Went into Manhattan yesterday to do some XMas shopping/hang out a bit with Aaron and Jen Rosenberg. We hit Jim Hanley’s Universe (best comic book shop in the country, in my opinion), the Hello Kitty Store (gah. Japanese pop-culture cuteness. Brrrr…), and Virgin MegaStore Times Square (why is it when I’m out holiday shopping, I can never find anything for the people I’m buying for, but can find TONS of stuff that I want? It happens every year. Ah well–I was good though, didn’t buy a thing for myself).
Every time I go into Manhattan, I’m reminded of why I moved back here, and the fact that I REALLY don’t like living in New Jersey. I didn’t come back to this area to live in the suburbs. Recently, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. Basically, I’m coming down to the point where I’ve decided to either move back to the City, or just give up and move back to Kansas and revel in the lower cost of living. The question is which one. Both options have an almost equal number of pros and cons, so, as you might imagine, I’m pretty torn.
After Aaron and Jen headed out to another appointment, Laura and I took my daughter Allie and her friend Enya to the Loews Time Square to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The film is a lot darker than the last one, and, oddly, feels very “abridged”…although I was stunned to note that nearly 3 hours had passed while we were in there. I have to admit though, I like the films enough that I find myself looking forward to seeing how they handle Prisoner of Azkaban.
We also got a preview for The Two Towers…which, combined with the repeated viewings I’ve given to material on the new expanded DVD of Fellowship of the Ring has got me absolutly FROTHING for fantasy right now.
That’s it for now–I’m actually going to try to get some more writing done. I’ve pretty much given up on the deadline for National Novel Writing Month, but I’m going to stick with what I’ve been doing until it’s done, either way.