Today’s three things you should know
First, it’s the day after Christmas. It was Dec. 26, 2004, when waves from the mightiest earthquake in 40 years killed around 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations. The Asian tsunami was remembered today as survivors prayed at mosques and mass graves marking the third anniversary.
A broad gauge of consumer spending released by MasterCard, which includes estimates for spending by cash and checks, showed a modest 2.4 percent increase in holiday spending, excluding gasoline and auto sales. Women’s apparel suffered especially, with spending down 2.4 percent. Target, the nation’s No. 2 retailer, warns its sales may have fallen in December.
Finally, I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet. But hey, it’s that week between Christmas and New Year’s and just maybe your boss isn’t around. So it may be time to re-cap the year on NewsOK.com and in The Oklahoman. Watch the top 20 videos of the year, view the best photos and slideshows. Also, find out which articles made it in the Top 10!
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Back to work
So Christmas has come and gone. Time to get back into the office. I took a week off to get engaged in NYC. And after a quick one day back on monday it’s now time for a three day week. Thanks to the wonders of the Blackberry and now the iPhone, keeping up while out of the office is easier ever when on the road. So there isn’t the hundreds of emails to sift thru.
DnA: All I Want for Christmas
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DnA: Snow tubing and ice skating
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High School Huddle: All-State Football teams
Ryan Aber from The Oklahoman and I have been doing the High School Huddle show during the football season in 2007. Now we have reached the end of the season. So we coordinated a final High School Huddle for 2007 with The Oklahoman’s All-State Football teams.
The sports staff called in all of the players and the coach of the year for photos, interviews and quick video interviews.
Below is the intro, and here is the page we built for the player interviews. Kyle Roberts did an excellent job with the graphics and editing of the videos.
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DnA: The Nutcracker
It says Christmas-time as much as Santa. Ballet Oklahoma’s annual production of The Nutcracker has its two-weekend run at the Civic Center in mid-December.
Bryan Pitts is Artistic Director of Ballet Oklahoma. He took time between Acts during dress rehearsal earlier this month to chat with Angi and me. Attending a dress rehearsal reinforces how much Bryan oversees, from the music to the dancers on stage to the set. Many people are involved, but still someone has to answer for the overall show.
At one point, I asked Bryan if he thought Tchaikovsky was a genius for his score. Bryan questioned me on this (or maybe just didn’t hear my question clearly above the rehearsing orchestra), then agreed the music added to the legacy of this ballet. I think the music is one of the reason’s everyone knows The Nutcracker. That music just reminds you of Christmas.
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DnA: Holiday decorating
Angi and I headed to North Pole City for decorating ideas.
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Day after
Slept in. Walked down to the deli at the corner. Had a panini. Some macaroni salad. A warm Diet Pepsi. New York delis do not keep their beverages very cold.
Strolled back to Seventh Avenue. Slowly. Legs are tired from the past two days. Went inside Trump Towers. Fought the crowds at FAO Schwartz. Stepped down into the Apple store. Looked at the over priced clothes in a few other big names places.
Went back to Central Park to find the bench I proposed at. I remembered each bench had a name, like “in memory of.” Turns out our bench had Robert Simons. Which returns nothing in a Google search. No idea who that is.
So we went in search of, what else, cheesecake. Had a wedge with some hazelnut coffee at a deli across the street from Carnegie Hall.
Then, back to the hotel for a nap and an attempt to change the departure flight from Wednesday morning to Thursday evening.
She said…
The plan had been to fly my girlfriend to Manhattan and propose in Central Park under the lights on our 2 year anniversary.
The original plan was to spend Sunday night in Times Square. Do some shopping in the expensive stores on Madison and 5th Avenues on Monday. Then catch a carriage ride through Central Park, pick out a nice spot and propose. Despite Sunday’s obstacles and as a result sleeping until noon Monday, we still managed to shop on the Avenues, grab some Mac and Cheese with Hamburger soup at Rockefeller Center. And Times Square was freezing, so we ducked inside Carmine’s for a few rounds of Merlot. After getting back to the hotel, we had another round of red while my Blackberry and iPhone charged.
So I grabbed a map of Manhattan and discovered we could walk to Central Park for a carriage ride. Gary gave us the 20 minute tour with all of Trump’s skyline landmarks in the distance.
Then we walked down to The Pond and sat on a bench.
Monday was our 2 year anniversary. I said “the past two years have been great. And I hope our love will continue the rest of our lives.” At this point I got on one knee, “I hope you will spend it with me. Will you marry me?”
Arrival in Manhattan
So at 4:30 a.m., we trudged into the Doubletree Metropolitan in Midtown. We had been at Will Rogers World Airport 24 hours earlier for check-in festivities. A day later we were just arriving at our destination to get some sleep.
Doubletree is known for their fresh chocolate chip cookies upon arrival. We received three. Just for our efforts I guess. Maybe for surviving the crazy taxi ride from the airport.
