The Christmas I won't Forget

Christmas Tree I put  up on Christmas eve 

The second week of December 2012 was an amazing week for me; I got to drive to New York City for the first time with two friends from home. This is a road-trip I always wanted to take and the opportunity came when a friend from home visited Washington, D.C. He was there for a few weeks so we cooked up the plan for the long drive. It was fun but what awaited me was something I never anticipated. 

From my little boring town to WA, D.C. is a little over 3 hours by car. I also received info that another friend from home was in Fairfax, Northern Virginia. I had to pick him up. The traffic was heavy but when I reached I-295N, it was light. Around Richmond area, I encountered a huge outpouring which slowed me down significantly. Instead of arriving in Fairfax around 9 p.m. I got there just a few minutes after 10 pm. The wantok and I drove to WA, D.C, but got lost on the way. The GPS somehow took us to a neighborhood somewhere in Arlington. We were still in VA. After driving around and a few phone-calls, we finally rolled up to make the final pick-up on the way to NYC. 

The drive was extremely dangerous. It was foggy, raining, and the speed limit was scary. We found ourselves driving around in circle for a while. We didn't know which route to take to go to NYC. At around 2 pm, we finally got on 495N. I stayed on this road for a while and then merge on I-95N assuming that the highway go through NYC. After four hours on the road, I realized we were going the wrong direction. My wife was up very early and directed me ( by phone) to the right road to NYC. At around 9 a.m. December 8, 2012 (Saturday), we entered the Lincoln tunnel and rolled right up to the 42nd Street. We found a parking area just around the area. We were right at Time-Square (TS). We were considerably tired as we drove all night. We roamed aimlessly around TS area, going from one shop to another the Solomon way until noon, I felt I couldn't walk anymore. I began making phone-calls home and my wife arranged a place for us to stay - a hotel in an industrial area in Long Island. The secluded hotel was okay; cheap and conveniently close to the tunnel. We crashed a few minutes after we checked in, woke up around 9 p.m. still had little energy left. Tired and hungry, we decided to order dinner from a Chinese restaurant in the hood. A few minutes later a Mexican looking guy delivered our food to our room. Our dinner was delicious. After a while, we went back to sleep. 

Me, Trevor and Fiona - Subway, Manhattan - NYC 2012. 

In the morning, we checked out and headed back to Manhattan, but this time we picked up another wantok from her room in the Bronx. After driving for an hour looking for Target around the Brooklyn area, we decided to head back to Manhattan via the Bronx. The GPS guided us to the apartment and picked her up, soon we into the Columbia Circle area, just by the Central Park. We parked and rode the Subway to Ground Zero, the scene of the 9/11 attack. We had lunch inside a pizza place there, walked around for a little bit and then headed to TS (42nd St). The scene of TS in the evening was breathtaking but we were running against time. After 4 pm, we drove back and dropped our wantok off at her Bronx apartment and took the long ride home. The GPS guided us back through New Jersey, Delaware, Philadelphia, Maryland, and WA, D.C. After 10 pm, we arrived in Fairfax. We had late dinner - Milo and toast - then I made my final drop at WA, D.C. then took the long lonely foggy drive back to beloved Virginia. It was the worst drive ever. 

I left D.C around midnight and what supposed to be a little over three hours turned out to be almost five hour drive. The road was covered with fog, I had to reduce speed from 70 m/hr to 45 m/hr and sometimes less. Fatigue and sleepiness forced me to slow down radically. I, however, forced myself to drive. After almost five hours, at 4:45 am I finally made it home, tired and sleepy. It was such a wonderful relief and excited to be back home in one piece. The ensuing days and weeks became HELL. 

The PLAGUE

After two days, I felt ill. The feeling was similar to Malaria: aching muscles and joints with shivering feelings. I felt chills all over my body and spent most of the next couple of days under the blanket. What I thought was just body reaction to the long drive, turned out to be a nasty Flu virus. It jumped from me to my son, then my daughter, and later my wife. We had a coughing symphony which latest through Christmas eve. After a couple of weeks in bed, and after so many dozes of pain killer pills and cough syrups, we decided to take our kids to their physician. Both had the worst of the bug, and to make it worse, they didn't get the flu-shots. At the doctor's office, a notice is posted outside the door; all who have symptoms of the flu-virus must wear breathing masks. It was an obviously an outbreak of the Flu-virus. The doctor found that my son had two ear infections, and my daughter had just one ear infection, both with severe cough. My wife went to the doctor the same day and was diagnosed with Bronchitis. I wanted to wait it out hoping that the bug would go away, but that night I had absolutely no strength, I coughed nonstop the entire night. In the morning I decided to go to the hospital. The x-ray showed my lungs were heavily infected and that I had the worst case of Bronchitis, but  I was relieved that Pneumonia didn't find me :). I went online and looked up the flu outbreak, it listed NYC as one of the worst, and WA, D.C and Virginia under "regional activity", which means the outbreak wasn't that severe. 
Flu Activities - USA - 2012-13

On Christmas eve, I dragged myself up, putting up a Christmas tree for my kids. Tired and dizzy,  I sat down and watch the joy the blinking lights brought to their sickly souls. My wife spent all night wrapping gifts, and after a long sleepless night, the kids woke up to greet the Christmas day with a Christmas tree adorned with beautiful lights and surrounded by wrapped gifts. The joy of having them opening gifts after battling the flu-virus for weeks was something worth watching. They are indeed blessed to be Americans, born in a country with abundance of opportunities and children stuff. Though we were too sick and weak to do shopping, we turned to the internet to shop for their gifts. It was a wonderful experience. Despite the pain they endured in the last two and a half weeks, they found tremendous joy in their gifts. 

That day we joined my wife's family for Christmas dinner and celebrations. We had a wonderful time, but the experience we went through in the prior weeks makes 2012 Christmas a Christmas I will never forget!