Wow! I'm bad at posting!

It's been almost a month since my last post. Sorry Friends. Between my travels, keeping up with taking care of my apartment, and being in/out of the office Iron River, MI for work...I feel like sometime my downtime is the only time I have to vegetate, and I take advantage. Like I said, I've been spending 2 or 3 days a week in Iron River for the past few weeks on a construction site. We're doing oversight on a treatment system dredging project...it's an awesome project but I'm still not keen on working with underhanded, rude contractors who hold my gender against me and take every chance possible to disrespect me despite how easygoing and accommodating I am for them. What's good is that my mentor, and my counterpart in the field, is very supportive of me and reassures me that I'm doing an excellent job at managing the site when I'm assigned there. That makes me feel better that I AM a good field engineer, I'm just working with some difficult people who might have a problem with the gender difference. ANYWAYS!
Here's a little update on what I've been doing since the last time you saw me on here.

July 20th-22nd
My family drove down to Elgin, IL for Matthew Gehrig's wedding. The Gehrig's have been friends of the family as long as I can remember, and my dad and Matt's dad were buddies when they were little. Matthew's sister Stephanie and I have been friends since we were babies:)
She is more of a sister than I've ever had. Some of us (I plead the 5th) were slightly hungover the next morning, but I blame any tiredness on my DAD!!! He snored like a chainsaw all night long! My mom and I did some retail therapy in the afternoon while my dad helped set up for the ceremony and Marc golfed with Stephanie's boyfriend The ceremony was BEA-UTIFUL, and we all had a really tood time. Especially my dad, who earned the cha cha slide and was photographed doing some interesting disco-esque moves on the dance floor. Now that's a white guy with no rhythm;) Love you dad! I am on the task of getting my hands on pictures. Overall, the weekend was an amazing time!!! Congratuations again to Matthew and his beautiful wife Kristin!

July 27-29
I was SO GLAD to be home this weekend. Some of Marc's family were up to visit, so we chilled on his parent's back porch most of the weekend. Lots of lawn games, great food, great company, and a few delicious mojitos:) It was nice to get to know Marc's cousins Joe and Dan and Joe's kids better. His family is so nice!

Aug 3-5
Another weekend on the road, another weekend well worth it! Thursday my good friend Emily was in Houghton, so we did some catching up at our favorite spot, the Keweenaw Brewing Company (KBC). It was so nice to see you Emily!!! I miss you and our chats. Then Friday we drove home to Wisconsin after work for a weekend of fun with friends and family. But not before I was nearly talked into working that weekend. Let me tell you, my company has some nerve with their short notice traveling projects. My boss Jeff tried to talk me into going to Sault Ste. Marie for our EPA dredging project there. What's sick about it, is that I seriously contemplated it, mainly because of the $$ and what that would mean for my upcoming trip to NYC. Then, after talking to some trusted friends and my mom, I decided that I couldn't compromise my values of spending quality time enjoying life with friends and family, especially since I had already committed to being at home. It felt great to say no, both because I am learning to use that word more, and because I felt good about sticking to my beliefs about how I want to spend my time. I don't eat sleep and breathe my job...and I probably never will.
Overall, it was a super fun weekend. Marc has some pics, I'll post them later:)

I know this is a long post...and it is all my fault for not breaking this up over time, but here's a little about my rockin' trip to NYC!!!!!

Aug 10-13
I have been waiting months for this weekend to be here. I have a great friend, who met through work @ EPA Hurricane Katrina response last year. Her name is Stephanie, and we work for the same company but she works in our Philadelphia area office. Back in June I purchased a plane ticket to go see her and her family (she has an ADORABLE 7 month old son, Porter, and a great husband, Jeff) and for an exciting first visit to NYC. Steph is originally from Syracuse, NY, so this wasn't her first trip to the city. It was excellent to go with her and see Manhattan. I could type forever about our day there, but there's so much to tell that I have to touch on just the highlights. Here's a synopsis:

• Friday I flew out...lucky to get out of Minneapolis as they found a HOLE in the aircraft and took their time deciding to patch the hole or get a new plane. Awesome job, NWA. It was a 1.5 hour delay to get a new plane, I'm torn about how I feel about a delayed vacation versus arriving in PHL safely. We followed that up with a trip to a great spa, and I've been inspired to get facials more often!
  
• Saturday we took the train into Penn Station. NYC was everything I expected, and Steph and I had a great time! Thanks for being such a good friend that day Steph! I was sick and she went out of her way to help me feel better, showed me a good time, and had a one-of-a-kind experience shopping for knockoff bags in Chinatown. We had a blast!!!
• Sunday we relaxed, grilled, primped, and played with Porter before I (sadly) had to leave.
  

Plans are already in the works for Marc and I to visit Jeff and Stephanie around the x-mas holiday. New York is an amazing city, and I can't wait for more! I will post pics from our trip when i get some downtime at work tomorrow (shouldn't take much for that)!

That's it. Sorry for the length!