Buffalo, NY

Can I just say how much I already love Buffalo? I have been here a week so far, and it has been a total party! There is always something going on, whether it's concerts, festivals, friends, dates, whatever. Just this weekend we went to the Irish festival, the Art festival, and it was our anniversary. 

The Irish festival was on Friday. It was down on Canal side in the middle of the city. I think that most people went for the flowing booze, but we had an awesome time trying out the food and watching the entertainment. We tried two dishes, "bangers and mash" and "lamb stew". I think that my favorite part, aside from all of the irish singers that were performing all night, was the celtic dancers. 

Saturday was our anniversary. I can't believe it's already been a year. I still feel like a newlywed. Clayton felt bad that he had to go into work for a few hours that morning, but I slept in late anyways so I didn't mind one bit. We had planned on going to Niagara Falls that afternoon, but we had a few scheduling complications. Instead we went to the Art festival downtown in Elmwood. It reminded me a lot of the art festival in Fort Worth, TX that I went to with the Blacks. There were a lot of tents set up with different artists showing off and selling their work.
Afterward we went to Russel's Steak House for dinner. It was fancy. Like dim lights, flickering candles, everyone wears dresses and ties fancy. I've never been to a restaurant like it. The tuxedoed man that showed us to our table pulled out my chair for me, put my napkin on my lap, and even draped my sweater over the back of my chair for me. I was impressed. There were even men with the assigned task of walking around constantly refilling waters/wine, or offering bread and spread. Oh, and the food was so good. Three courses of mouth watering delicacies. It was awesome. 

On Sunday I was surprised to find out how excited my ward was to meet me. I guess Clayton had been talking me up while I was still in Utah, so the second we walked in I was approached by nearly half the ward. They are all so friendly. It's a smaller, east coast ward, and most of the members are young families here for dental school. 

After church we were invited to a members home for dessert. It was a handful of the young families from the ward, and we just sat outside and talked for a few hours while eating cakes. It felt so weird to me. All four of the other couples had at least 2 kids (aged 9 weeks to 7 years), and they seemed so old. I kept thinking these are people my parents would be friends with. And there we were with them, all of a sudden an old couple, talking about work and career plans. Granted we don't have kids, but I guess being college grads and worker bees included us in the group. 

Aside from all the fun going on, I've been unpacking all the leftover boxes that Clayton didn't get to/didn't want to unpack, applying for jobs left and right, and being a total bum. I spend a lot of my time at the library since we don't have wifi at our place yet. It keeps me busy job hunting online and reading books. It's been nice relaxing, but I'm getting a little bored of not having a schedule and purpose for my day. 

I have one before and one after picture of the loft. I think it's coming along quite nicely.

Before:

After: