A Walk in the Park

Fall color in Central Park is beautiful right now.  For the past few days I have been enjoying the changing color from my balcony, overlooking Central Park, down Amsterdam Avenue, the roads leading toward the Hudson River:

Beautiful, huh?  So we knew that a big, big storm was coming.  You heard, right, Sandy?  Ring a bell?  I figured that Central Park might look a little different in the aftermath.  So we decided to take in all the fall color while it was still there.  It also happened to be the Pumpkin Fest this weekend.  Free pumpkins for those willing to brave the line (not us).  The color did not disappoint!




The Lake, Central Park

  This next photo is the line for the free pumpkins.  One guy saw this line and started saying right away to his wife "Oh, no!  No. No! NO!"   I last saw them walking to the line.  Of course.

Each  scene more beautiful than the last. . .



I will be interested in seeing how much of this is left after the 80 mph winds of Sandy barrel through.  Well, as with most good things, I think you need to take time out and enjoy them while you can.  I am glad we did.

Kiki's Big Day

I already posted on Kiki's Facebook page a little bit about I feel about her on this her 21st birthday.  She is the first one to make me a Mom, which is both the most amazing and scary thing I have ever done.  But oh, the rewards!  So in some moments of pure indulgence, I spent today looking at photos of her and reminiscing.  It has been an awesome ride so far and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Happy Birthday Kiki!   I love you!!!

How Expensive is New York City?

My four day car rental in Colorado is cheaper than a one day rental in NYC!!

The Daily Show

One of the items on our bucket to do in New York City list was to get tickets to the Daily Show.  For those of  you not really familiar with the show, first - where have you been?  It is a comedy show hosted by comedian Jon Stewart, mostly poking fun at the political headlines of the day, usually Republicans.  We have been longtime fans of the show. Snake has been watching it for years.  So when we moved here, I investigated how to get tickets.  As you can expect, it is not easy.  Especially in the summer months.  So I signed up to get tweets when tickets became available.  Finally about 2 months ago, I was able to obtain 4 tickets for last week.  We were very excited.  Snake took the train from DC to NYC, he came in the night before at about 2:00 a.m. and left the next night after the show.  He wasn't in the city for 24 hours.  I offered the last ticket to Goldengirl and she was nice enough to come with us.

One of the reason that we love the Daily Show is that we think Jon Stewart is brilliant.  Yes, he is funny but what is most impressive about him is that he is quick witted and smart.  He doesn't  always know what his guests are going to talk about and he seems to be able to respond spontaneously with an astute but hysterical reply.  His guests run the gamut from movie star, to athlete, to author.  But his forte is the polictical guest.  He has heavyweights on his show - Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Madeliene Albright, Colin Powel, Barack Obama. When we got our tickets we didn't know who the guest might be, but I was excited.  It was an election year, we were bound to get someone good, right?.  So the week of our show, I looked up the guests signed up for the week.  Monday - Kofi Annan, the ex-Secretary General of The United Nations, Tuesday - Salman Rushdie, famed author under death threat by Iranian extremists.  Wednesday - our show- Pink.  Yes, Pink.  The singer. What????  Pink.   I can't even remember a time where Jon Stewart has had a musical guest.  Pink. 

I have to admit I was disappointed but we had the tickets and I have never been to a television show, so what the heck!  It is a very complicated procedure once you get the email indicating you have "reservations" for tickets.  The email clearly indicates you don't actually have tickets but the email gives you the opportunity to stand in line for tickets.   The Daily Show and other shows like it, overbook the tickets for every night in order to guarantee a full studio audience.  So Snake and I went down a bit earlier than the appointed time to stand in line.  I felt pretty good about our place in line.  Goldengirl and Chizz were going to meet us later.  We had time to kill.  I started talking with the woman next to us in line much to Snake's disgust.  He would prefer total silence in line, leaning up against the building, checking in on the last football spreads.  Me - I prefer a little more human contact.  So I talk to people.  As it turns out, this woman was the opposite of us.  She was there for  Pink!!!!  She was the worldest biggest Pink fan - and I can prove it.  She actually came to see Pink perform on the Today Show that week. Apparently as all PInk fans know, she released a new album last week.  So when this woman heard that Pink was going to be on that show she started planning her trip.  She also saw Pink on the View and on the David Letterman show.  Although to be truthful, she didn't see Pink on Letterman. Much to her disgust, Pink was bounced from the Letterman show for Obama.  Superfan was very upset.  She said Obama make a huuuggge mistake because everyone knows what a big Obama supporter Pink is.  So that was a disappointment.  We chatted in line.  She showed me her Pink tatoo.  At one of the 14 (!) Pink concerts this woman had gone to, Pink autographed her body, her left hip.  So the woman did what anyone would do, she hightailed it to a tattoo artist to memorialize the signature on her hip.  Of course.   Trying to think of any Pink knowledge I had, I said something about Pink just having a baby in the last year or so, right?   Superfan said "no, 16 months ago, her birthday is June 2"   Okay Superfan just went to Superfanatic. A tad over board.

So once we got our tickets we had some time to kill and we went to the park across the street from the show.  The park is part homeless, part dog park, part soccer field, part playground - basically typical NYC park.  As we are sitting there, we see Pink come in the park with her entourage of about 15 people.  She is carrying the baby.  I am sure Superfan would have burst a kidney or something.  One thing I will say, Pink seemed very into her child.  She put her down to take a few steps and she couldn't have been more thrilled when the little girl walked a few steps.  It just looked like she really liked being a mom, pretty genuine. 

So after we got into the studio, which has some fairly tight security, we were ushered to our seats.  It is a lot of hurry up and wait.  There is a warm up comedian who was okay, he did single out Chizz and Snake, making a comment about Snake seeing his future in Chizz's hairline. Snake was wearing his GW t-shirt hoping to score some tickets to the Jon Stewart/Bill O'Reilly debate at GW in October.  No such luck!  The show was interesting and we enjoyed two different comedic segments, one on the Romney 47% video and one on the Democratic/Republican conventions.  Then Pink came on and sang her two songs.  She has a very good voice and obviously very talented.  I peeked over at the Superfan.  She was gone, had a look on her face that I get when I see a 70% off sign at Nordstrom.  Pure rapture.  I get it.

I enjoyed going to the Daily Show.  It was a good experience, I am just disappointed that I didn't get to see Jon Stewart at his best with some political foe.  Although Snake pointed out it is probably best for Salman Rushdie that we didn't have tickets that night, with Chizz's penchant for being at all things terrorist related.  You are welcome, Mr. Rushdie.   If I had tickets to the View and Pink was the guest, I would have been a-ok with that.  But I didn't.  Oh yeah, the guest the night AFTER we had the tickets?  Bill Clinton.  Sigh. 

Trouble with Trojans

I set aside the other morning to do some long overdue paperwork.  I needed to pay some bills, make reservations for an upcoming trip and give the kids some spending money for the next week or so.  The infuriating thing about college kids is that they like to eat.  A lot.  Sometimes they even want 3 meals a day.  Unreasonable. 

I do most of my banking on line.  It is pretty convenient.  Except when it isn't.  I signed onto my bank account and instead of my bank balances popping up on the screen or limping onto the screen as it were, I got something else.  This:

I have a long running battle with Citibank about the type of information they occasionally ask me for when I am logging onto their website.  They will sometimes ask for my address, or my date of birth or the last 4 digits of my social security number.  What drives me absolutely crazy is when they have asked me for my debit card number and my pin at the same time.   Ask me for my debit card number and the last 4 of my SSN, ask me for my debit card number and my birth date or my mother's maiden name.  But don't ask me in the same document to provide both my card number and the pin necessary to use it.  I think it is just asking for trouble.  It doesn't happen often but when it does, I always refuse and write a very strongly worded email to Citibank voicing my displeasure.  I don't think this is providing additional security, this combination of information is asking for trouble.  This has gone on for a few years.  Like I said a long running battle, although I think it is more on my side than Citibank.  I don't think they would lose any sleep over alienating me and losing the lucrative Wendy accounts.  Not a wink.

So when I got this pop up, the first thing I thought was that the only items missing on this list were my height and weight.  Then I thought "Citibank has gone too far" if they require this from me, I don't care we are moving our accounts.  I was outraged.  So I called and expressed my outrage.  At first the customer service representative was apologetic, she could understand why I was upset and agreed that I should not have to provide this information.  She was going to check with her security team and get right back to me.  I was put on hold.  For 12 minutes.  Then she got back on the line and told me after conferring with the security team and the online banking representative, they concluded that I had some kind of virus or malware on my computer that generated this form.  And I needed to get rid of it in order to access my accounts.  And I should not access any of my financial accounts online until I was sure this "thing" was off my computer.  And, thank you and have a good morning.  WAIT!!  Can't Citibank help me?  No. Not their problem.  Doesn't Citibank want a copy of what they are asking for so they can tell other customers?.  No.  Really?  Really.  They have no evidence that this is a problem with any other customer than me, I should contact my anti-virus software manufacturer and have a good day.  Hmmm. 

So I called my anti-virus company,McAfee.  I expected good service. After all,  I had just renewed my account for $79!   After my agent "Leisl" (I kid you not) connected, I ran through the problem with her.  We spent an agonizing 10 minutes spelling and re-spelling my name, my address, the city in which I live in (New York), my email address so she could determine I was actually a paying customer of McAfee.  It was during this time, I figured out Leisl was not from Dusseldorf.  After getting remote access to my computer, the first thing she did was run a program to determine if the software on my computer was functioning.  After running the program  she determined, or more accurately,  the software determined that the other software on my computer was running correctly.  She didn't run the anti-virus software, didn't run a scan, didn't do anything but run the program and accept its findings.  It is like bringing your car into the shop complaining of the car not running well and the mechanic turns it on and says "it turns over, it's fine".  So she was done.  Could she help me with anything else?  But wait, Citibank says I have a virus.  You don't she said because the "is the anti-virus software working correctly" program says the anti-virus software is working correctly. So you can't have a virus.   But how do we know that is working correctly?  Having seen the pop up, it seems to me that this is not the work of Citibank (begrudgingly) and that I do have a virus.  How do we explain that?  She just repeated that the Virtual Technician software said we don't.  So you are saying, we don't have a virus or malware or bot or trojan.  She reassured me we did not, the software was working because the other software said so.  Somehow, I am not reassured.

After Leisl and I said farewell,  I decided to run a full scan on our computer to check for viruses with the recently renewed McAfee Software.  I started the scan at about 1:00 p.m. my time.  It took over 20 hours to complete.  The result?  I had a total of 80 files corrupted with viruses.  80!  This is with McAfee's own software. So apparently the godly Virtual Technician software is infallible.  After fixing 40 of the files, McAfee couldn't resolve the other problems.  So I downloaded something for free from the Microsoft website.  After running its scan, which took about 30 minutes to run, it identified 2 Trojans still on my computer infecting files.  It removed the trojans and it is done.  I can now get on the Citibank website without getting the pop-up and I feel pretty confident that I can pay bills and other such duties without subjecting myself to total financial ruin.

So during my 1+ day of dealing with this problem, I thought quite a bit about Trojans.  Is there any kind of Trojan that is good?  Football teams - uh nooooooo!   Computer viruses - no!   The only good kind of Trojan that I could come up with was the prophylactic kind.  I just wish I had some kind of "sucker" prophylactic that worked when I was taking out my credit card to pay for the McAfee virus software, preventing me from separating from my money. 

Auf wiedersehen. (And go Bruins!)

Laundry Room Etiquette

When folks ask me the downside to moving to NYC or what I don't like, I have to think hard.  I really like living here most days.  I enjoy the energy of the city, the fact that there is always something going on here - both good things and bad.   When you pick up a newspaper no matter what city you are in, you will find at least one story about something going on in NYC; whether it be the mayor outlawing large sodas,  Beyonce's baby's latest outing, or a visiting foreign Prime Minister looking for a UN sanction or two.  99.9 % of the time, things are pretty hunky dory.

But if I am forced to admit something I am not thrilled with, I pretty much always say the same thing.  I hate the fact that we don't have a washing machine and dryer in our apartment.  When we moved here that was high on my list of must-haves in our apartment but as often happens, I had to change my priorities.  Quite frankly, about 75% of the apartments I looked at did not have washing machines.  So I altered it to requiring a laundry room in the building. I am past the age of schlepping my laundry down the block to do at a laundromat or don't necessarily want to spend the money to send our laundry out.   And I really wasn't willing to pass on our apartment which was pretty much the best we saw because I didn't have laundry in our apartment.   So I adjusted.  Truthfully, it really isn't that bad.  The worst part is taking the laundry down the 24 flights in the elevator.  I always take a few moments before I get in the elevator and "adjust" our laundry, making sure our dainty underthings are not on view for the entire building to see. 

As far as laundry rooms go, the one in our building is not so bad.  I saw a few when we were apartment so I have some experience.  The room is pretty big and bright.  There are 8 front loading washing machines and two supersized machines.  The same for dryers, 8 dryers and 2 supersized dryers. 

I pride myself on being a good "laundry neighbor".   Since I have a pretty flexible schedule, I try to do my laundry during the day so as to keep the laundry room free in the evenings for those people who have little choice when to do their laundry.  I rarely do laundry on the weekends for the same reason.  I don't use all the machines at one time.  I have come in sometimes when the same person is there using all 8 regular sized machines.  Usually I do two loads at a time and if I have more to do, I wait until those 2 are done then I put 2 more in the same machines.  I always empty my lint trays after dryer loads.  I don't move laundry out of the machines.  I don't want people touching my laundry so I don't touch other people's laundry.  That being said, I also set up a timer so I know when my laundry will be done.  I don't necessarily want to hang out in the laundry room waiting for my laundry to be done, so I usually drop it and come back when my timer goes off.  But I will say, there are some that will leave their laundry in the machines for hours, sometimes (ugh) days.    

I try hard to be considerate.  Sometimes some of my neighbors don't try as hard.   Recently, I was in the laundry room and of course, one of the machine hogs was there, using 6 of the 8 machines.  I came in just as she was putting her detergent in, like an assembly line.  I used the 2 machines left.  When I came back with my next two loads, I put my basket on the two machines I had used while I was putting my wet clothes in the dryer.  I turned around just to see another woman start to use the machines I had "marked".  Mind you, there were 6 other open machines after the machine hog had finished and was now using  6 dryers!  I pointed out to her that I had those machines.  She gave me a big eye-roll and sigh.  So I put my second loads in the machines and realized I missed a shirt that needed to go in the dryer.  I go back to the dryer, put the shirt in, turn around to get my basket off the washing machine just in time to see another woman yanking on the door of my machine, which is currently running.  These machines are not quiet and while they are running they have big red numbers on them indicating how much time is left.  I could see from across the room I had 32 minutes left.  All the yanking on the door, caused the machine to stop.  I went over to the woman and said "this machine is taken".  She looked right in my eyes and said "I didn't touch it"!.  I had just seen her pulling on the door.  I just looked at her then slammed against the machine, got the door to close all the way and the machine restarted.    No, "I am sorry" or anything.  Just lied straight to my face and moved on. 

All in all, I love New York City.  I have seen nothing of the "mean streets" of New York that you hear so much about.  Now the "mean laundry rooms", that's another matter!  It is kill or be killed in there.  I am hoping it won't harden me. Time will tell.

Anniversary

I have not run out of things to say about today, but I fear I might have run out of interesting things to say.  I have to walk a tightrope between being too trite and being too personal.  But leave it to Kiki to figure it all out.  She posted on her Facebook page today and I think it sums it up pretty nicely. 

"I don't think there will ever be a September 11th when I don't look at the date and immediately wish I was with my daddy to hug him and tell him how grateful I am to still have the ability to do so, when so many other daughters are looking at the calendar and feeling a loss that my family so narrowly escaped that morning eleven years ago. Never forget."

Pretty good, huh?  I think I will let Kiki and this photo taken from our apartment tonight of the memorial lights from the World Trade Center site speak for us today.

. 

Excuses

Wow!  It has been almost three months since my last post.  I can hardly believe it.  And I can't really explain it.  It is not that I don't have things to report, I do.  It is not that I don't have things to say, I do.  It is not that I haven't done anything that I found fun or interesting (at least to me), I did. 

 I am not sure how to explain it other than my self-imposed blogging sabbatical seemed to coincide with the arrival of humidity in New York City.  I am not going to cite that often cited phrase because everyone knows it damn well is the humidity.  And never having lived in humidity before, I haven't really experienced it before.  Oh, I have been on vacation to some very, very humid places.  In fact when we went to Asia a few years ago, we were one big, happy, sweaty family.  So we know humidity.  But vacationing in humidity and living in humidity are two different things.  When you are vacationing in humidity, a cocktail in your hand every hour or 1 1/2 hours is perfectly acceptable.  When you are living in humidity, having a cocktail in your hand almost continuously is fodder for neighborhood gossip and inevitable liver failure.  So my usual coping mechanisms for dealing with the humidity aren't going to work here.  I tried keeping up my normal routine.  I walk almost every morning in Central Park and I really love that.   But it is typically more humid early morning then later morning so I started walking a little bit later in the morning which kind of threw my day off.  I am not sure why it is more humid in the a.m. but it is.  Not that there is no humidity but trust me, you know the difference between 86% humidity and 65% humidity.  I told someone recently that it is like taking a shower with a sweater on and leaving the wet sweater on for the rest of the hot, muggy afternoon.  It envelopes you.  It drains you.  It leaves you feeling a little less energized or creative. Which is why I probably didn't blog as much. 

There you have it, I am a delicate flower.  SHUT UP!!!!  I AM TOO A DELICATE FLOWER!!! More blogging to come later.  Unless it gets too hot. . . or too cold. . . or too windy. . .

Potted Potter

This week we decided to take in another show.  Chizz had heard of a play involving the works of Harry Potter.  When we were in London we saw a show called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  The company (2 actors) performed the entire works of William Shakespeare in 2 hours.  As you might imagine, it is not a serious endeavor.  It was very funny and both Kiki & Snake enjoyed it quite a bit (especially once they realized that it was a farce).  So this Harry Potter thing Chizz had heard about was pretty much the same thing.  All 7 Harry Potter Books in 70 minutes.  As I am all about checking out different kinds of entertainment in preparation to make recommendations to our friends and family when they come visit (that and the tickets were not that expensive),  we decided to go.

Potted Potter is an off Broadway production.  You may be interested to know that the term "off Broadway" is not connected with the location of the theatre.  In fact there are some "off Broadway" shows that are in the Broadway area (ie Times Square).  Actually the term refers to the size of the theatre, not its location.  Theatres with a seating capacity ranging 100-499 are considered "off Broadway" no matter where they are located.  If it is "off-off-Broadway, the seating capacity is less than 100.  If the seating capacity is 6 or less, it is your living room and you need to get out more.  Just a little New York knowledge I am laying down on you!  You're welcome.

So we arrived at the theatre and there were quite a few kids, which wasn't really surprising upon reflection.  Although lots of adults read these books, they were really marketed toward kids.  So you could kind of feel the buzz in the audience. It is not like a lot of shows I have seen, there is some crowd participation and it isn't very quiet.  It is something the kids would definitely enjoy.  Along with the Playbill, each audience member gets a pair of paper Harry Potter glasses.    I saw quite a few adults  wearing them. 

It was interesting getting a look at the audience.  As expected quite a few young people.  But there were some other folks there that I am guessing were Harry Potter aficionados of some kind.    I am fairly certainly the men sitting next to us had no idea what they wandered into.  I really think they were teamsters and they thought this might be some kind of plumbing repair demonstration.  Both in their late 60s, a bit overweight, wearing shorts, tennis shoes and black socks.  You can visualize that can't you?  One was extremely angry someone sat in front of him.  In his seat.  Where he had every right to be.  But this guy spouted off something about people (the term he used was "fathead) coming in late (he wasn't) and sitting down in front of someone blocking their view (again, in the seat the person paid for).  And he wasn't saying this quietly.  He kind of sputtered it, his face got really red and he was outraged.  He also got fairly animated during the Quidditch demonstration.  He was upset people weren't taking it seriously.  Seriously, the game wizards play flying on brooms at a fictional wizard school.  He was angry no one tried to score.   Pretty strange.  I really wonder what show he thought he was coming to see. 

If you have kids and have read the books, it is fun and cute.  If  you don't have kid or haven't read the books,  I don't know that I would recommend this over another show in town at the time.  3 thumbs up from Wendy & Chizz.

Museum Mile Festival

There is a stretch of Fifth Avenue in New York called "Museum Mile".  It is actually a bit longer than a mile but let's not be sticklers about the details.  It is called that  because there are 10 different museums in that particular area.  On the second Tuesday of June, the city closes 5th Avenue to traffic between 82nd and 105th streets and people can walk through the streets between 6-9 p.m. and all of the museums are free.  I heard about it a few weeks ago and put it on my list of things to do.  Since Chizz was still on his "excellent adventure" with TR, I thought it was a good opportunity to check it out.

It  was raining like crazy that afternoon, and I almost considered skipping it.  I decided though I would regret it if I didn't go, so I talked myself back into it.  I was right (of course!) but after seeing the size of these rain puddles I was glad I wore my rain boots!  I left a little late and decided that I would try and hit the first museum closest to where I exited the park at 5:45, 15 minutes before the event was to start.  That museum was the Solomon R. Guggenheim.  I hadn't been there yet and I thought it was a good choice because I wasn't sure that Chizz would go to this museum because I (and he) was under the impression that it housed mostly modern art.  As I have mentioned time and time before, we are not necessarily the biggest modern art fans.  I thought minimally I would go and then kind of check this box so when people said "Guggenheim", I could say "oh yes, been there". 

I wasn't prepared for the line.  I thought the rain might "dampen" the enthusiasm for the event.  (Pun intended - hahahaha).



View of skylight in lobby

 I have to say, I was impressed by the Guggenheim.  It isn't too big.  I like a museum that you can do in a few hours and not feel you might have missed something important.  One of the highlights for me was actually the architecture of the Guggenheim.  .  The only photographs allowed were at the lobby level.    And it is an impressive lobby. 



Lobby



After wandering  through the museum it occurred to me that "modern art" is as a broad a category of art as the time frame it covers, roughly 1860 - 1970.   That is a huge span.  Think about it.  Can you think of anything else that remained the same during that time frame, methods of transportation, food, fashion, politics, farming?  So I found lots of art that I enjoyed and quite frankly a few things I didn't really enjoy.  I enjoyed looking at the Manets, Picassos, Pollocks.  As a side note, it  was surprising to learn how many "modern" artists died young (Manet 51, Pollock 44, Toulouse-Lautrec 36, Seurat 32).  Is there something about Modern art that contributes to the early demise of so many of its artists?  Do they burn bright and out early?  Are they all troubled?  There was a photography exhibit by Francesca Woodman. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978.   Most of the photographs in this exhibit were nudes of young women, mostly of her.  Some were blurry on purpose, some in dilapidated rooms or buildings.  One especially disturbing photo was of Woodman, nude with wooden clothespins attached all over her body including her breasts.  It was incredibly dark.  Sadly she committed suicide at age 22 by jumping out of a building.  Somehow it doesn't surprise me. 

No line?

After the Guggenheim, I thought I would head up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the grande dame of museums in New York.  It probably would have a line down the block and I would go home but I thought it was worth a try.  On the way, I passed the Neue Galerie.  The Neue Galerie is a museum dedicated to German and Austrian art and I have heard many good things about it.  But there was a huge line there.  I think for the smaller spaces, this event can be overwhelming.  Too many people, not enough space.  When I got to the Met, I was surprised to see no line.  This was during the heart of the event.  I was able to go in and see several rooms and galleries in the time frame.  There are so many beautiful pieces, it is hard to see it all in one sitting.  Which I didn't!   One of the most interesting exhibits was the one involving the designs of Prada & Schiaperelli, called "Impossible Conversations".   It was an exhibit of examples of each designers work and in the background they played a video of the two talking about their style, inspiration, work ethic.  What makes it so interesting is that these women designed at different time frames and couldn't have possibly have had this conversation.  An actress plays Elsa Schiaperelli, who designed in the 30s-50s.  Miuccia Prada designs today and plays herself.  Schiaperelli's words are taken from her autobiography and Prada responds with her own thoughts and observations about her work.  It looks like two colleagues sitting in a very fancy dining room having a conversation.  Then they pair selections from each woman's work and these combinations look as if they were made for each other.  A Schiaperelli top with a Prada skirt, designed 40 years apart.  There are also historic photos of some of Schiaperelli's work being worn by Wallis Simpson and others.  I found it fascinating but I am thinking Chizz would not.  Good thing he wasn't there!

All in all a great event.   I was able to get into two different museums in the 3 hour time frame.  I think the key is choosing museums that are large enough to handle crowds.  Smaller venues have to really regulate how many people come in at a time and therefore quite a bit of time can be spent waiting without seeing anything.   My advice:  "Choose wisely."  (I like quoting from Princess Bride as often as I can in a day.) 

Cherry on Top

It was supposed to be kind of a low key weekend.   Chizz is off on a trip with a friend, ferrying a car across country.  It is a guy thing, stopping at baseball fields, breweries and the spam museum without any chicks around (thank goodness).  I was going to hang out in NYC on my own, had a few things I thought I might do but no real plans.   But then Snake called and he was wondering if it would be okay for him to come and hang out for the weekend?  Uh, yes.  Of course.  So up he came.  After sleeping in until about noon on Saturday, we decided to head out to the 9/11 memorial.  Snake hadn't been there before.  Afterward I took him to one of our favorite little bistros not far from the house. 

The next morning we decided to check out the Puerto Rico Day parade.  I had heard of the parade originally from Seinfeld, (remember when Kramer got chased by a mob after destroying the Puerto Rican flag?).  I have seen a few parades since we have moved here.  This city loves a parade and will pretty much let just about anyone celebrate their heritage.  However, the Puerto Rico Day parade has to be one of the largest, next to the St. Patrick's Day parade.  People lined up and down the street with their red white and blue. 

And I got to see my 4th famous person sighting.  For those of you keeping count:  Brian Williams - St. Patrick's Day Parade; Marcus Samuelsson (chef) Red Rooster - Harlem;  Angelo Sosa (chef - Top Chef) 9th Street Fair.  Does it say something about me that most of the people I recognize are chefs?   And here is number 4:

Governor Andrew Cuomo, marching in the Parade, holding the flag of his heritage.  Wait a minute. . . . I think this might be a polictically scripted moment.  Ya' think?

So after this, Snake wanted to go back and catch a little of the European Champions League matches on tv.  (soccer, you can take the boy out of London, can't take the London out of the boy).  So we watched for a little while, then Snake and I got an early dinner and put him on the subway to catch his bus back to DC.  It was nice having a little mother son bonding time.  He is a good kid and I appreciate more and more the young man he is becoming.  I could not be more proud.

So it was still pretty early in the evening and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but knew I didn't want to go back to the apartment.  Originally I thought that I would kind of stalk the Tony Awards which were being held that night at the Beacon Theatre, in my very own neighborhood.  But I thought it might be too late.  I decided to head over anyway and see what I could see.  At the front of the theatre there were all kinds of people milling about in tuxedos and gowns but it really didn't look like I expected it to.  Where was the red carpet, where were the paparazzi, where were the stars of the stage?  Where was the hoopla? Then I remembered last week, when I was walking behind the theatre and saw them setting up what I thought was the electrical support for the evening. So I decided to check it out.  Voila!!!!!   


Hoopla! 

Back of Red Carpet

Now we are talking, crowds, cameras, limos. It was great.  The worst part for me is that I wasn't really prepared.  I didn't have the right camera and the one I had, the battery died about 20 minutes into my photo taking.  I was kind of far away so it was hard to get photos at all since I didn't really have a zoom.  After the camera died, I took photos with my crappy Iphone 3 camera.  You just have to trust me that the photos are who I say they are.  After all, you weren't there!

The crowd was great.  Everyone was in a good mood.  There were a few girls there who knew every single person that stepped out of a limo.  That is quite a feat, considering that quite a few of these people have done just theatre and are not necessarily household names (although they should be!).  So it was quite helpful that sometimes the girls clued us in on who just got out of a car.  John Stamos was there and he looks both suspiciously young and suspiciously tan.  He was very friendly and crossed the crowd to talk with people.  If you measure the squeal of the fans in a numeric scale from 0 being silence to 20 being a deafening roar, I would say he got a respectible 15 on the scale.  Which is kind of surprising.  Has he done much since Uncle Jesse?  Hugh Jackman was standing right in front of me for quite a bit of time giving an interview and the women kept screaming his name and trying to get his attention.  A little girl about 10 years old or so asked her dad who he was, she didn't know.  He paused for a minute and said "He's like Justin Bieber for older women".  Yep.  That pretty much sums it up.  One of the best surprises of the night was Matthew Morrison from Glee.  He got out of his limo started for the red carpet when all of the sudden he turned around came over to the crowd and just started running down the line up across the street, giving the entire front row high fives. 

Here he is going up the street:

And now coming back: 

Nice photograpy, huh?  Sigh.  I am officially definitely in the market for a new point-n-shoot camera that I can carry around in my purse that has a better response time than this!  But I digress.  It was more difficult to get photos of the women because they tended to get out of the car closest to the red carpet area and walk right in.  But we saw Amanda Seyfried, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Jessica Chastain, Phylicia Rashad and others.   It was kind of sad when Candice Bergen arrived, not one blip on the squeal scale.  One woman and I were the only ones that recognized her in our group.  Sad.  Overall, this was a blast and I will be back next year.  It was just fun to hang out and see all the actors.  For the most part the actors seemed pretty excited to be there and did respond to the crowd by waiving and yelling back.   I spent quite a bit of time talking with a woman on her first trip to NYC.  She was visiting her son and daughter and was just thrilled to do this.  She kept saying over and over again to her daughter "this is the kind of stuf you can do because you live in New York, you are so lucky".  My sentiments exactly.   

What was supposed to be a low-key weekend turned out to be pretty cool.  I hung out with my son and got to do a few things on my bucket list.  Pretty lucky, indeed. 

Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!

We haven't found a gym yet here in New York.  That wouldn't be so surprising for me as I pretty much hate to exercise.  I only do it because of the not wanting to die early thing, otherwise I would probably skip it all together.  But Chizz loves to exercise.  It is a stress reliever for him.  He enjoys working out and has done it pretty regularly since. . . . forever.   But ever since we have moved here, we haven't yet found a gym for a few reasons. 

First, the gym has to be in close proximity.  For Chizz that would be within 20 or 30 blocks, he will walk pretty far - truth be told.  For me, our living room.  Well, okay, the lobby of my building would be nice but I could settle for 10 blocks or so.  It is really a matter of what I would be willing to walk in the rain or -15 degrees.  I would most likely work out in the morning or afternoon.  Chizz likes to work out in the evening after work.  So there is our second requirement, the gym can't be too crowded after 7:30 p.m.  There is nothing worse than trying to get a quick work out in and have to wait for every machine.  And I am counting it as 3 but it really could be requirement 2B since it is a timing thing but we would like it to be open past 10:00 p.m., ideally 11:00 p.m. or so.  That is mainly for Chizz.  He often doesn't get home until 7:00 p.m. or may have an early work dinner and he would still like to get a workout in.  It doesn't leave much time if you get home at 7:00, eat dinner, digest, walk 30 blocks and still get your work out in before 10:00 p.m.

Lastly, the monthly charge cannot be more than our rent.  I jest but only a little. It is surprising how expensive gyms are here on the east coast.  In California we each paid $29.99 per month for 24 Hour Fitness.   Here the two closest gyms to us are $90 and $153 each per month!!!  And really nothing special, just normal work out places.  So we go from paying $60 for the gym to either $180 or $306 per month.  Because Chizz has been travelling so much and has had so many after work obligations, we just haven't motivated to making a commitment.  I don't mind paying $180 a month (but I really do) if we are using the facilities regularly.  But if Chizz can only go 1 time or so per week, it doesn't really seem worth the cost.  I am hoping that his schedule will calm down or they will build a 24 Hour Fitness closer to us.

So for exercise I have been walking around the reservoir pretty regularly.  I like it, it is pretty, I usually see something interesting and I can easily do two laps or 3 miles in about 45 minutes or so.  But lately I have been realizing that this is not challenging enough cardiovascularly for me.  In order to the prolong the dying early thing, your heart rate needs to race a bit on a regular basis.  So I have been trying to figure out what I can do to accomplish this goal.  Yesterday, it dawned on me.  I used to enjoy the various stair climbing machines at our old gym.  I have stairs in our apartment building.  Perhaps I could use those some how to pump it up a bit.  So yesterday, I put on my tennis shoes and walked down the 24 floors to the lobby.  Since I have one surgical knee, I thought I should take it easy my first day and see how it went.  I went down pretty fast, my heart was going, my knees seemed to hang in there and it went pretty well.  The stairs led right out the back door of the building and I went on to run my errands.

Since it went so well yesterday, this morning I decided to add on.  I went down, up, then down again.  The equivalent of 78 floors.  Again, it went pretty well.  I worked up a sweat pretty well, got the heart pumping and think I provided some entertainment for the doorman as I think the stairwells all have surveillance camers in them.  That is a bit comforting in case I have cardiac arrest, I am hoping it won't be too long until someone gets to me. 

I was feeling pretty good.  Until about 3 hours ago.  I was sitting on the subway coming home and realized when I got up, my legs hurt.  Then when I climbed up the stairs from the subway my legs hurt, a lot.  Now they are pretty much hurting all the time, moving or sitting.  I find it helps to moan or exclaim, "ow" everytime I move my legs and feel the pain.  I think Chizz finds it endearing.  Not.  But it reminds me of the running gag on Spongebob.  Whenever there is some kind of catastrophe scene, someone screams out "my leg" whether it applies or not.  A few weeks ago, Snake posted it on Auntie K's wall.  I found it too and I am putting it in below.  Each time you hear it, just imagine me saying "my legs".  I am sure you will find it endearing too.

Clybourne Park

This week Chizz and I decided to take in a show.  I just cut out a list from New York Magazine about 5 must-see plays.  Because we "must", we did.  We chose the first play on the list, Clybourne Park.

In short, it was great!   As I have admitted before, I LOVE live performances of almost anything. I tried to remember the last time I saw a play that wasn't a musical.  Other than Sleep No More, it has been quite a while.  Years.   I was surprised at how refreshing it was, not waiting for the characters to break out in song to sing their main point.

The play takes place in a house, two acts - each act a different year 1959 and 2009.  In a way, the central character is the house.  Two different, but very remotely connected families live or lived in the house.  The play centers around the racial mindsets of each time period and how people felt really depended on which side of the issue you were on.  Surprisingly the sides switched over the years.  The first story featured issues surrounding the first black family moving into the neighborhood and the second story involves a white family moving into the house.  The plays discusses how the communities react in each time frame and how each community is not so comfortable with the change about to happen. 

It has been nominated for 4 Tonys.  The same actors play characters in both time frames and I think the juxtaposition of their different roles is interesting.  In one era, an actor plays a neighbor "concerned" where his community going.  In the next act ,he plays a new-comer wanting to make his own mark on a neighborhood.  Almost opposite roles. 

Sounds pretty deep, huh?  Would you be surprised to find out it was a comedy of sorts?  Really kind of a farce.  Forcing people to laugh, sometimes uncomfortably, at either how ridiculous some long ago widely-held beliefs were or in awkward recognition.  Funny but powerful.  I like plays that make me think about the premise long after the show.  Entertained and engaged.  Definitely four thumbs up from Wendy & Chizz!!

Why

does my neighbor have this on his patio? 

Is he a wizard, ala Harry Potter, and he just received a mail delivery from Hogwarts?  Is it some kind of night light to keep low, low flying aircraft away from our building (if so, thank you!)?   Perhaps an early bear warning system?  (I know bears can climb to dizzying heights.  I haven't seen any yet but I haven't seen all of Central Park, there could be some there.)  

Chizz says it is to keep the pigeons away.

I like my ideas better.

The Emperor is Buck Naked Here

A few weeks ago, my friend Trophywife (her choice!) came to visit me.  She lives in Massachusetts and was in NYC for the weekend with some of her friends for pre-wedding celebrations for the daughter of one of her friends.  This is the stage we are at in our lives, too old to be going to our own friends weddings, too young to be going to our kids but getting closer year by year.  The girls had a whole bunch of different activities planned and they were kind enough to include me in several events.  It was a total blast! 

One of the things they wanted to do was to see a Broadway show of some kind.  They had a few discussions and someone came up with the idea of seeing Sleep No More, which is based on MacBeth.  I hadn't really heard about it before but since I love seeing live performances and I love hanging out with Trophywife and Trophywife's friends, I was game.  Trophy and I decided to do some research beforehand to help us get an idea of what we would be seeing.  We discovered that the entire performance is done silently (although that is not entirely accurate) and that the audience sort of wanders through this warehouse that has been converted into a hotel which acts as the stage where all the action takes place.  The idea is that as an audience member you walk through the hotel, going into various rooms and see if you can find any action going on.  We still weren't sure what it was all about but it sounded intriguing.  All of the reviews online mentioned it was incredible and people go back 3 or 4 times to see it all because it is almost impossible to see everything in one visit.  Sounded good!

Our group numbered 7, including the mother and grandmother of the bride.  We had all worn comfortable shoes - a tip we picked up in our research.  When we gave our name to the bouncer at the front, they asked us to wait off to the side and then they brought us into the venue - our group by ourselves, no one else that was waiting in line.  At first I was impressed, obviously we were getting some special treatment.  They made us check our coats and purses (you aren't allowed to carry anything inside, except of course your credit card to use at the bar).  Then the guide gave us each a playing card (the same card, the Ace) and took us to a curtained area, told us to go through the dark hall and eventually we would find the bar.  Now when I say this was dark, I mean it was pitch black, could not see your hand unless it was on your face dark.  We all held hands, walked along the hallway, feeling the walls, turning this corner, or that corner until we finally found the bar.  I wasn't quite sure why they did it this way other than to set the scene a bit, kind of disorient us.  When we got to the bar, although we were the first "customers" there were other people in the bar, characters  sitting at tables having conversations and waiters/waitresses serving us drinks.  We all got a drink and sat at a table waiting to see what would happen next.

A few minutes later, a man instructed all those with an Ace card to go into the next room. We were handed white masks (imagine part Phantom of the Opera and part Mardi Gras) and told  us once we put them on, we weren't allowed to speak or whisper or make a sound from that point on.  It was then we figured out that we were actually in an elevator decorated like a room (ala Disneyland Haunted Mansion).  We felt the elevator descend. Or did it rise?  The character in the room was giving instructions but I really don't remember what he said.  At one point, he pulled me into the room more.  I thought I might have been too close to the elevator door.  When it opened, we all turned around.  Trophywife walked out and I was following her.  The elevator operator quickly grabbed my arm and he pulled me back into the room and the door closed.  She was on her own!!!  I felt kind of bad.  The next time the door opened he left a few more walk out, and apparently did this several times.  I am suspecting this was done so not all of the audience was on the same floor at the same time. 

We wandered around, room to room to try and figure out exactly what was happening.  We wandered into an infirmary hospital type room. There was a nurse making beds.  I watched her for a few minutes.  Not that interesting.  I wandered to another room.  Found a forest, sort of.  "Trees", branches stuck in the floor and coming down from the ceiling with statues in the middle.  I found what looked like a Chinese pharmacy with big bottles of herbs.  Another room seemed to be a hotel lobby, with a register and notes.  Audience members are allowed and encourage to read and pick up things to a certain extent.  So we read the hotel register, we read the notes on the bulletin board.  We picked up pieces of paper.  We finally found two characters engaged in a strange "battle/dance" in a bedroom with a bathtub.  It was a woman and a man and I couldn't tell if they were dancing or fighting. They were moving around the room violently, grunting, looking pretty upset with each other.  Jumping on boxes, the bed.  Then the male actor left the room.  I tried to follow him but got caught up in the group in the stairwell and lost him.  Then I found myself in a bar/library room with several men playing cards.  Nothing happened there for a while.   So I left.  I found myself back in the bathroom/bedroom.  The man had just walked in and took his clothes off.  Yes! Nudity!  Now we are talking.  The male character got into the tub and then you discovered that his hands were bloody and he was washing off the blood.    The female character helped wash him and then he got out of the tub and fell on to the bed.  Then he got up put his clothes on and ran out of the room.  Yeah, I am not doing that again.  So I wandered off to another floor and found a table with a whole bunch of characters, toasting each other.   I think there was a ghost walking behind them that only a few characters could see, then all of the characters' motions seemed to be in slow motion.  Then they all got up and left again.  Crap, more running after characters.  I ran after one, who collapsed on a feather bed.  It seems quite a bit of this acting includes falling on beds.  It is no wonder with all of the running that everyone has to do. I almost plopped down on the bed next to the character. 

I could go on and on describing some of the other "scenes" but I am not sure what I saw.  As it turns out,  each "scene" is acted out 3 times.  You have to put all of the scenes together to get the entire play and figure out the order.  That didn't happen for me.  I spent most of my time in a hot, plastic mask (imagine those Halloween masks from the 60s and 70s), sweating, running, trying to figure it all out.  All in all about 2 1/2 hours.

Now I don't want you to think I had a bad time, I didn't and I think I lost weight during the performance - always a plus.  But my good time had more to do with the company than the "play" itself.   This is another example of modern art that I don't get.  Like the art exhibits of fluorescent light tubes we saw at the Tate Modern when we lived in London.   I like some modern art but displays that I believe intentionally try to make the viewer feel inadequate or stupid or uneducated are bothersome to me.  Only the "cool" get it.  The rest of us are out of it.  And maybe that is true.  I don't regret going, I had a good time with my friends.  But really good art in whatever form, should make you want to see it again and again and again even if you don't understand it.   I have checked the box on this one and I can't say that I would recommend it to someone.   What I don't get is that almost all of the reviews I read about this before I went raved about it.  There wasn't one dissenting opinion.  I did notice however, that a few weeks after we went some less than enthusiastic reviews went up.  But this play has been here for quite some time.  I just think sometimes people go along with these reviews because they don't want other people to think they weren't cool enough or smart enough to get it.  Just like the villagers did in "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Anderson.  If you aren't sure what you just saw, praise it.    I guess that is the point. 

Regression

At home in California, Snake loved going to concerts.  He went to some pretty big concerts, pretty big names in large stadium venues.  But his absolute favorite thing to do was to go to a show in a really, really, really small venue and see some of his favorite, although very often not popularly acclaimed except by a very small segment of music lovers, groups.  Sometimes he would come home with a t-shirt or cd from one of the groups.  He explained that many of the groups sold merchandise not necessarily for profit but to pay for the gas to their next show.  He usually only paid $10-15 per ticket so these bands were not raking in the dough at these shows.  He also liked the intimate surroundings of these small clubs. The crowds were small, sometimes as small as 30 people or as many as 200.   It is a lot easier to work your way up to the front of the crowd by the stage with small crowds.  He came home with prizes too, set lists, guitar picks, the occasional drum stick.  Snake would also take photos on his phone to show me the different groups and I could see how close to the stage he got.   If there were 3 or 4 acts on any given night, he sometimes would get to chat with some band members either after their performance or right before they went on.  The bands would hang out in the venue either selling their merchandise or watching the other groups perform.   During the summer, Snake would go to shows several times per week. 

This week, I learned that the acorn didn't fall far from the tree.  Snake came by his love of music genetically.  Chizz also loves music, although not the same genre as Snake.  He also likes the more obscure groups or groups on their way up.  A few weeks ago, he mentioned that a group he likes, Sons of Bill,  would be playing in a small NYC venue and he wanted to go.  Since the tickets were only $12, how could we not?  We were hoping it wouldn't be a mass of people.  One thing we have discovered in our old age is that we are past the point where a good time is squeezing as many folks as you can in a place.  We went to Jazz Fest a few few weeks ago, and while we had a wonderful time, it was hard at times pushing your way through tens of thousands of people to see the headliner.  Also not thrilled about bulldozing my way into a bar to stand 8 deep to get a drink and then lose half of it to someone's elbow.  Much rather find a place I can sit down and breathe. 

I mentioned the venue to Goldengirl and she told me that it was very close to her dorm at NYU.  Really?  I was starting to feel strange about this.  Wait.  Would we be surrounded by hip NYU students?   Would people think we were the parents of the band?  Would we be the oldest people in the place?  Goldengirl reassured me.  Yes, yes you will, she told me.  Great.  But I was also reassured that they had a bar in this place, so how bad could it be? 

We went and actually had a pretty good time.  The venue is small, it holds 300 people and I would guess at maximum there were 200 people there.  Four different acts played.  We missed the first one and the second one was just taking the stage when we got there.  I would say there were about 75 people when we first arrived.   The second group, Hounds Below, started playing.  They are from Detroit and are apparently doing an east coast swing because they announced where they would be the next few nights.  I thought they sounded pretty good, until they started singing.  The music was good, I just didn't care for the lead singer's voice.  They sang about 6 songs, and then pointed out the merchandise they were selling in the back and asked that people buy because it would help defray the cost of gas for the trip!  I can't remember ever being at a show where that happened! 

While they were setting up for the third group, The Liza Colby Sound, we got a beer and I had a chance to look around a bit and kind of size up the crowd.  I was pleasantly surprised that we were not the oldest people in the room.   There were actually several groups of people that were our age or older, so I didn't feel very conspicuous.  Which is a good thing.   Liza Colby is a hard rocking gal.  She mentioned she didn't usually have performances on Friday nights because she usually worked as a cocktail waitress on that night.  I think it must be a bit harder for a women rocker to be successful.  She was pretty high energy and reminded me quite a bit of Tina Turner.  In doing a little research on her, I found out her dad wrote the theme for ESPN's Sports Center (You know the one) and others.  I enjoyed her quite a bit.

So the main event comes on.  Sons of Bill or SOB as I like to call them.  Chizz and I had been kind of loitering by the bar, no surprise.  We worked our way into the crowd, well not really a crowd more of a group.  Sons of Bill is comprised of 3 brothers (I guessing their father is Bill) and then two other guys.  While the lead singer (a son) mentions his brothers quite often, I think the other two guys (the drummer and bass) are only referred to twice.  And the bassist went to middle school with these guys!  In this band you get no glory unless you are a son, it is in the name.  Anyway they were  pretty good and I was surprised how most of the people seemed to know they lyrics to the songs.  I guess I shouldn't have been .  In a small crowd, most of these people were probably fans and would know the words.  The lead singer was handsome but spent most of the performance with a scowl on his face.  I am guessing part of his troubled troubadour persona.  After the show, the band members gave out the set list and some guitar picks.  I did not see anyone get a coveted drum stick though. 

 All in all, a fun evening.  I couldn't help but think of all the comparisons between Snake's shows and this show.  Gas money request? Check !  Small venue/manageable crowd?  Check!  Inexpensive?  Check!  Feeling like we got a bit more than we paid for?  Check! 

And just so you are not left wondering.  No I did not rush the stage to get any of the swag being handed out.  I didn't want to break a hip or anything.  Right Goldengirl?