Solstice & Week, Backwards

Today is the Winter Solstice, and also my last day of work for the year.
Since I'm working from home, going to St PAtricks to light candles is just not happening.

That's ok.

I went for a good walk to the church in the neighborhood to light candles.

This church doesn't use actual fire candles which is definitely not as good, but it gets the job done.

I lit three candles: one for me, one for Daya, and one for my cats. (for them to be healthy)

The church was really empty which was nice.

I may go there to paint at some point.

After I lit candles I went over to Trader Joes for a few things.

On the way there, I almost texted my friend Sharon to see if she was also going to Trader Joes (she goes there all the time too). But I didn't.

On my way out, I ran into her.

So I went back in and we had a fun time chatting.

Not only should I have texter her about trader Joes, I should have also texted her asking if she wanted to decorate cat cookies again this year, but she brought it up first.

I'm going over to her place on Christmas day to decorate cookies and do Jewish Christmas.

If you are not from NYC you may not know what that is-- I'm not sure if it is a thing outside of NYC.

Basically, on Christmas if you're Jewish, you order in Chinese.

I'm totally down for Jewish Christmas.

Daya is also invited and I told her about it (she knows my friend and the family for many years) but she's such a bummer she might not go, which makes me pretty sad. 

Daya did get promoted at work though! I'm really proud of her and she's been working long hours.

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Today, Furball snuggled with Pebbles for a change.

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Yesterday was my last day in the office for the year.

It was empty!

Weirdly, work has been very busy this week, in contrast to the empty office.

Views are still good.

I left around 3pm.

There is a nice tree in front of the NYSE.

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On Tuesday evening I met up with Kedrin, Bitz, and Janae for Ethiopian food.

The restaurant is at 10th ave and 46th st. Best train is the  A/C/E to 50th street or 42nd st.

I got on the E and was feeling very self-satisfied for having plenty of time to arrive a little early.

Except suddenly I was at 42nd/Bryant Park (6th ave).......oh no!!

I looked at the time.

5:28.

I had exactly 32 minutes to get over to 10th ave.

So I thought, "It;s fine, it doesn't take a half hour to get to 10th ave from 6th ave."

What I didn't factor in was the wall-to-wall holiday crowds, which are TERRIBLE in midtown.

I realized this when I got out of the train.

Walking over in that crowd wasn't going to happen.

The bus?

I went to 5th ave to check out the M42.

Next bus was 16 minutes away, plus with all the traffic.....

I'd never make it.

More quick thinking on the Dreaded Route........

The only possible way was to get back in the train, do the walk/run in the rat maze of tunnels and get over to 8th ave that way.

I HATE that walk and will even exit the train on the street and re-enter to avoid it.

That's what I did.

It was terrible.

The city is packed full of tourists who do not know how to take the train or walk.

I ran the long rat maze.

It involves paying the fare again, stairs, ramps, winding turns, and a very long slippery corridor.

I also got on the uptown E since it was right there, thinking the crowds at 50th might be less than at 42nd st, since the walk distance is the same from both stations.

I made it over at exactly 6:02.

Phew!

Ethiopian food is wonderful.

We had a lovely evening.

There was a Questional Ketchup Bottle in the bathroom.

We determined it had some kind of cleaning (???) liquid in it, not ketchup.

Still, this is a puzzling thing to see in the bathroom.