So today was the day, my actual birthday!  Ray and I didn't get home until about 1:30 am from bowling and then I was up early so that I could visit with my parents.  When I got out of bed, I was greeted by an amazing site: my mother had cleaned our entire kitchen!  Ray had spent most of yesterday baking me a birthday cake, and was late for our dinner reservation, so he didn't have time to clean up before he left.  It was amazing!  Eventually we decided that a quiet breakfast at home was the way to do, and Ray and Mom headed off to the grocery store for supplies.  They came back with the makings of steak and eggs, french toast (from a french baguette) and tatter tots (at birthday girl request)!  Breakfast was fantastic, and topped off by some "left over" birthday cake and ice cream!

Around 2:00, my parents had to hit the road.  They wanted to get home before it got dark and I still had homework to finish.

Aren't they great?  It's a three hour drive each way, and they were up for less than a day, but they did it for my birthday!

Before they left they did me the favor of re-staging their initial surprise arrivial so that I could take a picture for the blog.  Well, my mom is yelling surprise, I don't think my Dad knew what was going on.  :o)

Later that evening, with homework successfully accomplished, Ray was nice enough to let me have a small gathering of some girl friends over for pizza and chick flicks.  We ordered pizza and garlic bread with cheese from Marco's (my favorite) and Jami brought a whole bag full of chick flicks for us to select from.  Our first film was 13 Going On 30 during which Jami and Danielle both realized their mutual love for Jennifer Garner and Alias.  It was sort of like a big-girl sleep over.  You know, the kind where it's a work night, and you can't stay up too late.

For our second film I gave the girls a choice between Top Gun (got Tonya's vote) or Footloose (which Jami voted for).  Danielle was the tie breaker, and I quote, because she wanted to take the "highway to the Danger Zone"!  So Top Gun it was!

Ray was a good sport and even hung around with us through all the girlie-ness.  He mostly worked on his homework for his Drawing for Games class.

The ladies were very sweet, and showered me with gifts (which they had been told not to do).  Jami and Tonya gave me a gift card to the Palace 9 movie theatre (yippie!  girls' night!) and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire as part of my need to collect all of the Harry Potter books in hardcover.  I've read the entire series twice, but all having borrowed the books from other people.  I love it so much, I know I'll want to read them again, so before my birthday last year I was meantioning how I wanted to start collecting them.  Well, Jami and Tonya gave me the first two for my birthday last year, and the third one for Christmas!

Danielle and Kat and Andrew (in absentia) gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble, which I am extremely psyched about!  I got hooked on a series of books (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon) as I purchased the first one on a recommendation before the trip to South Africa (they are big books, and I had two 16 hour plane rides).  Now I'm totally hooked.  The books are big and they take me a while to get through (I don't have all that much time to read), but Ray was nice enough to let me get the third one for my birthday, and now I can certainly purchase the rest of the published series (she's still writing them) with my gift card!

One other amazing gift I received was from Sarah and Jay (they gave it to me at the bowling party last night).  Sarah is AMAZINGLY crafty and she made this totally adorable magnets for me!

Actually, the photo doesn't do them justice.  Sarah has her own crafty blog site and posted a much better photo of them (and the awesome card she made too) on her site!

All in all it was an outstanding birthday!  I was able to spend time with my family and friends and felt so loved by everyone!  Thank you everybody for making this old lady's birthday awesome!  :o)

So today was full of fun surprises!  Around 4:45 this afternoon, I was doing my homework, and I heard a knock on the door.  Low and behold, it was my parents!  They had come up for a surprise visit for my birthday!  Turns out my husband had been up to a wee bit of planning: a family dinner was planned a Junior's Italian Restaurant with my folks, Vanessa, Nate and Jina and then at 10:00 we were meeting friends for a bit of bowling!  Big smiles all around!

Dinner was great; it was wonderful getting to visit with everyone and the food was yummy!  Ray came a wee bit late, as he was finishing the final touches on my birthday cake.  This is an annual tradition: every year Ray makes me a delectable confection for my birthday.  This year did not disappoint, it was both yummy and beautiful!

After dinner we had a bit of time to spare, so we headed back to the house with Nate, Jina and my parents.  We chatted until it was time to go and then headed over to Spare Tim (formerly Yankee Lanes) for some bowling action!  Ironically, my parents had been playing Wii bowling this afternoon while I was finishing my homework.  Due to the late hour, they opted to stay at home for the real deal.  As we very quickly discovered, Wii bowling skills do not translate to real bowling skills.

We had a great group!  I think we talked (and ate) more than we bowled, but we certainly did have fun!

Tonya and Jami came, and brought excellent ice cream to compliment the chocolate and raspberry cake Ray had made.  They also brought Sesame Street plates, which appropriately reflected my new age (well, maybe my mental age).  Sarah and Jay came, and as expected, Jay had the best score on our game.  He couldn't just let the Birthday Girl win?!

Jen (VSC's Stage Manager) and Evan (her boyfriend) came out as well.  Today was the first day of tech, and Jen had JUST gotten out of work around 10:00 and had easily put in a 12+ hour day.  For all you theatre folk out there, you know how incredible it was that she made the trip!  While Jen and Evan didn't bowl, they did eat cake (which was practically required) and were excellent company.  Evan was a bit camera shy, but Jen was a good sport.

Nate and Jina even stayed out waaaay past their bed times to hang with us.  I think Nate came for the cheese and gravy fries....

Since the bowling alley has recently changed hands (or at least changed names) ALL of the shoes were new!  I was struck by the color-spectacular that Ray's shoes and the floor made!

On Lane 34 we had a game of Corinn, Danielle, Ray, Sarah and Jay (and a little bit of Ken helping everyone out).  Remember what I said about Jay before?  Here he is in action!

One pin left!

In Lane 35 we had Nate, Jina, Tony and Jami.  While Jami is flaunting her mad bowling skills, ultimately it was Tonya who took the night.  No one in my game broke 100 (but to be honest, I think we were distracted by the cake).  EVERYONE in the other game broke 100, with Tonya having the high score of the night!  Look, she's so proud!

An excellent time was had by all!  Unfortunately, Galatic Bowling started at 11:30, and we were not allowed to stay (for reasons that are as of yet still unclear).  Fortunately, there was a small arcade in the bowling alley, and I have friends who know how to play video games!

Danielle took me on in air hockey (twice) and whooped my butt (twice)!  Again, no love for the Birthday Girl?  Actually, I'm terrible at air hockey, and have a somewhat reasonable/somewhat silly fear that I'm going to hurt myself (because I did once).  It might add a tiny bit of "timid" into my game.  The first game was a shut out, but in the second game I held my own (you know, I scored almost half what D did).

Jami and Tonya also took on the air hockey table.  I can't remeber who won their game, but this is Tonya's fiercest competitor face!

Beside air hockey, popular games were shooting games, driving games and skeet-ball (I totally beat Ray!).  Sarah took on the Big Africa Safari Hunt game, that girl knows how to hold a rifle! I wonder if the game was more meaningful since she'd actually eaten some of the animals she was shooting....

I don't quite think Ray understands how this game works.... but Ken sure does!  That must be some serious kick-back if he needs both arms to shoot!

Danielle took the first stab at the driving game, which she claimed is her favorite.  Isn't this the look she always has when she's driving?

As Sarah is so kindly demonstrating, some of the games spit out tickets.  The group was super sweet and pooled their tickets and gave them all to me!

There were a bevy of prizes to select from, and I had 81 tickets to burn, so I selected carefully.  I was able to get three prizes:

my completely adorable be-beanied mini-rubber ducky, an adorable frog finger puppet, which I gave to Tonya to add to her collection,

and a dark green rubber snapper, which I gave to Ray, and he played with for about 15 minutes and then promptly lost.  Probably for the better, as he was describing several ways to torture the cat with it. 

It was about 1:00 am when we finally headed out in the sub-zero night to let our cars warm up and head to our beds.  It was an AWESOME evening, and I had so much fun!  It was so sweet of Ray to plan all of this, and so cool that people came out in the freezing weather to hang out, eat cake and bowl a little bit.

A big shout-out to Danielle and Tonya and Jami, who all took photos at the par-tay and were kind enough to let me post them here.  Some of these were taken by these fine ladies, so thanks!

So, according to my husband, today I made it official.  I am officially a Vermonter.  Well, technically I think that happened back in 2002 when I established residency and starting paying in-state taxes to Vermont.  Or maybe in 2004 when I registered to vote in Vermont.  None of this was official enough for Ray.  The thing I was lacking: a Vermont issued "Operator's License".  In English, a Vermont Driver's License.

So I got up early this morning, gathered my one million documents to prove who I was, and drove to the DMV.  The big issue here was not only did I have a New York State Driver's License, but it also had my maiden name on it and my parents' old mailing address.  I had to prove (1) who I was, (2) where I currently live and (3) what my name is now.  Ray, for reasons I still don't fully understand, decided that coming with me to the DMV for this momentous occassion was better than sleeping in, so he tagged along.  I arrived early, hoping that the line would be shorter first thing in the morning.  I was simply amazed, by the time I finished filling out my form, there was no line, and I went straight up to the counter to be "processed".

This is where things started to go down hill.  All of my paperwork was in order, and I had all of the necessary back-up documentation.  The problem turned out to be the eye exam.  Now, in an effort to be fully honest here, I had been a tiny bit worried about the eye exam.  Way back when (in middle school) I had been prescribed glasses for distance.  Over the years (in a strange reverse-of-nature) my eyesight had improved, and my prescription had decreased.  When I got my license at 16, I was able to pass the eye exam without my glasses (and therefore had no restrictions on my license).  Now, the last time I had been to an eye doctor was very early in 2001.  I was long over due.  And while I was concerned I might have an issue with the eye exam, I wasn't fully prepared for what happened.

I failed the eye exam.

I was pretty shocked, embarrassed and a bit upset.  It didn't help too much that Ray thought this was HYSTERICAL.  So I was sent away from the DMV with no new license, and a form for my eye doctor to fill out.  Fortunately, some luck was on my side, and by chance the eye doctor's office had an available appointment for me at 11:30 that day.  Ray decided it was Take-Your-Husband-To-Work-Day, and tagged along with me to my office for a few hours of work and then to the eye doctor's appointment.  My eye appointment went fine, the eye doctor was very nice, he even said he wasn't sure why I had failed the eye exam at the DMV, and he wrote me a prescription that I only needed to fill if I wanted to (or, if I suddenly started doing a lot of night driving).  And he filled out the necessary paperwork, giving me his blessing to drive without the aid of glasses.

So after a very quick bite of lunch, Ray and I went back to the DMV for round two.  It was just after midday at this point, and I figured the line would be terrible.  Isn't that what everyone always complains about at the DMV?  Waiting in line?  Again, no line (yippie)!  Once again I presented all one million pieces of paperwork, including my eye doctor note, and we're ready to roll.  As I am about to write the check, the woman behind the counter asks me if I would like a two year or a four year license.  At this point, if I never have to come back to the DMV it will be too soon, so I opt for the four years.  It is at this point that the woman behind the counter informs me that my birthday is on Sunday (a fact of which I was aware, since that's when my New York license runs out).  She tells me that my new license will also expire on my birthday (which I had guessed).  What I had not anticipated is that because I was at the DMV before my birthday, the first year of my license would in fact last from Friday, January 23, 2009 to Sunday, January 25, 2009.  But if I wanted to come back on Monday, making a third trip, then the new license would actually be good for a full four years.

At this point I was done.  I didn't want to run around any more.  I didn't want to have to lug 14 pieces of ID with me any more.  And to top it all off I had a HUGE mailing waiting for me at work that had to go out that afternoon.  I needed to get this over with and get on with my life.  I opted for the 3 years and 2 days to save myself another trip.  The only thing left to do at this point was take my photo.  I've had kind of good luck in the past with license photos, but this is where my luck ran out.  I will pre-empt this next sentence by warning you that it is 100% vanity: I have a double chin in my Vermont license photo.  Had I known I would have a double chin for 3 years and 2 days on my photo ID, I might have come back on Monday.  But double chin it is!

Fortunately, the double chin was the end of the event.  I double checked that they spelled my name correctly, had the right mailing address and was on my way.

This is a photo Ray took of me at the very end of the day on Friday.  That's me, legally driving a motorized vehicle in the state of Vermont, with said state's permission!  Ray says all I have left to do to become a "real" Vermonter is chug some maple syrup....

"Happy Obama Day!" is how I was greeted on the phone by one of VSC's subscribers today.  I think it's fitting.  Today our country's 44th president begins his first term, and I can't remember a time when everyone was so excited about something like this.  I'm not much of a political person, and I know that I live in a state that bleeds blue, but there just seems to be something in the air today.  I've never been excited for a new president to take office before, I've never watched an inauguration and I've certainly never choked up at political speeches before.  It's not just that this is an historic day because this country swears into office our first minority president.  Today feels different.  President Obama has inspired this nation towards change and progress in a way I've never experienced before, and so it seemed only fitting that on this special and historic day, everyone turned out to witness it.

Ray planned to head to Champlain's main campus to watch the inauguration on one of the big TVs there, and I decided that sounded better than trying to stream CNN on my computer at work.  As I was leaving my office building I passed another office, there was a sign taped to the door that read "Gone to watch on a BIG TV - Be back when we have a new President".    This certainly set the right tone for the event!

On my walk up Main Street I passed Nector's a local restaurant and bar.  There was a HUGE line outside (at 11:30 am?) and the inside was packed!  The sign on the street read:

I made it up the hill and met Ray at Alumni Auditorium on campus, it was packed with students, faculty and staff; by 11:45 there was standing room only!

We watched the live coverage on ABC.  It was an amazing atmosphere to be in: everyone was quiet and paying attention, the entire room clapped and cheered when the President-Elect made his appearance at the top of the stairs before the start of the ceremony.  As I looked around at the students I knew they had a similar sense that I did, that this was OUR President, the man we all wanted to lead us forward and who, at least on this day, had our undivided support.  Technically this is the first President I've ever elected, and it was likely the first Presidential election most of these students had participated in.

There are three things that I loved most about the inauguration:

• When Obama made his first appearance at the top of the stairs, before he stepped down, he stopped for a very brief second and took a deep breath.  I think we all felt the same way: the magnitude of the moment, the desire to remember it all, and the significance that it was the start of a lot of hard work for everyone.
• I loved that he selected the Lincoln bible to be sworn in with.
• While I later learned that the oath stumble was not his fault, I love that there was pause and correction when our new President took his oath of office.  It made him accessible, and a real person, and I think both his attention to the detail of the oath and how clearly he was living in that moment, meaning those words, shows this country that we have elected an individual who takes this responsibility with the necessary significance that is required to truly help turn this country around.

Once the new President was sworn in the entire room jumped to its feet and applauded.

People cried a little and hugged each other.  I was extremely grateful to get to share this historic experience with my husband.

Happy New Year!

So, about three weeks ago our stage manager (at work), Jen, asked what Ray and I were doing for New Year’s Eve.  As we had no plans, and neither did Jen, she decided that I should host a NYE party.  About a week later Danielle said she was considering hosting a NYE party.  I told her what Jen had said, and that I was actually doing the same.  We decided to combine our party planning prowess and co-host a party at her new apartment.  We invited an eclectic mix of friends, made way too much food, hung some festive decorations and par-tayed down in Winooski.

Jen (the party instigator) and her boyfriend, Evan, came.  Jen took a ton of photos, and I’m hoping there will be a future email with some pictures to add to the blog.  For some reason, many of my photos turned out a wee bit blurry.  I’m not sure if it was too much sugar or if my camera skills have just begun to rapidly deplete!  Perhaps I will have Ray take the photos in the future . . .

Ray’s co-worker Sarah and her husband, Jay, joined the festivities as well.  Actually, we thought they had come to celebrate with us, it turns out that they actually came to kick our butts at Apples to Apples.  They started out slow, but just like pool sharks, they lured us into feeling safe, and then went in for the kill.  I think you can see the real intensions in their eyes.

Jami was in attendance as well, and not only did she bring her party attitude, but she also brought her famous salsa!  Here are Jami and Ray enjoying a midnight champagne toast, out of our fancy (can classy) plastic cups!  As midnight was rolling around, someone was talking about who you were supposed to kiss at midnight, if you didn’t have a significant other.  I only heard the conversation in passing, but I believe the first choice was to kiss a friend, and the second choice was to kiss yourself.  Ray decided that surprising Jami was the best plan of action.

Hopefully I will be able to supplement with a few photos by other photographers!