Spectactular Sunday

Teresa and I got to meet my boss, Susan, last night. We had a good time and it was nice to have her meet Teresa and to speak to her in a casual, non-business environment. That is a rare treat in IBM. We got up early Sunday, super early for a vacation day, and headed to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. The subways were not running too quickly that early on Sunday so we got to our seats right when the show started. Of course, someone was IN our seats so the usher had to move them around while we waited. It only took a few minutes and we were settled in. What a great show, lots of lights, music, the Rockette’s and even a 3D show in the middle of it. Santa was there as the master of ceremonies! I enjoyed it and kind of gave me a little taste of the Christmas spirit.

Once we finished the show we headed out and went to the NBC store at Rockefeller Center. We bought a couple of souvenirs (a Monk (TV show) hat for me, a Law & Order coffee mug and a special present for Jason & Carrie who watched our house and fed the cats. They are huge The Office fans so I’d say they are now the only people at Ridgestone church with a ‘The Office’ Christmas Ornament!!. We then headed south and had a very good breakfast buffet at the Hyatt hotel Grand Central Station. I say that it was good because it cost a TON of money so I have to talk myself into it. It was a nice Sunday morning in Manhattan.

We went back to Matt and Heather’s apartment via the subway again and packed up/cleaned up and headed down to the Marriott East Side. We really hated leaving our ‘home’ on 85^th street but the real owners were coming back from Philly that night. A cab got us down there fast (more on cabs, etc. in a post ‘Thoughts on NYC’). We headed out from the hotel to find the garment district to find me a hat (never made it though). We looked up and saw the Empire State Building and decided to go to the Observation Deck on the 86^th floor. Wow, it was a sunny day and the views were awesome. Central Park, lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, the rivers were all in sight.

After wandering around for a while we ended up on 5^th Avenue and decided to head to North. We had a pretzel and a pepsi at another little park for some energy. It was at this little park that I was a HERO to my wife. As we were crossing the street a guy in a Mercedes didn’t even look and almost hit her. I reached out and shoved her out of harms way, kind of like you see on TV when the guy has superhuman strength. I gave the dude a dirty look and he had a stunned look on his face surprisingly, he didn’t really mean to do it. We then ran in to Macy’s and hit every single floor and bought some items for Teresa. We decided to head to Times Square as the sun set.

At this time our energy was waning badly so we headed back to the hotel but not before hitting a Diesel clothing store for Teresa. We slept like a rock that evening for sure.