I'm Baaack!

Don't fret my friends! I have returned! I am oh-so sorry that you had to spend the past three days lamenting my absolute lack of presence in the blogosphere, but please know that I appreciate your faith that I would indeed return!

Okay, enough. Thank you for indulging my delusions of grandeur. Rest assured, I had a wonderful Christmas holiday with my family, and was even able to squeeze a couple of local friends in for hang-outs during my extended trip. 2 flight cancellations and overcoming a couple of mild panics regarding the work I was to be missing, and I was actually able to enjoy my extra 3 days of forced vacation. I now feel refreshed, and am eager to hopefully witness another storm since now I've missed what is allegedly something like the 6th worst storm New York City's experienced. Now it's warming up quite nicely so I'm sure soon there will be lakes-a-plenty to be faced at every street corner, the fact which my trust New York coworkers are now lamenting.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here's a glimpse of what met me at the airport last night. In the first photo, what looks like a barrier behind the gray, slushy snow, is actually a snow bank. My first real winter!

Trapped!

Hi friends,

I am writing this blog post from sunny California, as all my flights home to New York were cancelled yesterday and I have been informed that the first available flight out won't be until Wednesday afternoon. That's right, there's a blizzard warning in effect for the New York metropolitan area, JFK was closed yesterday and as such, New Yorkers are apparently instructed to stay inside their homes, and the rest of us who went home for Christmas are not completely unable to return to our New York apartments. It's a sad state of affairs, namely because even with said blizzard warning in effect my good ol' office in Manhattan is still open and ready for business, which I am not unable to take part in. Buh-bye vacation days. Le sigh.

Regardless, I guess we can now say I'm taking one more step towards becoming a real New Yorker. I have my very own first cross-country holiday travel horror story! 20 inches in snow in Central Park last night, according to The Guardian. And all this after musings going on by coworkers that since last winter was so cold, I may have a mild winter for my first in the city.

Forgive me if postings are few and far between until Thursday, this may be a forced use of scarce vacation days for me, but I may as well run some West Coast errands and take walks by the beach, I figure. Stay warm East Coast friends! I hope to be back among you soon!

Travelling Triumph!

My trip to Harrisburg was easily one of the most relaxing times I've had since moving to Manhattan. Staying with good friends always makes for an incredible time, but there is something about the homey-ness of someone else's family home - without the stress and constant frenzy of it being your own home, with its specific obligations, family members to see, and conversations to keep up - that makes visiting friends' parents homes my new ideal.

Add this to the fact that the home in which I was staying was newly-built and fabulously open and airy, and I had a Wednesday that felt as relaxed as an entire weekend in the country. I took the train out of and back into New York City and within 3 hours I was in the countryside, in the company of great friends. We spent the day on Wednesday touring the Gettysburg battlefields and receiving incredibly informative lessons that finally, for the first time in my life, made the Civil War start to come alive for me. Looking at the actual hills and spaces in which Union and Confederate troops clashed was truly eye-opening. Brought history out of the pages of the books, if you will. It's a shame that it took until I was 27 for me to have enough interest to find so much joy in this knowledge.

Nevertheless, with these pictures below I bid you adieu as I return to California early tomorrow morning to celebrate Christmas with my family, and squeeze a couple of friend-reunions in to boot. Returning to California is becoming consistently exhausting, mostly because I can't fly in under cover of night and not tell social contacts of my return to the west coast, since holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are sort of givens for transplants' returns to their nests. Nevertheless, I'm sure I will have a wonderful weekend, and I wish you all joy and cheer if you celebrate Christmas this weekend as well!

 {What we looked out upon while making a breakfast of pancakes and bacon}

 {They have a pond on their property! With binoculars you could see little footprints traipsing back and forth in the snow on the iced over water}

{You can hardly see them at all, but there were wild turkeys that ran about and would stop to feast on what used to be an old soy bean field, before running off again}

 {These trees, just outside one of the living room windows, looked sort of elegantly creepy with their branches so bare and clawing towards the sky}

{As the afternoon continued on, the clouds continued to make beautiful streaks across the sky}

Excursion Excitement

I leave tomorrow for my Harrisburg rendezvous with two dear friends and their parents. I am incredibly excited, presumably because this will be my first time getting out of New York since I moved here, coupled with the fact that I am always excited to get to spend time with this particular family.

Everyone around me seems positively flummoxed as to why I would travel "all the way" to Harrisburg for a single day via train. Please. This is a 3-hour train ride. I used to travel that far, driving myself, to visit friends in Los Angeles for a day. I'm going to be able to sit in my train seat, ideally look out of a window, and read my book, all the while anticipating a lovely weekend spent in a lovely home with lovely conversationalists and that comforting, home-y feeling that only comes with people you have known for years. I can't help but think that this will be a perfect way to finally get my head into the "holiday" space and I'm very excited.

As such, however, I will be taking the day off tomorrow and I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! Oh, and these shots have really nothing to do with anything save that they are Christmas tree ornaments, and I like sparkly things. Ciao, ciao!

Festivity!

My lobby, bless its heart, has gone all out for the holidays. I snapped a few shots to get everyone in the mood this week-o-Christmas. I must admit, it seems like Christmas comes faster and faster, with less and less anticipation and fanfare every year for me lately. I sort of miss the sweeping anticipation that used to accompany this holiday. Still, decorations like these help to make the season bright no matter what my excitement level may be.

I can't believe on Friday I'll be flying back to California to celebrate Christmas with my family! Life does indeed move pretty fast Ferris. It does indeed.

Holiday Party 2010: Success!

I am pleased to report to you that my company's holiday party was a success last night. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is easily the "youngest" company with any actual business acumen that I've ever worked for, and it showed at this fiesta - the dance floor filled up as soon as people walked in the doors. Add to this the fact that the venue was absolutely beautiful, and I experienced the first holiday party that I thoroughly enjoyed attending. I even hit up the after-party for a good few minutes, although my aching feet couldn't handle too much more. By 11:30 I had put myself into a cab back home, and crawling into bed that night, the arches of my feet had never been happier at being bare.

One downside of the night? I lost my driver's license somewhere between the after-party and waking up this morning. Being as I scoured my room, my coat pockets, and the bathroom, I can only assume it's on the floor of the bar, or the floor of the cab. Feels like a Saturday night and yet, it was a Thursday... Either way, I guess I won't be going out this weekend after all, and will be getting a NY ID!

{The Capitale, site of Holiday Party 2010}

Well!

I was fully intending to regale you with a review of the second half of the play festival mentioned in yesterday's post. However, I switched bags last night and left the program in my other satchel, so now I have no clue of names, titles, etc. As such, you shall have to be satisfied with the fact that tonight is my company's holiday party! Here's hoping no one makes a complete fool of themselves. The last corporate holiday party I went to, resulted in a next-day-lay-off of one employee who got a little too provocative in her dancing. And no, it wasn't me. Geez you guys.

Anyway, here's to whatever shenanigans may or may not happen tonight! Happy Thursday to the rest of you!