! I was craving dutch oven so my dad got a fire going and my mom and niece made chocolate cake for me. Later on we had fun with sparklers and fireworks. For my mom's birthday last year I sent out a cheesecake from Carnegie Deli but, I wasn't there to enjoy it with everyone. So this time I made sure to send one out for all of us to enjoy together. Mmmm... even shipped over night it just tastes soooo goood! And when it comes to good cheesecake I'm a purist. Keep that pie filling topping crap... just give me the cake plain. Now there are times when cheesecake can be mixed with other cakes. I was at Junior's in Manhattan a few weeks back and had their Carrot cake Cheesecake. Um... talk about death by a slice of heaven. Whoever came up with that needs to be congratulated and smacked silly at the same time. It's like it's too good.

I was really fortunate that the weekend I was at my parent's house so many other fun events were going on. I was able to make it to a Bennett family reunion. (Bennett is my Grandma Grace's maiden name - my dad's mom) and was able to make it to my neighbor's wedding reception. I remember when the family moved in and that little boy was running around in diapers. Plus I was able to make it to an Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. Way to go Bill and Karen!!! :) I loved seeing so many cousins that I had not seen in many, many years. One in particular... we figured that it had been at least 20 years. Hears hoping that with all this new technology we'll stay in touch.

NYPhilharmonic in Central Park

What an awesome way to spend a birthday! Meeting up with friends on the Great lawn in Central Park, spreading out the blankets, eating some INSANELY GOOD homemade chocolate pudding (I've got to get that recipe!) with homemade whipped cream. Combine all of those ingredients with a huge Happy Birthday balloon that kept attacking people when the wind blew and the New York Philharmonic you have what I call a GREAT birthday! -Seriously though... that balloon was all in our neighbors' faces. It smacked that poor girl in the head at least 4 times that I saw and to the guy it was like "How you like me now?... how 'bout now?... and now? you can't handle BALLOON style...." ahem...

Anyway... The concert was really great. The weather was a nice 72 degrees Fahrenheit and the friends were great. Concert started with Shostakovich, Mendelssohn then Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, three marches from John Philips Sousa including Stars and Strips Forever. Then for the finale the audience was able to participate by texting what they wanted to hear. The choices were a NYPhilharmonic rendition of Purple Haze from Jimmy Hendrix or Flight of the Bumble Bee. Now being a band geek while growing up it's my personal opinion that orchestras should NOT do rock/pop covers. Just does not sound good. So I voted for flight of the bumble bee. The vote came back with over 72,000 votes (I don't know if there were that many people there or that many people just voted... but there were A LOT of people there) in favor of Purple Haze. Most people agreed with me after the music was over that it was rather an anticlimatic piece of music with which to end the concert. No matter though... because there were FIREWORKS!!!

Not sure what it is about fireworks that inspires most of us. Is it the hidden pyro in us? The visually stimulating colors or the explosions of "pop, pop boom"? It could be any one of or any combination of the above. Personally I like the really big ones that you can feel in addition to spreading across the night sky. You know the ones... they just spread out across the sky super fast and you just brace yourself and say "Yyyyyyeeeesssss!" then wham! it hits you.

It was definately a night of firsts. My first birthday spent in Central Park. First birthday spent listening to the NY Philharmonic in person and with friends no less. First time for something that was SO AWESOME on my birthday FIREWORKS!!!! I can honestly say that I've NEVER been able to watch professional fireworks on my birthday before. Good food, friends, weather, music and fireworks. Definately a night to remember.

Birthday Time

First time with a blog and I figure why not start on my birthday (June 24, 2008)!?!? Shout out to Tamara Hall and her blog to inspire me for this.

So....After three years of having birthdays in New York I decided to throw a birthday party for myself. Party was held last night June 23, 2008. Perhaps no party happened before because others didn't know when my birthday was... or that I didn't advertise. I've thrown tons of parties at other times, mostly dinner parties. I love sharing my food with others. I love looking at them while they take the first couple of bites and then say "Wow!" It's pretty awesome when I get that response... I love it!.. and when there is sauce involved it's "Sawesome" or "saucesome"... however you choose to spell it for yourself.

When I chose to throw a party for myself this year I thought about all the other parties that I've done and wondered "When was the last time I threw a birthday party for myself inviting friends?" After searching through the deep and dusty file cabinets of my brain I found out that it's been a long time... too long to post here. If I know you well enough then I'll tell you in person. If you don't know then it just proves to you that you should get to know me better then doesn't it! I've had plenty of parties with friends over the years... just not birthday parties. I've had plenty of birthday parties with my family over the years... although most of the time it's me being off on some adventure and talking with them on the phone so they can sing happy birthday to me.

One of my most memorable birthdays was in 1999 when I was working as a tour guide in Alaska. My co-worker scored me a fly-in fishing trip. The King Salmon were running hard that year and since it was a free bee the Ketchum's people took us Northern Pike fishing. Still it was three kinds of awesome... There was one freak of nature that hit my fake frog lure so hard that it hooked above it's eye and that's how I reeled it in. The thing looked ticked... Not unlike some of you when you wake up in the morning I'd wager... ;) Thanks for entertaining the tangent!

My fabulous friends Victor and Natalie Monreal offered their apartment to host this party. I first met them a little over a year ago when they first moved into the LDS Inwood 1st Ward. A great couple. Crazy that I've now been in that ward for a year. Aging out of the Inwood 3rd Single's Ward like a fine wine or cheese... whatever sounds more enjoyable to you, since I don't drink wine I'll go with the latter. Invites went out through email and Facebook... and to let you readers get an idea of how long it's been since my last birthday party with friends... the Internet didn't exist for public use at that time.

I had several people RSVP for this party, which is great! What is it about RSVPing? Or rather not RSVPing especially with church members? I don't get it... do they just expect it? I mean... it's common courtesy right? For the most part rules of the road tell you to turn on your blinker when you are making a turn... except lately I think they are now teaching in Driver's Ed. to not use your blinker because it might actually give others an idea of what you are about to do... So this is me on my soap box... when you RSVP you show respect and courtesy to the person throwing the party. When you don't RSVP you tell the person that they are not valuable/important enough in your life to bother. Personal observations for the majority of parties that I've thrown here in New York I've found that people are more courteous than people in other parts of the nation... Yay! Go New Yorkers!

Thank you to all of you who RSVP'd for this party! Thank you to all who showed up to the party. Thank you for bringing snacks and food. So glad that you enjoyed the Watermelon Gazpacho and the other food that was there. Another Special shout out to Victor and Natalie for hosting and for making that AWESOME birthday cake with the tea candles on top. There's no way that I could have had this great of a party at my place. Thank you! Thank you! For those of you statistically challenged/minded (however you choose to view it). The total number of people present was 34. There were some last minute cancelations through text message or personal message as well that would have pushed the total to 40. I was so touched and impressed. Thank you for helping me make this 32nd birthday of mine fierce and fabulous! Pictures will come in time.