thanksgiving, santa baby, and washington dc

before i get started on yesterday's trip, i just have to say that thanksgiving was fabulous. it was so nice to get a lazy day to do nothing but eat, work on a puzzle, and spend time with family. i saw some family members that i haven't seen since before korea, which was great. i also brought the puzzle we got for last year's korean thanksgiving but were too inebriated to work on (puzzles are a thanksgiving tradition in my family). what i didn't realize was that we usually do a 500 piece puzzle and i brought a 1000 piece puzzle. my family started complaining that it was too big, so i was completely focused on finishing it that day. i did not stray from the puzzle table until it was complete. and somehow we managed to finish it before dinner. bummer: there were two pieces missing. i'm figuring someone dropped them and a dog snatched them up or something.

yesterday i took an unexpected trip to nyc. my mom's office was going down there for their christmas party, someone dropped out at the last minute, and i was invited to come along. compliments of dr. gleason, the entire staff (and one guest each) took a charter bus down, saw the radio city christmas show, ate lunch at carmine's, did some shopping, and took a bus back. it was an amazing day, although i don't think i'll ever be able to handle the touristy parts of the city during the christmas season again. i've realized my asian attitude can come in handy when i want to weave through a crowd- i have absolutely no shame anymore in just bumping people out of the way.

the show itself was great, but a word of caution: if you're planning on catching said show and you're female and have to go to the bathroom make sure to get there early enough so you're not standing around the block in line only to get inside and stand in a ridiculously long line for the ladies room. as a result, i missed the very first rockettes number. but that didn't bother me to much because the rest of the show made up for it... especially the toy soldiers number where i was just waiting to see some rockettes bump into each other, which never happened.

carmine's was loud and fun, and i got to talk to a coworker of my mom's and her husband about their two years spent in korea when they were in the army. it was nice talking to people again about foods and places and culture and soju (of course). the food was great- we had two appetizer courses (first course salad and calamari, second two types of penne pasta), the main course (veal marsala and chicken parmigiana), a huge dessert platter, and plenty of beer and wine for all.

after we stuffed ourselves, i went shopping with my parents at macy's and then bryant park. i got an awesome skirt from a kiosk at bryant park . after that we took our bus home, but not before dr. gleason gave us all snack money at a rest stop. how thoughtful.

all in all, a very nice day. thanks, dr. gleason.

one more thing, i'm finally going to dc in two weekends to visit good friends, get good eats, and have a good time. obviously i'm quite excited.