Thanksgiving in CT

Instead of staying in Boston over Thanksgiving break, this year I went home with my friend Tierney to Norwalk, CT to stay with her family. It sounded like a lot more fun than staying in the dorm and doing homework. We spent the long weekend making a series of excursions all over western Connecticut and eastern New York state, generally only returning to Norwalk by dinner time, using it as a sort of base camp.

Tierney's dad came to Boston Tuesday night (after my evening class) to pick us up and make the long drive to Norwalk. Not having to take a bus or train to reach our destination was amazing--I haven't spent so much time in a car in a long time. In fact, I think I easily rode in a car more this weekend than the whole past year in Boston. I also listened to the radio more over this past weekend than in all my time in this city, mostly because I don't have a radio in my room. The only downside to that is that there seem to be only five or six different pop songs that are on the air right now, because we seemed to hear the same things every time we hopped in the car. So maybe I don't actually miss the radio.

The other big bonus of the weekend was that Tierney's family has a cat. She's a sweet little black and white thing named Maggie, and she adopted me pretty quickly. Maggie became my lap warmer most evenings, which I didn't mind at all.

On Wednesday I slept in while Tierney got up early to have her teeth cleaned. After a late breakfast we decided to go into New York City for the afternoon. It's crazy that you can just do that from her town. The ride on the commuter rail was less than an hour, and suddenly we were downtown at Grand Central Station. We spent the afternoon walking up and down Fifth Ave, looking at Christmas displays in store windows and generally having a good time. We even saw the tree in Rockefeller Center, though it wasn't lit yet. They were still taking down the scaffolding from putting the lights on, but it looked pretty awesome even without the lights turned on.

I also got to go into some really fun stores for the first time in my life. The first stop was the American Girl Place, home of the American Girl dolls. In spite of my complicated feelings about the company (described in a previous post), I had to go in and look around. I've wanted to visit the store since I bought my own doll from them in grade school. The first floor of the store has all the Girl of Today accessories, so we pretty much skipped past it. The better displays were upstairs, where we found the historical girl collections. Each girl had her own large display case, showcasing her different outfits and accessories. Each girl, that is, except Samantha and Kirsten. Samantha, having already been archived, was nowhere to be seen, and Kirsten, about to disappear the same way after the holidays, had only one tiny corner. There wasn't even a Kirsten doll on display, just some books and the miniature dolls. It makes me sad to see her fading away like that. When I was younger I didn't fully appreciate the true value of the historical dolls. I love the doll I did get, but dolls like Kirsten capture so much cultural memory. In the end, I couldn't leave without a souvenir, so I bought my doll a hat with the American Girl Place, New York logo on it.

Other stores we spent time in included FAO Schwartz, the biggest toy store I have ever seen, and Tiffany's. We didn't make it all the way down to Macy's, but seeing it on TV during the parade the next day made up for that.

On Thanksgiving we traveled up the Merritt Parkway, on of the most scenic roads in the US, to Tierney's cousins' house for dinner. With a lot of people and two dogs underfoot, it was a bit chaotic, but a good time. I need to look up the recipe for one of the desserts we had so I can make it at home for Christmas--I think my family would appreciate rich, chocolatey Oreo truffles.

Friday was a bit dreary, so we opted to stay indoors as much as possible. That didn't mean staying home, though. After a stop at Kohls, which was surprisingly fast even with the Black Friday crowds, we headed off to IKEA to look at furniture and get ideas for Tierney's new apartment. This was my first visit to the Swedish furniture store, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We wandered through rows and rooms of furniture, dreaming up ideas for future apartments and houses. And since their in-store restaurant was having a 99 cent Swedish meatball meal deal, we had lunch too. On the way out through the warehouse on the lower level where shoppers pick up their items I debated the necessity of of a beautiful green screen printed throw pillow, but decided to go with a practical clothes drying rack instead. It was a fun trip, and now I'm excited for the day when I'll have a place of my own to furnish.

On Saturday we headed off in the car into New York State to visit a place I had been wanting to see for many years--Sleepy Hollow. And Tarrytown, NY as well, but the two towns blend together, as many New England towns are apt to do, so it hardly matters. The Old Dutch Church from Washington Irving's classic story is right along the highway, along with the churchyard burial ground in which the Hessian is said to have been buried. Beyond that is the newer cemetery, in which Irving himself is buried, along with other notable figures, such as the Carnegies and Rockefellers. The bridge from the story sadly is no more, but a sign marks where the modern highway crosses the creek at the same spot. Farther back in the cemetery a replica of the original bridge for tourists like us to enjoy. The boards have been left loose (we assume intentionally) so that when cars drive over it they shift and rumble, making a sound deliciously like galloping horses. And an even more perfect surprise was a pumpkin bobbing in the creek just to the side of the bridge. This, of course, led to silliness. We also stopped in at Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving. We didn't feel like paying the admission price to wander the grounds on such a cold day (it would be better to make a return trip in the summer), but we did spend time at the gift shop. I bought a book there that was a compilation of some of his shorter works, and they put a stamp on the front page indicating that it had been purchased at Sunnyside, and included a reproduction of Irving's signature. (His capitol W actually looks rather like an M) I was in English nerd heaven.

But the best part of the holiday weekend by far? Not thinking about school. At all. Well, on the last night I got out my grant and compiled the various comments I had received onto a single page, only to realize that I actually had very little to do other than create a detailed budget. So I packed it away again, not to be worried over until back in Boston.

I'm so glad Tierney and her family invited me in for the holiday. That was the break I needed to face the end of this semester. Full steam ahead!

-Kim