but, before i reached my reeses piece, i stopped over in chicago, where it was winter white, fluffy with snow. my plane was delayed there for over an hour and a half due to visibility problems.

as we neared new york, i anxiously peeked out the window, only to find disappointment. there was no snow, not even a single flake. "ah, that's ok," i thought, "i'm here in ny and i'll be with my reese for the next 5 days." excitement filled my every cell.

my reese was standing right there, dead center, waiting for my appearance from the attached hallway leading from the plane. i smiled. he smiled. we hugged. we kissed. then, he grabbed my two, rather large carry-ons.

we headed for the exit where his sister and boyfriend greeted us in their mom's suv.

that night, they took me out to a nice, cozy italian restaurant for my birthday dinner. then, it was time to call it a night. we crashed at his sister's lovely, cozy studio of an apartment. just us two. alone. :)

we woke up to snow the following morning. lots of snow. lots and lots of beautiful, fluffy, white snow. it was so lovely and romantic. it was like the snow was waiting for me, to surprise me at it's very best. we gathered our gloves, hats, scarves, and long winter trench coats lined with wool. we marched on outside, found a nice, little cafe to have some amazing breakfast: corned beef hash, eggs, and toast. oh, my god, it was the best corned beef hash my taste buds had ever come across. then, it was time to brave the lovely winter storm as we took pictures after pictures.

new york is amazing. i want to go back and see ny in a different season. five days is just not enough. we rode the train to crossriver in westchester county where his parents live on a beautiful 4 acre piece of land near john jay's house. we took the subway to the natural history museum and to port authority. i tried weed for first time in port authority. we saw a broadway show, ate at the manhattan chili co., we stayed at the harvard club onnew year's eve. that was his surprise to me. he's full of wonderful surprises. that's my reese. we went shopping by times square where he bought me a sweater at jcrew and i bought him a sweater at banana republic. oh, my god! that banana republic is 3 stories big! we ate at numerous corner venders just so i can eat the hotdogs, peanuts, and gyros. those hotdogs are amazing.

now, i am back in la and it's nice to be back, but i'll now have those wonderful memories of new york. since then, i've been busy as hell with work. loads of work awaited for me when i came back from my short, short, short vacation. my cousin got married three days after i came back and a lovely wedding it was. the makeup artist and hairdresser made me look like an over madeup chinese movie star.....in an outdated style. the hairdresser made me look like a french poodle. despite all that, i managed to undo their damage and look decent in my silver bridesmaid dress. (i'm the one in the middle. my sister is in gold and the other one is my cousin.) but, that story's for another day.