New Year's Adventures...

Well, crap, it's been a long time since I last posted. Well, I definitely have been busy, so I do have an excuse.

So, I worked at Chick Fil A on Christmas Eve, and oh my gosh, it was so busy. We had a register open specifically to handle all the catering/tray orders, and I can't tell you how many gallons of tea we sold. It was crazy, but extremely fun.

We went to my aunt & uncle's for Christmas Eve dinner, and we had steak, and salad, and sweet potatoes, and then opened gifts, and then had cherry chocolate bread pudding for dessert. Then, we visited for a while before heading home, reading The Night Before Christmas, and stuffing each other's stockings before going to bed.

In the morning, we sat around and opened gifts, and really just chilled out. I got a lot of the things I wanted - new boots, some dvds -  and some things that I didn't really even know I wanted - Lite Brite, Chuzzle, a personalized Tervis cup. We ended up watching The Nutcracker on tv, and then had lunch, and I took a nap...stupid lingering cold.

Then, my dad picked Quinn and I up, and we went over to my grandmother's. We ate with my dad's family - my grandmother, and a few of our aunts & uncles - and then opened gifts. My dad got me what I asked for - books - but also got me some other cool things - socks, a BP gift card, an iTunes card, and these awesome Dove chocolates with cinnamon graham cracker pieces inside.

We went back to the house later on in the evening, to find our usual "under our room trees" gift, and mine was a pair of silver skull stud earrings, which were pretty awesome. And then, really, we just went to bed. My mom got me a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and the doctor diagnosed it as a sinus infection, and gave me some medicine, and really, it's still lingering even now. Not as bad, but still lingering.

I went to work on Thursday, which was uneventful, and then on Friday, we left for New York. We got all the way in one day, and settled in at my aunt & uncle's. On Saturday, more of the family arrived, and some more on Sunday, and by the time New Year's Eve came, we were 26 in the house.

I went to the mall with my cousins on New Year's Eve, and we ended up driving an hour to get to the Palisades Mall, which is huge. Four floors of stuff. We walked around a bit, had dinner at Yard House on the fourth floor of the mall, and then walked around a bit more. I got offered a job while perusing through Abercrombie & Fitch, which was weird, but slightly flattering, and we basically just chilled out for the afternoon.

We drove back to my aunt & uncle's, and then got dressed up in our fancy clothes, and had dinner, and took some family photos, and then all the kids hung around in the basement, playing pool or watching people play pool, and then we went upstairs to count down to the new year. We toasted with sparkling cider, and went out on the deck to pop poppers, and then all the kids stayed up until three in the morning, playing ping pong and video games and just chilling out in the basement.

Everyone left on Tuesday, and then we went into the city on Wednesday. We took a 10:00 train, arrived just before 11:30, and walked up from Grand Central to the Nintendo Store, where Quinn bought a bunch of stuff. Then, we walked around Rockefeller Center, took some pictures, and perused the Lego Store, which we never went into last year because it was so busy, they actually had a line to get in.

Then, we walked up to 65th Street, and found Lincoln Center, to see our first show of the day, War Horse. It was really amazing. The puppet-work was so cool, watching three people animate this huge horse. So awesome. Everything was really dramatic and cool and I loved it. We got out just before 5:00, and walked down to 48th Street to have dinner at Hurley's Saloon, which I had scoped out beforehand. The food was really good - I had a hanger steak sandwich with fries, and it was really yummy. The chocolate mousse cake and the Tollhouse pie were really good, too.

We finished up, and since we were early for our show, we took a walk around Times Square, and poked around in the M&M store, and then went back to 48th to the Walter Kerr Theatre to see The Heiress, which was amazing. The set was gorgeous, the costumes were beautiful, the acting was awesome, and I loved it. Surprisingly, my brother loved it too, which was really crazy, considering it was a 2 hour, 45 minute play with no songs, no set changes, no exciting plot twists.

We exited the theatre, and headed off to our right, to the stage door, where they'd set up a set of barricades, and we waited around for a bit with the rest of the crowd. Dan Stevens came out first, and since we were pretty far back, we didn't get to see him up close. He made his way around, and then came back toward the door to go back inside, and my mom managed to sneak through the crowd, and get him to sign our playbill, and told him her son was a big fan and could he get a picture with him, and so Quinn sidled up and we got a picture before he went back inside.

Somehow, we managed to back out of the crowd, and then I snuck back in, and somehow managed to get a spot right on the railing next to the door. We waited a few more minutes, and Jessica Chastain came out, and I got to be the first one to meet her, and I got her to sign my playbill, and get a picture with her. She was so nice and so sweet, didn't make a fuss when it took my mom forever to figure out my camera, just said to take our time, and she was so appreciative when I told her I thought the performance was great, and I was just giddy the entire night afterwards. So, we hopped on the 12:08 train, got in to Beacon at 1:34 in the morning, where my aunt picked us up, and we headed back to the house for some sleep.

We chilled out on Thursday, ran a few errands with my aunt, and then everyone went out to eat at the diner down the road from the house. We ate, then headed back to the house, and then started packing to leave the next morning. We left at 7:30, drove for a while, got McDonald's for lunch (ate on the road), and then got into Winston around 5:30 or so. We dropped off the rental car, and then had dinner at La Carreta, and then went home and chilled for the night.

Our weekend was spent just chilling out, unpacking, putting away the Christmas stuff, and watching The Walking Dead and Downton Abbey. And I cleaned Ella's cage and slept a ton, and that was that.

Went to work today, and after having a week off, it felt weird to get back into it, and yet it was exactly like riding a bicycle...you just never forget. Surprisingly, four hours went by really fast, and at 4:00, I left and came home. We washed dishes, made dinner, and then watched a little tv, and then Mom and Quinn played Lego Lord of the Rings while I let Ella out downstairs.

On the agenda for the week - work on Tuesday, dinner with my dad on Wednesday, work on Thursday, work on Friday, and work on Saturday. I have to go into Chick Fil A on Sunday for the owner's Visions & Values talk, which all new employees have to listen to, but I never did because he had just done one when I got hired, work on Monday, work on Tuesday (which will be long, because I'm working eight hours, off for an hour, and then I'll be doing the kid craft for Family Night for four hours or so), probably dinner with my dad on Wednesday, work on Thursday, and work on Friday. So, busy for the next two weeks.