Thanksgiving Break Events

Hey! I hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving! I was fortunate enough to have the day before and after Thanksgiving off from work, due to the fact that the other staff and I worked the previous weekend with kids and having a day off due to the school calendar.

This Thanksgiving, I signed up for the Buffalo Turkey Trot, which was an 8K race from North Buffalo to downtown. I started the race with Brittany (my roommate) and Andrea (a friend and coworker originally from Oregon), along with FOURTEEN THOUSAND PLUS other people!! Oh my goodness. There were so many people! And they all had different costumes, were different ages, and of different running abilities. It was so cool to see all of these people come together to support the Buffalo YMCA.

Brittany and Andrea SUPER pumped before the start of the race!

Running with the Crowd!

After finishing and about to celebrate! WOOT WOOT!

It felt so nice to run in the Turkey Trot. I think I will do it again next year. It was a great way to start Thanksgiving, before eating all of the delicious food. After getting back home, we all started making dishes for our Friendsgiving Feast we were having later on at a friend's house. It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving with people that you know and care about. Everyone from our program that was in Buffalo for the holidays and didn't go home with family celebrated together. It was EXTREMELY nice!

The next day, I ended up going to a concert that headlined Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and New Politics. The Griswolds were there, and so was an artist called LOLO. I didn't get to hear much from LOLO, but the Griswolds were great. New Politics was super full of energy and all of their songs were catchy. The crowd was pumped up during their entire performance. The vocalist also made his way into the crowd several times too, which was really cool.

Andrew McMahon was really cool too. He had a grand piano up on stage (how does he travel with something so BIG?!?). The piano had some turf on the top of it, as well as a fishbowl with no fish. It was still very cool though. I really like him. Something I learned about him was that several years ago he was diagnosed with cancer. He now supports an organization called LOVE HOPE STRENGTH FOUNDATION, which helps people sign up for the bone marrow registry, to hopefully match a cancer patient with someone that can save their life. It is really amazing how many people they've matched together from having people take 3 minutes of their time to swab their cheeks. Here's the link to the foundation; http://lovehopestrength.org/

Anyways, I really enjoyed this concert, and met two great people (Kelly and Josh) who helped make my experience enjoyable by talking with me during the show. They were super nice, and I'm glad I was able to hang out with them during the concert!

New Politics (both above and below)

The vocalist from New Politics in the crowd.

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness (both pictures below).

A Friendly Visit From My Friend Scott!

MY FRIEND SCOTT CAME TO VISIT ME!!! Ahhhhh, it was SO GREAT!!

He is the second friend from college to come and visit me, after my wonderful friend Chelsea did almost 2 years ago (She and I have a framed picture together on my dresser). It was so nice!

Unfortunately, I had to work most of the day on Monday (He arrived Sunday 11/1 Night). After work, he and I ate some really great food at India Gate Restaurant on Elmwood Avenue. It was SO good! If I were to want Indian Cuisine again, I would most definitely go there! Anyways, after eating dinner together, we went for a walk down Elmwood and through Allentown. It was a really nice walk, and we were able to have a really nice conversation about life.

The next day, we ended up going to Niagara Falls. Scott had never been there before, and I told him it was a must-see attraction. We took the metro bus there, and ended up looking at the falls from the top. I told him there was another part of the falls to see, and purchased tickets to the Maid of the Mist Ferry. He was very surprised, but I told him that if he was here, he should go on it. I mean, when will he get the chance to go another time? Who knows. But we went on the boat, and he LOVED it. It was fantastic. Plus, we saw some smaller falls up close. It was quite an adventure, and just an all in all great day.

What made it even better was attending the Matilda Play at Shea's Theater in downtown Buffalo. It is a beautiful venue, and holds many people. The play had some similarities to the movie, but I think that it was pretty cool hearing the kids sing songs and dance. It is amazing to see how the theater comes together when watching a play. I unfortunately fell asleep towards the end of the movie (It was a long day), but was able to catch the end.

Anyways, it was great seeing Scott and talking to him for a few days while he was here in Buffalo. He is such a great person, and I am very glad he and I still talk. Here are some photos from that day:

Thanks so much Scott for visiting me! I'll see you sometime soon again!