The Many Adventures of a Thede

My annual Christmas post is a little late, but better late than never, right? Anyway, it is late with good reason because I had a very fun but very hectic week with my family in New York! I moved into the Harlem House where I got to house/cat sit for the week last Sunday night. I spent the next several days moving presents, laundry, food, my cat, etc over to the house in small trips. Oh, I should mention I worked a 40 hour week last week too, so it wasn't like I had vacation time to get things done! Anyway, I got the house in good shape and fully stocked with gifts and Christmas food by Wednesday (Christmas Eve) when my parents and brother arrived. They were supposed to get into Newark Airport at around 12:30pm and meet me at work. Then I had arranged tickets for them to see The Marvelous Wonderettes (one of the shows playing where I work) at 3pm. Well, that didn't go according to plan as their flight was delayed a couple hours and they ended up getting into Newark at 2:40pm. So, they didn't make the show. But it was no big deal because I just pushed the tickets to another day.

I ended up getting off work early (Merry Christmas to me!) and met up with my family at Penn Station around 4:30pm. We made our way up to the house, dropped off the luggage, and then headed back to midtown for our dinner reservation. We had a nice meal and then walked over to Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas tree. Then we headed up 5th Ave to look at the shop windows and decorations. Then we went to Soldier McGee where Eduardo was working and he met my family for the first time. We had a drink and relaxed while Eduardo popped over every now and then to chat. We stayed a while, then went back to Harlem and wrapped gifts until about 2am! Eduardo came over when he got off work and we all stayed the night there.

Christmas morning was great. We started with a nice breakfast and then opened stockings and presents. Here's my annual list of what I got!

From Mom and Dad:

• Matching scarf, hat and gloves
• A fun T-shirt
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Wii
• A new colorful watch
• Lost: Season 1 on DVD
• Other clothes including a shirt, tank top, some sweats, and a sports bra
  

From Adam:

• Mario Party 8 for Wii
  

From Marylin:

• Assorted Victoria's Secret lotions
• Prince Caspian on DVD

From Eduardo:

• A new digital camera (my old one is broken)
• A nice sweater

In the stocking:

• Underwear
• Candy
• Carmex
• Hairbands
• iTunes gift card
• Vanilla Bean Noel shower gel from Bath and Body Works

From myself:

• A Wii and accesories!

Ok, so all this stuff is great. But what made me the happiest on Christmas morning was seeing my boyfriend and my family opening gifts together like they'd known each other years instead of less than 24 hours. One of my favorite moments from the morning was when Eduardo opened his stocking a pull out pair after pair of athletic socks. He thought it was hilarious, but he was so happy to get socks! He did get other nice gifts though. Not just socks :-) That night Adam and I went to Eduardo's place for his family Christmas party. We had fun eating and watching baby Victor, Eduardo's nephew. Adam enjoyed the very cultural experience.

The rest of the week went by fast. Dad left for Cincinnati Friday afternoon, but Mom and Adam stayed through the weekend, and we did some more fun stuff including going to the South Street Seaport, ice skating in Central Park, and finally seeing the Marvelous Wonderettes after they had missed it Christmas Eve. I had such a great time this year. I think the combination of being able to see my friends, family and boyfriend for Christmas in the most Christmas-y place ever made it an unforgetable year. I'm sad that it's over, but I'm looking for nothing but good things in 2009.

Here's a few photos from the week:

Labels: Christmas, Eduardo, family, New York, Soldier McGee

Here's a little tip for you single ladies. The best way to attract attention at a bar is not to dance on tables. It is not doing body shots. It is not talking and laughing loudly with your friends. It is sitting by yourself reading. I have discovered this because I do this frequently at the bar where my boyfriend works. Often times when I am coming home from a day out, I stop by the bar where my boyfriend works for a while just to hang out. I don't usually drink on these occasions...sometimes I might have a little something to eat. But often I am just killing time and talking to Eduardo when he has a chance. So, I bring a book. I don't know if it's that guys like brainy chicks or just that a girl reading at the bar is clearly there by herself (little do they know that I know all the staff, so I'm never really ALONE), but I have had more guys start up conversations with me, some innocent and friendly...some clearly looking for some action...some downright creepy...just because I have my nose in a book. The irony is that I would think someone sitting by themselves reading is clearly enjoying some quality time alone and does not want to be bothered. I guess this is not as clear as I might have hoped. But, I'm letting you all know because even though I do not benefit from the attention, I'm sure there are some people who would love it. The next time you want to meet a guy, just bring a book!

Labels: Eduardo, men, Soldier McGee

I really like my new job! Maybe it's just because the first flush of HAVING a job hasn't worn off yet, but I think I do actually like this job. The hours are good for me. I work at 11am at the earliest, but many days I come in as late as 3pm. I leave by 9pm at the latest, but I'm usually out by 8:30pm. Not only is this schedule great because I'm a night person. It's also great because I can actually spend time with my boyfriend who works in a bar from about 4pm-1am every day. If I had to get up early, we would see much less of each other.

The actual work part of my job is not bad either. A year of box office experience has helped me catch on pretty quickly. That being said, there are a LOT of little details to learn and keep track of. I'm getting there with those. Sometimes the office is busy, but when it isn't we are free to watch movies, surf the internet (there is a firewall, however), or leave to run errands. Tonight I reached a mile stone as I was left on my own to run a curtain for the first time. Everything went well, and I didn't screw anything up (I hope), so I'd call that successful.

Another great thing about my job is that I get free lunch any day I'm there before 2pm. This is usually the part that makes people jealous. I would be too. There's a restaurant around the corner from the theatre called West Bank Cafe that delivers us whatever we want from the lunch menu each day (and on weekends the BRUNCH menu...even better) in exchange for us recommending the restaurant to people. Box offices do get asked about places to eat fairly often, so it works out well for all.

Last week we had an opening night for the newest show at the theatre (there are two). This new show is called Dust. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure I will soon. On the evening of the opening, many of the company members who are not actually IN the show had to come to the box office to pick up their tickets. Early in the evening a young, pretty girl approached my window. I had seen her before, but hadn't really looked at her very closely. As she walked up, I thought she looked very much like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. I actually had to look at her closely to make sure it wasn't one of them (you never know in New York). She asked for her ticket by last name. "Olsen?" she requested. At this, I had a "get out of my head!" moment, but reached to get her ticket. I saw as I handed it to her that her first name was Elizabeth. "Could you let me though the stage door?" she asked. I let her through, but then quickly returned to my chair to do some serious googling. It could not be a coincidence that I thought she looked like the Olsens and then her last name WAS Olsen. I found that she actually is their younger sister, that she is an understudy for the show and a student at NYU. I spent the rest of the evening wondering what percentage she gets of her sisters' clothing line that is named after her. I later found out that I was the first person on the production to figure out who she was. She hadn't told anyone. Just call me Sherlock.

Labels: Westside Theatre