Holiday Digest

12.22 - arrived an hour late into buffalo on the day the transit strike ended in NYC. got a cab to the airport no prob at a regular price, but then suffered at the hands of the terrible US Airways. US Airways sucks, and that is final. I had sworn to never fly US Airways again last year, but forgot to check the airline this time around. NEVER AGAIN!

12.23 - celebrated Ellen's friend Lisa Lobczowski's engagement to Kevin Perchan. The shindig lasted well into the night, culminating with Tom opening his car door with a hanger, and drink at the local townie bar.

12.24 - Visited Ellen's Granpa Kemsley and watched videos of her father conducting. Drove to Rochester to visit Steve's sister whose husband had just installed DBS 5.0 speakers. Followed by one of the best Xmas Eves ever, especially since it didn't include silke or midnight mass. I know all you Lithuanians think I'm crazy, but I can't stand raw eel or herring.

12.25 - opened gifts (luckily not at 7am). a bunch of people came over for dinner from ellen's family, and we ate some delicious food. we then quickly popped over to Lisa Lobczowski's so Ellen could see her "try on some clothes."

12.26 - spent the day vegging out and playing with toys. Had dinner with the Hohls and Ellen's parents. Drove to Lewiston, where we saw the setting for Lisa Lobczowski's wedding, and then to Niagra Falls, which were beautifully lit up (the American side of the falls is lit up by lights in Canada).

12.27 - went to my favorite wings place with Ellen, her mom, and brother Ben before flying back to NYC. Mmmm....

12.28 - 5/6 of our guests for New Years arrive, including my cousin Lina from California. Have a few beers at Vaiva's, including Svyturys, which is now sold in Astoria.

12.29 - Celebrated Xmas with the fam, opening gifts in Astoria. Got a 60GB iAudio X5 media device!!!

12.30 - Met up with the Los Alamosian crowd + Vaiva, Autumn and Pam (eventually) at Dinosaur BBQ up in Harlem. Had a delicious meal with partially comped tequila shots for all (1/20 of the shots were comped). Ellen and Mike fooled some of us (me and Lina) by saying they were late cuz they saw a beached whale on the Hudson. Oy.

12.31 - My birthday! Brunch with Ellen around Columbus Circle, and party preparation until dinner (made what was to be a killer ipod playlist). Dinner with Dalia, Yo, Mom, Dad, Vaiva, Ellen, Andrius, Audrone, Linas, Sofie, Lina, Mike, Ellesse, Colin, Rob, Brittany, Pam, Jim, and Autumn at one of the incredibly small Indian restaurants down on Sixth street. Heckled by aggressive recruiters on the way, we had delicious food, great company, and an amazing birthday song with disco ball and custom song involved.

Rushed back to Astoria, where we were joined by Shaun, who took an overnight bus from Cleveland to join us, and Philitha, who drove down from Neringa in Vermont among others. Partied well into the wee morning hours.

1.1 - Went to Mayor Bloomberg's innauguration, at which we appeared at on the front page of the New York Times the next day: Darius Razgaitis and Ellen Johnson in the NY Times

Kevin dropped in to NY on his way back to Boston from Florida, so we went out with him, Shaun, Aaron, Abby, Jess, and Giulia with a couple of her friends. An excellent time was had at the Black Bear Lodge, where there were many underage kids having a very trendy trashy time. Grabbed pizza at a place where two female Redskins fans slept face-first in their pizza.

1.2 - Was on the front page of the New York Times. Went to an historic Knicks game where victory game at the end of a triple overtime. Wandered around Union Square area through the freezing rain looking for a bar to no avail with the Los Alamosians.

Grabbed some KFC, which I chose to enjoy on the train back to the Bronx.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooy.

now it's just time to get all those photos up. [[insert emoticon with bags under its eyes here]]

-dr-