This morning I went for a walk with my husband and saw a raccoon stuck in the window bars of the ground floor of the townhouse next door. You rarely see wild animals in NYC (except tons of pigeons), so I was concerned that the raccoon was rabid or was hurt. The building is being renovated so people rarely go inside. My husband thought it would eventually work its way out since it was squirming around, so we went on our walk.

We come back 40 min later and it managed to turn itself upside-down. I wanted to call Animal Control right away but then started to think 'I'm sure someone else called already.' I think in psychology class there was a term for this displacement of responsibility (forget the official term). So I hurriedly got ready for work and forgot about the raccoon.

My husband leaves for work much later than I do. When he left 4 hours later, he sent me this picture:

I recently had the following convo...

Friend: Ohmigosh! Hi! You look great today!
Me: Aww, really? Thanks!
Friend: Yeah your face looks so small today!
Me: Uhhh...umm...thanks.

I think only in East Asian culture would this be considered a compliment, er I guess more like a complisult.

What's the latest complisult you've heard lately?

As a Florida girl, whenever it snows I'm just in awe of the white stuff. It's so pretty and makes everything look so clean! But within a few hours it gets sooo nasty, especially in NYC!

However, living in NYC (without a car) I'm thankful that I don't have to shovel the snow to go somewhere or worry about the outside of my apartment. I'm sure people with homes and cars have it rough!

Whenever I pass by a park, or a patch of the lovely white stuff I always have to touch it or make snow angels. It's quite embarrassing for my husband, who grew up with four seasons and is used to the snow.

Are you a fan of snow? Does it annoy or excite you?

This week is crawling by.   Every day I've woken up and thought it was the day after. Why?  Because I've been waiting for January 8 for the past month.

Tonight the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners will play for the BCS National Championship.

I'm a graduate of the University of Florida and a serious, die hard Florida Gator. There are only a couple of things in life that get me super excited and one of them is Gator sports.

I've lost my voice so many times cheering at football games, sports bars and even in my living room.

When I watch a game it's like all time has stopped and all that's going on is that game. My personal worries disappear and for at least 3 hours I'm in a different zone. If the apt burned down during a Gator game I'd be in trouble. I probably wouldn't even notice.   

It's so fun to be so passionate about something like that, where you can just lose track of time and have fun- win or lose (of course winning is more fun though ).

In college I used to camp out for basketball games- in the rain, during finals, through illness, I would wait outside the stadium with friends so that we could sit down low in the O'Dome. 

I'm holding the sign. This was my freshman yr, when Mike Miller was our star basketball player. 

My friends and I at a bball game. I kidnapped half of them to watch the game with me.

Here I am junior year of college (on the right) with my good friend Mimi in 2001. This is the earliest digital photo I have of myself at the Swamp. Yes I was in college during the pre digi-cam days.

I was the friend that rounded up everyone's football tickets and planned the pregaming strategy .  Even now I'm still the one that gets everyone together for games. Instead of The Swamp, we usually watch them at a sports bar on the UWS near my apt.  

The Swamp is an awesome place whether full of fans or empty and peaceful!

Every year I go to FL and stop by Gainesville to meet up with friends that still live in town. In May 2007, I got together with some girl friends for a picnic in the Swamp. While we were eating our takeout we look up and see no other than Coach Urban Meyer! He was so nice and took some time to take pictures with us.

Coach with a gaggle of Asian girls.

Last year Timmy won a Heisman. Which was awesome but we lost to Michigan in the Capital One bowl.

From January to late August I patiently waited, like I do every year, for college football season to start. At the start of the 08-09 season we were pumped to go undefeated. However, this past September I witnessed something in the Swamp I'd never seen.

My husband and I at the Swamp on September 27, 2008.

I witnessed my beloved Gators lose to Old Miss. It was the first time I ever saw my Gators lose live at the Swamp.  I was so heartbroken and my voice was raw from all the yelling and cheering.  

After the game Tim Tebow met with the press and went on to say this:

"But I promise you one thing," Tebow went on. "A lot of good will come out of this. You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season, and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season. And you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God bless."

After that game the Gators were not the same team anymore... they were freaking incredible!

Watch on youtube in high quality for best viewing. You can turn off the annoying sign by mousing over the up arrow.

After those games we went on to beat the #1 team in the nation, Alabama, for the SEC title.

Win or lose tonight I'm so incredibly proud of my team and can't wait to watch the game. The past season was amazing and so much fun! It brought my friends and I together again like the days we were in college. Here's my photo recap of the past season:

Big props to all the die hard sports fans out there! Best of luck to all your teams throughout the year (except for when my Gators are playing them! )

I'm hanging this bad boy up in the Xanga office next to the Illinois and Michigan banners!

Go Gators!!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

My parents are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary next month. Since I was a little girl I always wanted to send my parents on a vacation and finally this year I have the opportunity to do so. I'm sooo excited for them! My parents haven't been on a vacation alone since before I was born, 28 years ago.

I was pretty limited in where to send them. They only have 4 days off so I didn't want them to fly or drive too far away to get somewhere. Also, they aren't internet savvy so going somewhere they'd have to research and find things to do or eat would be too tough.

So I thought a cruise would be perfect for them. They only have to drive 45 min to get to the port from their home and from what I hear cruise ships are like floating hotel resorts- everything's on the boat.

This will be the first cruise experience for my folks and to be honest no one I know has ever gone on a cruise (I wonder why that is, seems like such a good deal ).  Have any of you been on a cruise before?

I ask because I wanted to help my parents pick out things to do for the days they're docked in Nassau, Bahamas. Is it worth paying the fees to do the organized excursions or can you just get off the boat and do your own thing? What do you recommend?  Also, is there anything you'd recommend they bring with them on the cruise (I think dramamine is a must)?

I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks so much