pen pal Archives - Popcorn and Pandas

Tying the Knot in Tucson

Tucson. Beautiful Tucson. The boys and I flew out to Arizona back in November to celebrate the wedding of my pen pal (yes you heard that right), Angela to her sweetheart, Leon. We visited them in May 2013 while I was pregnant, back before they were even engaged, and we had the most amazing time out there exploring and meeting her family. We were so happy to return as a family of three and celebrate their wonderful union together.

It was a magical night in the Tucson desert. The sunset was absolutely unreal out there. The flowers were stunning of course, as Angela and her sister are both floral designers. I loved the artistic touches Angela included, especially the four wedding dresses she pulled from the parents and grandparents of her and Leon. These dresses were hung from trees that lined her walk down the aisle. Sigh.

Aside from the beautiful decor and scenery, the wedding was full of fantastic people. Coming from across the country, we didn’t know many of the guests but both Angela and Leon’s family and friends were so completely welcoming and friendly. They were also lots of fun, and we joined them on the dance floor for much of the night. Kids were able to run around in the outdoor space, and I think our little Nico actually learned how to really walk here.

It was a beautiful night, and I am so happy for Angela and Leon. Thanks for letting us be a part of your celebration. Love you both!

Beautiful, huh?

Fast forward to present day: Yesterday marked the first Day of P90X for me. As you can probably imagine, I am in an incredible amount of pain! But no pain, no gain right? Day 2 (today) I woke up early to do plyometrics. I was actually enjoying the workout, but started to feel sick and queasy about half way in. Now, I know I’m not pregnant, so I guess this is a sign I am out of shape! I started having flashbacks of high school basketball tryouts where there were trashcans lined up around the gym “just in case.” Yikes. I decided to listen to my body, and stop the workout at the moment. It’s only Day 2, and I have a long journey. I do plan on completing the second half of the workout later today when I have a bit more energy. Oh the curveballs!

Other than that, we have SNOW today up in the Big Apple! Unfortunately, since Nico and I have been sick, I think we will be enjoying the snow through the window today, but at least it’s pretty!

Hope you are all having a great week and a great start to the new year!

XO,

Gina

Tucson Reunion

You may recall, two years ago, when I met my pen pal, Angela, in person for the first time. Yes, that’s right…I said pen pal! I wonder if kids even know what those are these days? Crazy as it may be, we met on my wedding day after 18 years of writing and keeping in touch with each other. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, and I grew up in Maryland, eventually moving to New York City. While, it was absolutely amazing she flew all the way out to the East Coast for my wedding day, I wished that we had gotten more than 10 minutes to speak to each other. So now, two years after our first brief meeting, and 20 years after we first started writing, Zack and I headed out to Arizona for the first time to stay with Angela and her boyfriend, Leon, in their Tucson home.

Angela’s entire family blocked off their Friday night to welcome us with a wonderful homemade Mexican feast at her Nana’s home on their family ranch. Back in the day, they hosted roping competitions and rodeos here, and there are still many folks who keep their horses on their stable grounds. It was so awesome to finally hang out with Angela, meet her entire family (minus one sister who wasn’t in town…we missed you!) and see the place and land where she grew up and wrote from all these years.

Saturday, they gave us the grand tour of Tucson starting off with the Sonoran Desert Museum. I must have repeated a million times “I’ve never seen anything like this!” mostly in regard to the huge giant cactus, err saguaros, that littered the desert. In the museum, we also saw tons of other flora, fauna, and animals. My favorites were the coyotes and the prairie dogs…so cute! After the museum we stopped at The Mission, which is the first Catholic Church in Arizona, and also the oldest European structure in the state. It was extremely beautiful and special to see. For more info on the history of the Mission, click here. We grabbed lunch in South Tucson at El Torero, a yummy Mexican local hotspot, and then headed downtown to do some exploring. The city is extremely artsy and many of the shops displayed a “Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead” theme. Angela, actually had one of her paintings displayed in a gallery downtown which was really cool to see. I am so proud! We drove past Angela’s elementary school, St. John’s, where she wrote me my first letter. It was really interesting to see how different the architecture was from my grade school, St. Mary’s. Saturday night, we attended a Live Theatre Workshop, which turned out to be a hilarious performance, and we ended the night with a fab dinner.

Sunday, we were sad to leave, but also excited to continue on to Phoenix on our state-wide tour. We had such a blast in Tucson, and it was so much fun getting to know Angela in person. She is exactly how I thought she would be from her letters over the years, and we all got along wonderfully. I am so grateful to her and Leon (as well as her entire family) for being such amazing hosts, and I look forward to having them come out to visit us in Brooklyn sometime!

IMG_8283_Layers_v1 — Angela and I on her Grandparent’s Ranch

IMG_8438_Layers_v1 — From left to right: Me, the hubby Zack, Angela, Leon, Angela’s parents

Angelas House — The sun shining down on Angela and Leon’s house

Four of Us — The four of us at breakfast on our last day in Tucson

After our 10 day hiatus, Zack and I are now back in New York, and I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of photos I need to go through! I have so many updates for you regarding our trip to Arizona, and this is only the beginning. Stay tuned through this week and next for photos and stories of our travels, outfit posts, and more.

In other news, Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary to my amazing husband! Can’t believe we were saying our “I do’s” two years ago. Tomorrow also marks 8.5 years that we have been together. I am so very lucky to have him in my life, and I am excited for what this upcoming year will bring for us. We have embarked on so many journeys together so far, and I can’t think of a more exciting and important one than parenthood.

Have a great week everyone!

XO,

Gina

Tucson on Dwellable

#60 Meet My Pen Pal

May 14, 2011

At the age of 9 in the 4^th grade at St. Mary of the Assumption School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, I was introduced to a concept called “pen pals” by my teacher Sr. Myra. Since then, I have carried on having pen pals for many years, but in 4^th grade, I had my very first pen pal, Angela. Sr. Myra had a teacher friend in Tucson, Arizona, and our entire class wrote letters to their class. I couldn’t have gotten luckier with getting Angela as my pen pal. She had the same name as my sister, she also had sisters, she was sweet, funny, easy to talk to, and I think if we grew up in the same area we would definitely have been in-person friends as well as paper writing friends.

Throughout the years, we constantly wrote each other letters updating each other on school, family, friends, vacations, and eventually boyfriends, living on our own, etc. Most kids in our class stopped writing their pen pals after they got to the 5^th or 6^th grade, but Angela and I continued on for years. Eventually a little thing called the internet was invented, and we started e-mailing more than writing, but we still kept in touch with holiday cards, pictures, e-mails, and more.

It’s crazy to believe that we have been keeping in touch now for almost 18 years! It’s always been a goal of ours to meet in person, but when we were younger, that was quite difficult being on opposite sides of the country. We always said we would probably meet at one of our weddings one day, so when Zack proposed, I knew I just had to invite Angela to our wedding!

It worked out to our advantage that Angela’s sister recently moved to DC, and she was able to stay with her on their trip to Maryland. I have to say I am still shocked that Angela and her boyfriend, Leon, actually made it out! I was so happy and excited that we were finally able to meet in person after 18 years. She is just as sweet in person as on paper, and I’m so happy to have had that opportunity. Many people who I tell this story think it’s amazing, and while I agree, to me I think “Why WOULDN’T we have kept in touch all these years?” You know a good friend when you meet one, no matter how you meet them, and there would be no good reason to let that go! My only regret is that we didn’t get to spend enough time together since we first met at the wedding, and we were running around like crazy people. I hope she had a good time, and got to meet a lot of our friends and family that she has heard about in letters for years.

Next steps are to take a trip out to Tucson so we can spend more time and she can show us her stomping grounds!

: First time meeting each other!

: Chatting it up

: Mom & Angela

: Zack, Me, Angela, & Leon