Moving Day, it's Moving Day.

Well, tomorrow is. And I will probably be singing this all day long.

After two years in our current apartment (and three years, for me, in that neighborhood), we:


are leaving The Heights. I've spent my entire time in Manhattan living in what most of my coworkers basically consider Canada ("Don't you live in the Bronx? I'm pretty sure that far north is considered the Bronx"). And while our new neighborhood may not have a Broadway show based around it, there's still a certain amount of street cred that comes from saying that you live in Harlem, right? I mean, sure, the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying and the realtors are still trying to make "SoHa" happen, but I think it counts.

While it's smaller than our current place, the new apartment is gorgeous and I am super excited about this move. Here are 4 reasons why (in no particular order):

1. We'll be much closer (walking distance in most cases) to like 90% of our friends.

2. Central Park is a 5 minute walk away.

3. Full-sized washer and dryer in our apartment (!!!!!!!!!!). This is virtually unheard of for a New York apartment, and after three years of laundromats I feel I am being rewarded.

4. The bus to Costco and Target stops around the corner. Churros anytime I want!

Last night as I left my friend Karrie's apartment following our usual Thursday night TV/bonding sesh, I was grumbling about making the hated 45+ minute trip home. Then we both squealed, "LAST TIME!!!" in unison and my excitement returned.

Between this and the fact that it is 70 degrees and sunny outside right now, it is taking all my willpower to concentrate on work today.

Called to Serve.

This dapper young gentleman:

is all grown up and received his mission call yesterday. Surrounded by his college buds and while Skyping and conference calling with various family and friends, David found out that he has been assigned to the New York, New York South mission and will be teaching the gospel in the Mandarin Chinese language!

It's very possible that I was more nervous than HE was as we waited for him to open the envelope. When he read "New York, New York," everyone (especially me) erupted into cheers, which doubled when he read "Mandarin Chinese." David started taking Mandarin this semester because he really wanted to learn it, so he was thrilled with this news. And while he won't be serving in Manhattan, I'm hoping I'll have an opportunity to "accidentally" bump into him (with freshly baked cookies in hand, probably) at some point.


I can't believe that the little boy with the bowl cut is going to be leaving us for 2 years. David is the baby of the family, and over the years has been subjected to all kinds of humiliation at the hands of his older siblings. And yet, he still turned out to be one of the nicest kids you'll ever meet, and he loves his family a lot. I couldn't be more proud of him and I know he will be a fantastic missionary.

Babies, sunshine, and milkshakes.

For President's Day weekend I went out to North Carolina to visit Allison and the rest of my peeps out there. I know I always talk about how nice it is to get out of the city, and I promise I really love living here, but this trip came at a perfect time. It had been frigidly cold here for a while, and between that and a couple other things, I'd been feeling kind of down lately. So spending a long weekend in the sunshine with family was just what I needed.

I flew in on Friday night and our first stop was to pick up some Bojangles fried chicken and biscuits on the way home from the airport. It's always a nice welcome to the South to be licking grease off your fingers at 10pm. In the morning, I was awakened by two little blondies and we got round TWO of Bojangles--this time, breakfast biscuit sandwiches. Delicious.


The weather was supposed to be sunny and in the 70s all weekend, so we spent most of the morning playing outside. I can't say for sure that Emaline was more excited about this than I was.


In the afternoon we went to the Charlotte Nature Museum and had fun checking out bugs, birds, and butterflies.




Next to the Nature Museum is Freedom Park, which loyal fans of reality television will recognize from Emily's hometown date on The Bachelor. Allison told me beforehand that she had recognized the park from a preview in last week's episode, and when my face lit up, she said, "See, Dave! I told you she would think it was cool!"


After Allison and I shared a romantic embrace on the bridge, we headed to Cookout and gorged ourselves on burgers, fries, and delicious milkshakes.


On Sunday, we had waffles with the Spekuloos I had brought from NY. Seriously, this stuff is joy in a jar, I am telling you. My roommate eats it with a spoon. Anyway, we went to church and then while Allison worked on an awesome roast dinner, I enjoyed tea at Emaline's restaurant, aptly named "Emaline Fiesta Crab". We had a few rounds of Mario Kart and then the kids went to bed and we watched Amazing Race with a big bowl of buttery popcorn. Bliss.


On Monday, Emaline had to go to school thanks to a bunch of snow days earlier in the month. After she was dropped off, I dragged Allison and Dave (with the jogging stroller) out on a 3.5 mile run. I couldn't stop exclaiming about how gorgeous the weather was and I was seriously loving the abundance of vitamin D. We stopped by Emaline's school for lunch, which was fun--I loved seeing the tiny kids going and buying their lunches, acting like they're real people.


Allison and I spent the afternoon shopping and chatting, and then it was time to head back. And to add insult to the injury of returning to 20 degree temperatures, halfway to the airport I realized I had left my coat at their house. Awesome. Allison offered to let me take the Strawberry Shortcake blanket that was in the back of the car (Emaline had some strong objections to this plan) but I toughed it out (aka took a cab home from the airport). It was a great weekend, and just what I needed to get me through these last few weeks of winter!

Starstruck.

Sometimes my life is so fancy that I can hardly stand it.

Last week they started arranging a portion of our office to use as a movie set.


I suppose that is just one of the perks of working at a glamorous music company in New York City, right? We knew that The Pfeiff would be shooting here but weren't sure who else from the cast would be in the scene. You can imagine the hearts set aflutter around the office when this teen heartthrob showed up:


I walked into the office kitchen to prepare my oatmeal this morning and there he was, piercing blue eyes and all.

P.S. Apparently my dad was about as nonplussed by this news as he is by "Justin Beaver" (sic). I'm sure he'll come around once we officially announce our engagement.