Saturday, March 13, 2010

Double Dating

Last night I had the privilege of going on a double date with my sister Megan and her two boys; Aaron - 7 and Edward - 4. At first when she asked me to be her son Edward's date, I was nervous and skeptical. Edward doesn't immediately scream ideal dater. I don't often get to see the grand children on their own. Normally it's only when everyone is together. I have gratefully discovered that children can be COMPLETELY different in large groups at grandma's house versus on their own at their house. My almost 4-year old nephew Seth loves to hate me when at grandma's house and is constantly pushing me away. I think he likes to be a pill. But when I go to his house he runs up and hugs me and wants to show me everything. Likewise, my almost 5-year old nephew Edward is easily the most willful and anti-social grand child when at grandma's house.
So imagine my surprise when I showed up at his house to find a super sweet and eager date. They recently moved houses and he was all about showing me everything in his new abode. I immediately started calling him "date" which seemed to please him and he was all too willing to hold my hand (like all good dates do). And like a good date, his hand was nice and warm.
The plan for the evening, was dinner, dessert (gelato, mmm yum) and a movie. Standard date fare. Dinner proved a little tricky as some of Edward's less adorable 4-year old traits came out. He didn't want to stay in his seat and refused to eat the dinner his mother had ordered for him. He ended up filling up with soda and the free chips brought to the table.
My favorite part of the evening was near the end of dinner. Edward's mother was quickly becoming frustrated with her son and was on the verge of taking him home. The two conditions she presented him that would allow him to stay on the date was to stay in his seat and eat at least a bite of the his burrito. I think he understood the seriousness of the situation because he calmed down a little and submitted to one bite. The bite being some spanish rice with some cheese. He protested and won the elimination of the cheese but was still forced to eat the rice. He grudgingly allowed the fork to enter his mouth but once the food was deposited his eyes instantly swelled with tears. You'd think his mother had forced hot sauce down his throat. He was on the verge of spitting it out but the look his mother gave him and the threat of going home was enough to keep it in. I would have felt sorry for him but one bite of spanish rice was not asking much and it was kind of entertaining to watch this small child agonize over not wanting to eat and not want to go home. In the end, thanks to large quantities of soda to wash it down, the food was eaten and disaster was averted. Edward was allowed to stay out for the evening.
After dinner we headed for gelato and then on to a movie (that while cute was maybe not the most engaging for a 4-year old) and for the rest of the night Edward was a perfect angel. I was so impressed. He even left me a very articulate voice memo on my phone expressing his appreciation for taking him to the movie and giving him popcorn. Silly boy. I love my nephews and I love opportunities to spend some more one-on-one time with them.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Penn State it Is

After months and months of dreaming and planning and doubting and praying and waiting, we have finally made a decision. It helped that Penn State made an offer we couldn't refuse (free tuition with a stipend). So it's off to Penn State we go. Who knows when or how we'll get there. All of those details have yet to be decided, but in the meantime we are just excited to have made that fateful decision and to feel good that State College, PA is where we are meant to be. Yay!!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Am I Cool Enough for an iPhone?

This is the question I have been asking myself since losing my iPod in December. I'm up for a phone upgrade and it could be nice to have them all in one, but am I cool enough to join the iPhone club? In the Apple commercials I always seem to connect with the PC guy. I've always had basic phones, don't really text or surf the web. So can I pull it off? I couldn't when I thought I would be charged $500 for one, but when I found out I qualified for a $200 one, all of a sudden my heart started shifting. Maybe I'm not the Apple guy now, but maybe I could be if I had the phone. I've become a red heels girl, surely I can become an iPhone girl to boot. (Do iPhoners use the phrase "to boot?")
Either way, I've made the plunge. Though narcissistic that I am I decided I didn't want the one easily accessible at the store, no, I wanted to buy one online so as to get it engraved with "Sariasis." So I bought one, and three days into anxiously awaiting it's arrival I discovered I sent it to the apartment I haven't lived in for two years. Turns out, after hanging out with various Apple and FedEx representatives for an hour, you can't reroute a package (at least not an iPhone) until FedEx has made at least one delivery to the original address. At first I thought this was absolutely ludicrous. What if the person who's now living in my apartment accepts the package? Am I out of luck? The nice man at FedEx told me they shouldn't accept the package, it won't have their name on it. To which I responded (quite sensibly, I thought), no one asks after the name on the package, neither the carrier nor the recipient, because who sends a package somewhere they don't live? I know I don't, why would anyone else? They didn't really have any satisfactory answer to that so I went back to Apple, where a very sweet girl assured me that, while that is the policy (for security reasons I think I understand), if someone should be there to accept the package, Apple will do some investigation and hopefully get me my phone.
I was appeased and am now praying that whoever lives at my old address isn't home on Monday to make off with my new endeavor into coolness. And if they do, I pray they will be nice enough when either Apple or me come knocking to retrieve said endeavor. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

A week later . . .
Turns out they let anyone have an iPhone whether they're cool or not. FedEx was kind enough to reroute my package without it going to the old address first. Yay!! I excitedly powered it up only to find out that the seemingly super simple activation process was not so easily mastered. So off to my local AT&T Wireless store I toddled. Turns out the process was not easily mastered by them either. It took two very nice individuals a solid hour plus to figure out what had gone wrong and how to correct it.
But ah wonders of wonders they did and I went home to finish the job only to find out that while I had a new phone I didn't have contacts. Somehow they had gotten lost in the transition. Not that I have that many friends, but I really am that lazy that I didn't want to have to re-enter all of them. So I called AT&T this time to spend yet another hour plus on the phone with yet another very nice person. This young woman was quite possible the most hysterical customer service person I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Though at the end of the hour she could not help me. She directed me to the Apple customer service that had closed moments before. Argh! Though not in the "I hate this stupid @!&$* phone," but in a "Sheesh, silly Sara and her silly this-phone-had-better-be-worth-it" sort of way.
I then spent the next hour or so fiddling with my phone and all the cool new apps I found. And somewhere along the way, I found the magic key to unlocking all my contacts. Ah Heaven itself. I wished there was a way of getting a hold of my cute AT&T rep just so I could tell her the happy news. I just knew she'd be so proud of me. It's too bad there is no way of doing that. That's a very long story to say that after multiple hours invested with the nice people of FedEx, Apple, AT&T (both in store and on the phone) I now have an iPhone.

Anyway, it's been a couple of days, and while I'm learning to overcome new addictions associated with the phone, I have to say, it's kind of cool. And maybe I can be cool too.

Monday, March 1, 2010

We are Here! We are Here! We are Here!

That's what I feel like shouting at the top of my lungs, just like those loveable Who's down in Who-ville. After a month of packing and many more months of contemplating, we are now officially on to the phase before the next real phase of our lives - e.g. living in my parent's basement while we wile away the time before really and truly moving on to the next phase of our lives - Matthew going back to school.
Complicated? Maybe, but I'm glad to be here. Glad that Wenatchee sent us off with beautiful weather, glad that after a few days of gloom in Sherwood, Oregon is welcoming us with beautiful weather, and glad that I have several months here with my family before heading off again. I feel like now is the time to soak in all the family time I can possibly handle while trying to work closer to full-time, before having to ditch out.
Because who knows when we'll be in driving distance again? We're seriously considering Penn State (more news after this weekend) and I was noticing that only 4% of their graduating class gets placed in the West. Not the Northwest, just the West. Which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I'm not putting a lot of faith in us ending up here after school. Who knows though. Life has been surprising thus far.
Wow, that's a lot of rambling to say we have made it to Portland and are excited to be here. There's lots of room in the basement if anyone feels like visiting!?!