Family Trip To NYC

I've posted several pics below of the family trip into NYC. D's mom grew up in the Bronx, his dad in Brooklyn, and his older brother lives there in Crown Heights. We took the train in for the day. It wasn't long, but it was nice to get out and walk among the crowds and see the sights. All the Christmas decorations were still up. i just wanted to see Rockefeller Plaza. (Which I really hope I'm spelling correctly) and D's niece just wanted to see Trump Tower.

Our NJ Transit train came into Penn Station below Madison Sq. Garden. We walked all the way up to the Plaza hotel near Central park. It took 2 hours I think? We walked past the Library, I love that building. Also all the department stores had their windows decorated and most had velvet rope lines along them for people to line up to walk by. We didn't but you could still see a lot just walking by with the crowd. Macy's, Sax and Lord & Taylor.

I just loved being out among people. I love our house on the ridge in the woods, but I couldn't be a hermit or crazy recluse. I need to get out and see what's going on. Just people watching. People wear the craziest things. I like the little old ladies that seem to be incredibly wealthy but wear the really huge, thick plastic rimmed glasses like Harry Carry. Or the lady that rode by on her bike - def pushing 70 some yrs old, with a little dog in her basket, fully dressed - including hat and glasses. (The dog I mean)

Rockefeller plaza was beautiful but shoulder to shoulder packed with people. We just wanted to get out of there. Walked on, saw all the shops, tons of people. We were going to go into St. Patricks Cathedral but there was a line. I didn't know it but it was the church for the school D's mom went to. (I married into an Irish Catholic family) It's such a famous church, I thought it was neat that she has a history with it. Sometimes it feels like my history grows volumes in a second by learning things like that. Knowing my kids will have that history, not just the stories I know from my family.

And one we went to Trump Tower. Packed withe people. Very shiny. Very gold. Fun to see what's on TV though. We walked in thru the lower level, and went up and down the escalator, back out the door. Oh- D's Niece had here pic taken with the doorman. HUGE big guy, looks very stern - nicest man. Let all the kids have their picture taken with him. I think he's actually the guy working the door during "the Apprentice".

Took the Subway into SoHo to meet the older brother for dinner. Ate at a small little basic restaurant. Other than dinner I ordered a $6 Rolling Rock. Ok - not just the fact that they have RR - but the fact that 1) it's $1.25 back home at a bar 2) it's considered cheap college beer 3) they act like it's a posh import cuz it's from the sticks of Pa (?!) One last thing before I have to go out to the garage and help move something around for D's parents (we're still here on holiday) - on the subway back to Penn Station a chic got on our train,beggin for money for her two kids. Annoying, but not unusual. As soon as we get off, she starts running around screaming how she's going to chop off her mother's head and throw her in the river. Over and over again. Wow. D's niece and nephew - 7 and 3 - their eyes were huge - like what the heck is going on. Their mom's gonna have to explain that one for a while I think. Ok. Need to go help. Tomorrow we're off to a cabin somewhere in Pa to meet our friends for NY.

Happy New Year to everyone!

The Christmas Tree.

The Atlas Statue outside one of the buildings at Rockefeller Plaza.

The family outside St. Pat's.

The entrance to Trump Tower.

Street scene near St. Patricks Cathedral.

This is how crowded the plaza was just to look at the rink.

D's niece and I at Rockefeller Plaza Ice Rink.

The IceRink at Penns Landing

Had a Great Christmas!

It's already Monday. Our holiday is flying by but it's been great.

Last Thursday we went out to a tiny little Italian restaurant for dinner - Bella Via. Lots of shlocky atmosphere and wonderful homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Afterwards at our house we had our family gift exchange. After my folks left we finished laundry, dishes, packing, all the chores to leave before we opened our presents. Damn did I make out this year. Usually I go overboard for him, but I hid the credit cards and for once only bought what I could afford. He bought me way too much. Starting with the box-o-socks. I had a box filled with14 socks. I said I really needed socks - he believed me. I also got 2 DVD's, 3 books and a bunch of bath and body stuff. Santa brought us Return of the King, Extended.

We left bright and early Fri. for Philly. We got here at 3 - went to Christmas eve mass with his mom, dad and brother. Other than being decorated for Christmas - it was a really unmoving, bland Christmas mass. Went out to find the Christmas spirit at the local tavern and to see some of D's childhood friends.

Christmas day the entire family was here by 2 I think. 10 adults and 3 kids. I love that. It was so loud and boisterous. Music going, wine flowing, gift paper everywhere, everyone talking. I'm so used to it just being me and mom and dad most of the time. (my brother living so far away). We had roast with yorkshire pudding, and three pies, more wine. My stomach is still rebelling from all the rich food. Diet and exercise start as soon as we get back. Jeans are getting snugggg.

Last night me, D, his brother, his girlfriend, D's sister, husband and the kids went down to the Philly pier area to the outdoor icerink. I've got pictures to post from the new digital camera D's mom got us. I said a cheap under $100 model would be fine. She got us a really nice, higher quality than we need Olympus. I feel bad. She really spent too much. But it's an awesome camera. Next year she can't spend this much. Get us socks. Tonight we're meeting D's friends out to watch the Eagles game. Tomorrow we go see a minor league hocky game, Wed. we go into NYC for the day, Thursday I hope we just nap!!

Our Christmas tree!

It's a little crooked, but pretty. You can hardly see it, but there's a nativity under the tree. My grandma made it, so it's pretty sentimental. More sentimental than religious to me anyway. She also made the goat ornament you might be able to see. It's my favorite ornament. Not pagan, when I was little she had a farm theme tree and that's the only ornament left from it.

Girls Holiday Night

When I lived in Rockville myself and two other girls used to meet out every Wed. night for girls night. It was just for a few hours and a few drinks but that was enough. Enough to relax, laugh and talk about all the things you either don’t talk to your co-workers, sig ot or family about. Or you can gripe about your co-workers, sig ot or family. I really missed having that in my life.

Last night having the girls come over was wonderful, so much fun. I’m still in such a happy mood from it. Tons - ok too much food – I get carried away some times, and I made way too much sangria. Hardly anyone drank (‘cept me) because once they actually got up the snowcovered hill to our house they were too afraid to have a drink and then try to negotiate back down it. But everyone talked, knew someone thru someone, or their kids had something in common, etc. Later we all played “Guestures”. I know. Boardgames = Bored games. But it’s always fun and everyone always ends up laughing their ass off when we play it. And of course it was over too quickly. I’m starting a book club in January and I’m inviting a lot of the same girls. I’m hoping to do this once a month now.

Tonight finish wrapping presents and getting ready to go to Philly Friday morning.

Snow Sunday Morning

This weekend Christmas finally got going full tilt at our place. The house is finally all decorated, but I haven't done a bit of baking yet. We had a great time out at his boss's house Friday night, and had a few friends over Sat.

We spent all day Saturday shopping in Pittsburgh, and then he handed over his debit card and I finished his family's shopping and also mine on Sunday. Funny thing is it hasn't been very crowded out there. I think even more people are ordering online these days. And I would just love to buy everyone so much more than I am. We hid the credit cards this year and are not going into debt shopping.

I'm having 8 girlfriends over this evening for a holiday get together. Really looking forward to it. Then we have my folks over for dinner/presents Thursday, then its off to Philly for seven days! I can't wait. Everything will be done by then and we can just relax and visit his family.

Dog Dignity

I couldn't help myself...the antlers were on sale. You could just see her entire demeanor sink as I did this. Poor thing. It was going to be our Christmas card, but she looks so upset, I'd feel bad.
(I'll just post it here instead)

Flame on!

Yesterday on my way to work as I drove thru the neighborhood I saw something you don't usually see. Overnight we accumulated maybe an inch of snow. The one guy in the entire neighborhood that's a bit white-trashy was out in his gravel driveway with a flamethrower melting the snow. A Flamethrower. And it was just a tiny bit of snow. Can't wait to see what he does when we get a blizzard. Blasting caps?

likes & dislikes today

Likes:
The new U2 CD
our christmas tree
the seasons first real snow today
snopes
chai tea
unexpected money in the mail
Sundance catalog
free evergreens to decorate with from our neighbor

Dislikes:
running out of wiper fluid
losing my mittens on a friggin cold day
people who forward shit urban myth emails
selecting a dentist
going to the county bldg. to pay the water bill
how desolate downtown looks

Dude...

Linguist deconstructs the word, sees many meanings.

Lights and parties

We didn't actually get around to getting our Christmas tree till last night. The tree farm we went to is run by the same family my family has always bought our trees from. Tradition. They have a 200 year old barn and farmhouse that they operate out of. We took Grape-Ape with us and right when we got there it started to snow. Very Martha Stewart moment. We found an 8 foot Frasier Fir. It's perfect. But by the time we got it home, in the stand and in the house, we were both too tired to trim it that night. So this Sunday morning we're decorating. And I made banana-apple bread to nibble on for breakfast. This evening we're going to N's house for a holiday get-together with a few other couples. Really looking forward to it. I love seeing her girls. I'm hoping we can throw a small party at our house next Sat.

Friday night was my company's Christmas party. This year it was a lot of fun. We trade Secret Santa names and I got the new U2 cd. And some funky pens. It was nice to see everyone dressed up and enjoying themselves. And it's always great once everyone has a few in them and the lips loosen up. One idiot cutout early and on his way out the door said "Fuck this shit - I'm out of here". Maybe he didn't realize that was the bosses wife standing next to the door. Another fellow who is known for dropping the F bomb regularly, esp after a few, asked me what the deal was with my top, that it was inappropriate. Nice. I had on a pink cami on with a velvet shorty jacket. I mentioned that my husband seemed to think it look quite nice. Oh, and the office, well, slut for lack of better term, wore this crazy long blond hair extension. And a sweater with tons of maribout fur all over it. wow. A bunch of us went out for more drinks later and it was great to see our wonderful yet very subdued Office Manager get crazy and drink that ONE Banana Daiquiri. By the end of the night lots of nuggets of info and gossip had been thrown out and obtained. Well I have to go help D with the tree lights.

...and I saved $50!

Last night I spent 2 hours at Ikea. 1 in the store, 1 at the curb.
I have been eyeing up this in the Ikea catalog for a year. When I got my Christmas bonus – oh yeah, still not used to having an actual formal year-end review, let alone a BONUS - I decided this is what I’m buying for our “house” present this holiday. Big splurge. At long last the tv, cables, wires, dvds will be hidden away and I’ll have yet another piece of furniture to put a plant on. I just didn’t realize what an ordeal it would be.

Ikea is an hour away and I ended up shopping by myself as I was supposed to meet N, who then couldn’t meet up. Get there, walk through the furniture maze, find the spot in the wharehouse aisle for my center and the tag says it is indefinitely out-of-stock. Shit! I had it in my head that I needed it, and I wanted it for Christmas! For a moment I had that wild – just buy anything thought – which I curbed. So almost out the door, I walk into the “As-Is” room. Lo and behold there it sits. $50 bucks cheaper no less. I might’ve actually clapped my hands in glee. Nothing is better than buying something you really want – cheaper than you were willingly expecting to pay.

Only problem – it’s assembled. And 2” wider than any part of my suv. But I checked it out, and having a house of Ikea furniture I was sure I could disassemble it. I bought it, asked the two sullen 16 yr. olds working the warehouse to help me put it on a cart and asked to borrow a screwdriver. I wheel it out to the curb where it took me an hour to “disassemble”. It was going soooo well. I had everything but two sides off the base, when I finally realize the base is attached to the sides with metal rivets. No frickin way to remove them. I even tried to see of it would now somehow fit – not. even. close. Also, the sullen 16 yr olds are lingering yards away smoking, talking on cells finding much humor in all this. I mean really, who needs furniture this badly?! (me) So I decided to gently “break” part of the base off. The idea is running through my head that I just spent $200 on something I’m now breaking. I finally get it all in my truck. I was so worried about whether or not I ruined it – I stayed up ‘til 1 am putting it back together in our living room. (the repairs only took 4 nails and a touch of wood glue!) In the end I got what I wanted, it looks awesome and I saved $50! I rock.

Oh Sheetz!

Wheeling just got its first Sheetz store. It might be a little sad how excited everyone is about the opening of a new gas-station/convenience store/beer store/coffee shop. I went to the grocery store Saturday morning and I swear all the shoppers had a Sheetz coffee in their hand - including me. (It’s so shiny and new and red and easy!)The pumps have touchpad screens next to them so you can order and pay for your latte, sandwich, shmagel or shmuffin while you pump and pay for gas. Then run in to pick it up. The gas is CHEAP, the coffee is good and it doesn’t just have some beer, it has a huge walk-in cooler. It also replaces two ugly buildings of 70’s architecture, so the corner it’s on looks better.
Well, not everyone thinks so. It’s across the street from a historical Romanesque church. Driving up the road you see the bright glaring lights and red canopies of Sheetz, then the pretty church – that just spent a lot of money on a new terracotta tile roof.
Then there is the traffic. People actually put a petition together to ban the Sheetz from even being built at this location because of traffic concerns and tie-ups it will create.(forgetting the people it will employ or just the idea that it’s rare any new business goes into Wheeling and that it would be a good thing economically) It’s on the corner of a busy intersection, and it’s already happening. People turning left at the light with a green arrow, make the left turn then stop to continue turning left into the parking lot. All the cars waiting behind them to turn left sit there waiting. So people who have no concept of what bad traffic is might get upset. Overall I think it's a nice addition to the area and economy. I have now written at length about a gas station. Dear lord.

Overheard at work this morning

Salesperson to anyone in earshot:
“I just heard the story of Hanukah yesterday. Did you know it? You know their story? About the candles and the oil and making it last? I never knew that. Compared to the Christmas story their kinda stretching it out huh? I mean I thought there was more to it than that. They were persecuted and all that, but man, I thought there was more to it."

Wknd List

6 guys over to help D
2 trees cut down
1 giant bonfire burned
1 yard free of sticks and branches
2.5 cases of beer drank
1 pot of chili cooked and eaten
1 pan of cornbread cooked and eaten
1 pot of turkey noodle soup cooked and stored in freezer
4 loads of wash done
Spiderman 2 watched and enjoyed
1 bottle of wine drank
MeanGirls watched and wished hadn’t
Sunday Post-Gazette read
6 pots of cuttings potted and given away

Balance

Don't ya just hate it when you balance your checkbook only to find out you have $3 until next payday - the 15th, and it's only the 6th?

Tomorrow is my annual review at work. Last year this was also when Holiday bonuses were passed out. Right now I am really hoping for that to happen again.

This is hours after I woke up and said to myself, today I'm going to just enjoy the day and not let all the things I could be worrying about run through my head all day. Right.

Weekend Plans

• Buy a Christmas tree. Hope to get a live one this year so we can plant it on the property somewhere. I love doing this, to me it's a huge event. (Kinda how my folks are about the turkey)

• Cut down several dead trees around the house. We had a huge windstorm the other day and are lucky nothing crashed into the house. D is getting all the guys together before football on Sunday to play Rural Woodsman and cut trees down. Most worrisome being the huge dead Cherry tree right next to our bedroom window. I'm getting away for this - the idea of them all standing around with chainsaws freaks me out. I'll annoy then to death with my comments of worry.

One a totally different note…I was surfing around a college website in Pittsburgh looking for info to use to create spec art for a Account Exec to pitch, when I stumbled across this Graduate degree. I’ve always wanted to get a Masters, but an MFA never seemed like it would do much good at the other end of it, career or salary wise. But this really interested me. And the branch campus it’s offered at is somewhat convenient. Mulling this around overnight made me start thinking again about career, etc. And also, I’m starting to think that I’m happiest when I have the most to do. More productive in life in general when I’m constantly busy. I’ve had over a year now of getting home early, fairly stress free life, great job albeit not taxing design wise. And of course this doesn’t include the baby plan currently in progress. Just every so often I get wanderlust about life. How do people live in the same place at the same job for 25 years?

Class of 1989.

15 Year High School Reunion

Someone decided to have this the Saturday after Thanksgiving thinking people might be in town. Usually this would have been a summer event. I'm hoping the next one will be, and hopefully something outside where people can roam around. This year’s event was somewhat painfully dull and uncomfortable. Our 10 Yr reunion was great. About half the class (50) showed up and everyone was talkative, drinking, dancing. This time about 30 people from the class showed up, not including Sig Ots tagging along. It was in a ballroom at a local restaurant. Buffet food, keg beer and a DJ noone danced to. Three girls from school I’ve known since I was 10 and are still close to, decided to meet before hand in the restaurant bar. All of our husbands know each other so it wasn’t too horrible for them. (free drinks didn’t hurt either) We all walked in fashionably late, drink in hand.

All the guys we had gone to school with were standing in a row backs to the wall. All the wives sitting at tables. Ugh. The only people talking were the girls from school. My group grabbed a table and started circulating. It was great to see some people. People I genuinely have always liked and it was good to catch up with. But the other half of the night was spent in stilted conversation with people I barely knew in high school and have nothing in common with as an adult.. “where do you live now, what do you do, do you have kids?” It can feel odd to see these people grown up that played together as children everyday, got along great and then thru high school gradually grouped off, barely speaking. Now that I’m older I’m starting to wonder if the guys I always thought were stuck up or full of themselves, just had no conversation skills and were somewhat shy.

Probably the most interesting person there was a girl who had gone on to become a CIA agent. I had been in Girls Scouts with her. She’s been living in Columbia and is being sent to Afghanistan. She had also become a really beautiful girl. Although for the most part, all the girls in my class held together well. Noone blew up or fell apart. Several of the guys became extremely follically challenged though. When we got home I was exhausted. It’s work making conversation all the while trying to come off like you yourself aren’t doing too bad. And I was pretty proud of my mate. I was really glad he came. (It doesn't hurt to show up with a funny, handsome guy who can say he works for NASA.)

The Turkey Holiday

1st Snow, Family, the Bird


Thanksgiving weekend was very eventful. There was just so much happening: Thanksgiving, friends staying with us, my 15 yr high school reunion, the first snow of the year, and deer season.

The night before Turkey Day is historically known as THE night to go out at our local bar the Alpha. It’s shoulder to shoulder, but you see everyone you know and it’s always fun. My friend shows up higher than a kite – she was too funny – she kept swaying back and forth and giggling. We had to stand next to a wall to anchor her.

On Thanksgiving Day, D and I cooked and had my folks over for dinner. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two times of year that make me realize how small my family is. It was just the four of us. My brother and his wife and two kids live in Florida and rarely get up above the Mason Dixon line to visit. My actual family unit is hardly ever together. Just the four of us sitting round the table was yet another call to my heart to have kids. Lots of kids. (D is one of 6 and his house is always packed with people at the holidays. I love that) But we had a nice dinner. I can not stress how important the bird is to my parents. When did we put it in? What temp are we cooking it at? Are we basting often enough? Did we use Grandma’s recipe for stuffing? I was getting a little claustrophobic trying to get everything on the table warm and at the same time, so I asked my mom to scoot out of the kitchen… ”no – I want to see the bird come out of the oven. I don’t want to miss it”. Hey – when you’re 70 I guess these things become important. (As much as my mom can drive me nuts, she helped me make the gravy, and I loved that. She won't be here forever to do things like that.) My dad cooked two pumpkin pies. In case we (the 4 of us) needed it. Two diff recipes though, so we had to try both. One was my Grandmother’s. (One taste is full of years of memories of her house.) The first snow flurries came right before dinner and added to the holiday feel. We played Yahtzee after dinner. My mom doesn’t shake the dice, she rolls them between her hands so when they drop, it’s almost the exact same roll. And then she wonders why she loses.

A kitchen full of dishes later and a house to clean before my childhood friend and her husband show up for 2 nights so we can all shlep off to our 15 yr. high school reunion. More on that later…