So let's see, where did we leave off...Wicked was great. And Proctors Theater (in Schenectady) is beautiful!
The next week was Thanksgiving...at work we had off Thursday and Friday, and I got an "extra holiday" since Friday would have been my 9/80 day off anyway, so I applied it to Wednesday! Nice break. It was made even better by my mom and Sean driving up to visit us! They came in Tuesday night and stayed through Friday morning. On Wednesday we drove around; they saw Siena, where Brad takes his undergraduate accounting classes, and we drove by my work. We also went to the Harley dealerships in the area so Sean could collect his shot glasses (he has over 200 in his collection now!)
Thursday was pretty much devoted to the Thanksgiving meal...my mom and I pulled it all together (in this small apartment kitchen!). We have just a bistro table in the dining room, and another bistro-size patio table outside, so we pulled them together and draped a tablecloth across. Done :) The meal was delicious, then we went to see Skyfall and came back to have pie. Successful Thanksgiving!
I was sad to see them go Friday morning, but we'll be headed for Texas in two weeks (!) so it won't be long before we're reunited (as well as with the rest of our family!)
The fun times continued on Saturday...I found out Friday night that some of my residents (& co) from Baylor were in NYC that weekend! Thought it over Friday night and eventually decided to book Megabus tickets to head down Saturday morning! The Megabus is a great thing, the seats are like a charter bus and it has an upper and lower deck. Apparently if you book out far enough the rates start at $1 per trip, but since I was booking the night before it was more than that :) It's a 3 hour trip from Albany to NYC, with just two stops along the way. I was nervous since Brad wasn't coming with me (he had a lot of hw/tests to get read for) but it turned out to be pretty easy. The bus stop was several blocks from the girls' hotel. I got some Starbucks (conveniently right on the corner where the bus stopped) and then walked down to meet them!
We started off by going to Central Park and just taking in the scenery. Saw some Christmas decor already being set up along the way!
And Radio City Music Hall :)
Love these ladies!
After Central Park we did some 5th Avenue shopping/browsing. I'm reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson for our Leadership Book Club at work, and on the bus ride down I had just read about the creating of Apple stores and this one in particular:
Pretty impressive.
Little blue boxes adorning the tree in Tiffany's
Hot chocolate from the Godiva store! It was yummmy (also, it was $6....a little steep).
We grabbed a quick lunch in Rockefeller Center, then it was time for me to go :( I had left my purse in their hotel room (since it was big and bulky and had the Steve Jobs book in it) so I went up to get it and say my goodbyes. The Megabus left promptly at 3:50...I think it was 3:20 at the time I was walking out of the hotel, and the stop (different from where it dropped me off) was 16 blocks away. I was going to try to have the bellhop get me a cab, but he was bringing in someone's bags...I hesitated for a little bit, then just started walking crazy-fast. There were plenty of cabs along the way, but I wasn't very well-versed in hailing a cab and kept thinking "well, not much longer, I'll just walk it out". At times I was running...especially when 3:50 was quickly approaching and I still had several blocks to go. It was kind of nightmare-ish...I have nightmares every once in awhile about being late for a plane and having to run, and here I was on my own, with the possibility of being "stuck in New York" if I didn't make the bus! (it wouldn't have been so bad, there was another Megabus in about 2 hrs, but it would have been a pain.)
When I got to the stop, there were many of the buses all lined up. It was 3:50 on the dot. There were several lines of people waiting at signs with different destinations on them, and I didn't see a bus with "Albany" on it so I started asking them. One of the lines said "Albany" but it was the later one...they were able to tell me that my 3:50 was at the front of the line. I raced back up, and saw the bus driver giving "last call". I thrust my confirmation number at him and made it on the bus! It was a veeery close call but I was so relieved to make it. And it was so worth it to go to NYC for a few hours and see my friends!
Tomorrow, I'm going back to NYC :) this time with the husband. We booked a bus trip through my work awhile back (the same sort of bus trip like we took for the seafood fest in NH). We'll go to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular right when we get there, then have about 6 hours to play in NYC before we catch the bus back (and I'm going to make sure it's not a stressful experience this time!) Still trying to figure out how we'll spend that time (so many options) but I think we'll at least go see Wall Street, for Brad's sake.
Other things...the holiday season is in full swing! Last Saturday I went to a ladies' brunch at the church where we had a Christmas cookie swap and listened to a special Christmas message from a lady who is friends with some in our church. I made some family favorites: molasses cookies, yum. Came home with 4 dozen of a variety! Right after that I went to another "brunch" (at 1 pm) with a girl I had met at the Cheesecake Factory meetup. She works at GE, and another of her GE coworkers joined us. She had a very cute apartment and we had a good time. I definitely got enough to eat that day!
That day, we got the most snow I've seen so far. It's definitely getting colder but so far the snow has been light flurries. This was the only day I've really seen it stick. Was pretty nervous to drive in it to my events, but the streets were very clear.
Yesterday, we had a holiday cookie contest at my work. Of course I wanted to participate :) I made buckeyes, which are a Christmas tradition for us ever since my mom married Sean. Sadly, I didn't win...another girl there also made buckeyes, and she got second place, dangit. I came home with a "participation gift" of a cute snowman glass canister, so I can't really complain. It was fun to get involved.
Anyway, time to plan for tomorrow's NYC trip! I'll leave you with two things...one, our squirrel friend sleepily sunning on the porch:
And two, our "anniversary pic"...I'm gonna try to make the chalkboard thing a tradition :)
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