In Your Face, Lady Liberty!

We're still nerding it up in NYC and Boston, but we did something the other day that I think was supercool and worth sharing. Josh and I belong to the 1% of people who have visited the Statue of Liberty and have made it to her crown!

This is what it looked like:

It was a little cramped up there, and of course you can't really see anything out the window, but trust me-- we were there.

The inside of Lady Liberty's hair:

Josh took a bunch of pictures of me ascending and/or descending the stairs:

This was right as we started to descend. You can't see the staircase very well, but there was basically just enough room for an Emily-sized person. I wasn't really worried about tripping and falling because if I did, I wouldn't go anywhere. It was too narrow!

Here you can see the inverted image of her face. We were in her face! That's pretty cool.

After 9/11 tourists no longer had access to the Statue of Liberty's crown, but that changed last year (it reopened on July 4, 2009). Now they allow about 30 people each hour. The tickets only cost $3 more, but you have to reserve them online, as they always sell out in advance. No crown ticket? No go!

In order to get inside Lady Liberty, we were subjected to a rigorous, airport-style security check not once, but TWICE (they do checks before you leave NY and then again before you ever enter the statue). We got x-ray body-scanned, folks. Somewhere some poor dude had to look at my naked picture to make sure I hadn't stashed any weapons.

Here we are safely on the ground:

Josh says he can "cross that off [his] bucket list now," but to my knowledge he has never actually written any such list, sooo.....

UPDATE: We just found out that the crown will only be open for TWO YEARS, as the statue will undergo some more security upgrades. No details on how long it will take to reopen... so if you're planning on going, better do it soon!

I'm Being Overrun!

Most of the time, I am oblivious of what goes on in our house. Messy kitchen? Smelly cats? It usually doesn't bother me. However, every so often I actually pay attention, and that's when I notice things like this:

When we moved into our house nearly two years ago, I made Josh put all of his toys in bins so that they wouldn't be all over the place all the time because I absolutely hate clutter. (This is something few people know about me, but I hate, hate, HATE owning things that are nonfunctional, whereas Josh refuses to get rid of anything). In the past two years, it seems that Josh's toys have reproduced. I generally don't spend much time in the bonus room because it's so messy and it smells like cat, but the other day I was printing out some articles for my behavioral neuroscience project, and saw that the computer desk is now COVERED in collectibles. Josh is obsessed with these Star Wars Galactic Heroes and explained to me that he needed the whole set in order to be authentic. Huge eye roll!

One thing I've learned about marriage is to pick my battles, which is why I let Josh keep his collectibles in a room I barely visit, but then a couple days ago I came home to find this in the hallway:

I think Josh's dad gave this to him for Christmas, so I can't complain that Josh is spending his money on ridiculous things. And perhaps I should applaud Josh for finally unpacking his bag of Christmas presents. But I don't know whether I should put my foot down. I don't know whether in two weeks I will walk into the hall to see a whole set of these things. (About my disgust, Josh replied, "Remember that you love me!" and then folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently).

I suppose there are worse things. I could have married someone who was less awesome.

In other news, this is what became of the clothes from our closet:

Thankfully, we had a room we weren't using. (That was sarcastic. I am in fact very sad about this whole thing).

Also, I found out this week that I will be working at Lewis & Clark as a mental health counselor during the next school year. It was by far my first choice for a practicum experience, and the only place at which I interviewed. At the time, I thought my interview went well, but of course as I was leaving I had all sorts of regrets about what I said and I thought of all sorts of things that I should have said. But it worked out in the end. My favorite part about L&C is that it reminds me of my first alma mater, which I love and miss. The campus is so beautiful, it makes me jealous of all the people who are able to go there.

Disaster Strikes the ShepAlder Closet

This happened last night:

If you are not sure what you're looking at, this is our closet (or what's left of it). Last night I was sitting happily in bed, and heard this huge CRASH. I thought at first it was the cats because they were being naughty earlier in the evening, but, no, it was our closet falling apart.

A closer view:

 

Before we moved into our house nearly two years ago, I told Josh that we needed to do something about the closet, but it was so low on the list of things to do with our lives I never pursued it further. And now... ugh. 

The shelves didn't pull out of the wall or anything. They just broke off. So now our wall is covered in screws, and we have nowhere to hang our clothes.

Josh said that the whole thing would be funny some day in the future, but I have to admit that it's pretty funny right now. I mean, our entire closet fell down!

One more picture: