rats and relaxation

So it happened this past weekend--I saw a rat. I only have one more week in the city, and I thought I would make it without seeing one. Let's just say it wasn't a pleasant experience. We (me and some friends from Salt Lake who were here--hooray for having friends in New York!) were in a subway station in Brooklyn, and I saw this large, disgusting, repulsive rat saunter across the platform in front on one of the sets of stairs leading to the exit. I hate rats. Have I said that before? Because I do. I hate rats. They are a very close second in repulsion to snakes.
However, yesterday we went to the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park. It was absolutely beautiful! I wish I had discovered them earlier so I could take better advantage of them. But, I'm just glad I spent some time there. We also walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was beautiful.
It was great to see the cityscape at night. Here is one picture from the bridge. It's a little blurry, but you get the idea. It was a nice respite from the stress that my life has been the past couple of weeks. The stress picked up again full force today, but it will be over by Friday. I think I'm ready for it to be over. I have had so many aspects of book and magazine publishing pounded into my head over the past few weeks, that I don't know if I can cram much more in there and retain it. At any rate, that's all I think or dream about these days. Really, as in I am having stress dreams about our magazine launch presentation on Thursday.