It's a Wonderful Life

What an amazing visit I had... it was perfect, or very nearly... I wish Mario and my mom could have been there, and I wish I had some kind of time/space machine where I could lead multiple lives at once - ! To see all of my pictures from the trip, visit my Snapfish account here: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=260230076/a=3189322_3189322/t_=3189322

When I arrived Aunt Lois and Alison picked me up at the aiport and we did a quick little tour of Hoboken from the car. It was about 11pm, but there were Christmas lights up and of course the bars were open (there are over 100 in the approx 1 mile square town - 2nd in the US only to New Orleans)! I was introduced to Alison's apartment just days before it became her "old apartment in Hoboken"... decorated very cute!

On Friday morning we took a ride into the city for some site seeing. The first stop was Rebecca's new job where she is the art teacher for the New York School of Fashion Industries (hope I got that right!) We got a quick fun tour of her huge classroom with beautiful windows and views, and tons of supplies. I was in total awe of it, I am so proud of her and what she's doing!

From there we hit up Rockefeller Center to see the tree, holiday window displays, went in Macys, saw Radio City Music Hall and went into St. Patrick's Cathedral.

We were lucky that it was not a mad crowd anywhere, it was cold but not freezing, and everything was just bustling and wonderful. We did manage to temporarily 'lose' Aunt Lois in the subway. There was a moment of shock as the subway door closed in her face and reality hit that we were pulling away without her!! She handled it like a total pro, got on the next B train and went 2 stops like Alison told her (through the glass as we sped away!!) I would have probably stood there and cried. :-P

St. Patrick's was as incredible as I remembered it - when I went with my mom probably ... 25 years ago!? I lit a candle at St. Anthony's area, which was poignant...because when I was there with my mom that time, she lit a candle for Nana - and St. Anthony was one of her favorites. Mine too. :)

Alison wanted to have one last visit to Cafe Lalo, her favorite dessert destination. We nicknamed it Heaven because it was such a great little place - we had a lovely spot by the window and the food was amazing. I got a grilled focaccia sandwich with mozzarella and cauliflower, salad and potato wedges - nom, nom!!! For dessert I had coffee and a slice of chocolate orange mousse pie. Alison had a chocolate banana tart and Aunt Lois had some sort of chocolate lover's dream. We rolled out of there and headed home to rest and prepare for the big bon voyage event that night.

The Ally & The City party was so much FUN! Cousins, friends, aunts, uncles, unknown revelers - all were present! There was dancing, drinking, yelling (I lost my voice in the first hour), glo necklaces and bracelets, cookies, laughing, hugging and even crying. Rebecca made Alison an awesome photo book through Snapfish that chronicled her life in NJ/NY for the last 10 years. She also had a laptop set up on a table with scrolling photos of Alison as well. Aunt Lois and Aunt Elaine had coordinated a fun surprise with Kohl's bags (where Alison is going to work in Milwaukee) and we put them on like tank tops and the back of the bags had huge glitter letters that spelled out "ALISON". (I was the L).

After partying at The Shannon, Alison wanted to visit her favorite hangout, The Madison. We first had to run back to her apartment so she could change into flats since dancing shoes are rarely good for dancing comfortably! I, however, was stuck in my high heeled boots and ran in AGONY behind my crazy cousins Alison and Rebecca 3 blocks to The Madison, which closed its doors at 2am. We got there at 1:55, and continued to drink and carry on there until the urge for pizza struck. That entailed another painful but hysterical walk there... and yet another from there home. During these walks certain people walked into trees, got snagged by frisky fence rails and yelled and laughed enough to wake up the entire mile of town. Back at the apartment we drank water, ate disgusting combinations of food (bagels, guacamole, pizza crusts, cookies, etc) and finally passed out.

The next day we were up and at 'em by 2pm. ;-p Jess and her boyfriend Scott stopped by with bagels and we finally got around to showering and cleaning up. Alison was not going to be coming down to south Jersey with us for Diane's party so that she could begin to pack and organize for the movers which were there this morning. So that meant the Big Goodbye for me, and I made it as brief as possible because the entire time I was there I felt on the verge of a major scream crying meltdown. Aunt Lois and I walked down the hall, away from Alison, crying, dabbing at tears and trying to hold it together. I think if either of us had been alone we would have been puddles. The realization of what Alison is doing is still not sinking in, or it does in small increments. She is handling it very calmly and seems poised and ready for this next huge step in her life.

When we got to Elaine's I got to see her brand new re-done den, which was done in an island theme with vibrant colors like yellow and apple green with white furniture. It looked great! We had a delicious dinner including biscuits, salad, homemade vegetable soup (!) and ziti! YUM!! Oh and the drinking began anew - wine with dinner before the martini party. And right on cue, it began to snow!!!

The party was great, I got to see Diane's place (Elaine's close friend and neighbor) and finally meet (actually I met him at the bon voyage) Effin Ryan and his sister Linsey as well. After their party we went to see Chris and Erin's new house! (this is all within blocks of each other) Their house is called Camp Pesce II, and in light of that we enjoyed snacks and even MORE wine into the wee hours of the morning. We also had a snowball fight and I rode back from their place to Elaine's standing on the back of Jess's Jeep... yes it was snowing and cold, but it was also a perfect ending to my night and visit to NJ!

Sunday morning after coffee and peanut butter and honey toast (thank you!) and more teary goodbyes, Rebecca and I loaded up for the airport. 10 minutes later we came back! I wish it was because I had said - the hell with it, I'm not leavin'! But actually it was because Gramps (Rebecca's car) was acting grumpy and not changing gears. We quickly loaded up in Uncle Vinnie's truck and headed back out, and this time I made it to Newark and next thing I knew, I was on a plane and on my way home... well actually on my way to Charlotte for a 4 hour layover! The final flight was nice - I had a window seat in an exit row, so lots of room, and I was seated next to a nice guy and we chatted about our lives, families, etc. and passed the time quickly. Oh and I read The Wednesday Letters, which was a book Elaine gave me as I ran out the door. I cried about 14 times throughout the story, so the nice guy (John) next to me went to the restroom and brought me a bunch of tissues. How sweet was that? The book seemed an interesting cap to the theme of my weekend - family, marriage, decisions, choices and life.

Mario brought Bailey to the airport to pick me up and even the grumpy traffic control lady had to laugh because Bailey absolutely MAULED me when I got in the car... covering me with licks, little bites, whining and wiggles. Oh yeah Mario was happy to see me too. :-p

On the ride home there was a Jeep filled with crazy whippersnapper kids hanging out the windows and climbing on the sides, and I remarked how unsafe it all was. What were they thinking??

When I got home, I saw that Mario had decorated our entire house. The outside of the house was a beautiful display of colored and white lights, and every single nook and cranny of the inside was decorated... anywhere your eye stopped was a bow, wreath, bulb, light or holly sprig. Candles, mistletoe, reindeer and angels everywhere! Even the backyard - he had hung a string of colored lights along the back fence and even hung tiny Christmas ornaments on the star lights we have on the trellis over the patio. :->

I had the presence of mind to take today off, but I am working the next... well, the rest of the days of the year I think!!! Agh! And, I am sick. I felt it coming on yesterday and sure enough I am miserable achey, sniffly and sore-throaty. I haven't been sick in over a year or more - actually I don't think I have been sick since I was at Amgen. But it was worth getting run down, because I had such a wonderful, wonderful time. In fact, I just changed the title of this blog post in honor of that. And my closing picture is the famous kitchen table at Camp Pesce...

I'm sending my love to all my east coast family ~ I miss you!