Yesterday, I sent out my christmas cards for the season and it got me thinking of christmas cards past. Which of course made me think of this classic.

Now, I know you’ve all seen this before, but I realized that it was taken 20 years ago. That’s right, this bad boy is from 1989 and I think it’s only fitting that it get brought back out for it’s 20th anniversary. On a not so awesome note, it makes me feel 100 years old that I have lived 20 years since I wore this home-made dress and stood next to Maren in her matching one. When I told Maren about my discovery, she was also horrified and said that she thinks we’re too young to be able to talk about things that happened 20 years ago. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. On another note, should I start smiling without showing any teeth? I’ll ponder. Merry early christmas to you all and may you all one day be a part of such an awesome christmas photo card-although I find that highly unlikely!

Today was the final day of my classes for this semester. And I am nothing short of thrilled to be done with that stupid statistics class. On top of the fact that I hated the subject matter and sucked at it, the professor did not follow several of the university policies when it came to grading and weekly submission of assignments which put a real damper on my grade and may be why my class of 24 slowly made its way down to a final total of 7 students. Hmmm…surely that reflects on the teacher, no?

Moving on from that bitter tirade. Okay, no I’m not. I am going to say that I can’t wait for my course evaluation to fully express my dismay at this course and the way it was run by this professor. This reminds me of the nursing school evaluation I wrote when done with nursing school that was a full 2 pages long. How cathartic that was and I assume this one will be as well.

Now really moving on from that rant. In the ongoing battle of “what’s the lesson?” with my quiz grades, I took my final two quizzes recently and decided to employ both methods. You know, the half-assed guessing method and the full effort actual work method, even though I’ve been getting mixed results. So, on my first quiz, I went through it quickly, guessed and made a 60%. Okay, that makes sense. Then on my final quiz, I took my time, really thought things through and made a 90%. That’s right, 90%. I guess the lesson is clear after all. Guessing on quizzes and bad grades go hand in hand and that one time I made a 90% with the guess method was probably a fluke. In fact, I think we can call it a statistical anomaly. That’s right, I did learn a thing or two even though I didn’t like the class.

Saturday, November 7th, Autumn had her little baby girl, Annie. I’m so excited that she is here and I can’t wait to meet her. I think she’s going to love her Aunt Brinny and they’ll be the best of friends. Welcome to the world, Annie.

Erica sent me a link to the New York Times and a slideshow of what is certainly my dream home.

Look at it. The owner built it entirely out of trees. This room is made of whole trees and I think it’s perfect for me. Thanks for finding my dream home, Erica.

Don’t be concerned, but Maren and I are out of the country-in Canada! If there is some sort of emergency where America might need a Genow sister, we will be sadly unable to help.

What sort of emergency could there be where we might be needed? Well, perhaps some sort of chemical spill that we could soak up with our hair, thus saving the day!

Sorry for you all that you will be in danger from chemical spills until we return to the homeland on Monday.

We are going to Montreal for Jeff’s game on Sunday and for Maren’s birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Maren Stefanie Genow:

(okay, this does appear to be a photo of my birthday, but I couldn’t find one of a young Maren birthday, so this will have to do. On a side note, why did I have an Oscar the Grouch cake? Was this a commentary by Mom on my young attitude? If so, I am officially offended. And how cute is Maren’s little girl dress and my fantastic kiddie mullet? And, as always, we have the best little girl smiles ever!)

Yesterday morning, your friend and mine, Mindy Briggs (Dennison) had her baby, Ruth Ann Dennison, 8lbs, 2oz. Both mom and baby are doing well. I can’t believe that Mindy is a mom now. It’s so strange to think about.

A big giant happy congratulations to Mindy and Dan on new baby Ruth!

Over the weekend, Meghan and I were in Yachats, Oregon for Sean and Erica’s wedding. First, not how beautiful it was there. These photos were taken from the spot where they got married. Could there be a better place to get married? I’m not so sure.

As this was a costume wedding, Meghan and I dressed up as Erica and Sean to celebrate their Greatest of Unions.

We were not the only people to come up with this idea as Erica’s sister, Vanessa and her husband also came as the bride and groom.

Sean and Erica, as expected, rocked their costumes as they came to their wedding as Caution and Daring which is a perfect illustration of their personalities.

This was by far the best wedding I have ever been to. It was what a wedding should be-a perfect reflection of the couple getting married. It wasn’t the same cookie cutter wedding that every person has. It was special and unique and really fun-just like Sean and Erica. It was also great that it was so small as it gave all of us there a chance to really get to know one another after so many years of hearing about eachother.

Thanks to Sean and Erica for bringing me to the Pacific Ocean for the first time and for giving us all the chance to get to know the many great people in your lives. It was so great to see you both again. Happy trails on the resumption of your road trip.

As most of you know, fall is my favorite season in New York. I always tell people to visit in the fall and no one ever does. Except Kyle who listens to his wiser big sister. Anyway, now that summer is winding down, I can almost taste the greatness that is fall looming in the not to far distance. Things I love about fall in NYC:

1. The perfect weather. It’s just right for a jean jacket and a cute scarf. And we all seem to look our best in the fall. You don’t have to see anyones ass or thong but then again, there aren’t so many layers that we all look like snowmen. Also, its not quite cool enough for everyone to wear their Uggs which I hate and too warm for flip flops which can be killers-especially if you step on a rock and toenails get lost in the bargain.

2. I can straighten my hair! Technically, this is weather related as the absence of the suffocating humidity makes this possible, but I’m so excited about it that I wanted it to have it’s own number.

3. You can wear a lot more earth tones and even match your friends.

4. Central park is absolutely at its best this time of year.

5. You get to carve pumpkins and drink cider.

6. The NYC Marathon-Brianne’s favorite day to be in the city is in the fall!

7. And I’ve saved the best for last-Football Season Starts!

I do realize that most of these things, other than Central Park and the Marathon happen in all places, but what can you do? New York has a special magic in the fall and since none of you have been here at this time, you can’t contradict me!

Saturday night a few weeks back, after we saw Up, we decided to go over to Bourbon street on 46th to have  a few drinks and dinner at 6:30 before heading back to our house around 8:30 for some Wii bowling. Keep in mind that this was our plan. Be home by 9:00.

Now I will tell you about what actually happened. Or, what I can remember.

There were no open tables, so we had to sit at the bar. (We have decided in retrospect that this was our downfall).

We met the bartenders, Adam, Brian and Keith and proceeded to challenge them to make up shots for us-which they did with gusto. (Adam is with Maren and made us the shot called a handsome randy.

Brian who is wearing some of our 3D glasses, made us The Brian which tasted like candy-again, part of the problem) Oh, and in a Twilight Zone moment, Adam’s girlfriend came in later that night and who was she but a girl Zak had gone to college with for a year! How strange is that?

Maren spent some time hanging with some guys at the worlds lamest bachelor party while Zak and I talked to his friend Dewey who also happened to be there for another event.

It’s at this point, round about midnight that we lost most of our memory.

Jeff tells us that we called around one to tell him we were leaving, but the time stamp on our photos shows that we were still at the bar at 3:30 am.

It’s also around this time that we have photos of Maren behind the bar…

…and of Maren dancing.

Maren and I vaguely remember being in a taxi and have a fuzzy memory of the cab driver helping us to our door. Also, the next morning there seemed to be just enough cash missing from my wallet to have paid a cab driver.

The next thing I remember is waking up without any clothes on. Hmm…Then walking out to the living room to see vomit on the rug and thinking, “Oh, Maren threw up”. Then I walked into the bathroom and saw my vomit covered clothes on the floor and realized it must have been me. For those of you who know me, this is very strange. I don’t drink and then throw up. Unless it’s hair spray, but that’s a story for another day! How did this happen? I’m still trying to puzzle that one out and it’s been two weeks! (of note, I seem to have worn the 3D glasses from our afternoon viewing of UP for most of the night. awesome, no?)

The next morning, Maren’s ribs felt really hurt and so we went through the pictures to see what had happened. This happened: we’re still not sure if she fell or jumped or if one of us pushed her. She may have landed here after she danced on the bar, but nobody remembers.

We’ve decided our problems began when we decided to do shots and we can count at least 9 that we remember doing, so one can only guess at what the actual number is. Also, at the end of the night Maren and I were drinking hurricanes like they were kool-aid at a really fast pace. This may be what led to the vomiting. Among other things. The best part is that when Meghan came home from work in the morning and saw the vomit, she too thought Maren had done it. And when Maren woke up and saw it, she too assumed it was her. Sorry to Maren for the false vomit accusation. Although I do like that everybody involved (me included) thought there was no way I could have done it!

The moral of the story is, when going to eat dinner and have a drink or two, do not stay for 9 hours and eat dinner and have a drink or twenty. Our tip to you. Although the parts that we can remember we really really fun.

As a P.S. to this post that must make our dad so very proud, I’d like to wish him a happy 52nd birthday.

Also, in reference to the no hair cutting in the year 2009 complaint post of a few days ago-look at how out of control my hair was this day. It was so bad that I had to hold it back with a bandana for fear it might eat my face. If I ever die in my sleep, please have the coroner look for hair in my nasal passages as I’m sure I’ll have been accidentally suffocated by the wool blanket that my hair has become this summer! (By the way, wouldn’t that make an awesome horror movie?)

Dear readers: Guess who Everyone hung out with last night? As you can tell from the subject box, it’s someone from 9t grade, but not just any someone, it’s our 9th grade World History teacher, Kim Pennington. (That’s right, Amber, we got to hang with KP!)

This is one of our favorite teachers of all time. She was one of those great ones who doesn’t stand and talk at you but gets you involved. Instead of talking about Joan of Arc, we did a mock trial. Instead of talking about the slave trade, she tied us together and made us lay on the floor of a dark room to feel what it was like to travel that way by boat to be sold into slavery. We loved her and her class. Of note, it is also her class that Amber and I credit with the start of our friendship. We knew and sort of liked eachother before then but it wasn’t until a marker cap incident in Penningtons class that we really became friends ourselves. And look where that’s gotten us.

Needless to say, when KP emailed me that she’d be in the city for a conference, we jumped at the chance to see her. We met Zak at Taboon because he had to work and we spent 4 hours there and closed the place down with our fun times before we headed to Times Square where KP had never been. We had such a great time catching up with this great person from our past and for as much as we’ve all changed since Zak and I were in 9th grade, it was like no time had passed and it wasn’t weird or filled with long pauses and I’m so glad we got to see her again. She rocks!