Going off clothes

Hi, all! Okay, we'll start with today and work backwards.
First, a confession.
Living in New York has gotten hold of me in a bad place.
A Shopping Place. Not like I'm picking up every Louis Vuitton bag I can afford, but I definately am getting out of my league on this whole shopping deal. So, today after buying a pair of fannnnnnnnnntastic white pants for summer (white is so hot right now haha), I called my brother William and committed to a summer-long clothing fast. Actually, I told him "William, I decided I have to go off clothes for the rest of the summer," to which I had to quickly add, so he didn't think I was joining some sort of nudist colony, "Going off buying clothes, Will, not wearing them!" Thought I wouldn't have to do this again, but it's come to this. So, loyal followers of the blog, it's up to all of you to keep me accountable to a summer of no more pants, shoes, bags, or jewelry. It'll be tough, but it'll force me to get creative with the ole sewing machine and the clothes I've already got, Yep, the ones piled up on my bed so the cleaning ladies could get to the floor :)
Ok, rewind.
Spent 4 days in Indianapolis with Tina.
(Airport moment-flight delayed 4 hours and didn't get into Indy till 3:15 am. Spent almost 8 hours in the airport and read an entire book purchased at the airport book store)
An awesome time. A strange time, because it was really the first time I had spent time with her since her marriage, and I tell you what, it's a strange adjustment. I really had no clue that I would be so thrown off by her blatant change in priorities, namely, me moving down the list. Hanging out with my best friend, chilling at the pool, seeing her being such a awesome little wife was sooooooooooo awesome, but really weird seeing her put him first, change plans because he had a sudden whim, or get crabby because she hadn't had quality time with him in a couple of days. What what? I realize now that I had some pretty unrealistic expectations going into the weekend, like that she could just have a girls weekend and let her husband fend for himself for a couple of days and be fine?? Anyway, so all in all the weekend was awesome and we had an amazing time. I even got to go Extreme canoeing, and have the scrapes all over my legs to prove it! Also Tina was able to take out some aggression on me by slamming me in the ear with her paddle, which I of course overreacted to and started bawling, ugh how embarassing! But it was good. (Well, not the ear-slamming part, but the weekend"
Then, I headed back to New York intending to spend the next day cleaning my room and chilling at the house, but decided to take a day or two at the sweet apartment we were borrowing in the city instead. My parents didn't really care how clean my room was, right? So I headed to the city and lounged in the sweet Upper West Side apt, walking down the streets and shopping at the little corner groceries and pretending I really belonged there. A sweet day, actually.
After my parents got in
(Airport story: my parents' plane circled above La Guardia for so long that it actually ran out of gas and had to stop in Pennsylvania for gas... got in 2 hours late)
we spent the next couple of days hanging out all around the city, walking through Central park twice in the rain (it rained a LOT.) , going down to Ground Zero, eating at awesome EXPENSIVE restaurants, going on a sweet boat ride, watching a slightly innapropriate but really funny Musical (from ammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmazing seats) called the Producers, and pretty much a great time. Although, taking a farm guy all around Manhattan, I've found, is, at times, the express route to Frustration City. This city involves lots of walking and lots of opportunities for debate, so you can imagine how much fun a couple Nichols' had with that :) haha. It was good to show my parents my "getting around the city" skills, they got to see me sing in the choir at church, and we got to laugh our behinds off at the umbrella my dad had been carrying around all weekend, which had a very inappropriate phrase written on it. Cindy laughed and laughed! I think my favorite part of the weekend, though, were the mornings. We would get up and have big meals of whole wheat pancakes, eggs, and coffee and discuss all the stuff we'd do that day. Then, we headed out to the day, one day to a boat ride and an unlimited soda mug, one day to stroll (well, my dad doesn't really stroll, we had to trick him into walking through Central Park at all!) through Central Park, and the last morning we took a train up to my New York home. It was great. Loved having them here, but I am looking forward more than ever to being able to hang out with my family at HOME, where things are free, dress code is ultra-casual, and the only stress is discussing how many cars to take to church on Sunday. :) love home. love love love it. :) Iowa, my heart is yours :)
Getting back to work this week was good, but tough. Seems that in the week I was gone, the parents un-did all of MY parenting techniques. Unfortunate, to be sure. Still trying to remind the 2 year old that just a couple weeks ago he was FINE with eating at the table and going without all the hitting of his brother. Last week the bad habits were back with a vengance. But, it was good to get back to routine. Vacation can be exhausting! This weekend was nice, but I will write about at a later date because I gotta head to bed now.
love you all!
christina