Random thoughts...

Tiffany's in all it's Christmas splendor : ) 

Manhattan is presently cold and extremely wet. 

The most exciting thing that happened to me today was when I was walking down into the subway trying not to slip on the wet steps a couple of HUGE drops of water dripping off of who knows what nasty-ness fell down the back of my raincoat collar. Awesome.

You know you're a cheap, lazy grad school student when you avoid smelling your milk before putting it on your cereal and you tell yourself it's not bad yet. yeah i'm probably going to die from milk poisoning but the milk here goes bad in like 5 days!!!!! I am waaaay too poor and (more accurately) waaaay too lazy to walk all the way down the hill to the corner market to buy new milk that often. 

Tomorrow night I get to play with Julie Mack and Dan my two favorite playmates in Manhattan. We're eating a cafe rio-esque salad (YUM) and then doing something appropriately Christmas-y.  Joy to the world!

oh school

Looking studieous while writing my paper in the Social Work library. I don't understand people who look cute when they're working on stuff at the library. My goal is to be as comfy as possible, and that usually doesn't include a cute outfit...
AND! when I came home for a little lunch break I had these wonderful things waiting for me! yay for warm feet and dry feet! it's like 30* today and it's supposed to rain for the next two days. Perfect timing : ) 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Picture from here

This weekend.

1. Dan had his last grad class of the semester this Friday, wahoo for him!

2. I worked hard on one of my final papers Saturday and will hopefully get some sleep tonight (but I still have one more to work on that's due tomorrow : )

3. On the bus to the Harlem 125th metro north, I saw 2 people wearing big fur coats. The man was also wearing a big fur hat. He looked like a teddy bear. 

4. Dan and I watched A Christmas Story. My favorite Christmas movie ever (which Dan pointed out has no plot line, who needs a plot line really?)

5. Dan and I went into Nursery during church because we're teaching the sunbeams starting in January, and it was pretty awesome. Snack time during church? Potty breaks every 10 minutes? Games and activities? Heck yes!

6. Saturday night it was the first snow that stuck (at least out in Greenwich), and it was absolutely beautiful. Of course I didn't bring my camera. oh well.

So it was a good weekend. Now I must get to work on my two finals that are due tomorrow. I switched my internship days so I have today off instead of Wednesday which means I can work on my paper all day instead of all night hopefully!!! Wish me luck!

5th Avenue

First we went into FAO Schwartz, which is the craziest toy store ever. Don't take your kids there unless you have a lot of money or you don't mind temper tantrums.

Dan met his hero Lego Batman
Darth Vader was scary apparently
We got to watch a performance by two employees dancing on the Big Piano (employees not pictured above, those are children) and it was awesome!
Then we walked down 5th and saw all of the crazy store windows. This was "winter" at Bergdorf & Goodman (a very expensive store).
We pushed our way through the crowds to get a glimpse of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. We were there 3 hours early and it was absolutely insane already. We watched a guy get taken down by the police, all I saw was him yelling at an officer and then there were like 5 officers on him. Criz-aze-zy! Needless to say, we didn't stick around for that event. 

Anyways it was a nice night spent with my beau, feeling the Christmas spirit!

PS. and he bought me an advent calendar! I LOVE those! 

Polaroids?

poladriod.com

Go there and fall in love. 

End of Story.

Santa Clause is coming...

Okay I'm in New York City, one of the most magical places in the world at Christmas time. I am here for 19 more days during which time I must write 3 finals (really isnt' a lot of time, as I also have internship 24 hours a week and a fiance who I love spending time with)... and some how cram in all of the Christmas-ness I can. Here is my list of desired activities:

1. Walk down 5th Avenue. The windows at Christmas time are supposed to be amazing. FAO Schwartz, Tiffany's & Co, Lord & Taylor, Macy's...etc. 

2. Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Some way, some how, I will see this and I will make Dan come. Just you watch.

3. The Nutcracker Ballet. Not my favorite so it's not crucial, but New York City ballet, come on!

4. Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. It's the lighting of the tree tomorrow night, I'd like to go but I don't think I can handle those crowds! Dan and I will go another night and enjoy it without being cheek by jowl with a bunch of tweeners. 

5. Ice Skating. At central park, at Rockefeller center... where ever! Very classy and quintessential New York Christmas. 

If anybody else has any other ideas, send them! I don't know how I'll be able to do all of this but, I definitely want to! 

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

My friend and old college roommate Rachel the wonderful came down for Thanksgiving!
Friday night we decorated the Christmas tree. Is there a bette thing to do the day after Thanksgiving? nope, definitely not!
Dan is a pyro. He likes to build fires.
Jan has little ornaments with the kids names on them, I got one too! : )
Here's Jan putting some finishing touches on the tree!

I heart Christmas. End of Story.

                                   Well not really end cause I have so much more to say!

I would put up pictures of Thanksgiving, but I didn't have my camera out and so...yeah, maybe I'll post some pics later if I get some from Jan's camera. But Thanksgiving was yummy of course, and we had baby Nicholas to entertain us of course. Babies make everything better. So we had good grubbin' and good family and friends and it was good times all around. 

Then Friday happened. What happened Friday? Well the good things were: we ate Garden Catering with friends which is the preferred way to eat that wonderfulness, Rachel and I got to walk up and down the Avenue and I tried on wedding bands at Tiffany's : ), we got to decorate the Christmas tree and get in the holiday spirit! What was the bad thing that happened on Friday? I awoke with a somewhat scratchy throat and watched my tonsils progressively get bigger throughout the day. I hate my tonsils, they are already kinda big and when they get infected... they get infected. Why didn't mom and dad get them out when I was young and easily mendable? Probably because I always had ear aches as a child and not sore throats...

Saturday. I woke up feeling like absolute crap...at about 3 am and didn't really fall back asleep. It killed to swallow and my lovely tonsils were almost touching as what usually happens when I have throat problems which then leads to problems of eating and breathing and hydrating. Jan, the wonderful future mom-in-law that she is, drove me to a walk in clinic where we waited forever to have the medical assistant take a swab of my gargantuan tonsils and tell me the strep test was "very positive" with an annoying little smile. Then the doctor came in and told me the same thing while checking my ears and breathing (why?) and charging me $230. 

Then we went to the pharmacy which also took forever, but because for 1 more month I am on 2 healthcare plans I only had to pay $5 for my extremely large pills which of course you had to take with food. What's the problem with large pills that you have to take with food when you have strep throat? YOU CAN'T SWALLOW! Jan drove me home as I cried like the wimp I am wishing for my mom and dad to take care of me cause mom would drive me around every where and tuck me in and dad would buy me yummy foods I could swallow and rent movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I went straight up stairs and Dan raced up all stinky from playing football with his friends and hugged me tight and told me to get in bed. He then fetched me some yogurt and water and broke my large pill in half which decreased my chance of choking and dying from trying to swallow such a large pill with my tonsils almost touching. 

It was a grand day.

Now I sit here in bed on a Monday after my supervisor told me to "just take the whole day Maddie." When I suggested coming in for a half day. Hopefully I can be somewhat productive as I have 3 very large and important papers due very soon. Not in 24 hrs! but soon : ) 

Anyways, that was long. But I'm feeling better and the tonsils are no longer as large. Hooray for antibiotics!