Sleepless in Seattle...well Tacoma really

Well....this might finally get me caught up in posting pictures of my last few months. About two weeks ago I went to Seattle/Tacoma with my roommate Sara to visit a friend from college, Jen Curto. It was a great trip....we enjoyed the west coast, Pike's Market, crappy weather, Mt. Rainer, and the chill lifestyle of the west. We also saw the Crocodile Cafe....the home of grunge bands including Nirvana and many others....which sadly closed about a month before our visit. There are many great pictures below for your viewing pleasure....all in all a great trip and much too short.

Finally...Snowboarding

I went snowboarding with Denis, Katie, and Annabel last night. I am not sure if I have mentioned Katie and Annabel in blog...in case I haven't, they are two Lasallian Volunteers that live in Camden which is only 20 minutes away. We see them at least once a week but most often more than that.

Anyway, the four us went to the slopes last night. I was the only one snowboarding...also it was Annabel's and Denis' first time skiing so it is alway interesting watching first timers. They actually did pretty good and managed to stay on their feet most of the night. It was really strange conditions to snowboard in though...it was about 40 degrees outside and the snow was all fake but hey we at least got out. I am pretty sore today but it is worth it...this gets me one step closer to deciding to buy a board....you know I am going to be watching those end of season sales like a hawk....

Enjoy the pictures...

Sophie Scholl - Maybe the best movie in years

Last night I watched Sophie Scholl. I first heard about this movie about 2 years ago but it only came out with a limited release. Since then I have been trying to get my hands on it to watch it because I have heard nothing but wonderful things about it. I was blown away by the movie. It is at the same time beautiful and tragic. I find myself inspired and emotional often in the same scene. This movie dramatically depicts the true story of a two Germans, a brother and sister, who oppose Hitler and his ideas. They are caught distributing a inflammatory flyer around their campus and are subsequently put on trial. The remaining 1 1/2 hours of filming after their arrest will put anyone in touch with their emotions and inspire one to the deep ideas that are central to human existence.

I strongly recommend this movie to all. I finally got it through Blockbuster online so you could probably do the same or through Netflix. I found it was very difficult to find in a video store.

Enjoy the movie and please let me know what you think.

Mari, Sara, Daniel and Many Politicians

So Sara, Daniel, and I were coming back from downtown one night and we stumbled upon a lot of people at the Falls Bridge...which is about a mile from our house. We quickly realized it was for the lighting of the bridge (which it has never been lit in its whole history so this was a momentous event), so we decided to stop and participate.

I should probably backtrack a moment. Daniel is another Lasallian Volunteer who serves in Albany, NY. He was down for the weekend visiting with another volunteer. Anyway we pulled over and got to be a part of quite an experience. The lighting of the bridge itself was kind of a let down...not that spectacular but at least we could say we were there....but we did get to see most of the major Philadelphia and Pennsylvania politicians while we there...and I don't just mean see. I was about five feet away from all of them...you can tell in the pics below how close we were.

You will see our newly elected Mayor Michael Nutter, Governor George Rendell, and Senator Arlen Specter. It was pretty sweet. I could have pretty much reached out and touched any of them at a given moment. We tried to shake Michael Nutter's hand but some crazy girl started complaining to him about parking in her neighborhood...I wanted to say, "Look I know you can't find a parking spot but go talk to your neighborhood rep or something...your wasting the Mayors time and stealing my handshake." Which she did...oh well we at least got to see all of them in person...

Check out the pics....

NYC Marathon Trip

I went to NYC with Sara and Denis at the beginning of November to see another one of the Lasallian Volunteers run the New York Marathon. We also went to see the city...it was the first time I spent any real time in the city. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Times Square...basically everything you can see in a 24 hour period. Sara and I also saw a musical, Avenue Q, on Saturday night. It was hilarious, awkward, intelligent, insightful, and altogether pretty good. We stood in line for almost an hour at the ticket booth where you get discounted tickets for all the Broadway shows on day of performances. Our tickets didn't really seem discounted because we still paid a ton for them....but it was worth it.

Sara and Denis had to head back to Philadelphia on Saturday night because they had a school commitment on Sunday morning. I stayed the night in one of our Brother's Communities with some other volunteers and got up early to see the NYC Marathon. You will see a bunch of LVs in the pictures as we are waiting for Joan, our LV runner, to come by. Sadly we did not see her or Lance Armstrong at the 8 miles mark where we waited forever, but we did find her just as she was finishing. I think her time ended up being around 3:30...yeah she is a lot faster than me :)

After the race, we headed to Chinatown to grab some food and then I grabbed what is called the Chinatown bus back to Philadelphia. There are buses all over the East Coast that go from pretty much every Chinatown in each big city. It is really cheap ($10) but the accommodations aren't always stellar, but what can you expect from a $10 ride. I made it back safely and all in all had a great weekend in New York.

Check our some of my pics below. The first picture on the slideshow is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip and also my favorite picture of Sara, Denis, and I. It is my favorite because we are caught in genuine laughter at this point. We are on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and we asked a older gentleman if he would take a photo of us with the Statue of Liberty in the background. He agreed but took so long to take the photo and the boat was turning as he was taking the photo that he totally missed the Statue of Liberty. We all started laughing hysterically because he didn't realize what was happening...needless to say it is great candid moment....with no Statue of Liberty in the background.

Okay I was way farther behind than I thought....

I was looking through my old photos and I realized that in my previous efforts to catch all of you up on what I have been doing that I really failed....so I am actually going to go back to events before Christmas and then slowly return to the present time.

The following pictures are from my visit to World Cafe Live which is an excellent music venue here in Philadelphia. World Cafe hosts a bunch of up and coming artists along with some established oldies. It is a small venue so the concerts are much more intimate and you feel much closer to the artists. I really love it and some of my favorite artists are coming in the near future including Ingrid Michaelson and Missy Higgins. I am very much looking forward to this.

We went to World Cafe this night to see Rosie Thomas. She is also one of my favorite musicians. Beautiful and incredible voice along with a hysterical personality and sense of humor. She opened that night and did a set for about one hour....the whole experience was great. Little did we know that the next band would also be great. It was my first experience with Over the Rhine and now they are also in my regular rotation of music. I am not sure how to describe their style...it is rock, jazz, gospel, blues and a little of everything else. More than their sounds is their lyrics. I am pretty sure they are considered some of top song writers of the past century....Yes they are that good....so check out their music if you haven't already.

Here are some pics of the night. Mostly of Rosie Thomas in really awful lighting so you can't really see much but you get the idea. The best moment of the night happened after Rosie's set. She walked right past us to talk with some friends and on her way back to the stage Denis stopped her and she talked to us for at least two minutes...and we also got an excellent picture with her. I pretty much could have died happy after that night. Enjoy the pics....



Here is also a little taste of Over the Rhine's music....not great sound quality but you might get a little idea of how great they are...

Christmas...Yeah I am trying to catch up again

Well its that time when I realize I haven't posted anything in about two years and I try to catch up....so look forward to a succession of posts if I have enough time to do it. I am starting with photos from Christmas. Great cute ones of my niece and of course other people too. My friend Paul puts me to shame with this whole blog thing. I think he posts about 3 blogs a day....crazy...I am lucky I post 3 times every other month.

It was great meeting my niece Rosie at Christmas and she is coming to Philadelphia in March with mom and grandma...I am really looking forward to seeing her...and them too :)

Check out the pics