NEW YEAR'S EVE:
Our friends (the couple who got married in September) invited us over to their place for a late NYE party. We ended up also picking up another one of our friends who lives about 10 minutes away from my parents and giving him a ride. I would have felt bad saying no to carpooling with him since he always gives me a ride when I ask.
It was such a murky ride, though-- it was rainy and cold and dark since we weren't expected until about 8:30. Driving stresses me out, especially when other people are in the car because I'm worried about what they'll think, and driving in inclement weather just compounds that. Nevertheless, we made it there fine and we were really happy to see everyone. Brendan was really attentive to me all night and I appreciated it a lot. He also agreed to drive home after the party, which took a lot of pressure off of me.
We had a lot of fun with everyone, played some jackbox games and eventually "watched" the ball drop (except apparently there was some issue with the pyrotechnics because nobody could see the ball due to a huge plume of smoke). We had our sip of champagne and new year's kisses (my second now!). We stayed for about a half hour longer and then quickly everyone started petering out, so we all decided it was time to go home.
After we dropped our friend back off at home, we were taking some back roads back to my house and saw a fox! It was so small and cute. That was a fun end to the night, even if it was about 2 in the morning.
We stayed the night at my parents' house that night since it would have been an additional 45 minutes to drive back to my apartment, but we all made sure Brendan had as little exposure as possible to the cats.
NEW YEAR'S DAY:
I don't honestly remember what we did for breakfast, but we had arranged to go to my grandmother's house with my family and my aunt (the one who didn't want to host) to cut the traditional new year's cake (vasilopita), which I think I talked about last year since I brought one with me during the holidays.
My aunt and grandmother had a good time talking to Brendan and I kind of let slip that I'd be going to Canada, not him coming here. My aunt was kind of like "what???" and I think she even asked Brendan what he didn't like about the States (she, her husband, and her daughter are firm republicans, so I have a feeling this is where it stemmed from). While he has a lot of opinions on that, he redirected the question towards what we felt was best and easiest for us as a couple rather than the country, which I think was a smart move. She didn't quite get the answer she wanted, but she didn't press much more.
NYC TRIP NUMBER TWO:
I found out a few months ago that I actually get FREE tickets to the NY Botanical Garden if I just get them through work. I also found out that I'd be allowed to get up to 4 tickets for their Holiday Train Show free to me, so I had arranged for my parents, Brendan and me to go see it on the 2nd. Unfortunately my stepdad was unable to get the day off from work and my mom's a homebody who won't go without him, so we decided to just keep things simple and go by ourselves, forfeiting the other two tickets.
To get these tickets, you had to choose one of many scheduled times throughout the day, and I had chosen one later in the day so that my parents would have time to get into the city. Since they were no longer joining us, Brendan and I decided to take advantage of our time in the city by spending the morning at the Museum of Natural History.
We took the subway from the train to get to the museum and arrived just before it opened. A huge line had formed out the door, which I suppose is fairly typical in the morning, especially on days that a lot of people have off from school and work. While standing in line, Brendan snagged the QR code for their website and pre-purchased our entrance tickets. When we got to the door, the security guy who was checking bags asked if we already had tickets, and when we said yes and showed him on Brendan's phone, he basically just waved us through and barely glanced at our bags... which was a blessing, especially after what happened with the cruise, because food is not allowed in the museum and I was absolutely carrying granola bars and M&Ms since we wouldn't have time for lunch...
NOW! That's what I call irony
I've been to the museum before, but it was a long time ago when I was in school. We started from the top and worked our way down so that we'd be less fatigued by the time we finished. Since our entry at the botanical garden was scheduled, we had a limited amount of time to spend in the museum and thus had to choose which things we spent more time in. Overall, though, the museum seems to be geared towards younger viewers, so we got through most of the exhibits quickly. Once through, it was back on the subway and off to the garden!
The train show was really cool! They had their team of artists recreate a whole bunch of historical buildings in NYC using only plant-based materials (literally-- like, chutes and leaves and berries). Some of them were absolutely incredible with how detailed they were. I won't post a lot of them, but here's a snippet:
That was pretty much the end of the "eventful" part of our visit. I had to go back to work the next day and Brendan returned to Canada on Saturday. For that brief time in between, though, it felt so good to come home to him after work.
WHAT'S NEXT:
My next visit is scheduled for the last week of February, government shutdown permitting. I'll be flying in and "landing" for the first time as a CANADIAN PERMANENT RESIDENT! "Landing" basically entails activating my status as a PR in their system so that I can start getting my life set up. I'll be returning to the states for a few months before I make the official move. We don't have a date for the move yet as I don't want to go before I'm ready, but our "hard" deadline will be the end of September, since that's when my lease ends.
In the meantime, we're both endlessly applying to jobs. My hope is that Brendan will land one first (considering he also has a network and connections through school), allowing him to secure a place for us to live and allowing me to narrow down my job search. He will be graduating from his program in mid-April, which to me is startlingly soon. My hope is that he'll be able to secure a job shortly before then, but if not, he may need to move back in with his parents for a while until one of us gets a job. Before he left to return to Canada, he told me to nag him to apply to jobs, and I have been faithful.
