back to normal (kind of)

our return to the northeast, despite waking at 4:30 on Christmas morning, progressed smoothly. we even sat next to each other (bulkhead, bulkhead) on both legs (which makes me think there were probably at least a couple empty seats on the plane to LaGuardia) and it was beyond good that we got home when we did.

we spent a lovely Christmas evening and birthday morning (with good eats and the beginnings of snow) at my sister-in-law's in central New Jersey before taking the train back to New York, home, to gather the mail from the neighbor's, switch suitcases for overnight bags and head to Chelsea and the Hilton Garden Inn (the snowstorm lightning was quite cool) for the birthday, including dinner at Nobu that was likely experiencing its slowest night in the four years our server had worked there.
which was not a surprise.
the restaurant couldn't have been more than a third full and it took us five minutes just to cross the intersection to get there as those 50 mile an hour gusts that sound like so many exaggerations when you're in another part of the country decided to roar across Franklin Street just before 9 o'clock.

but dinner was, of course, good to good to great (if a bit overloaded with scallions, which was certainly not intentional on our part - the birthday spouse recommends the nameless King Crab dish that was evolved from the advertised Tempura to something that was gluten-free), which it should be for $125 per person after tip, but it was disappointing that, even though we had finished eating, we were rather rushed out. as in, the coat check person brought our jackets to our table and the overhead lights were turned on before we had a chance to put them on (we were the second to last couple out: our foot-dragging partners, D.C. residents who said they had come up specifically for the blizzard, were still working on their "expensive bottle of wine" from dinner and refused to budge (good for them)).

Fed Ex offices were locked, the Post Office was closed ("Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," my ass), as was the local Chase branch, but all the grocery stores in our neighborhood appeared to be open (we visited three of four) and, despite not receiving deliveries since last Friday (if then), able to provide at least some food staples with agreeable expiration dates (please welcome leftover tenderloin sandwiches and fresh potato chips to our proverbial table).

so after a week away we're back, if not back to normal, and ready to get back to whatever it is that we do.