BYU Football = Heart Attack

So, for those of you who missed the BYU game on Saturday (shame!), BYU once again pulled off another crazy, block-the-shot move that won the game. Basically, Washington had scored a touchdown with about 4 seconds left in the game, but was (controversially) penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, and had to move back for the "point after" kick that would effectively tie the game.

Partially because the aforementioned kick is harder from further back and partially because BYU is AMAZING, we blocked the shot and avoided going into overtime (BYU: 28, Washington: 27).





For a biased reporting on above paragraph, check out: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cfootball/2061ap_fbc_t25_byu_washington.html






Anyway, this is not the point of the blog... the point is that BYU sports (especially football) is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. I am not kidding when I say that my heart stopped beating (well, okay, maybe I'm kidding) during the BYU/Utah game of 2006. And don't even get me started on the blocked kick against UCLA during last year's bowl game with no time left (we seem to have a knack for that).

For some reason, I become so emotionally involved in these games -- even when I watch them from the comfort of my living room -- that I literally can not think of anything else while I'm watching. BYU Players that do well (Pitta, Hall) are praised like gods and those unfortunate ones that do not are quickly subjugated to "boo"s and hisses from the Peterson apartment.

Honestly, I'm not a huge sports fan in general. I don't know what it is about BYU Football that makes me go crazy. Seriously, I'm not even a student there anymore. But just writing about this gets my heart pumping and gives me the urge to "poke" the opposing quarterback on Facebook.

Speaking of UCLA, we play them again next week, and I will hopefully be able to make it out of there alive...

Missing...

...these boys. *tear*

Clarification: They are not missing--I am just missing them. Ha

Snaps for marketable skills!

Horraaaayyy!  

I have a job!!!!

After months (years?) of unnecessary worrying that I wouldn't actually be able to get a job offer after graduating and be doomed to a life of intern-ness, I was offered a job as a PR/Marketing Coordinator at Kimpton Hotels today.  I tried to play it cool on the phone when she offered it to me, but I am SOO excited!  Can you have your dream job right out of college?  Because (minus the entry-level pay) this sounds like everything I love doing.  Here are 5 reasons why I love Kimpton Hotels/ my future job:

5. They are a luxury boutique chain, meaning that each hotel has its own unique feel to it.  It's not like a chain Marriott or Hilton where every room/hotel is exactly the same.

4.  They keep Chi hair straighteners and blow dryers at the front desk of all of their hotels in case you forget to bring yours when you stay there (or come to work).  Talk about a girl's best friend.

3. I basically get to work ON capital hill (I am "stationed" at Hotel George, pictured below) without having to do all that political stuff.

2.  They do a lot of community outreach and plan a lot of special events for non-profits in the area in the hotels.  Even better- I am the one who gets to plan most of it!!

1. Two words:  family discounts!

I start a week from today--what a relief to have income to off-set Richard's law school debts! More information to come once I actually start working...

Canada, eh?

This past weekend, we took a trip with my parents and our favorite Hobokenites to Canada, specifically Montreal and Quebec City.  We had a great time, both on land and in car. (We drove about 28 hours in 4 hours.)  Actually, I am using the pronoun "we" loosely, as I didn't drive at all. Our dear Richard drove most of the way with Carma pinch-hitting often. Since I am in the process of changing my driver's license, I couldn't (and certainly didn't want to) drive at all. Instead, I passed time reading the first book in the Twilight series.  And, of course, I am now addicted and anxiously awaiting Richard to bring the rest of the series back from Utah. But I digress.

On our way down, we had lunch at a cute little town in northern New York called... Thurman. Since this also happens to be the name of my nephew (what a coincidence!), we decided to stop and take some pictures. Actually, this wasn't a coincidence at all--Carma had seen someone write a NYT letter to the editor from Thurman, NY, and we all decided it was worth the half-hour detour that it took to get these lovely pictures. 

Friday night, we had a great dinner in Montreal with a family that Richard taught on his mission. The wife is a professional French-English translator, but her husband didn't speak much English (he is fluent in French and Spanish), so I spent most of the dinner trying to catch as much of the French  conversation as I could.  I could understand most of what Richard was saying, but less of what Nicole was saying and even less of what her husband was saying.  I was also quite distracted by their lovely cats, which didn't help comprehension matters much. 

Saturday, we spent an AWESOME day around Quebec City (which reminded Richard and me a lot of Edinburgh).   One of the highlights of the day was taking a tour of one of the hotels in the city, with a period-style tour guide. Carma and I commented several times what a quaint and European feel the city it had to it.  Who knew Europe was so close?

Our NYC Abode

In the blink of an eye, this summer has come and past. In less than a week, we will be headed out (driving, not flying) to our neighbors to the north and then moving to our new home in Virginia. I recently realized that after several promises to certain parental units, I still had not posted a video of our apartment! So here is a short tour of our NYC residence in the good ole' International House. It's been a fun place to call home this summer!

We once were found but now we're... LOST

Over the past few weeks Emily and I have unearthed the mythologically complex world of LOST. The ABC TV series has already had four seasons and so we are catching on late in the game, but we are catching up quickly thanks to abc.com's full episode viewing capabilities. And we are not the only one's who have been victim to the series' addictive narrative. The warp and weft have also caught Greg and Kristen in its inexorable web. The plot seems simple enough: a plane crashes on a Pacific island and the survivors are bent on getting rescued and off the island. Well, the writers have promised six seasons so I guess we should have known that it wouldn't be so easy. Four seasons in and several nights in front of a laptop plugged into an alarm clock for speakers and we still don't know entirely what is going on. True, we do know the characters fairly well (in fact, we are pretty certain that one of the characters from the show, Sayid, is also Emily's hairdresser). They've been introduced to us through flashbacks and we've seen them interact with each other; however, each episode brings out more questions with the new understanding we have for the characters.

In short, we are addicted. So, Emily and I have discussed why we think that we have bitten so hard on a hook with a slow-reeling fisherman. One of our theories has to do with Russian novelists. Have you ever read a Russian novel from the 19th century?

Chances are that it wasn't a quick read and that it was almost infinitely complicated. Such novels appeared episodically in traditional media each week and the readers were left with an appetite to read next week's post. This served everyone well: the publishers were ensured a high volume weekly readership; the writer could make considerable money if he could somehow make his "books" interminable; and the reader had a healthy dose of entertainment. I think that the creators of LOST have tapped into this far better than any other series that I have personally viewed. Sitcoms seem to reboot every week with little plot development and other dramas haven't piqued my curiosity enough. So here we are in 19th century Russia waiting for our next new instalment. Unfortunately for us we only have three episodes left to watch for season four and season five doesn't begin until February! I guess we'll have to allocate our time to other endeavors. :)

you know you're living in a non air-conditioned apartment in NYC in the summer when...

5. You look forward to taking cold showers (and this is coming from a girl who loves her water scorching hot).

4. You wish it wasn't illegal to jump into the radioactive-green-colored ponds at Central Park

3. You sweat watching your husband play Wii.

2. Anything that would potentially warm you at night (blankets, sheets, your husband) ends up in a discarded heap on the floor--sorry, Richard.

1. You look forward to the fact that you get to stay in air-conditioned hotel rooms on vacation equally to how much you look forward to going on the vacation itself.