Thanksgiving Week

What a busy couple of weeks it's been.  We opened a new store at Time Warner Center, taking up (a very small) part of the space where Border's used to be.  I'm always excited to be in the City, but working in the landmark buildings is always cool.  In addition to TWC, I've been "backstage" at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and Grand Central Terminal.  It's a lot of work, but it's always interesting to see a space go from completely empty to a fully stocked, brand new store.  I worked there two full days and three part-days last week to help get that store set and running.

Just outside TWC, is Columbus Circle.  It marks the southwest corner of Central Park at 59th St and Eighth Ave.  There's a 13-foot-tall statue of Christopher Columbus in the circle that stands on a pillar 65 feet high.  When I went to work at TWC, I noticed that this statue was covered in scaffolding.  That's not unusual here-buildings often appear with scaffolding, seemingly over night.  This was a little different, tho, starting with a big sign that said, "About the exhibition."  I began to read it, and found that an artist had built this structure that allowed people to climb six flights of stairs and look at the statue face to face.  You see statues all over the City, but how often do you have a chance to actually look at it up close?  The exhibition was ending the following week and I had to get tickets to go up to the top of the statue.  The tickets were free, but hard to come by.  Luckily, the exhibition was extended for a couple weeks, so tickets were available for a day that Danny and I were both off work at the same time.  I dragged him to see the statue.  He was not excited about it.  We ascended the steps and arrived at the top.  After taking a few minutes to take in the rare view from sixty feet up, of the southwest corner of Central Park and up Central Park West and down Eighth Avenue, we walked through a door and into...a living room?!?  Yes, it was a fully furnished living room with a sofa, easy chair, 55" HDTV playing CNN, bookshelves filled with books and magazines, and a New York themed wallpaper.  On the coffee table in the middle of the room was a 13-foot tall statue.  Visitors were permitted to sit on the furniture, read the books, and watch TV.  We were prohibited from touching the statue.  We were not at the top of the monument very long, but it was a wonderful opportunity to see the statue of Columbus up close.

In the interest of transparency, this post was started after the Thanksgiving week of 2012.  The current date is almost-the-end-of-January 2014.  It was originally intended to be an overview of a busy week, but since time (and memory) slips away so fast, I have no idea what else happened that week to make it so busy.