Holiday Rush

As far as I can remember, this year tops as my busiest December ever! The slowest one was back in 2005 when I took the entire month off from work.

I won't go into the details here at work, but golly gosh, work has been rough. Deadlines, pressure from all department to produce numbers and reports, closing of projects, starting new ones and so on.

However, on a personal note, the rush during this month have been quite enjoyable, tiring at times, but still enjoyable. Let's start off with the first weekend of December.

I got this free museum pass from a co-worker for the American Museum of Natural History. If you haven't been there, you should definitely try to go there at least once. I've been there a couple of times and the museum brings out the kid in me. Marianne and I have been wanting to see the exhibit on Mythical Creatures and yes we did see griffins and unicorns. But aside from these special exhibits, I always need to visit Hall of Marine Life and just gaze at this giant whale that is suspended in this great big hall. Very fascinating.

The following weekend, I find myself in Charlotte, North Carolina. Marianne's hometown. Got to experience southern hospitality, eat pulled-pork bobbyque (later on the spellings), drink Cheerwine, drive up and down 485 and heard the Charlotte Symphony perform Christmas Carols with Charlotte's choirs, jazz quartet and UNCC's Percussion Band (thanks to Mr. Duca for the tickets). The weekend trip was more of a meet-and-greet. Got to meet (for the first time) Marianne's friends (Julie and Glenn), Petey (Mare's bro), and church people from her home parish. We are planning on going back there around Spring time next year for more grubbing and relaxing. Flew back to NYC on Sunday night.

After the Charlotte trip, I zoomed in all the next activities.....

Monday, I went to my dentist in the morning and checked myself in for a sleep study. Apparently, my snoring is not just because I'm tired (my all-time favorite excuse), but I have sleep apnea. I did not take a nap nor dozed off on the train. When I got there at 9PM and after hooking me up to the machine, I slept right away. They woke me up at 5:15AM to tell me that the study is done and that I can go home. Instead, I went to the gym and kicked-off my Tuesday.

Tuesday after work, I went to Johnny Utah's (http://johnnyutahs.com/) for dinner with friends. Was supposed to ride the bull, but then again, not enough beer made me do that. Got home at 11, slept at 1:30AM.

Wednesday after work, I had to meet with Mike regarding BustedHalo's Lent's Retreat 2008. I think it was a productive meeting, I was able to share some of my thoughts on how to make things more engaging. After the meeting, we had dinner at Donovan's in Woodside. Named best burger in NYC. You got to try it.

Thursday... you'll never guess. Those who know me have not seen me dance (except those grade school field demonstration days and that one time in college which I am still trying to suppress). Can you imagine me square dancing?? Well, Marianne dragged me into square dancing. I had fun. Really. I had FUN. I won't be doing it everyday now, but I had fun.

Friday, after a relaxing dinner at La Lanteria, Marinne, Cary and I found ourselves at Lion's Den in the village for some Queen music. Almost Queen is a band that plays all Queen music, they even dress up like them! That ended at 12midnight.

Saturday was sort of slow, I had to take Winrich for his birthday treat at Max Brenner (he turned 9 last week). At around 2PM, after the first order came, Winrich already had sugar high. He was off the wall with his antics and banters. But he still insisted on desserts. A chocolate pizza did the trick. After Max Brenner, I met up with Marianne at Cary's place. Marianne did her Christmas shopping and since Cary lives right behind the mall, we decided to meet up there before heading for a Christmas party in Astoria. The game plan, leave the holiday party after an hour since we dead tired. Once we got to the party, we kinda forgot about the time and left at 11:30pm.

Sunday was a relief. Went to church. Went to the gym. Watched a movie on dvd. That's what I did. Marianne on the other hand had sister time with Angela. And from what I heard over the phone, the two of them had a fun evening.

Now, this week... we are trying to slow things down. Just had dinner Monday (12/17) and exchanged gifts with Mare. Last night, Mare had to play pool. She won her match, but I had to leave after that since I need to be at the office (early, alone by myself) to proctor an exam.

I write this entry on a laptop, while counting down the time for the examinees. That is what I call multi-tasking.