"Did you ever know that you're my hero" yes, that was the song I sang as Elna Baker, the writer of "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" walked up to the mike. She was lovely.

First, she talked about her five worst dates. One was a guy who picked her up in a mini van and she had this overwhelming feeling that she needed to fill it with children. The guy asked her how long she had been in New York and when she said 8yrs he said..."8yrs? Can you even sew?"

What a lame-o guy.

But Elna, not to brag but I am pretty sure I have your worst dates beat.

It was senior year, Homecoming and I went with a sophomore who said to my face..."I asked you on this date because I thought you would be fun." Then he gave two freshman a ride to the dance and told them how he wished he had gone with them...Then he decided to rank me against other girls while we stood in line to get in the dance. This was not the first nor the last...But I win right?

Back to the reading, Elna then read a chapter of her book and answered questions. She did a great job and was so nice to everyone. Then I got to meet her...Everything I liked about her came spilling out of my mouth. I have no filter when it comes to people I have to awkwardly meet.

"Hi Elna! Wow, I just love you so much and I love your book and you are so pretty and I have this book will you sign it and I made this sign, Oh can I take a picture with you? Because I made this sign for my friend Crystal, she loves you too in fact she sent me the book when I moved here from AZ and this sign is for her."

"Sure." replied Elna.

Dan Ryan Comedy Troop Rendenvous

Last night was the BEST NIGHT YET!!! Rhett and I, a long time ago ran across a website called Black 20. Its basically hilarious and we love it. A bunch of the people from the website were preforming at a sketch troop contest at this little dive called The Pit.

While I was taking a picture of the stairs above all the guys we LOVED walked right past us...We were star struck. It was the same feeling when I saw Mariska. We followed them up (oh that sounds totally stalker but it wasn't like that) When we got up we introduced ourselves and told them how much we loved them. They were so gracious and nice, we took a picture and they thanked us for coming. EEK!

Then, when I was hanging out there with Rhett I spotted Jessie Cantrell! she is the FUNNIEST girl in the USofA...Honest. I said" Jessie?"

"Hi!" She smiled and said back and walked over like we were old friends.

"Hi I am Leslie and you don't know me."

"Oh okay, Hi, I totally acted like I did though, wasn't I good?"

I told her how stinking awesome I thought she was and then asked her for a picture and just like the guys she was super sincere and grateful we were there to support them.

It was an super fun show and of course all our friends won. (they are the stinking funniest, no one else had a chance.) The audience got to vote and they also had judges. One of the judges was...Are you ready for this Young family and Katlyn...One of the writers from MONK!!! When they introduced him I cheered and after the show was over I went up and talked to him. We discussed how sad we were about the end of the show and how much fun he had working there and how much fun I had watching it.

"Food Tour" or "The Day I Ate Manhattan"

It was a bright Wednesday afternoon and the Lower East Side thought it would be a normal day just like any other day. What they didn't know was that four VERY pretty, very hungry girls were about to step out of the subway and onto their streets.

Our first stop was at the wonderful Doughnut Plant. A quiet little doughnut shop that was made famous by serving citizens square doughnuts with jelly filling...Not that they will anymore.


When the doughnuts were consumed the girls were still hungry for something more...something with frosting! Dun dun DUN!!!

Sugar Sweet Sunshine was the next stop. I fell in love with the decorating of S.S.S. So much so that the group only ate all of their cupcakes and left the whole cakes for the survivors to eat. I mean honestly, who has a giant picture of Jackie O, and amazing wall paper to boot? The place had to be saved for posterity. It was just too wonderfully quirky.

The next stop was a gelato spot called laboratorio Del Gelato. The poor owner had no idea. He offered a sample on one of those little spoons. Thinking we were harmless. Once we got the taste we just kept eating. (no picture available) trust me you wouldn't want to see the carnage.

After all the sweetness we needed something different. We marched onto Sam's Saigon Bahn Mi. A Vietnamese sandwich shop. Below are three of the four ladies. Abbie was the mastermind behind the raid. and just like snowflakes, no two Ashly's are alike. They both brought unique eating abilities to the table.

It was a great day for me...Not so much for Manhattan.

Ellis Island

This last Saturday Rhett and I went down to Ellis Island. It took us forever to get there. We of course got lost on the subway. This time it wasn't our fault! They closed down the 1 train and that messed up everyone not just the Johnson's.

Good thing I packed Carrots

Then we got on a ferry out to the island. I really enjoy ferry rides.

Before we got to the Ferry we walked by a person pretending to be the Statue of Liberty, Then we saw the real one on the way to the island.

When you get there you go into a big room. The same room all of the immigrants would go. They would be packed in there until they were called up stares. Walking up the stares was part of their medical exam. They would also check their eyes with button hooks. If they thought there was a problem they would mark them with chalk. Which meant they would be further examined and might not get access into the country.

These are some of the people who came through Ellis Island.

The women were given special help. They wanted to make sure they wouldn't come to the country with no way to live. They even gave them makeovers. It seems like the United states always loved makeovers. Shout out to my friends Stacy and Clinton.

I liked this flag that changed depending on where you stand.

This is our ferry and the Statue of Liberty was in the background from Ellis Island.

It was a really neat trip, I almost cried three times.

It was really an amazing place to visit and I learned so much about what people gave to come here and what this nation gained by their sacrifices.

FIRST DAY AT CHURCH

So, today was our first day going to our ward. Our journey to get there was pretty fun. (sarcasm) First off we got on the wrong train, Then we got on the right train which took us back to where we started only to stop there and go no further. So we had to climb out of the subway to get on a shuttle bus. From there we followed a group of Mormon looking folk and right as we were about to get there, Rhett stepped in dog poop. Ugh, So he cleaned up and we went in.

Everyone was nice. Especially a woman named Sally who was also visiting and we got lost together, and a girl named Abbey who was so stinken sweet she invited us to dinner. It was awesome. (in fact we just got back from dinner, it was wonderful) I brought her Tootsie Pops as a gift for the hostess in a cute little bag since that was all I have to my name. We met a comedian there and we are going to his show later this week. (people in NY have fun jobs.) Here is a video of when he was on Comedy Central.

Live at Gotham
Ryan Hamilton - Depression
http://www.comedycentral.com/
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Law And Order SVU

This last week Law and Order SVU came to our apartment and filmed there all day. I don't have a job yet so obviously I spent my whole day sneaking pictures of what was going on. I felt like it was one of my more productive days... And not just since I've been here in New York.


This is the flier they put up in our lobby. Giving me plenty of notice on what my plans would be that day.

They filmed outside all morning

So, in the afternoon when I was on my way back to my apartment after scoping out the bathrooms. I walked up to my apartment right when Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni where walking in. Mariska totally smiled at me, we were best friends instantly. A really nice tech guy let me watch in the lobby while they rehearsed.


Rhett created this awesome video. He is super talented