We've moved!

This space has been annoying me lately.  It was originally set up under my old email address before I got married, and the stupid thing wouldn't let me transfer it to my new email address.  I followed the instructions and it just wasn't cooperating.  So I've been working off of two different email addresses and it was just getting annoying.  This was the last thing that was left under the old one and I decided it was time to change.  Everything got migrated to the new one, so it's all there!

The new address is http://leahandianrapoport.blogspot.com

So follow me (publicly, so I know who y'all are!!!) and I'll follow you back.  I'm looking for new blogs to read so let me know you're out there!  I'm sure your blog is more entertaining than mine anyway, so I'd love to keep up... even if we haven't spoken in a million years :)

See you at the other site!

Weekend recap

The Patriots had a bye week this week so Ian had Friday and Saturday off work. We decided to head to New York for the weekend to visit his family and spend Halloween there. Apparently his family has a tradition of spaghetti and meatballs for Halloween (random, but delicious!) so we joined in the festivities. He played golf on Friday morning with his friend from high school who lives here in Boston and we hit the road around 3:00, dogs in tow. Oh, and we finally got rid of this big leather recliner that we didn't have room for so it was sitting in a really awkward place. So we loaded that up in the back of the car too (imagine me and Ian trying to get the thing down the stairs... probably a little entertaining.)

We got there around 6:30 and planned to meet a couple of friends in the city for dinner so we had to get ready quickly and run out the door. We met them at a place called Barbone that was absolutely amazing.  I had duck ravioli and Ian had wild boar lasagna.  SO good!  After that we headed over to Brooklyn to meet another friend and went out for a few drinks and spent the night at his place.  Woke up the next morning with a hangover and a parking ticket (ugh) and went to Ian's alma mater to watch the Columbia - Yale football game.  It was such a cool atmosphere.  SOOOOOO different from the SEC.  It felt like a high school game, honestly.  The stadium only holds 17,000 so it's much, much smaller and the whole feel is just different.  It was much more relaxed and we had a great time!  Still love the SEC though... no Ivy League for me :)

 Me and Ian at the Columbia game...

Ian and his dad

After the game (Columbia had a heartbreaking loss right at the end...) we headed back to his parents house so he could do a little work (on his off day... of course) and his sister Mimi and I went shopping for some groceries for dinner that night.  The spaghetti had already been cooking all day but I wanted to make Claire's amazing stuffed jalapenos.  So we picked up supplies and went back to cook.  The jalapenos turned out delicious and everyone loved them!  Brownie points for me :)

We finally had dinner, which was sooo good, and gave candy to a bunch of really cute trick-or-treaters.  The dogs flipped out every time.  I think Molly was scared of the costumes and Biscuit was barking just because she felt like it.  So they got locked in the library so they couldn't eat the cute little kids.  Ian's parents dogs (Ruby and Rocky) and our dogs ran around like CRAZY for the whole weekend!  They were very cute.

Ruby and Rocky, looking abnormally tame :)

Sunday, Ian had to cover the Jets-Dolphins game so he left fairly early.  The rest of us just hung out during the morning and Mimi and I set out to get a manicure, go shopping, and pick up their grandparents to come over for dinner.  We roamed around Target for a little bit then went grocery shopping again for everything for dinner. (Lox and Bagels... yum!  and a peach blueberry pie.  Also yum!)  We picked up their grandparents and headed back to the house for a relaxed evening of food, family, and World Series.  You know it's serious when the whole family decides to eat in front of the TV :)

Ian got back really late so we decided to spend another night and leave Monday morning.  By the way, when we stay there we share a twin bed... that's love!)  We got up and went out to lunch with Ian's mom and headed back to Boston.  The dogs were absolutely exhausted!!  We had some leftovers for dinner then met a few friends out at Atlantic Beer Garden for drinks and more World Series action.  Got back home completely exhausted and we both fell asleep on the couch.

Now it's Tuesday and the dogs and I are watching CSI while Ian finishes up work for the night.  We're thinking about watching the Alabama - LSU game this weekend at the bar where all the Alabama fans in Boston go.  And maybe watching the second half at the LSU bar :)  We also have a friend's birthday party on Friday night, so we're looking forward to that!  I'll try to do better on taking pictures. 

One last note - the leaves up here are SO pretty!  All the colors are so vibrant... it's not peak anymore, but still gorgeous, so here's a quick picture I took while we were driving back to the house after the Columbia game.  And another of all the leaves in his parents driveway.  So pretty!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Product plug

I'm typically not that loyal to a product... With the exception of 2 makeup items - my fave mascara and bare minerals foundation.

 

 I tend to like to mix it up when I buy new things.  Shampoo/Conditioner, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, facewash... you name it.  I like to try new things.  That being said, I've never found a body lotion that I really really liked... until last December.  We were at Ian's parents' house for our engagement party and Robin and I were changing upstairs after the party.  There was a bottle of lotion on the desk in Ian's sister's room and my legs needed a little moisture, so I used some.  And fell in love.  And then we parted ways and never saw each other again.

Until today.

Literally, at every single store I've been to since that day I've looked in the lotion aisle for it.  First logical place to look?  Wal-Mart.  Nope.  Target? CVS?  Walgreens? Random pharmacy?  No, no, no, no.  I pretty much thought I'd never see it again.  It's not a crazy weird brand, I didn't think.  I'd heard of it, so it wasn't obscure.  But nobody had it.  Not just the specific variety I wanted, the brand didn't seem to exist anymore.  So today I walked down the street to our local Rite Aid to buy a razor since mine went M.I.A. during the drive up here and I've been using Ian's.  Boys razors just aren't the same.  I grabbed a couple other random items (the best thing about walking to the store is that you aren't tempted to buys tons of stuff because you have to carry it back.  ha!) and headed for the checkout.  And there, sitting on the shelf among all the other lotions that I hated, was this:

And I was happy :)

So here I am, chilling on the couch with the dogs (who are all fresh and clean from their baths today. Biscuit hates me now...) watching The Hills and The City while Ian has dinner out with some colleagues.  Normally I always wear PJ pants around the house because I'm cold, but today I've opted for just a Tshirt... 

Because my legs feel so good :-)

Hello Boston :)

Ok, so I still don't have photos of the apartment.  Still working on finishing hanging all of our paintings and whatnot...  I'll do it eventually :)

Ian and I had such a good time yesterday.  We took the T (for those of you who don't know what the T is, it's Boston's subway system) to the Charles River, where the annual Head of the Charles Regatta was being held.  It's a huge event they have every year where Crew teams (rowers) come to compete against each other.  Ian used to row in this event when he was on the Crew team at Columbia.  Here's what it looked like!

This is several teams practicing, with a view of Cambridge (I think) in the background. 

It was such a gorgeous day... we took the T to the Charles / MGH station, which we thought was where we were supposed to go, but we ended up having to walk a decent distance to get to the area where you could see the rowers.  And by decent I mean 3 miles!

It actually didn't even seem that far... the walk was along the Charles the whole way and it was just beautiful.  See?

Here are a couple pictures of us during the walk...

After we watched the rowers for awhile, we walked over to a cute little pizza place and got lunch.  When we got inside and sat down we realized how tired we were from all that walking!  It was pretty chilly outside too - maybe mid 40's - but with all that walking we were cold at all.  When we got inside the warm restaurant though... we were so hot!

Ian, looking hot and tired :)

After we got done eating, we hopped in a cab (where Sweet Home Alabama was on the radio... I can't escape it!) and headed over to Newbury St.  It's amazing!  Kirby knows what I'm talkin about :)  It's just a long stretch of amazing stores... Chanel, Burberry, Cartier, Juicy, Vera Wang, and David Yurman, just to name a few :)  Speaking of David Yurman, did I ever mention the beautiful necklace that Ian gave me on the day of our wedding?  Here it is!  Ok, the stupid photo won't work.  Here's a link instead... Ooooh they have a matching ring!  Hmmmm....

Ok, I got sidetracked.  Back to yesterday.  We walked around Newbury St. for awhile, bought some winter gear at Filene's Basement (love!), and walked around some more, in our new winter gear!

Me with my new hat, and Ian with his ear warmer thingies.

After that, we went grocery shopping where I bought supplies to make Claire's amazing stuffed jalapenos, which hopefully I will make soon, and some other items we needed to get our kitchen properly stocked.  When we moved, it didn't make much sense to bring a lot of our food and other random stuff from the kitchen with us.  Especially considering I had my poor little 2-door Altima STUFFED with things we didn't send with the movers since I was going to be living there for 3 more weeks.  Plus my brother.  And both of the dogs.  So basically, there wasn't much space so we left the non-essentials behind.  I think we're finally back where we should be... which definitely makes this place feel more like home.  It's tough to wrap up leftovers without essentials like aluminum foil!

Then... we went out for drinks with one of Ian's reporter friends, his girlfriend, and 2 other people.  We went to a place by The Garden (home of the Celtics) called The Four's and had waaaaaay to many drinks.  It was a great time though!

 

 

We took the T there, which is amazing because we don't have to worry about driving home.  The T station isn't quite close enough to our apartment to walk, but there's a bus that stops right on the corner of our street.  So when we arrived back at the T station we stood around waiting for the bus, which runs every 20 minutes.  Or not.  Apparently at 12:30am they only run every 50 minutes.  So after about a half hour of me being cranky, we finally got a cab and got home that way.  The bus is sooo much cheaper!  The cab literally cost 4x what the bus would've cost.  Very annoying.

And... just for good measure, here's one more photo of us when we went to dinner the other night at Farragut House, which is just a couple blocks down the street:

 

 On another note, Biscuit and Molly are doing pretty well here.  We have a backyard, which is amazing considering we're living in the city, so they have plenty of room to run around.  The only downside is that we're on the second floor so we have to take them down there on leashes then go into the backyard but it's really not that bad.  Biscuit has decided she likes drinking out of the birdbath, and Molly likes drinking out of a little pond type thing.  So cute!

On a less nice note, Biscuit and Molly had a little trouble adjusting to their new environment and barked ALL DAY LONG one day.  The owners of the apartment (they live on the first floor, and there's another couple on the third floor) told us that they barked nonstop for like 6 hours so we had to get them bark collars.  I did a bunch of research first to make sure they were safe and whatnot, and we got them.  It actually just gives them a static shock, so it's no different that touching your car and getting shocked in the winter.  I still felt awful about it... the first time Molly got zapped she started screaming and she didn't realize that it was the barking (although it didn't sound like barking... she was literally screaming.) that was making it shock her so she kept on getting shocked.  It cuts off after 15 times to make sure they don't get overshocked, but it was completely traumatic.  Now that she has it all figured out she flinches ever so slightly when it zaps her, but that's about it.  They actually seem a lot happier now.  They don't get upset every time they hear the tiniest sound and seem like they can relax more.  I hated to do it, but it definitely worked and they really do seem happier.  Plus, we won't get evicted which is good :)

Now for a quick pros and cons on Boston so far:

Pros:

-- There are at least 20 bars in the area.  I can walk to all of them!  The one from the "How about them apples" scene in Good Will Hunting is a block away.  Awesome place.

-- I can walk to almost anything I need.  Groceries, bank, restaurants, you name it!

-- Being back in the same city as Ian after 2 months apart

-- One word:  Lobster!  Or, as the locals say... Lobstah :)

-- Our apartment is so much bigger than I thought we'd be able to find

-- The yard for the dogs

-- Public transportation!  I sold my car, by the way :)

Cons:

-- Missing all my friends :(

-- Not knowing many people

-- Having to take the dogs out on a leash.  Before they had their own yard where we could just open the door.

-- Bark collars :(

-- Not being able to hear the rain on the roof because there's another apartment above us

-- The weather.  It's gorgeous now, but it's only October and already 40 degrees.  I'm gonna freeze to death.

-- Our apartment is so much smaller than our old house!

-- Still paying for our old house :(

-- Rent that's double what our mortgage is in Alabama

Holy massive post!  I hope this will satisfy y'all until I can get the apartment finished and photos taken of it!  I miss everyone!!!!

** Update:  It's snowing.  SERIOUSLY??? 

Finally...

So... we made it.  my little brother and I left out of Tuscaloosa around 5:20 am on Friday and drove allllll day until we made it to Ian's parents house in Chappaqua, New York.  It was just shy of 17 hours.  Geez.  We gave the dogs some sedatives and put them in the back seat... except the back seat was PACKED with stuff.  You absolutely would not believe how much stuff we fit in my car.  It was ridiculous.  The dogs had to sit on top of 2 sets of sheets, 2 pillows, and 2 comforters.  Biscuit could just barely stand up if she needed to.  It looked pretty cozy though!  I would've liked to curl up in a ball on top of blankets for the drive.  Would've been better than driving.  The sedatives didn't knock them out either.  It just made them droopy and tired... they slept for a good part of the drive, but the rest of the time, they would just lie there and look out the window.  All in all, not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We hit some terrible road construction combined with torrential rain in Pennsylvania - but other than that, it just sprinkled and drizzled all day.

We spent the night in Chappaqua, then got up around 10 to head on to Boston.  It's about 3 more hours... and we were exhausted.  We finally made it and had a minor disaster trying to parallel park my car when I couldn't see out any of the windows.  We ended up finding a spot that I could just pull into... thank God.  I was so ready to get out of that car.  We unpacked the car (in the rain) and finally sat down to relax for a little bit.  We hung out at the apartment and watched football, then walked to dinner a couple blocks down the street to The Playwright.  It was delicious!

After that, we walked home and passed out.  Then I had to get up at 4:30 to take Jon to the airport.  Fortunately I was able to fall back asleep when I got back and finally got a little bit of rest.

I'm so happy to be here finally.  The last two months were exhausting.  Finishing up my time at work, packing up the house, living without furniture, sleeping on an air mattress, spending some amazing time with friends, and finally moving up here.

I miss all of my friends SO much!  I really got to know two of you so much better in the last two months, and I wish we'd had more time to spend together!  Hopefully I'll see you soon!

Now, to get this apartment in order and find a job.  As soon as I get everything somewhat organized, I'll take pictures :-)

Bloggety Blog...

So I changed the title of my blog.  Yeah, yeah... I know.  I'm not exactly in New England just yet. But I will be!

I put in my two week notice at work today.  Two weeks from now my little brother and I will be driving to Massachusetts.  I absolutely cannot wait.  This experience - us having to live apart - has been very difficult, but very good at the same time.  It's been difficult to be apart, but good because it forces us to find ways to stay close without seeing each other very much.  So it's definitely made our relationship stronger.

The movers arrived at our apartment today with all of our furniture!  Everything seems to be intact for the most part.  The screws to put the bed frame back together are missing... and the china cabinet has a few scratches.  But that can be fixed.  I just can't wait to get it all unpacked and turn that apartment into our home :)

Now, off to watch Project Runway!

Leah vs. Migraine

I carry fast-acting prescription migraine meds with me everywhere I go. Well, at least I did... except it's been almost a year and a half since I last had one so last time I switched purses I just didn't put it in my new one. Big mistake.

Last time I had a migraine was May 3, 2008. Ian and I were in Memphis for the weekend, and it the was the day we got engaged! It came on very suddenly... so we went back to the hotel and I slept for a few hours and we were able to go out to dinner, where he proposed!

This time, not as nice. I felt a little funny yesterday afternoon at work but wasn't sure what it was. When I was walking out of the door to go to my car and head home, I started getting little blotchy patches in my vision. I got in the car and called Ian, as I always do on the way home, and tried to pretend I didn't see them. Then, I started getting little iridescent fuzzy lines across my vision, and I knew I was in trouble. The lines started getting bigger, then all of a sudden, like it always does, I lost my peripheral vision. I was driving with my hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel, looking straight ahead, and i couldn't see my left hand or my left arm. My straight ahead vision was fine, except for the blotchiness, but my peripheral field on the left side was completely gone and the right side was pretty fuzzy. I stopped at the nearest drug store and bought some excedrine migraine, but I knew it wasn't going to help much. If I'd had my medicine with me, I could've taken it right when I started seeing the fuzzy lines and it would've stopped it. I might've gotten a mild headache, but it pretty much stops it in its tracks if I can catch it soon enough. But of course, I didn't have it with me. So I took 3 of the Excedrine and drove home in tears. :(

Once I got home (around 5:00) I laid down on my air mattress in the living room (remember - I don't have furniture!), closed all the curtains, turned off all the lights, and put a pillow over my head to block out the light. I even had to put my cell phone on silent because every time I got a text message the sound was excruciating! Plus, Ian twitters like 2,683,183,860,432 times a minute so it kept going crazy. My head felt like it was going to explode... it was the first time in my life I've ever been in so much pain that it made me nauseous. The dogs were SO sweet. Even though they had been at home alone all day (and probably sleeping) they laid down with me and slept and snuggled all evening and all night. They didn't even try to play and run around like they normally do at night. They're the best...

So I laid in bed all afternoon, and all night... and 16 hours later I woke up with a headache. Nothing like yesterday, but a dull, nagging headache. I took some Aleve and it slowly faded... but I took today off work and have been snoozing and lying around all day. First of all I needed a day to relax, and secondly there was NO way I could've worked today. Even though I slept so long my body was still completely exhausted from the whole ordeal.

So basically, when I get a migraine, I literally lose my vision. I actually have blinding headaches! Next time when you have a bad headache, please don't call it a migraine. It's insulting! Unless of course you've been diagnosed and are actually having migraines. It just gets on my nerves when people are always posting on facebook that they have a migraine. If they really had one, they certainly wouldn't be looking at a bright computer screen. Bad headaches can be painful also. I get that. But not like REAL migraines!

Anyway... Tomorrow I'm headed back to work... even though I let them know when my last day is like a month and a half ago, tomorrow I give my official two week notice. Two weeks until I can finally move to Boston and Ian and I won't have to be apart anymore. All our furniture and stuff arrives at the new apartment tomorrow, so hopefully he'll have everything at least mostly set up by the time I get there. Hopefully I'll find a job quickly, but I also hope that I'll have a couple weeks off to get the apartment in order and just take a little time off. If not, that works too... but it would be nice.

I guess that's it for now. Thanks Kacie for saying that my posts are never boring :-) Love you!

Borrrrrrrring.

I just wrote the most boring blog entry of all time. So I deleted it and this is all you get. Sorry!

For Kacie :)

So.... Kacie insists I don't update enough. She's probably right. It's just that when I get home from work, I've been on the computer all day and the last thing I want to do is update. I should probably start keeping a Word document open at work and write stuff from there and email it to myself so I can post it later. But considering I just now thought of doing that, I haven't done it yet. And also considering I just have THREE WEEKS left at work, that might not happen now either. Oh well!

So yeah, I have three weeks left at work. I'm officially making the move up to Boston on October 2nd. My little brother Jon is going to skip class on that Friday and drive up with me. We're going to *try* to drive to New York (to Ian's parents' house) in one day and spend the night there just so we don't have to deal with trying to find a hotel that will take the dogs. Then the next day it will only be three more hours to make it to Boston.

Speaking of which, the movers are coming to pick up all of our stuff on Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. Like, two days from now - September 10. And yes, I said I'm moving on October 2nd. So that means I will get to spend 3 weeks sleeping on an air mattress and living in a house with ZERO furniture. Actually, that's not entirely true. We're not taking our dining table with us because there's no room in the apartment. So I'll have that :) And an air mattress. Should be fun. Don't be annoyed if I come part myself on your couch and watch TV for awhile. It's just cuz I miss my furniture :)

For the past few weeks, my friend Emily has been living with me in our guest room. It's been the best experience.... I've gotten to know her so much better as a friend and it's been so nice not to be alone at the house every day. She's been such an incredible help with the dogs and our Sunday cookouts have been so much fun! Moving away from Tuscaloosa - while it was definitely time for us to move on - is so bittersweet. We have such an amazing group of friends and I'm going to miss all of you SO much. I had great friends in Starkville, obviously... but it's been a LONG time (if ever) that I've had such a solid GROUP of friends to rely on. It's just been so amazing to know that if I'm ever bored there will always be somebody that will go to dinner or have a beer with me. That's so hard to find and I truly will miss that opportunity. BUT... we have a guest room and I demand that everyone come visit. :) We'll try to make it back to Ttown every now and then too!

So anyway, I'm headed back to Tuscaloosa tomorrow after a long weekend in Boston. We went to Lowe's today and bought area rugs for the new place. The whole apartment is hardwood, and I don't do cold feet so rugs were a must. They're actually quite cute! I can't wait to get all of our stuff up here and get moved in and settled and find a job and move on with this chapter in our life. It's going to be fun and exciting, but I'm definitely a little scared right now. I just hope that I can find a job, that we can sell our house, and that I can sell our car so we won't have so many expenses. I'm optimistic that everything will work out just fine.

Alright, there's my update. It's quite rambly but it's the best I can do for now :)

Kacie - I'm so incredibly happy for you and Judd and little Caroline. I'm completely in awe when I look at her pictures. I know you are going to be the most amazing parents, and I hope that everything works out just perfectly for you. I hope to see you soon! Love :)

I know it's been awhile...

And that I ALWAYS say that when I post something, but I really find it hard to get motivated to spend time on the computer after I stare at one at work all day.

So if any of you haven't heard our big news, Ian and I are moving to Boston! People keep saying "Are you excited???" and honestly, it's hard to be excited about it just yet. We spent the entire weekend packing up all of Ian's clothes and stuff he'll need up there, and he left early this morning. It was SO difficult... we don't know at this point when I'll be able to move because we have to sell our house and I have to find a job, since my company doesn't operate in Massachusetts so there's no possibility to transfer. The worst part so far was going into the closet this morning and seeing this:

Hopefully, this won't last long. Being 1,200 miles away from each other is just not cool. But to be fair, my brother and his wife (and son) are apart for an entire year while he's in Iraq, so it's hard to be too upset without feeling incredibly selfish. At least we have Skype....

So Ian set out this morning headed for Chattanooga, where he picked up his sister who flew in to drive with him. They'll drive as much as they can today (it's about 20 hours total) and spend the night somewhere. Tomorrow, they'll continue on and Ian will drop Mimi off in New York (and maybe have dinner with his family) and head on to Boston. He starts work on Tuesday.

All in all, I'm so excited for this new chapter in our lives. It will be a little difficult in the beginning, but his aunt and uncle have graciously offered their home to us (just south of Boston) until I can get up there and we can figure out what we're doing house / job wise. Without their help, I'm not sure how we would have done this. I know this opportunity is going to be amazing, and I'm looking forward to living in a different area of the country. It's going to be COLD! But hey, I get to buy new (warm) clothes :-)

Wish us luck!!