So, maybe we could get Jack Bauer to support Mitt Romney...I think that would do wonders for his campaign because---lets be honest---Jack Bauer is America's hero...even terrorists are afraid of him...which is more than you can say for Chuck Norris... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUQW8LUMs8
Jokes aside, I watched Mitt Romney's speech this morning on "Faith in America" and I thought it was fantastic! I'm interested to hear the people's reaction. Here's the link to watch it if you didn't get the chance: http://www.mittromney.com/
So…the right side of my upper body is definitely getting weaker. I think I have a disease. In fact…I think one of these days, my arm is going to fall off while I’m running and it will land on the treadmill which will send it flying off the back and it will land near an old lady who will have a heart attack and fall hitting her face on some sort of exercise machine….and I will be liable.
On another note...finals in law school are the most exhausting thing ever! And I've only taken one so far!...3 more to go. But, in one week from tomorrow I will be on a plane heading home for the holidays...and that will be amazing!
I went out with some girls from school on Saturday. We thought it would be fun to dress up fancy and go out to Georgetown! We ate at this nice restaurant in Washinton Harbor. The fountains behind me are in the courtyard at the harbor and the restaurant is off to the right facing the fountains. It was so much fun!! Later in the evening my roommate and I went to an lds area singles activity at the Marriott by the National Zoo. It was a movie night - all the wards had made a short video and then they had a dance afterwards. It was ridiculous and I felt like I was 14 yrs old again....so we didn't stay too long. After that we went to my friend Travis's house cause it was close by and he was having a party. It was fun --we met a couple guys who love Zion's National Park! They are going there this summer and were raving about how beautiful it is in Southern Utah. It was funny because I've been trying to convince Travis that he needs to take a trip to Utah and here were two of his friends raving about it. Count that--3 things we did tonight!! So proud of ourselves for getting out and away from our homework/studying for finals...which are in 3 weeks by the way...crazy!
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the actual West Wing...but this is me right outside the door. Notice the presidential seal above.
This is me in the rose garden. The flowers are more to the left so you can't see them in this picture, but that is the oval office behind me. While we were outside, the president's dog Barney came scampering past. It was cool!
This is from just outside the west wing looking east at the main part of the White House.
This is me in the press briefing room. They don't let you go behind the podium anymore so I had to pretend like I was answering questions from the floor.
This is actually taken from the Indian Treaty room in the Old Executive Office Building which is directly west of the White House and is where all the people who work for the president have their offices. It is a gorgeous building! This is me posing for pictures for the electorate! :) 
We took the subway over to Brooklyn, then walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge! It was beautiful!! We could see the statue of liberty to our left and the incredible NYC skyline. The tall buildings to the left make up the Financial District and the tall buildings to the right make up Midtown Manhattan (they are not shown in this post but I think I have some pictures of Midtown already up somewhere).
The Financial District. Ground zero is in the middle of those buildings.
The Memorial that they are going to build looks like it will be really neat!
That tall building on the right was the first building that has been rebuilt. The main one they are starting to build now is going to be much bigger though.
This is across the street from the site. It is a beam in the shape of a cross that was found in the rubble and set out as a sort of memorial I guess.
This is the engraving that rests on the beam above.
It's hard to get a good glimpse of what's going on without going up to the top of one of the nearby buildings....but one thing I noticed is that the hole in the ground is much deeper than I expected. 
Ridin' the subway! I hate the NY Subway...DC Metro is so much better!!! The subway smells awful, is filthy, is super confusing--there are tons of random hallways scattered all over the stations that it can be sometimes hard to tell where you need to be--, and there are homeless people begging for money on just about every car (I have NEVER seen that on the DC metro).
Traci and I got on the subway when we first arrived at Penn Station. We were alone and were taking the subway to Harlem where our friends lived. Well, after the first stop, this homeless woman gets on the car and addresses everyone telling her story and asking for help...so i just leaned over and gave her my water bottle. Not a big deal right? Well, this guy next to us percedes to lecture me and Traci for like 10 minutes about not giving the homeless people anything. He says: "baby, i know you got a good heart, and that the bible tells us to help the poor...but ain't no one going hungry in new york city! There's too many places for them to go and get help. I know...I was homeless. I was on crack. I was a drunk. But I bettered myself...I got help...and now I'm going to college trying make a better life for myself....etc." This continued for seriously 10 minutes during which 4 other homeless people got on our car at every stop it seemed and told us their "story" and asked for money. Finally, the guy sitting next to us had it with the last girl who was obviously messed up on drugs. They got into a huge verbal spat--shouting at each other. He was telling her to go get help, that all she wanted was money for drugs...and she was trying to defend herself....it was all a little scary!! Luckily our stop soon came and we got off the train and away from the crazy people!
So tired from walking the streets of NYC all day long!! I can't believe how many people are out and about in NYC at 12:30 am...crazy!! Crowds of people everywhere! Young women with toddlers out on the street in the middle of the night...we saw this girl in her early twenties with a 4 yr old girl on the street at midnight the little girl was dancing around and her mother was saying: "Go ashley...go ashley.."----Go get ashley to bed!! Is what I wanted to say...
I tried out to be that girl that grinds the circular saw on her metal armor-like outfit--but they my shoulders were too broad for the breast plate
These pictures are for you dad ;) I think to the left here is where they drop stuff off the building.
The Hello Deli! I wanted to go in, but my friends didn't seem interested.
How excited are we to be in New York City! It is the first time either of us had been here! We rode the Chinatown bus up from D.C. in the morning--took about 4 1/2 hours.
Traci's tiny pretend bite...
Carly's much bigger bite...
This is pizza place #1 we went to. It's right in Midtown Manhattan next to Madison Square Garden. It was just standard new york style and tasted great!
This is Grimaldi's--Pizza Place #2. It is a super famous pizza restaurant right beneath the Brooklin Bridge. To give you an idea--there were 35 people waiting in a line outside to walk in and order take out. The pizza was really good. It is coal fired, so it tasted really different. I liked it, but call me crazy I prefer the plain old new york style better!
Yes, Mom, I took this picture while driving over a bridge ;) Had to capture the Philadelphia skyline! The drive up there wasn't too bad. It took about 2 hr 45 min. The only bad part were the toll roads...I think it cost $10 to get there and $5 to get home. When I was driving past the University of Pennsylvania, I saw this river there that was lined with boat houses and there were 3 or 4 rowing teams in the river....it was the coolest thing! Looked so fun! And, I saw the Museum steps that Rocky runs up in the movie! I really wanted to run up them, but we didn't have time to do it...next time I guess. ;)
Andrew and I walked through parts of town. This is a little street that has been preserved. We ate at this amazing (and quite pricey--good thing he paid) restaurant called Bistro 7. I had the best gnocchi ever!! (not that i'd ever had any before--cause I hadn't--but it was fantastic!) And for dessert we had maple ice cream with a cinnamon and hazelnut sauce...delicious!!
The Liberty Bell!
69th Street Philly! We drove past all of the University of Pennsylvania campus. I told Andrew that I would have to come up again and go to a UPenn girls basketball game with him (since I seriously almost went there to play for undergrad) and say hi to Coach McGeever. They had this little eatery we passed called "Cereality" - it's a cereal bar! They have their own house granola type cereal as well as all the brand names. And then there are tons of berries and stuff you can put in it...kind of a clever idea...especially at a university.
The Tower Theater! This was the neatest venue for the concert! Ben Harper is an incredible live performer, but is even better at a smaller, more intimate venue! The theater was totally old fashioned inside and decorated like a theater with colums on the sides and fancy decor on the walls. Click here to see info about the cool shows that have made there way here since it was built in 1927: Tower Theater
This is Andrew. He's a friend from BYU - who just started law school at the University of Pennsylvania. He was going to go to GW but got into the Ivy League at the last minute. He and his roomates were nice enough to let me stay on their couch so I didn't have to pay for a hotel.
Girls night out at the Cheesecake Factory! This is Callie and Christine above and then Kim and I below. We are all in the same section so we pretty much have all the same classes together! After Cheesecake, we went to Kim's and watched 3 episodes of "The Office." I seriously love that show!
Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband (a band from provo) came to DC and did a show at this bar/cafe in Clarendon. It was weird and totally obvious that everyone there was mormon. I felt bad and contemplated buying a soda or something from the bar tender who was probably really upset that no one was drinking...wonder if they knew what they were getting themselves in to. Mainly, we were proud of ourselves for going out on a school night!!
