I Guess They CAN Dance

Sorry it's taken me a while to post. The end of this week proved to be too busy to devote any time to our blog, but I've pulled through and here is all you need to know about the tour we went and saw on Thursday.

Though the Blue Cross Arena is only about 7 blocks away from our house, we decided to drive since it was pretty rainy that night. Luckily we were able to find a parking spot within 100 yards and we didn't even have to pay to park. This seriously was the cheapest date ever. We were the first to arrive in our suite and we were about half an hour early, so we just kinda sat there and listened to the teenage girls in the next suite scream and talk about how they wanted to have Neil's babies. The show started at 8, and surprisingly no one from Ben's office had shown up yet. They arrived a little later, but we all pretty much kept to ourselves.

The show kicked off with some video of Nigel. No, the judges didn't come on the tour. They had the dancers emcee the show themselves instead. I knew I didn't like Dominic that much beforehand, but his emceeing was really cheesy and over the top. On to the dancing. The show was a compilation of many of the favorite dances from the season including:
- Neil and Sara's disco routine (the one where Neil does an amazing front flip)
- Lacey and Kameron's contemporary piece (from the first show where she threw herself on him)
- Lacey and Danny's Samba (a personal favorite called Hip, Hip, Chin, Chin)
- Pasha and Lauren's hip hop routine (where they looked like a spider)
- Hok and Jaimie's contemporary piece (where Hok was a hummingbird)

Each dancer also got a chance to do an solo routine. I thought it was just going to be the top 10 on the tour, but Anya, Jesus, Hok, and Shawna came along for the tour and did a couple numbers. A lot of the pieces that I really liked throughout the season were done, which was pretty cool.

Ben spent a lot of his time multi-tasking with his phone and looking on the internet, while I watched. I didn't scream like 99% of the rest of the people there when a dancer would either gyrate or shake a body part excessively fast. It was still fun nonetheless. Ben asked me later if it was worth free 99 to go to the tour in which I had to respond... absolutely!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Yes, the show has been over for over a month, but the tour is on baby! Thanks to Ben and his power of persuasion (that's what he went to Law School for, right?), we're going to the tour tonight and get to sit in the Harter, Secrest and Emery suite. Sweet, right? Basically the firm was giving out tickets on Monday and by the time Ben got to responding to the email all the tickets were gone. A paralegal he's working with on a project happened to snag two of the tickets and when Ben was telling her how much I LOVED the show, she gave them to him! Yay! Not that Ben really cares to go, but being the good husband that he is he's going. Anyway, I will have to post some pics tomorrow after the beloved event tonight.

These Little Piggies Went to the Market...

I love Saturdays. Today was just what I needed to recover from a 52+ hour work week. I used to clock these kind of hours when we lived in Charlottesville, but it's different here since I don't go home between jobs when I work at the Gap at night. By the end of yesterday, I was exhausted. I'm sure I can speak for Ben too that it felt good to sleep in past 7:00 this morning. After we finally got up, Ben and I headed over to the Rochester Public Market to pick up some fresh produce. I love getting a good deal regardless of what it is, so the market is my kind of place. Here are some of the things we saw:

Though tempting, we did not buy those ridiculous looking squash. We did get some peppers though so that Ben can make his Chicken Chili. As for the purses; who'd have thought you could find knock-off purses in this town? Don't mind my greasy hair. I decided not to shower before going out this morning. My mistake. The empanadas remind Ben of his mission in Venezuela and though we haven't eaten at Juan & Maria's Empanada Stop, we hope to some day. Either that or Ben will have to make me a killer empanada at home.

All in all it was a good Saturday. Thank goodness for Sundays so I can have another day to recuperate. I just need to keep telling myself that all this work is worth the discount... right?

Why I Still Support President Bush

On Peaking Early

Sometimes I think about child prodigies and their doomed futures. They accomplish such incredible feats so early, that many of them have little more to ever look forward to. It's probably a pessimistic way to look at life, but will that 12 year-old gymnast really ever again achieve the same rush of excitement from perfectly landing a gold-medal winning vault? Will that piano prodigy ever receive another applause quite as thunderous and adoring? Will Jaleel White ever find another acting role as deep, vibrant and life-affirming as Steve Urkel? Unfortunately, in almost all of these circumstances, the answer is no. Sometimes Steve Urkel is as high as you can go.

On that sad note, I must announce that I too have peaked at the young age of 28. Yes, my friends, I have reached the top of the mountain, and it is all downhill from here.

I have scored a 20 on my Wii Age.

It's Official

Although it cost us over 200 bones at the DMV, we are now legal. I'm not quite sure how I feel about being a New Yorker, but it does remind me of a joke Nate Rigby once told me.

"If the Pilgrims had landed in New York instead of Massachusetts, would we eat cheesecake for Thanksgiving?"

Speaking of funny (and pilgrims), here is a classic commercial that you won't be able to keep out of your head. Amanda does the song and dance all the time.

The New Lawyer in Town

According to articles like this, being a lawyer is supposedly pretty stressful. Well, after my first day on the job, I can tell you that all that is a load of junk. I mean, I walked to work at 8:45, settled into my office (which has a surprisingly great view), went to a few computer and telephone training meetings, ate a delicious lunch at the upscale Genesee Valley Club, and then chit-chatted at a reception for all the new associates. All in all, I'd say I felt absolutely no stress all day.

I assume it's going to be like this forever, right?

Lazy Sunday

No, not the SNL skit, Lazy Sunday, but truly a lazy Sunday. Things are a little slow around the house today, and since there's only so much football/tennis/Food Network I can take I thought maybe it was time for a new Amanda entry on the blog.

This last week went by really quickly which was good for my first week at my "new" job. I'm not sure if I can say the same for Ben who stayed at home all day and had daily tasks like, take suits to the cleaners, put in a work order to have the sink fixed, call our Health Insurance company, etc. I'm sure this next week will be a little different. Anyway, the office I work in is great and so far everyone seems pretty grateful that I actually know what I'm doing. Though the things I do each day are different from what I did in Charlottesville the tasks aren't things I'm unfamiliar with. Basically for now I'm working as the "Director of First Impressions" aka receptionist, and when my trial period is done I'll be doing something different. I'm fine with whatever they have me do as long as I get paid. What stinks is that I had to re-do all my paperwork since the Home Office in Milwaukee decided to terminate me completely when I left my old office. That also meant that I had to get fingerprinted again. That was probably the highlight of my work week. Enthralling, I know.

Come Saturday, Ben and I were ready to spend his last weekend of freedom doing something exciting so we went to the public market and to a festival called the Clothesline Festival. The public market was pretty cool, and we ended up getting a lot of produce for really cheap. We may make it a weekly occurrence. The Clothesline Festival was pretty much the same as the Park Ave. Fest we went to when we first moved here. There were a lot of craft vendors, some food and a little bit of entertainment except instead of being free, it was $7 a person. Kind of a rip if you ask me, but at least we got to go inside the Memorial Art Gallery which surprisingly had an interesting collection of art including this Monet that neither Ben nor I had ever seen before:
We both really liked it, even though the original is being loaned out and we didn't get to see it in person. Maybe one day we'll go back to visit the museum. There are still other places we'd really like to go around here but they all charge a pretty penny. The George Eastman house is on our list as well as the Rochester Museum and Science Center that currently is running the "Our Body" exhibit that displays actual human bodies (dead ones of course). That one costs $24 each unless I pretend I'm a student ( I still look young enough right?!) and then I can get in for $17! Yikes... we'll probably put that one off for a while. Lots to do, lots to explore which we are happy about.

That brings us to today. We went to Church earlier today where Ben had to teach a Gospel Principles lesson and I had to teach Nursery. There were only 3 kids which was nice for my first time teaching. I taught the 5/6 year-olds in our old ward, but 2/3 year-olds are a lot different. Absolutely no attention spans. You're probably thinking, "Duh Amanda, anyone could have told you that," but it's been about 8-10 years since the last time I babysat more than one kid and that is essentially what Nursery is... babysitting. I have to do it for the rest of the month, so maybe that will make up for all those lost years of babysitting.

In this next week, there will be some firsts for Ben and I. Ben's first week at his new job, my first FULL week at mine, and our first paychecks (yipee!). We will have to let you know how it all goes down.

Some Things

Well, we've been back in Rochester for almost a week, so I guess we are pretty much New York residents now. We still have to get our drivers licenses and such, but they cost 55 bucks each so we're gonna hold off for awhile (and pray we don't get prosecuted for going over the 30 day limit). Nothing too exciting has happened since we've been back but here are a few highlights:

1. As you may or may not know, Amanda worked two jobs in Charlottesville while I "slaved" away at law school. Now that I'll be working in a week or so, I told Amanda that she didn't have to keep up the same pace, but guess what? She has decided to do it again. In fact, she will be working the exact same two jobs up here in Rochester as she did in Charlottesville. During the day she will continue with Northwestern Mutual and at night she will fight crime... I mean, work at the Gap (we just can't live without that discount). If you add up her paychecks with my salary, I think we have officially reached a point where we aren't poor anymore. Sure, I still have those pesky student loans, but let's worry about those another day.

Now, I'm not trying to brag or say we're rich or anything (since most of the people who read this blog probably make a lot more than little old us). In fact, if any of you know me well, you probably know that making tons and tons of money is not a major goal in life. I will admit, however, that there are a few advantages to making a little bit of cash and moving past the "poor student" phase. Here are a few that I'm particularly excited about:

A. We can afford to buy 2-ply toilet paper now instead of the single-ply stuff you normally find in public school bathrooms. Sorry to everyone who had to use it when they visited in Charlottesville. I hope you washed your hands well.

B. We can actually meet the recommended fruit and vegetable dietary intake. I guess that our Spiderman 3 Fruit Snacks didn't qualify. On that note, who knew that it was so expensive to eat healthy? Sure, we can afford some produce now, but we're still far too poor to go organic or anything like that yet.

C. Speaking of food, we have also made the upgrade from Kroger (the cheaper, less appealing supermarket - kind of like Smith's in Utah or Safeway in VA) to Wegman's (for which there is really no comparison...maybe Harris Teeter... but on steroids).

2. As you can see, we changed the header on the blog again. On the poll we held, "Keep the New One" won, but I think I voted for that four or five times myself (I should run for office in Chicago).

Anyway, all the letters all come from signs and buildings in our neighborhood. We actually live in a really cool place with lots of restaurants, theaters and shops around. Sure, the bakery behind our house was broken into last night, but we still love it. Besides, all the burglar took was the plastic donations jar from the counter.

3. My little brother Jesse leaves fro the MTC tomorrow. I mentioned him a few months ago when he got he got his mission call to Taiwan. If any of you know him, make sure to support him and write to him a lot (because I sure won't).

4. Speaking of little brothers, my other younger brother Jacob is back at the Y. If any of you are in Utah and know of some hotties to set him up with, I'll get you his phone number.

5. Well, I'd better run. My fantasy football draft is starting in a few minutes. Yes, I'm a little embarrassed that I still do it, but we established the fact that I'm a nerd a long time ago on this blog.