Well one of the things we have been looking forward to has been the holiday season here. Im very much anti decorating before Thanksgiving, but I couldnt help myself get excited about a week before as my city transformed for the holidays.
Although we were meeting my entire family for Thanksgiving in PA, Chistina and I were determined to take in a little of the Macys Thanksgiving Parade. We had several friends staying here and we planned to meet close to the start of the parade at 6:30am. I left slightly late and CY would be about a half hour behind. I set out thru Central Park to make it a bit easier. I was pleasently surprised to find very few people so this seemed like it would be easier than I expected until I got to the exit of the park where we meeting. The police told me I needed to go 4 blocks north to cross. So I did so and began to make my way back down the other side. I passed a couple of ballons and began to get excited. The the crowd thickened then really thickened. After 3 or 4 phone calls I found my friends even though I was only about 15ft away. The twins got a big kick out of me transitioning from sitting on my knees to my butt. I dont ever recall doing a backwards sommersalt but I came pretty close Thanksgiving 2009.
I called CY to warn her about cutting thru the park and crowds. She hates crowds. We even wagered if she would turn back or not. During all this time the crowd really… well got crowded. She called and asked where I was. I explained. Called back again I explained waving my hands etc. Two more times we went thru the calls before she saw me just 30ft away. She was unsure if she would make it, but if you know Christina I had full confidence. I figured she would politely and gracefully move thru the crowd or… it would be like the scene in the Matrix where all the bad guys pile on him and then all the sudden bodies just start flying. Well it was neither people would not give an inch and I finally decided I would leave and we would find another spot to watch. This is where it got annoying. I was exiting the crowd, but they wouldnt let me. I was practically in a mosh pit TRYING TO LEAVE.
Finally I made it out. Then our plan was to head home since we had rented a car and needed to leave early. From home we would backtrack to a safe zone where we could watch the parade then make our escape.
First we decided to take a train only one stop but we had a secret home only accessable from the subway. Turns out it wasnt that secret because the police blocked it off. We were running out of time because we knew we could never cross after the parade started. We went to two barracades before we were allowed thru and it was only because we had mail with our address on it.
Finally we saw balloons from our front stoop a block away. The good news is we were able to leave on time which would never have happened if we stayed in our original spot. There is more about holiday events tomorrow.