Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m so horrible at this Blog. Facebook takes up most of my free time; I’ve considered giving it up altogether. But I think it will be interesting to look back on sometime, so I will continue the best I can. In that somewhat indifferent spirit, here’s my fall catch-up entry. BTW, wasn’t fall just awesome? The weather was beautiful! And I seemed to have lots of stuff going on.
September
Mom’s Birthday
We celebrated mom’s birthday at Red Lobster in Shawnee. Grant, clearly not in a celebratory mood, slept through most of it.
Flickr Set>> (Not uploaded yet)
October
Texas
I had some stuff going on in October! Early in the month I went to Allen/Grapevine/Dallas in a combo shopping/work trip. I did some shopping for the New York trip at the outlet mall in Allen, stayed at Ted and Evelyn’s condo in Grapevine, then went to Dallas the next day. At Dallas, I went to the Dallas Zoo for the SmartStrand Zoo Challenge (I’m sure you don’t care, it’s a promotional tie-in thing Mohawk was doing with SmartStrand carpet and rhinos, elephants and camels). I also went to Dealey Plaza and Museum, which was the first time I had been there. It was very interesting, especially since nothing has changed much since that historic event happened.
Flickr Set>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157625136318100/
Earthquake!
Dude, I just felt my first earthquake. It was awesome.
New York City
The next weekend, I left for New York City! This is one of those trips I had wanted to do for a while. Somehow Nora, my friend who lives in Germany, and I were able to make this work and met there. I was so overwhelmed right at first. The amount of people, traffic and noise was astounding. I (mostly) adjusted though and ended up having a good time, although I think once will be enough. Some of my favorite things were Battery Park, which is near the World Trade Center site. It is right on the water. The views were amazing, the photo opportunities were endless and it was relatively uncrowded and quiet. I also loved the day we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I enjoyed the two observatories we did, Top of the Rock (GE Building) at night and Empire State Building during the day. The night we went to watch a Broadway play was fun too. We didn’t get to see much of Central Park. I would have liked to have spent more time there, if only time would allow for everything. As we were exiting though, we joined an (apparently) impromptu sing-along of Beatles songs at Strawberry Fields, across the road from where John Lennon lived and was killed. It was a lovely way to end the evening. In addition, while we were there, we got to meet up with not one, but two, high school classmates and current area residents, which is nothing short of impressive considering our school size. Like I said, I’m not sure I will ever go back, but I’m glad I got to see it. How people live there is beyond me, but it seems that it’s quite popular. ;-)
Flickr Set>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157625095823865/
(Small) HS Reunion
After a stop in FL, Nora came to visit Oklahoma before returning to Germany and we got to get together with some other classmates over dinner at Polo’s in Ada. It was very nice to see everyone!
Flickr Set>> (Not uploaded yet)
Halloween
I went to Steve & Sally’s for Halloween. We had some good food and gave out lots of candy. Just how Halloween should be.
November
Thunder Game
I went to my first thunder game with Steve in early November. I actually enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. I want to go back!
Thanksgiving
Mom hosted a great Thanksgiving meal. In attendance were Grandma and Bill, Papa Bruce, Steve, Sally, Grant, mom and myself.
Flickr Set>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157625468497092/
Christmas Lights
At the end of November, Christmas lights were glowing once again.
