More visitors, the Macy's Parade, an 18-pound turkey, and an 80th birthday!

I don't think it is humanly possible to catch you (whoever "you" might be) up on my life from the last week and a half. 

But have no fear! I am going to try my absolute hardest to reenact every single little thing that has happened into one, concise blog post. (Aka: I'm just going to show you a whole bunch of photos and describe a little bit about each one... if I didn't take a photo of something, I've already forgotten about it).

Bobby came to visit!

(Just look at how handsome he is. And how well his head fits perfectly inside the Washington Square Arch).

And we ate bagels by the water.

And stacked up creamers at Clark's Diner.

And went to Mona's for a fantastic night of jazz music. (I think we left at about 3 a.m... Bobby caught the Mona's disease, too.. he claims he could have sat there all night).

And we drank some delicious bubble tea while walking around 5th Ave.

And at some point, his lovely parents arrived!

And we took a little trip to Sleepy Hollow.

And looked at all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

And ate a delicious lunch at a cool, little bar.

And walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

(Hey, Garrett).

And saw a WONDERFUL Off-Broadway show (Peter and the Starcatcher).

And ate sandwiches that were literally larger than our own heads.

(That was only HALF of the turkey sandwich).

And at some point, my fabulous mother arrived!

(And we were clearly happy. Or the sun was in our eyes. Or both.)

And we watched the hazmat teams blow up the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

And Spiderman was by far the coolest one.

And Bobby, Mom, and I had 2-for-1 martinis at Pazza Notte with Theodore Roosevelt.

And then it was an early morning! We woke up at about 6 a.m. to make our way to our seats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (Bobby's wonderful father gave us all tickets!).

Bobby was excited.

And I was, too.

And so were all of those people.

And the parade began! We were literally at the VERY front... so all of the people in the parade had tons of high energy and weren't frozen to the bone yet. It was so fantastic.

And we saw Kermit.

And Carly Rae Jepsen.

And a very sad-looking Spongebob Squarepants balloon.

And a really fuzzy Whoopi Goldberg dressed up as a pirate. (I know.. what?)

And the FAB FIVE WOMEN'S OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS TEAM. (Can you tell I got really excited about seeing them?)

And possibly the showstoppers of the entire parade....

Tap-dancing Christmas trees, of course! 

(They had some of the best high kicks I've ever seen).

And to finish off the wonderful parade...

...SANTA. (I swear he's looking right at me in the picture).

And then we all split up until Thanksgiving dinner later on.

And at some point, my awesome brother arrived!

And for the first time in four months, the family was together again.

(Don't be surprised if this ends up being the Christmas card you receive from the Royal family this year).

And we went to Central Park to watch the ice skaters.

And we ran across THE creepiest Elmo character. (We're pretty sure he got lost on his way to Times Square and somehow ended up in Central Park. He had leaves all down his back and a bag in his hand that read, "TIPS, PLEASE". Needless to say, parents were nervously steering their children as far from him as possible).

And I showed my brother my favorite place in Central Park.

And we were entertained by some of the most interesting music I've ever heard. I still can't decide if I loved it or if I absolutely hated it.

And then it was off to Carmine's for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Bobby's family!

The place was jumpin'.

And this is only HALF of the food that was on our table. (That back there is an 18-pound turkey. Insanity.)

It was SO incredibly delicious. I believe we were all so stuffed, we thought we would explode. That's a successful Thanksgiving in my opinion.

And we finished off the wonderful evening by exploring the roof of their hotel... which had views of the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.

And the next morning, my mom, brother, and I all hopped on the train to Glens Falls to visit my wonderful grandparents!

And we had our usual salad and pizza supper at Harvest House. Because it was her birthday the next day, Grammy decided she deserved a sundae for dinner.

And we visited the free library and all checked out books.

And on Saturday morning, we celebrated Grammy's 80th birthday with a delicious breakfast!

And Grammy took a photo of me taking a photo of her.

And Grammy took a photo of her own birthday cake.

And then I took a photo of her with her birthday cake.

And then she asked me to take a photo of JUST her birthday cake. So I did.

And finally, after all of that, she blew out the candles. (It may have taken a couple of tries, but she was eventually successful).

Sidenote: We only ate cake immediately after breakfast, because my brother had to hop on a plane to fly back to Charlotte. Otherwise, we would have waited until after dinner or something.. like normal people.

And after Mike left, we all explored Barnes and Noble and had a delicious, little lunch there.

The next day, we ventured into Bolton for a breakfast at Hometown Diner. Then, we walked around the Sagamore, which was beautiful as ever and decorated for Christmas!

And we "ooed" and "ahhed" over Lake George.

And ventured around in the car to get different views.

And then it was time for mom and I to bid "Adieu" to them! We took another train back to Penn Station in New York City.

Whew.

That was the last week and half in a nutshell. Or several nutshells.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I have to say that this was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember. I couldn't feel more blessed than I do to have such wonderful, loving family and friends. This is a big "thank you" to all of you for making me feel like the luckiest gal in the world.

Now, I'm off to go write a million papers. It's technically finals week here, but I also technically only have about 15 days left in New York City... I must make the most of these next two weeks!

Love you all.

<3

Nat

Another visitor and the arrival of Hurricane Sandy

Whew. It has been a whirlwind of a last week. (I mean this in the figurative and the literal sense).

Before I go into my usual spiel that consists of what I've been up to the last seven days, I would first like to thank those of you who have reached out to me during the last few days to make sure I was safe and sound. I am one lucky gal... not only to have so many people that love and care for me, but also because I made it out completely unscathed. You are truly some of the best. Thank you so much.

Before Hurricane Sandy decided to make her grand entrance, I had yet another visitor arrive to hang out with me this weekend.

Ladies and Gents: Meet Caroline Gaskin. One of my best friends since the 6th grade (crazyyy right?).

She arrived superrrr late on Thursday evening (I'm talkin' 1:00am), so it was straight to bed almost immediately. The next morning, we went for a little stroll around the neighborhood (and I took her to the promenade, of course).

After getting some delicious breakfast at Clark's Diner across the street, we decided to venture out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (aka the hippest area of New York City) to try to find some items of clothing at thrift stores that could ultimately be our Halloween costumes for the weekend adventures. Caroline, being the fitness lady that she is, suggested that we run there. It was such a wonderful 3 mile trek! (I was slightly dying by the end of it all.... but she was completely fine. Didn't want to tell her that, though).

We were successful in our finds! Later in the post, you'll see what we came up with as far as costumes go.

Friday evening, Caroline and I made our way into Midtown Manhattan to get some Mexican food and a couple of drinks during happy hour.

We also found ourselves in Times Square.

And Caroline posed with some of the regulars.

And we indulged in some late-night pizza.

On Saturday morning, Allison, Caroline, and I decided to go to Iris Cafe. (You knew it was coming... I have to introduce everyone to this place).

Later in the day, we went to H & M and then strolled on over to my favorite area of Central Park.

It was such a beautiful fall day... all of the leaves were starting to finally change into their autumn colors.

With the storm making its way towards us, I thought that this might be the one and only time I would see the leaves like this. I soaked up as much of our time there as I could.

Later in the day, we had dinner at a little Polish restaurant down the street, called Teresa's (you might remember it from one of the breakfasts I had very early on).

There's a photo of my tasty avocado salad and Caroline's delicious dinner of homemade soup and a blintze... I think that's how you spell it. It was SO GOOD. Ridiculously good.

After dinner, we made our way back to the room to get ready for the evening... We decided to dress up (in the hopes that everyone else in New York would be doing the same).

And here are the final costumes! I decided to be the Morton Salt Girl (because it was supposed to possibly rain later in the night), Caroline was a cute, little flapper gal, and Allison was a jellyfish. It doesn't get any more eclectic than that in my opinion.

The whole night was a blast! We ventured all around Greenwich Village and showed off our costumes (Allison was quite the hit with hers in particular).

And so many other people were dressed up! Actually, pretty much everyone in New York City was dressed up that night. It was so much fun.

The next morning, Caroline and I decided to go BACK to Teresa's for breakfast... we just couldn't stay away. It was too delicious. Here she is with her brie and mushroom omelet.

Unfortunately, the threat of Sandy forced Caroline to cut her trip short. She was supposed to stay until Monday morning, however, she changed her flight to Sunday evening in order to get out while she still could... In hindsight, the fact that she was able to make this work is amazing. I've talked to people who are STILL stuck in New York City with no chance of getting home until the coming weekend.

I hated to see her go, but I knew it was for the best. And we had such a wonderful time :).

After she left, Allison and I decided to kick our preparation for Sandy into high gear. It was clear that she would be arriving (and would definitely cause some damage to the city), so we decided it would be better if we rode out the storm in Queens with her family.

Before leaving, I made a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on some apples and carrots. It was a mad house... took me 45 minutes to check out, and nothing was left on the shelves.

For the rest of Sunday through today (Wednesday), Allison and I were with her family. Although it was a slightly terrifying time (we didn't know if a tree was going to fall on the house or if the power would go out), it was also a very relaxing time. I have been "go go go" the last three weeks, so it was so nice to hunker down, sleep, and enjoy some home-cooked meals.

We watched a lot of Law and Order SVU.

And carved some pumpkins.

All the while, her dogs kept watch on the storm brewing outside.

I don't think I can say enough times how lucky we were during this storm. Millions lost power, many lost their homes or personal belongings, and even some lost their lives. We were all safe, and besides the lights flickering a few times, we never even lost our power. I felt (and still feel) extremely blessed.

These photos below were taken just down the street from Allison's house. Trees were uprooted everywhere... many of them pulling up the sidewalks with them. I've never seen anything like it.

I can't even put into words how much sadness I feel for the people of New York and all of the others affected by Hurricane Sandy. This city that I've fallen in love with is a little broken at the moment. It pains me to see it in shambles like it is.

My 22nd birthday is tomorrow, and as excited as I am to turn one year older, it is also a little strange for me. There are so many people who have lost everything from this storm... I don't NEED anything at all for my birthday. I've decided that all I want is a slice of some good, old fashioned New York cheesecake and to spend some time outside in this beautiful city. That would really be the best birthday of all.

If you were thinking of getting me something for my birthday (and even if you weren't), it would really mean a lot if you put it to better use (I like clothes and all of that, but this is a little bit better). There are several ways to help out those in need, but to make it easy, here is a link to donate to the Red Cross. All proceeds will go directly to storm victims and disaster relief. I donated just a little bit ago.

Thank you all so much! Now, to enjoy my last night as a 21-year-old.

<3
Nat

PS: This is on a church located right down the street from me. It's been up for awhile, but I find it very fitting at the moment.

Yeeahhh Oprah. You tell 'em.