Back a few weeks ago I wrote on my blog that I found out some family news that I kinda always maybe knew but it was confirmed and it was really taking its toll on me emotionally despite it not affecting me directly. Soon after I wrote that post I got a text message from the now retired-from-blogging Bdogg who asked me what was up. I told her the details and many texts and a few days later she had her seat booked to come to NYC to see me.
Thursday she texted me to say she was annoyed that her plane was delayed, delayed, delayed and then when she finally got on the plane she mentioned she was finally on the plane and I texted back that I was REALLY glad she was missing the storm we were having… which turned out to be a tornado. Dawg and I were supposed to pick up B from the airport so she could stay with us in our home. He got caught up at work because the tornado happened right before quitting time, and then after he assessed the damage at work he had to go to his volunteer ambulance corps in his role as Captain to calm down the utter pandemonium they were experiencing and causing for themselves because they service the area of Queens hit hardest by the tornado. By the time he got home it was 10 minutes after B’s original landing time before her delays. I had considered trying to drive to B myself for a quick minute, but I suck at driving at night and I was seeing the start of reports of the damage around Queens so I waited for Dawg. When he arrived we spent the next 2 hours driving a trip that normally takes 20 minutes in no traffic, 40 minutes in heavy traffic. It was just a big parking lot for much of the trip, and MANY roads were closed completely because (um) there were ginormous trees fallen completely across them and no one with a chainsaw had quite arrived yet to clear the road.
We finally reached B and told her how horrendous the trip home was going to be… and although it took forever to get home it felt like a minute because B was finally here!!!!! And because we went a totally different route home which took us through prostitution territory (apparently they don’t take breaks for natural disasters). When we finally did get home B got to meet all the kitties and she fell in love with Twitter, who was on her best behavior and was giving B the “are you my new mommy?” look. We all went to sleep with a plan for Dawg to go to work in the morning (oh well) and for me and B to take an exciting trip to Manhattan, just the two of us, to have a relaxing but crazy (that’s totally possible) trip.
B and I finally got out to Manhattan at 1pm so we made our first stop be Hale & Hearty for soup and salad. We were both SO happy because it’s where we met for lunch the last time she was in town, just down the street from where I used to work. After we used my terrible sense of direction plus B‘s iPhone’s much awesomer sense of direction to navigate us to Pop-Tarts World (you’ll hear more about that on Wednesday 
, Sephora, a Japanese bakery, La Maison du Chocolat (super expensive chocolate that is sooooo worth it), and then a train ride to Forest Hills to have dinner at the Santa Fe Steakhouse. It was a fantastically relaxed day with zero arguments, no trying to be nice and compromise because we both wanted to do exactly what we were doing, and we were wiped out by the time we got home. Dawg had to work overnight at vollies so we said bye to him and hung out until we were too exhausted to function then went to sleep.
Saturday was a Queens day! Since Dawg was sleeping the day away after working his day job then working overnight at vollies, B and I went to breakfast at the Georgia Diner just the two of us. Then we had a Poppy-caused adventure trying to get to the Queens Center Mall. We finally arrived and had a great time shopping at Macy’s, drooling over Steve Madden boots, and visiting the LEGO and Disney stores, taking a sitting down break at the food court (if you ever think there are too many people milling around that mall go down to the food court and you’ll realize it could be twice as bad if everyone from the food court was walking around the mall instead of sitting down there…), and finding our way back out of the parking garage. After this we were EXHAUSTED so we went home to take a few minutes rest then B, Dawg, and I went to Simply Fondue for the fondue feast! We had salad, cheese fondue, meat fondue, and the All of the Above fondue where they put all the ingredients from all their chocolate fondues (minus raspberries, for some reason) into the pot and light it on fire. It was so yummy and the company was awesome. We went to Borders for a little bit to get drinks and look at books (I was too exhausted to do that, so I sat in a chair and downloaded Shazam to my Droid) then went home to watch TV and wrap up our time together.
This morning Dawg and I took B back to the Georgia for breakfast then it was time to drop her off at the airport. Sad.
A short and sweet visit, and a friendship that I worried was fading away but is very much alive and well. 
Thank you, B. I can’t wait to see you again.
“Bye, Auntie B! Come back soon! I <3 u!"
