I love Ruth!!!!

In an earlier post I had alluded to a very exciting phone call. Well that phone call was my brother Jeff calling to tell me that he had just proposed to Ruth and she said YES!!! My brother BEAN just got engaged!!! Wahoooooooo!!! This is cause for some serious excitement. Go Bean!! I am so, SO happy for you!!!

Well at this point I took matters into my own hands and started getting to know Ruth. It only took one email for me to like her, and just a few emails to love her! Ruth is a natural beauty who is absolutely fun and outgoing. She is super down to earth with no pretenses. I don't know how anyone could not love her!!!


Turns out we even have some of the same tastes. Guess who registered for the same platter as I did! And we both share a love for OCD-type planning, documentation, and organization. We were just bound to be buds.Jami did some beautiful engagement photos for the couple. Bean looks like such a stud, check him out! Ruth ain't so bad either!

I just love this one of Bean. He doesn't look so tough now that he's in love!!

Can't wait to meet her this week!

Work-a-holic!

I've been going like crazy for the past few days trying to get a bunch of stuff finalized and turned in at work.

Wednesday - ten hours
Thursday - eleven hours
Friday - eleven and a half hours!!!

Three super long days later it feels GREAT to have it all done! Hoorah!

Bean Comes to Town

Bean was able to do some fancy footwork and arrange work so that he'd need to be out in Lancaster County, PA, which is just an hour away from us. (LOVE those Amish!)

I was able to pick Bean up from the airport last night for a whirlwind visit of about ten hours. It was great to get in some quality talk time with my "twin." Thanks for making it all work out. Love you Bean!!!

Now all of my siblings have visited me out in PA except one. No pressure D, I know you've got a TON on your plate!!!

Tooth Excavation

Today I got to take my hubby into the oral surgeon's office. Oooh sounds intense. It was. Stas had a little extra friend that was no longer very friendly (aka he had a tooth and associated cyst that needed to be removed). See below:The surgery went fine, but because the tooth was so close to the nerve that runs along the jaw bone, they gave Stas extra sedatives so he wouldn't move during the procedure. I was glad that they were taking precautions, not wanting permanent numbness for the lower half of my husband's face, but also a little concerned because no one filled me in. Thirty minutes after they told me he would be ready, I still hadn't heard my name called. (I was waiting patiently like a good wife, cough-cough, reading Breaking Dawn). Turns out that it just took longer for him to wake up because of all the extra drugs. Go figure. I got him safely home, and while getting things ready for him, found him taking this photo of himself:


I mean, if he didn't want it posted on the blog, he shouldn't have put it where I could get to it, aka, on the camera. (He used the same excuse about deleting files. That I shouldn't save files where he can get to them if I don't want the deleted. Ridiculous!)

I had planned on going back into work around lunch time, seeing how we went in at 7:45 and they told us it would only take 1.5 - 2 hours. Well when it was already 9 and he still wasn't under, I had a sneaking suspicion they underestimated.

Here are a few highlights from the office:

• Seeing the crazy 4-d image of the lower half of Stas's skull. Technology these days, man, it's pretty neat stuff.
  
• The anesthesiologist asked if I was the mom or sister of the patient. When I said wife she seemed shocked. Somehow she got the idea that she was going to be working on a young girl. Wrong, very wrong. Then she double checked the chart and said, "hmm 26, I guess that's possible." What the heck does that mean? Anyway, she was actually quite nice.
  
• Again the anesthesiologist, after checking Stas's breathing with a stethoscope (putting it on his chest on such) she asked if he was a body builder. What can I say, my husband's got great pectoral muscles!
• The dental technician/assistant/hygienist/helper/male nurse looks an incredibly lot like Stas's friend Eric (minus the green eyes) that I totally felt comfortable. They even had the same build, coloring, facial features. It was nuts!
• The doctor kept calling Stas "bud" and "buddy." It was awesome. At least he was friendly!

Right now, and for the next several hours, this is what Stas will be up to (well in between changing gauze and popping pills!):


We didn't even get home until after twelve. Then I had to fill the prescriptions, replace the gauze, change the ice packs, shop for popsicles, Gatorade, frozen treats, etc. it was after two by the time all of that was done and time for the next round of pills. I decided it best to take the rest of the afternoon off and help out my hubby. But now that he's sleeping and I've got some free time, I feel like I'm playing hookie. I should be at work, yet, I'm not. But I don't mind one single bit!

Bruised and broken

Well maybe not quite broken, but feeling just as awful.

The morning started out just like any other Monday. The alarm went off too early. Me, dragging myself out of bed for a jog, convincing myself that if I can just make it outside, then I'll feel a lot better about life. It's always true, but I never believe it until it's done. I have such little faith in myself!

As I got dressed I spent a long time deciding what to wear. It has gotten quite cool in the mornings and I'm pretty much a wuss when it comes to cold. But then again I hate running in too much clothes. It is just annoying. Well somehow I decided on leggings and a long sleeve tee.

And thank goodness I did!!!! Not a quarter mile down the road I totally biffed it over a drainage grate and went flying forward. Luckily my knees and palms where there to break my fall as I crashed into the asphalt. Awesome. My survival instinct got me out of the way of road traffic and I rolled onto a patch of wet grass where I proceeded to wallow in my own pity and hope that no cars drove by. I decided that I was better than that so I limp-jogged the rest of my route. Maybe not the best idea.

When I got home I assessed the true damage. I had patches of missing flesh on both my hands with oozing blood and the same for my knees and some serious joint sensitivity! Somehow my pants hadn't ripped, but my flesh had. Those are some good pants! After trimming the dangling dead skin off of my hands with scissors I braved the rest of my morning routine. The worst was of course was the shower. Open gaping wounds and running water do not mix kindly. Once I got to work I noticed the golf ball-sized purple-ish blue lump emerging from my knee cap. Not good. I limped around all day. The stairs to the apartment didn't go so hot, but I survived to get you these photos. Keep in mind it felt a lot worse than it looks. Blood and guts just don't shine through!

Life's just not fair!

Showing off my band-aids!

Trying to demonstrate the bump on my left knee.

All four of the open wounds look like this one. Gross.
And if you can't tell, my hand is somewhat swollen from the impact.
I was holding my keys, which actually played in my favor, because they protected the majority of the surface area on my hand! Whippy! I had my pepper spray in my right hand, and it really did protect me, just not from the type of danger you would expect!

YW Volleyball!

We had an awesome and very long day at the combined stake volleyball activity yesterday! Our first game started at 9am and the last one ended around four. Of course I didn't get any shots of the girls actually playing volleyball; I was too busy coaching to be the live action photographer!!

Here are a few photos from the day:

Team shot at the end of the long, long day

In our down time we like to work out the stress of being so awesome!

Chillin' in the hammock
(Watch out for Rachel, she looks a little angry!)

Braids & guitars. The makings of a lovely country music video

We -heart- guitars!!

True Story

Stas: Why did you bring your laptop home from work?
Julie: Because I wanted the convenience and luxury of blogging in bed. :)

So Youthful!

Tuesday night at YW's I was busy with calling #2, YW Volleyball Coach (I know, you are so jealous!). We were doing several drills and I was trying to impart what ever knowledge on basic v-ball skills I can to these young impressionable girls. Fast forward to the YM/YW scrimmage. I was helping my girls reminding them to rotate in at server, call the ball, move your feet, etc. Then a fellow YM leader asked me what the score was. He followed-up with "why aren't you playing?" This is when I proudly informed him that I was the coach! He appeared to turn that over in his mind and then had just one more clarifying question, "You're a leader!?!?" Yep, you read right my friends. I was again mistaken for being one of the young women. Let's add this one to the list of other times that I have been mistaken for a Laurel (I'm assuming no one would guess younger, but who really knows?)
List of times - to my knowledge - that I have been mistaken for a Young Women (under 18!):

• The poor young man in my ward who just after I moved in was asking the YW who I was. I'll save him the embarrassment by not pointing out his name.
• At Girls Camp I came up after work to bond with my girls in nature. Well, as I was walking up to camp I ran into a group of leaders who were heading out for the evening. When passing them, they told me to "Have so much fun this week!" Okay, so maybe they didn't directly say "hey I think you are a youth," but it just didn't quite seem like what they would have said to an adult. Especially with the odd smile they had on their faces as they said it. Something like, "oh you young and impressionable girl, savor this opportunity at your young age before you grow up and learn what real stress is." Just a guess.
• Also at Girls Camp, I was waiting by the flag as all of the girls filed out of the Mess Hall for flag ceremony. As I stood around feeling awkward not having anyone to talk to (yes, just like I'm sure many of the youth), I hear my name screamed and get stampeded with hugs. Seriously, I almost fell over. Then my YW proceed to tell me (1) how cool I am and (2) that all girls were like "who's the new Laurel? she looks cool." Their words, not mine. Then they very proudly informed their friends from the Stake that I was their bomb-dot-com leader. Okay, yes those are my words, not theirs, but I'm sure it was something to that effect.
• Helping out with youth Temple trip. I'll just leave it at that.
• The volleyball incident listed above.

Maybe there aren't that many, but enough for a good post. I've been asked to chaperon a dance, and honestly, I'm a little nervous about that one. Luckily I was going out of town so I dodged that bullet, but I am sure that it is only a matter of time. I don't know if I'll be able to restrain myself and just stand on the sidelines like a good chaperon should. Only time will tell.

Disclaimer - I am by no means complaining. I am in fact pleased that no one (but my loving husband) has seemed to notice the three perma-wrinkles that I've got going across my forehead. I count my many blessings that I have inherited my Mother's glow! Thanks Mom!!

I married a genius; part 2

I didn't know that there would be a follow up to part 1, but I am thrilled.

Stas has made in onto Penn State's Moot Court. Actually, he made it on The Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, aka the most prestigious moot court in which Penn State participates!!

The Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot
The Vis Competition was founded fourteen years ago with the goal “to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through its application to a concrete problem of a client and to train law leaders of tomorrow in methods of alternative dispute resolution.” The students on the Vis team are responsible for writing memorandums for claimant and respondent and then presenting those arguments in oral hearings against opposing teams to be settled by international arbitrators. The competition requires determining questions of contracts from a transaction relating to the sale or purchase of goods under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and other uniform international commercial law and then presenting arguments in an arbitral proceeding under specified arbitration rules.

The competition is held annually at the Juridicum located in Vienna, Austria and has over 150 participating law schools from across the world. The problem is issued in October and the oral arguments are held in March of the following year.

There are only eight people on the team and Stas is one of only two guys! And the other dude is at the other campus. Way to represent ladies!!!

Soggy Crutons

The number one reason my lunch was disappointing.

С днем рождения Cтac!!

For my new favorite 26-year-old, here are 26 reasons, in no particular order, why I love you!

1. You try to teach me how to cook and are very patient with me even when I pick a fight every step of the way, because I am just really jealous that you are so much better at it than me!
2. You remind me to not stand next to the microwave. You are paranoid of the radiation.
3. You cook extra food, so I can pack it for lunch.
4. Your mad kung fu, karate-do-jo skills. Knee-cap!!!
5. You like to go hiking and have "off trail" experiences. You are such an explorer!
6. You can't like anything that is too "mainstream."
7. When you want to shoot hoops and need someone to retrieve balls for you, you ask me if I want to help you with something. So sly.
8. You issue moratoriums.
9. You like musicals.
10. You do really hilarious impersonations of me; especially of when I'm irritated, sad, or excited and they always make me laugh.
11. You are founder of the Hip Hop Foundation. And you come up with such genius concepts as the Hip Hop Foundation.
12. Your bomb-dot-com dance moves.
13. You are so amazed by the technology of your new handheld device.
14. Your absolute zero tolerance of spam email.
15. Your no-nonsense, tell it like it is attitude.
16. You have no self restraint when it comes to your favorite chocolates.
17. You call my bangs an "eye-patch." Arrrr, I'm a pirate!
18. You have your own, self-created "walk-in closet" aka the floor.
19. You try to delegate everything to your personal assistant.
20. Your green thumb.
21. You need me to help you find everything.
22. You tell me I need to contribute to society by writing articles for Wikipedia.
23. You call my siblings by their nicknames, Plip, Dirt, Bean, D.
24. You call my clock a lighthouse.
25. You enjoy the comforts in live and now I know I'll never have to go without!
26. You worry that bringing my lunch to work will hurt my social time.

And a few more to grow on. . .

27. Your love of Hawaiian shirts.

28. You tell me to take novels to work to read.

29. After learning that how cheap Costco sells chicken broth, you feeling like storming into Wal-Mart and demanding a refund for all of the over-priced chicken broth you have bought over your life span. You love a bargain and always have to get the best deal.

30. Your love for knowledge in all of the most random subject areas.

Alright, there are just a few reasons why I love him!! And of course because he works so hard trying to create the best future possible for our little family and take such good care of me. Love you Babe!!!

Pros & Cons: Conference Room A

My cube is conveniently located within two feet of the door to "Conference Room A" which is the largest and most popular conference room in the building. All week there has been some sort of training/conference going on, and it has inspired me to put into words some of the observations I have made about Conference Room A's close proximity.

Pros

• I get to learn about lots of different topics, because I can hear everything that goes on in the room through the paper-thin walls.
• When the door is closed I hear a nice muffled noise that drowns out the "blub-blub" of the water cooler.
• I get to practice my favorite game of "guess where I am from based on my accent"
• The leftover food from catered lunches! Free lunch for me!
  

Cons

• See first bullet under "Pros"
• Whenever any of the attendants gets a cell phone call, I get to hear the dialogue about the emergency (personal or professional) back home.
• Whenever there is a break everyone congregates around the water cooler and complains about something. Whether it's the heat, the traffic, or the bogus GPS that led them in circles when they took a wrong turn, we all have one thing in common: the need to whine.
• B.O. serious, serious B.O. I only wish I was kidding. You get people from all parts of the globe. I still can't understand how some people don't think they need deodorant, because trust me they do!
  

Weekend wrap-up

I had an exceptionally wonderful weekend, so I thought I'd share.

Friday
Johanna and Lauren had mercy on me and invited me to hang out with them and their two equally cool friends. It was so great to go hang out with girls my age that I could totally relate to. Just because I'm married and all graduated doesn't mean I can't related to those college days. Johanna was wearing the adorable sweater (shown left, but with pants!). I've been hunting for a boy-friend style sweater for this fall and instantly fell in love with this one. When I asked where she got it, low and behold, my old favorite store Urban Outfitters! How had I forgotten all about them? Possibly because the closest one is hours away and I'm stuck in a boring clothes rut? Yes, that must be it. Well I love the sweater and got permission to copy. So you may see me sporting this sweater in the future. :)

We hung out, ate yummy strawberries, then went and saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. The movie was a lot of fun. Generally I liked it, but if you hadn't read the books then a lot of the stuff was pretty random. They managed to cram/re-arrange/completely leave out books 2, 3 and 4 into one movie. Talk about poetic license! Here's the totally crazy part: Towards the end of the movie after Effie goes to Greece with the pants and Lena follows after her, the remaining three girls have a chit-chat on someone's porch. Bridget (Blake Lively) is shown sitting on a porch swing with two very fabulous decorative pillows. that are conveniently cropped out of the only photo (shown right) I could find from the scene! Now if you click on the photo to see it full size you can see a sliver of the pillow in question just behind her left shoulder. The full pillows look exactly like this (see below). Now, I know what you're thinking "wow Julie, how did you get those pillows from the movie set?" or "why do you care so much about a decorative pillow?" Well the fact is that I have the exactly same pillows sitting on my couch, in my apartment, right now. Pretty cool, eh? Even crazier is the fact that The Humphreys from Gossip Girl, Blake Lively's TV show, used our serving bowl for their Thanksgiving mashed potatoes! Whatever Blake Lively is in next, I better go see, who knows--maybe they will show our new kitchen table chairs!

Saturday
The loveliest way to start your day-with some sleeping in!! Then we got up and hurried over to Harrisburg to catch a flick. The theater is the closest thing Central PA has to a dollar movie theater (it's $2 matinée and $4 evening). It is also on the West Shore, aka not close to us, but conveniently close to Costco. It was our first time to this theater and well, it was pretty ghetto. Even for a dollar movie. Like seriously crap-a-licious. Who knows if we'll go again? We went and saw Kung Fu Panda, and both enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it yet, go for it! It's fun and has a good message.

Costco was great. We found a new pair of glasses for Stas for an incredibly good price. We also pick up some great deals of food items we regularly use and filled up my gas tank for super cheap. Extra bonus. We got a huge thing thing of strawberries that we've been snacking on and are nearly gone. We made a delicious roast in the crock pot and finished Season 4 of The Office and watch the Olympics. I was totally into the relays and the Australian kicking the Chinese divers' butts in the platform. Stas played this prank on me. I was so absorbed into the Olympics that when I asked Stas what time it was and he lied saying it was two hours earlier I actually believed him. He said it was 9:30 when it was actually 11:30. Then half an hour later when the coverage ended I thought, "hmm, why did they end early on a Saturday night? That's odd!" Wow he totally had me on that one. I was so confused. It was pretty funny.

Sunday
Church was good. We had the left over roast which actually taste better than the first go around. Stas took a little nap while I worked on catching up with the blogging world. We played a couple games of chess; Stas won of course, but I held my own in the smack-talk. (See Kelly Kapoor for the difference between trash talk and talking smack, 0:15 seconds in.) Then we cleaned up, watched more of The Office and the Olympics and ended the day with a VERY exciting phone call. Details to come . . .

Cell phones & popcorn

This is nuts.

It feels like December 31, 2007

Q: Why does this sunny Friday in August remind me of a random winter Monday/New Year's Eve?

A: Because that is the last time that I remember working and there being this few employees in my module/building.

Let me give you the facts:

• Out of my row of five cubicles, I am the only one here.
• For the row next to me, all five cubicles are empty!!!
• The row after that only has three employees in the six cubicles that create the row. One of which is the receptionist/secretary, so that cube has to be occupied.
• Of the eleven offices along the outside perimeter of my module, only two are full.
• There eight offices on the inside wall of my module, but currently only three contain employees.
• Both conference rooms are empty.
• The other secretary is in her "floating" cube. It's not against a wall, hence the floating.

These figures bring the grand total to 10 employees out of a potential 36+ (don't ignore of normally occupied conference rooms!) That's just crazy!

What am I still doing here? Bringing home the bacon and bringing you this post!

I knew they were up to something

The past week and a half I have gotten very into the Olympics and very into some shady stuff going down in the gymnastics competitions. Before I get to carried away, I just want to say I knew that there was no way this girls was 16. No way. And to win by such a ridiculous tie-braking procedure, come on China come clean! We all now know that He Kexin is underage! And therefore not eligible to complete at the Olympics. Boom-sha-ka-la-ka. Take that China.

I married a genius!

It's official. Stas made it onto the Penn State Law Review, and I couldn't be more proud!! He worked so hard and made it happen.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the law review process, I will explain. For those students finishing up their first year of law school (they only have one chance to apply), on the last day of finals at 5 pm, the Law School publishes a list of legal cases. From these cases (about six, each of which is like thirty pages full of legal mumbo-jumbo) the student has ten days to review each of the cases, do additional research, and write an extraordinary paper. That's it, ten days, coming right of the stress of finals!! Oh yeah, and it's insanely competitive. The top 7.5% of the class (about twelve people) get an advantage and the remaining eight spots are left for the other 138 students to fight tooth and nail for. Talk about the pen being mightier than the sword!! Well Stas sure had his share of obstacles to overcome in trying to get this paper done. First is me, of course, I am the best distraction ever. During those ten days my car was in need of some serious repairs, we had company in town for the weekend, it was the last weekend before Stas flew to Moscow for his internship, he had to waste about 12 hours traveling, adjusted to a new time zone and living back in Moscow. Wow, that’s enough to made anyone crazy, even if they don’t have an extremely difficult paper to write which could make or break his/her future career!!

Well in true Stas fashion, he triumphed humbly and now gets to write another thirty page paper and several other assignments that will consume his time for the next two years. Why, you ask, would anyone put themselves through this? Well, because as I like to call it, making law review is the “golden ticket” to good internship and job offers. Any one you talk to about getting a good job out of school always say “just earn good grades and make law review.” Ha! Sure like it’s just that simple!

Here’s an excerpt of what Wikipedia has to say about Law Review:
"Membership on the law review staff is highly sought after by law students, as it often has a significant impact on their subsequent careers as attorneys. Many federal judges and partners at the most prestigious law firms were members or editors of their school's law review. There are a number of reasons why journal membership is desired--many see the intense writing, research and editing experience as invaluable to the student's development as an attorney; others see the selection process as helping differentiate the best and the brightest from an already strong group of law students."

That's my man, "the best and the brightest!!" I am incredibly proud of Stas, and appreciate all of the hard work he does for our family and for our future!

When you leave work at 6:30 on a Friday night,

The parking lot looks this:

Hooray for me!

Dear Tennants in #108,

I get it; you guys are a lot cooler than I am.

There. I said it. Now you no longer need to carry on with the loud obnoxious parties each Monday evening. Your thumping tunes that cause my floor to hum will no longer be necessary. Also, if you wouldn't mind telling the nine people loitering right below my windows to stop talking, screaming, and giggling; I'd like to go to bed. I am a productive member of society who did two, yes two, classes at the gym today and could use my beauty rest. While you're at it, you should tell them to stop smoking. It's killing my plants. You might also, as a good friend, remind them that smoking will kill them and make their lungs turn black and gross. Maybe throw in a few PSAs about gum disease and the harms of second hand smoke. Just an idea.

I don't really mind the public intoxication as long as those intoxicated don't speak. I don't need some drunk guy offering to help carrying in my groceries while he's telling me how I am so young and beautiful. Creepy.

On a final note, please stay away from my car. I know it is a super hot sports car and that the Texas plates make her even more enticing, but I really need her to stay untainted. She's already suffered enough drama in her short life.

However, I am somewhat impressed that you have encouraged nine car-loads of 'friends' that partying it up on a Monday evening in a one-bedroom apartment is a great idea. Kudos to you. But I'd still like to be able to sleep.

Warmest regards,
Your Friend Upstairs (literally)

The Unvieling

My new haircut is something like this . . .

+

=
My new 'do

PSYCH!!!!!!
That was my Lloyd Christmas impression.
This is how it really looks:

Once I get the right products it should look even better!

Don't worry I'll be sure to keep you posted!