Wonderful and Crazy Weekend

So as most of you know, I spent this past weekend with my oldest nephew Alp----Dr. Bora's older brother. He is making a blog debut in this entry. He actually isn't but I wanted to write the word "debut" because it is a cool word. I'm sure I've mentioned him several previous times on here.

Friday:
I left work early to go pick him up at the airport. My sister had really threatened my life if I wasn't at the gate to meet the little guy when he came off the plane. It was relatively uneventful until I actually get to the airport and realize that his plane was going to land early and that I had no idea where to go to get a gate pass to go back and get him. Lauren panic mode began. Luckily, I used my charm (read: freaking out) skills and got to the gate with no problem. He was just getting off as I ran up, perfect timing.

We took a car back to my apartment, which he thought was really cool b/c he thought it was a limo, which really it was just a Lincoln Town Car. Then, we went to the grocery store and I let him pick out snacks and food he wanted for the rest of the weekend. Luckily we have similar tastes and he got like goldfish, ritz, oreos, and cinnimon toast crunch. We also obviously bought milk. He didn't understand why I didn't have any food in my apartment. He also wanted propel water. I HATE (times a million) Propel water, but I let him get it anyway and then I sent him home with the rest b/c I hate it so much. He thought my bathroom was small, but I told him that everything is New York was expensive and small. He agreed. Then, we ate "dinner" which consisted of Ritz crackers and Propel and we headed off to see Pirates of the Caribbean. He of course, LOVED it. Oh, at the movie we got popcorn and candy and soda, so that was also sort of our dinner.

Came back home, watched more movies, I think Goonies. I told him I was tired, and that he could stay up as late as he wanted, but to just turn the light off.

Saturday:
We both woke up at about 8:30. He of course, didn't need an alarm clock. I did. I showered, we ate cereal and then headed out. We walked down to F.A.O Schwarz because I promised him he could see the piano from BIG and that he could buy a toy. The whole time we were in the store, he kept repeating "wow, this is so cool" over an over. the piano was awesome, there were these two guys that were professional life sized piano players and they were really good. Alp and I tried the piano too----it is MUCH harder than it looks.

We left and then were starving and tired so we went to Wendy's for lunch. Yum. Then, we headed downtown to South Street Seaport for the Bodies exhibit. We chilled for a bit because it was a really nice day out. The actual exhibit was so friggin cool. The bodies were actually out on display, all cut up. Each room had a different bodily system in it. Started with skeletal, then muscular, circulatory---which was awesome, then nervous, then--endocrine. My favorite parts were when they showed like slices of the body, and also when they showed diseased parts of organs, like the smokers lung (also see chuilacoche), the ulcerous stomach, or colon with polyps. It was great. My least favorite part was trying to skirt through the reproductory system room as quickly as possible. It was sort of embarrassing. The fetus room was also weird, but cool.

We took the subway back home, I took a nap and he watched Hook. Then, around 6, we headed down to Astor place for our Blue Man Group show. I can't really in words describe how awesome it was and how cool it was for Alp. It was a SWEET show and they are the coolest guys ever! The things they do on stage are so creative and everything and I enjoyed every minute of it! We had to wear poncho's and stuff to protect from stuff that might "fly off the stage" I got banana on me and also some jello. Super super cool though. :) He was like elated the whole time! Then, I wanted to take him to Times Square when it was night time. He loved the lights. We were also both starving. We went to TGI Friday's and had a REALLY late dinner. It was horribly crowded in TS, so we headed back, he watched Napoleon until really late and I went to bed. It was such a FUN FUN FUN day!

Sunday:
Woke up later, because we had both stayed up "late". But later meant 9---don't get too excited. We ate breakfast again, I showered, etc...Then we walked through Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History. They have a new planetarium show out called "Cosmic Colissions" that looked AMAZING, so we went to that. It was really friggin' awesome. He's really into space so it was extra cool for him also. Then, we were going to see this IMAX movie about caves, but instead we went to the "Lizards and Snakes ALIVE" exhibit, with real live lizards and snakes. There was this one HUMONGO python, that could have killed me in one cage, and all these other vipers and stuff. It was really cool.

We were both hungry and tired and needed to head home to leave for the airport. And where did we go for a healthy lunch? Yep----7-11 for hot-dogs. It was quality. I ate like shit the whole weekend, but it didn't matter, it was all worth it. Plus our combined lunch was about $3. Then we left for the airport.

Basically all my experiences at the airport were pretty much the same: shitty. We left my house at like 1:20pm to get on the subway, get to 125th street and then catch the M60 right to LaGuardia. As we are walking up the stairs to ge to 125th street, I see the M60 bus pull away. My hope was not lost b/c they come a lot and I wasn't really worried. at this time it was about 1:40.

THE BUS DID NOT COME FOR ANOTHER 20 minutes. We were waiting for so long. I was starting to get nervous, but I knew that once we got on the bus that it would be ok. There wasn't a lot of traffic, thankfully. We roll up to the airport at like 2:50. We get inside and talk to like 8 people about where to check in an unaccompanied minor. They say that we have to wait in the INTERNATIONAL check in line, which is about 81301829302 times longer than ANY other line. I realize that we are going to miss the flight, if we indeed have to wait on this line. I snag another worker, an older guy, and do my best, damsel in distress with 10 year old boy about to miss flight act. It worked like a charm. We got shoved to the front of the line and sailed through. Then we just waited at the gate. There was a 1 minute scare where he couldn't find his wallet, but it was in one the 17239281903 "secret" pockets in his backpack. All was well. he boarded, with a hug and a kiss and then---I had to wait until the flight took off. Then I flew home in a cab, immediately thereafter taking a nap for two hours. Much needed.

Sorry to real funny jokes of wittiness, the weekend was what it was==fun, kid loving awesomeness.

Happy Monday!
Love,

Lauren