a weekend in albany

Last weekend was pretty close to perfect. I finally went up to Albany to visit Brian at school. Being that this marks his fifth year up there (he's getting his Masters and PhD and a million degrees that take a million years), and I've never visited before, I felt I had been a bad friend for not visiting sooner. I think this weekend made up for so many years without a trip there though.

I have to first mention how much I love taking Amtrak. I might have talked about this before - it seems to be a topic I bring up a lot - but to me, it is forced relaxation, and it's something I need every now and then. This train ride was beautiful, cruising along the Hudson River with snow covering the ground and sprinkled on the trees. I read, I listened to music and simply loved the two and a half hours completely to myself.

I took a few days off of work, so I was able to go up on Friday morning, and not leave until Monday afternoon. Brian and I mainly ate and cooked, and ate what we cooked. We watched movies, played with his two black kittens (appropriately named Judas and Jesus, seen in the photo to the right) and I got to meet some of his Albany friends, as I like to call them. Until now, I really imagined that life stopped for Brian when he left Long Island to go up to Albany. He talked about friends, and going to class, and writing papers, and going out, but in my mind, he did nothing. I can't really explain why I had this vision, but I did. And now that idea has been busted since I've met his roommate and friends (who I loved, by the way), walked around the University of Albany's campus and spent time doing regular everyday things in his town. Brian actually has a life outside of me and Long Island - who knew? On Sunday we made tons of food, and went over to his friends' apartment to watch the Superbowl, which was a lot of fun, even though none of us really cared about either team. Overall, it was a fun, relaxing and perfect weekend, minus the fact that my toes were numb pretty much the entire four days.

Monday I headed back home on my beloved Amtrak. The ride home was even more serene than the way up. I read, I reflected, I relaxed. I really love spending time with Brian, and this weekend made me remember why he's one of my favorite people. I think I'll be visiting Albany again soon, but maybe I'll wait until the summer so it's slightly warmer, and I won't risk losing my toes to frostbite.