ANDREW.MERELIS.COM ----DECEMBER 2004-----> BACK TO MAIN MENU

01/01/05  New Years Day 2005: 

...continued from 12/31/04.

Well, the "ball dropped," and we all shouted in celebration for a moment... which always seems a little odd when there's less than 10 people and you're in a basement in New Jersey. But, we shouted and celebrated, full and tired as we were, for a moment or two, toasting to 2005, and having some champagne that was so good, I didn't like it at all.





Phyllis took a moment not only to say hello to 2005, but to say goodbye to 2004, probably the most difficult year of her life to date. She has battled Breast Cancer, and has survived the year even stronger, and so I think it was very moving when she took a moment to shed a tear, perhaps in celebration, perhaps in good riddance, just after midnight.




We watched a little bit more of the ever-cheezy coverage of the throngs in Times Square... and the oddity of fireworks at Disney World.

Then we marched upstairs for some post-Christmas gift-giving, as this group was not together last week,


Richard's dad opens a big-long box.


Rich works on his middle-sized box, and Phyllis, her small one.


Apparently, dessert hasn't ended yet.


But Natalie, for one, is pooped.


But Rich continued to exercise his mandible.


And how could he resist? They brought out the two best items of the day! Ba-ba rum, drenched in... rum. And, of course, the after-midnight traditional sausage and peppers, which I had a small bite of. It was AMAZING, but I literally could put no more past my lips.

We all slept it off, hoping we would wake up hungry in the morning.


When I came to, I found Phyllis dusting some confectioners' sugar onto my healthy helping of french toast through a strainer.


Ahhhh!


Richard got two gifts last night. One was the box set of Seinfeld DVD's. Another was a Lidia Bastianich cook book.

Richard Sr. got some large Black&Decker power tool to tend to the garden, I suppose.


Clean-up from the night before, continued this morning.


On the Kitchen TV, there was a car auction show airing on Spike TV... a network that markets itself as "for men." Richard's dad is a car lover (the car world version of a foamer, I think), and he watched with much enthusiasm,.




We looked up the train times so that they could drop Natalie and I off at the train station. Richard was staying in New Jersey to so some work, and Peter had left the night before to go be with David.

Here, Natalie finds their new Gorilla Coffee mug and shows it for the camera...





And Natalie helps clean the dishes.


A shot of Richard's enormous phone.

At the train station, Natalie and I waited for a little while, giving us time to take some photos of ourselves and our surroundings,




















Natalie and I took New Jersey Transit to Penn Station, met up with Peter and David, and transferred to the Long Island Rail Road, continuing East to Bethpage, where we were picked up by our Father, who was celebrating New Year's Day with his new Fiancee' and her extended family, already in progress...


When we arrived, we were showered with gifts.


And we had come prepared as well. This was, thankfully, our final gift-exchange for the season, I think.

We hung out with the small crowd of guests, and got to meet even more family members than last time, I think. Frances has 8 siblings! They have lots of significant others, and a basketball-team's worth of Children.











Out on a table, was the 2004 end-of-year Newsday front page, which depicted other important front-pages from the year.



To our enjoyment, there, at the bottom, two to the right of Martha Stewart, was my High School Principal.... Frank Tassone.









Across the house, in a bedroom, the kids had free reign to play. They had a guitar or two, a few video game consoles, a double decker bed, some space, a door, and each other. If I were their age, I think I would have loved to have that many cousins so close to my age, to hang out with whenever the family got together (which in Frances' family, is a lot). On the other hand, I did have free reign to boss around my entire, but small court of one (Peter). And I do so much enjoy being "the boss."




In the office, a few more were chillin', one on the internet. Another thing I think I would have loved to have at that age.




Someone had received this book as a christmas gift, and I saw it sitting on a table. It was beautiful and extremely informative. The price seemed very low, only $20 at a local book store. It's the Special Gatefold Edition of "The Great Skyscrapers of the World," and it's by Antonino Terranova.... I asked them if I could buy it, but it was a gift. I asked if they could find another one for me, and they promised they would. Unfortunately, I write this on October 19th, 2005, and NOBODY can find it anywhere, not even on the internet. It seems to have been a small publisher in Italy who made an extremely limited amount in English. And $20 for this thing... if not a steal, was a mistake! No price is listed on the book, anywhere. So, if anyone has any information about where I might be able to get my hands on this thing... let me know! Andrew@Merelis.com








A client-friend of Francis and Dad showed up with a HUGE bottle of Grey Goose that had to be yanked out of its cylindrical housing.







When it was time for us to leave, Dad brought us outside to the parking-lot's worth of cars they had in the driveway and on the street nearby. We noticed some silly shenannegans going on, as one of the kids was climbing out the window of the bedroom!




Others were soon to follow. Perhaps videogames made now-a-days are not as exciting as they once were.






Dad dropped us off at Bethpage station, and hung out with us for a few minutes before the train arrival time.




From the station, we saw a few houses still decked out for the now-over holidays. It must be fun to put all of this stuff up, but a total bummer to take it all down. It's always entertaining to see how long people wait before finally removing their decorations.


We looked over our gifts on the train. Here, Peter realizes that there are 4 japanese-style small plates in his package. Very cool.


We had some time to wait at Jamaica station, where I took some photos of the ongoing construction. It seems that they are nearing completion on the overhead arch ceiling. It looks pretty modern.


I gaze at them from above, as they are a bit more nervous than I about missing the train.


I like how stations on the Long Island Rail Road are color-coded by line, and that the flip-boards are able to show you the appropriate color behind the name of the station. I also enjoy that stations within city limits are coded black and white.

On the train, David and Natalie share a pair of headphones connected to an iPod. They bop around, mostly silently, in unison. It was funny to watch them bop around to the same beat, while hearing almost nothing. Every once in a while, though, they would both suddenly blurt out a snippet of lyrics... also in unison, and quite unexpectedly. It was hilarious.





Back at home, peter plugs in our new internet modem, and of course, to begin the trouble-shooting process, we run a wire from it to our computers right across the room:





This will most likely stay this way until someone takes the time to run it properly along the bottom of the walls.