Familyless again

My family is all gone. They have all left. It was nice to have them all because I really do miss them. We have always been a close family so not seeing each other on a regular basis has been hard. I think we have all coped with pretty well. We have had a lot of practice with Katharine travelling the globe and all. This past weekend we my Mom's turn. We did some Christmas shopping but mostly just walked and down Midtown. Macy's was crazy. We got there pretty early and it was still packed. We then came back several hours later and it was still packed. Mom made a comment that after seeing the crowds at Macy's, the economy is going to be fine. My take was, if it's this crowded when the economy, what is it like when the economy is good? Scary. We walked a few blocks up to Lord and Taylor and they were almost empty so while Macy's is still packing it in, not everyone is so lucky. I think we finished my Christmas shopping, which really was the whole purpose of the trip so that was good. We didn't really have the big Birthday dinner that we planned but we did have some excellent meals. On Friday we went to Maria's Mexican Bistro a block away from my apartment. I always forget it's there so I never think to go there. It was amazing. I'll have to eat there more often. On Saturday, we had a little muffin from Starbucks and then a bigger lunch at the Brewery called Heartland Brewery. We originally planned to only have appetizers and drinks but by the time we got there we were really hungry. After we had finished our shopping, we had walked up to Rockefeller Center and thought, wouldn't it be nice to have drink and watch the skaters. Well, of course everyone had the same idea. So then we tried Time Square and again the same Idea. So we walked back to Macy's got a little bottle of wine and cheese and crackers and came home. Katie had invited us out to the Dram Shop later Saturday night and I wanted my mom to meet at least one of my friends so we both took a little nap instead of having a fancy dinner. You all probably won't believe this but Mommy stayed up past 1 am all three nights she was here.

Dad and Katharine's visit wasn't as exciting because I mostly worked but Thanksgiving was a hit. Katharine made the most delicious turkey ever! Katharine and I got to see Twilight! and it was angsty, awkward awesomeness I expected to be. While I was work on Friday, Dad and Katharine saw the new James Bond. We walked around Prospect Park. Hung out and drank a lot of beer. All in all it was a good visit. I just wished I was able to spend more time with them. Next time when they come, I will make sure to have more time off. It's kind of sad that they had to go home but I will see them later this month. I'm still shocked I got the week after Christmas off. I'm so glad I asked.

In just a few hours, Kat will be here and dad will be here tomorrow!! Yippee!! I can not wait!

Almost here!

I have three days to get my apartment in order before Kate and Dad get here. I have done a lot so far but I have so much to do before they get here. Like mopping the floor. It's a weird thing for me. I have only hard word floors. They are really nice but it's a strange that I don't have to get a vacuum out for the carpets. I don't have any. I bought this Orange Glow specially made for hardwood floors. I'm actually looking forward to trying it out. All I have to do is sweep first before I can really try it out. Not really looking forward to that because that's just plain boring. My mom suggested that I buy more pillows even though I told everyone to bring their own. I wish she told me this before I went to Target last week because I'm now going to have to make another trip. I kind of have to anyways because there were things I wanted to buy but forgot but they aren't really necessary. I'm not sure what I'm really stressing about. They both know me. I'm not really the cleanest person in the world but I want them to have a good impression of my little apartment. My dad has been here before when he left, it was still covered in boxes and Kate has yet to see it. Not to mention, we will have more room If I do finally get rid of the few boxes hanging around.

I do feel a little bad because I'm not taking any time off while Kate and Dad are here but I did take the weekend off when my Mom comes over my Birthday. My reasoning was it was Thanksgiving Weekend and I probably wouldn't have gotten anytime off anyway and I thought I would only be working four days that week instead of five because of the paid holiday. Well, I was wrong. Some of us who are full time got three days off this week but not me. I'm not entirely upset because I am going to get paid for six days instead of five which is going to come in handy later but I kind of feel like I'm telling my them "Come visit me but I'm not going to be here". That's kind of crappy but on the other hand. I do live in NY. It's not like they won't find things to do here to amuse themselves. Next time they come, I will make sure that I have time off to spend with them.

It's cold

My fellow coworkers and I had a little disagreement about how cold it was yesterday. It was in the mid-30's, which is cold but not that cold. Many of the native New Yorker's disagreed with me. I guess it's ok. The median temperature for the months of January and February is just around freezing temp. so they are not used to the below 0 temps that we are used to in the midwest. Lourdes and I were going back and forth about how cold it really was when Liz came in wearing just a heavy sweatshirt. Liz is also from Iowa so she backed me up on the "it's cold but it could a lot colder" statement. Lourdes thought we were both crazy. Of course Lourdes is also told me that my double breasted Gap coat that I usually only wear when I get dressed up, was not going to be warm enough. I respectfully said, thank you for the concern but I do have a heavier coat, I just didn't feel like dragging it out of the closet and it really wasn't that cold. It gets a lot colder in Iowa then here so I'll be ok. Of course, I am a little worried about having to walk in the cold. I usually just have to run in between buildings and my car so I'm not really outside all that much. Maybe all of this bravado is going to come back and haunt me.

Clean Clothes

I bought a new filter for my PUR pitcher and I really can tell a difference. I like the taste of clean water. It's nice. I finally did my laundry today. It really needed to be done. I tried earlier in the week but the change machine was out and the little grocery/deli store didn't have any quarters to spare so I couldn't do it. I lugged my basket down stairs. loaded my clothes into a machine, sat down at the table and started to read. About 5 minutes later, someone else came in. Even though there was five open machines open, I had picked the 3 best ones so she said she would wait. Like every five minutes, she would come back to see if i was done. You would think she would just look at the timer so knew how much time I had left. Then when it was time for me to dry, she had to comment on the dryers I was using. I was like, lady, I'm trying to wash my clothes and read. Thank You. I was so glad when my laundry was done and she had left so I could finish in peace. I don't think I am unfriendly but I don't need running commentary on what I am supposedly doing wrong or the fact that I had taken the best machines. I got there first, sorry. I didn't realize they were the best, they are just the closest ones to the dryer. That's why I picked them. Have I ever mentioned I hate to do laundry. This is just one of the many reasons why.