blogging from my blackberry at the airport!

this is so cool! I'm on my way to CA for the holidays. Last minute Xmas shopping was crazy....but I want to bring a little of NYC to all 23 members of my extended family. I did reasonably well but not perfect. The last minute shopping meant missing the free admission day to the Frick museum (it was their 75th anniversary) and that pained me a twinge as I love free admissions but before leaving town I had a chance to see the play Lombardi with Dan Luria and Judith Light. I was able to get a complimentary ticket. It was very well done. The audience seemed to made up of Greenbay Packer fans on vacation in NYC. I took the Super Shuttle to the airport and wound up getting a great tour of the city at night since he had to pick up several people after me. It was great and a nice send off. This city really doesn't sleep. Lots of people out at 4am and clubs still going strong. I had to wait for about 30 minutes in my apt lobby til the shuttle got there and wound up talking with the night concierge. He had some great stories about the building being haunted and people being dead in their apts for days before being found due to the stench of decaying flesh, couples found naked having sex on the pool table in the shared rec room, people coming in drunk in the wee hours and being loud, obnoxious and aggressive or destructive! I saw two drunk couples coming in at 3am as I waited! it was quite a conversation! All this going on as slumber on the 39th floor.  i gave the staff their gift cards yesterday and they seem pleased so guess we did okay with the amounts we gave. Whew!!

Nerd Alert!!!

So today I did a most wonderful thing. I got my New York Public Library card at the Main Library. I feel like it is one of my most prized possessions now. The main branch of the NYPL is so incredibly beautiful. I LOVE libraries and the main branch of the NYPL is the MOTHER of all libraries. When I asked about applying for a card, the man asked me what I would do with it.  I told him I just moved to NYC, lived nearby, and left a job as an Associate Professor at the University of Washington. He then said, "Oh yes, you can apply for one."  Not sure what he would have said if I had said anything otherwise. I would hate to have been denied a library card. I almost peed in my pants walking around the library it's so magnificent. I was pretty much in ecstacy while walking around there. Here are a few pics to share .....The Lions names are Patience and Fortitude.

Isn't it truely inspiring? I look forward to visiting it often and spending time in the reading room. If you too LOVE libraries, check out this link for more info on it....http://www.nypl.org/

I then went on to see some of the holiday store windows and Christmas lights along 5th Avenue, Park Avenue and Madison Avenue.........BTW, did you know that the despite there being a Duane Reade or Rite Aid drugstore pretty much on every other corner of Manhattan, there is not one to be found on the tony Avenues of 5th, Park, or Madison.  Guess Cartier, Barney's, Tiffany, Saks, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Prada, Fendi, Dior, etc can't be rubbing elbows with the likes of Duane Reade and Rite Aid. Interesting.

I took a few snaps of the decorations to share with you all.......Lord and Taylor had some revolving Christmas scenes in their windows and Barney's was doing a satire on Celebrity Chefs and Holiday Foodie celebrations.  The street scenes are just a VERY SMALL sampling of all the lights and decorations that are all over the city.

Happy Holidays!

So far loving the winter here

I have to say that I am really enjoying the winter here so far. It's been relatively mild, in the 30's and 40's, no snow yet, some rain but nothing like the PNW that is getting drenched with the Pineapple Express front.  When the rain and the wind do whip it together, it's really fantastic to view from our highrise windows. There are so many more sunny clear days here in NYC than Seattle. What a luxury that is. I expect it may get really cold and miserable in the next couple of months, but even then, if the sun is shining it will make the biggest difference. I really love all the hats, coats, ear muffs, scarves, gloves, and boots people don for the winter weather. It so marks the winter season in a way I've not really experienced before. Just had to put that out there. Off to see the Holiday themed windows.....

Time to get back on track!!

Okay, so it was a great visit with my niece, her husband and their baby. Some details to follow. First a few interesting new observations and doings related to being a New Yorker. We just put together our Christmas gift cards to our apartment building staff--all 17 of them!!  This is new to us to as first time apartment dwellers with an apartment manager, 4 concierges, 3 doormen, 3 handymen, and 6 porters. We aren't even sure who these porters are and what they do! I mean really WHO ARE THEY AND WTF? (Pardon my language) It doesn't come cheap to live in a high rise that's for sure. We got some good advice from Bob's colleagues and we hope we gave the right amounts to each. Guess if we get snubbed in the new year by the apartment staff we will know that perhaps we didn't give what is considered standard. It's really hard to know how much to give these people.

Second, Bob and I now realize we have a whole range of emotions as reactions to the numbers on the elevator panel. Because we live on the 39th floor, it's a bit of ride to get up to our place and down to the lobby. We are clearly excited and happy when we want to go down and see that there is an elevator situated above our floor poised to go down, bummed when there isn't. And truely bummed when on occasion the elevator goes past our floor without stopping for some strange reason or we just miss an elevator going up from the lobby. We are so easily conditioned. Okay so we aren't as devastated or overjoyed as I may have indicated above but clearly we are not neutral for sure.

With my famly visiting, we took a really great boat cruise around the mid to lower Manhattan Island from West Midtown to to East Midtown. We went under 3 bridges and very close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was by NYWaterway Tours and our guide was hugely informative throughout the 90 minute boat tour. I would highly recommend this to natives and visitors alike. I expect it will be on my activity list for those who come to visit us. One of the more interesting tidbits shared by our guide is the empty Pier 54 at the end of 14th street on the Hudson River. It is left empty as a tribute to those who died on the Titantic. It was the pier that the Titanic was to dock in after crossing the Atlantic.  We all know what happened with that story. There is a memorial there to those who died in the sinking. That story was very touching to me as it says a lot about New York City. Space, especially in that part of town is at a premium. Yet, they've kept it empty for almost 100 years (centennial anniversary in April 14, 2012). It gave me goosebumps to hear the story.   Our guide also informed us that when visiting the United Nations Headquarters and grounds, you leave the US and enter international borders. That seems kind of cool. It's on my list of places to see for sure, just haven't gotten there yet.

We went Saturday to see PeeWee Herman on Broadway. It was SO FUN!! Definitely recommend it as a wonderful diversion to the seriousness of our current times. What a great comeback for Paul Reubens, the audience just poured out the love to him and he was very grateful for everyone's enthusiasm and joy for what he gives with his creativity and mirth. We also went to see the movie Black Swan with Natalie Portman. Wild and confusing and absorbing and beautiful. Go see it!

Here's a picture of my grandniece, you can see why I was so distracted and failed to make any entries.

It was so lovely to have my family visit. Despite the weather being in the 30's and being on an infant's schedule, we got around quite a bit and saw alot in the 6 days they were here. There were lots of firsts for Claire (plane, boat, subway, taxi, ferris wheel, picture with Santa, shuttle bus).  She took it all well, even her first picture with Santa. Which brings me to Macy's picture with Santa set up. It's amazing and a must see if you are in NYC. If going through that display doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, nothing will! The effort and detail that went into that display is unparalleled to anything I've see before. It starts with a "ride" on the magic train that takes you to the North Pole and then the line zig zags for quite a while before getting to Santa. There are so many displays and visual stimulation to keep the kids busy and happy for the long line to Santa. It was very fun and Santa was great with Claire.

Chelsea Market was a festive stop and Eataly was pretty outrageous with the hundreds of choices for pastas of all shapes and sizes, fresh and packaged, same for meats, cheeses, oils, and all things Italy. Here are few pics though they don't really do either Chelsea Market or Eataly justice--both are so much more, bigger, better than what can be captured with my new little point and shoot camera. I will try to get better with the camera as time goes on.



I've got a lot of places to go this week before I leave town Friday morning. I still want to see the store windows at Saks, Barney's, Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylors and need to do some Christmas shopping though it will be crazy in the stores no doubt. When I get back from CA after Christmas, Bob and I are going to see the Last Supper exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory. Check out this link, it sounds pretty fantastic. We didn't get to Milan when we were in Italy in 2000 so this will be a wonderful treat.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/design/03greenaway.html

We also have tickets to A Little Night Music with Bernadette Peters for the New Year weekend. We are hoping to see the ball drop in NY Times Square from the vantage of a window up in the Morgan Stanley building. Bob is going to investigate the possibility. If not from there, we may venture into the actual mob craziness. We will see. Enough for tonight. Ciao!

We're Baaack

Ahhhhh New York City!  We knew we were back in NYC when at the airport, 90% of the women (and even the little girls) were dressed in the prerequisite black leggings and boots.  I felt like such an outsider in my newly adopted home. Next time I may have to tuck in an NYC re-entry outfit as part of my luggage. On the Shuttle bus back from LaGuardia airport, I sat across from an older woman (at least older than me ; > ) who was wearing big Chanel sunglasses (as indicated by the bling on the temples) and leopard skin pumps! Too much fun.....My little 7 month old grand niece is visiting later this week and I think I will look for a tiny pair of black leggings and boots that she can wear while here so she will be styling like the natives.

We got off the shuttle at the Port Authority Bus Station on 42nd (just one block from our apartment) and we're back in all the glory of Times Square--our home neighborhood. It was a very satisfying moment. I hope I don't ever lose that sense about Times Square. I know many New Yorkers absolutely loathe it but it has it's purpose in helping to define NYC and so should be embraced rather than distained. Again, I think that now--who knows what I will think in a couple of years.

We had a most excellent time with Amma and the many others who attended the programs she led. Great way to start the holiday season and be back in touch with so many of our Seattle friends. A big SHOUTOUT to all who let me know they are reading my blog!

So this next week should reap lots of new entries and hopefully some good pics and links as I join my niece, her husband, and their baby on futher discoveries in NYC during their upcoming 5 day visit.

I already miss NYC

Bob and I are leaving tomorrow for a nine day trip to CA and MI to spend time with our beloved spiritual teacher and other devotees. While I am looking very forward to seeing Amma and many friends of ours, I am already missing New York.  I've been doing a lot of walking around the city this week, sometimes 6 to 7 miles a day. As I discover more and more of it, I just get sucked in deeper and deeper into loving this city. Pretty much every neighborhood I wander about in, I can see us living in that neighborhood (sans the East Village or too far north Manhattan). With Christmas just around the corner, the magic is really starting to rev up here. It's quite special to be witness to it. I've been doing a lot of power discount shopping this week, checking out all the Housing Works thrift stores as well as the major discount designer stores throughout the city (east village, gramercy, UES, UWS, west village, midtown) . I've been having a lot of fun finding dirt cheap designer clothes to build up a more NYC fashion look. We also saw two plays this week, All Through the Night, a one man show about African American men. The actor, Daniel Beaty, is absolutely amazing in his fluidity to be able to populate the entire play single handedly for all the characters, male and female, adult and child. I scored cheap complimentary tickets with my Gold Club theatre mania membership. What a great treat to see this play. It was performed in a theatre off of Union Square, so it was fun to be in that part of town for the evening, just a 15 minute subway ride from our apartment. Loving it! Then tonight we went to see the Pitmen Painters, a rare non-musical on Broadway. It was a very well done production. We had a bit of a celebration tonight because our house is SOLD! The sale closed today for us and that chapter of our life is now behind us. For the first time in decades, we are completely debt free. Pretty amazing when you really think about it. We had dinner at a really great sushi place just a block from where we live, can't remember the exact name but it was really good. I can see us being regulars there. Cruised through four special holiday artist bazaars today (midtown, grand central station, St.Barts, Bryant Park). Saw some really beautiful creations but all pretty pricey--not quite there yet feeling comfortable dropping that much cash on anything. It was fun just to look. Got some bad news about my psychology license. Turns out it will take a lot longer than I expected--more requirements than I initially understood. It's mostly a waiting game now with WA state having to go through their archived records to find the necesssary info to mail to NY state but it could take months. So just plodding along with the process. So this will likely be my last entry for a while...........Happy Thanksgiving!!

more observations about Brooklyn

The other observations I forgot to mention was that immediately coming off the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side is the preponderance of buildings owned by the Jehovah's Witness. They have a complex of buildings with the Watchtower logo that spans across several blocks, exceptional prime real estate I would think. It was interesting. Another thing is that we didn't see one single taxi while walking from the bridge to Prospect Park in Park Slope. People drive themselves I guess. Lastly, there was a very dense Middle Eastern business section where we were walking between Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. If we had more time, we would have poked around in some of those stores or had a bite to it. Okay, that's it.

Rhythms of Life in NYC

After two plus months of living in NYC, a rhythm of life is starting to emerge for how the time goes. Every morning starts with my spiritual practice of meditation, chanting, and prayers.  I've been able to expand my spiritual practice now that I live at a much slower pace. It's one of the best parts of having more time. Mondays are shaping up to be days for "maintenance" : laundry, groceries, cleaning the apartment, and making a stab at tackling all the reading that has accumulated with the delivery of the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday New York times and the weekly New Yorker and New York Magazine that arrive on Mondays. Reading the paper when it arrives on the weekend is hard to do because the weekend is usually packed with activity.  It's sometimes a bit overwhelming seeing that stack of reading material staring me down. I feel obligated to plow through it since I don't like wasting money and I did subscribe to all these reading sources.  Part of the "problem" is that they are all well written and all have great informative articles across the spectrum and list after list of happenings for activities in and around the city. So to stay "au courant," I make every effort to get through the stack. Middle of the week is catching up on emails, errands, READING, internet related searches for upcoming travel or whatever, figuring out my work situation (still trying to get my NYC professional license secured-just hit another snafu and I applied for a part time job, also still doing some UW work related things) etc  Wednesdays, I've started to have a weekly phone call with a friend in Vermont which is very grounding for me. It's good to have a regular connection with someone who knows my history. Long walks exploring a new part of the city is always part of the weekdays. Fridays seems to get here before I know it and that means DATE NIGHT for me and Bob. We've had this tradition of date night for forever........it's quite lovely and sweet and fun. Then Saturday and Sunday are all about exploring new places and activities in and around NYC.  Once the holiday busyness is over, I am hoping to add a yoga class to my weekly routine at least twice a week. Sonic Yoga is just up the street on 9th a few blocks away and it gets really good ratings for all levels of practice. I am looking forward to getting that underway.

For a brief couple of weeks there seems to be a decrease in the tourism, at least here in the Times Square area. With the days much shorter now (dark by 5pm now) and the weather cooling down (though this weekend was like summer, unseasonably warm and sunny), there are a lot less tourists out and about. The streets are far less crowded and it's so much easier to wheel my granny cart around when I am out getting groceries. I expect this will end this week as New York City prepares for the onslaught of visitors to the city for the Holidays.  Slowly the city is transforming itself into the magical image that it is famous for around the holidays. The skating rinks at Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, and Wollman Rink in Central Park are all up and running. The big landmark stores are starting to put together their very famous Christmas themed windows and instore decorations.  Even the street food cart vendors get into the spirit with green, gold, and red garland on their trucks. Lots of twinkly lights on the trees and the salvation army bell ringers are out as well. I am excited for when the whole city is made up--I was here visiting Bob last year before Christmas and it was pretty special to be in NYC around Christmas time. I am looking very forward to seeing lots more of the HOLIDAY DRESSED NYC when my niece and her husband and baby come to visit the first week of December.

Tis also the season for buying a good winter coat. The stores are just overflowing with coats of all different styles and materials.  PETA has not made any ground here in NYC it seems. Fur coats and fur trimmed or fur lined coats ABOUND here. It's almost hard to find a coat WITHOUT some fur on it. Maybe it has something to do with the early history of New York being a major player in fur trading. Puffy feather and down coats seem to be the most functional armor against the brutal winter cold here.  Yet, the true battle is finding one that doesn't make you look like the Michelen tire man. I found one that is reasonable looking on me and hopefully will be warm enough. This is my first winter here and there is lots of speculation that it could be a killer winter because of how unusually hot the summer was and how warm the weather has been so far this fall season. Guess it is a wait and see game. I just hope it doesn't mess up our trip to CA for Christmas with our families.

I will say that not everyone in NYC is in the Holiday Spirit.  Bob was out running errands Saturday morning and spotted an open man hole. He wanted to see what was down in the belly of NYC but by the time he got to the opening, the city worker pulled the manhole cover over the hole. Bob said, "Oh I wanted to see what's down there," and the guy looked at him and said "NOTHING....RATS."  And that was pretty much that in quashing Bob's curiosity.

So back to Friday night Date Night. We found a really great Mexican hole in the wall place, Burrito Box on 9th and 57th. It reminded me of the really great burritos at a Taquiera place we used to like to go to in West Seattle where the people there barely spoke any English. After that we went on this thing called The Ride (check out their link at http://www.experiencetheride.com/) I was able to get cheap same day complimentary tickets to this rather overpriced excursion.  Anyway, it was pretty corny but probably good if you've never been to NYC  before as it gives a fair amount of history about NYC and several of the landmarks. There are also performers on the street that break into song and dance as the bus goes by. The interesting thing about this giant bus you ride around in is that one entire side of the bus as well as the ceiling of the bus are all clear windows. So while you are looking out at all the sites and street performances, people are also looking in at you. Lots of people wave and smile and point. We are encouraged to do the same to those on the street. It's a little interactive that way.  Going at night was cool in that of course the city is all lit up which brings a whole different atmosphere to the event and one of the very best parts was going around Columbus Circle with the fountain lit up and they had a ballerina with all kinds of twinkly lights attached to her that made for a very magical performance as she and her partner danced around the fountain. That was really cool.

On Saturday, our chosen excursion was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and explore Brooklyn a bit so as to make more of a first hand assessment rather than a knee jerk reaction to it as a lesser borough. The weather was SPECTACULAR for such a walk, sunny and warm. We subwayed to City Hall and on our walk to the pedestrian entrance to the bridge we were just awed by all the beautiful architecture, fountains, gardens, skyscrapers, and on and on. The pedestrian walkway is wood planks that go for the mile length of the bridge. I think they are original planks. The view of the city as we walked across the bridge is so worth it to take this walk. Once we reached the Brooklyn side, it was VERY CLEAR we were no longer in Manhattan. Not to sound snobbish but really that is the only way this is going to sound, we had an immediate impulse to want to run across the bridge as quickly as we could to get back to Manhattan. It's that distinct of a difference. Ultimately the best thing about Brooklyn is its proximity to Manhattan. Now to be fair, we only explored from Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope.  We didn't get to Williamsburg, or Fort Greene or Greenport or other places deemed as the really COOL parts of Brooklyn. So our opinion is probably rather premature (and OtO might even say immature).  Unfortunate too is that the famous Brooklyn Flea Market was not being held in this really cool bank space so we didn't get to experience that, our attempt to get into the Brooklyn Botanical Garden was marred by a never ending search to the entrance of it and the sidewalk along one full side was strewn with so much trash, it reminded us of India--not a good connotation when it comes to trash. To add insult to injury, we had been looking very forward all day to finally getting to Difara, supposedly serving the best pizza in NYC. We trained there specifically and it was CLOSED when we arrived and wasn't going to open for TWO HOURS. So we didn't get that Brooklyn experience either. We did enjoy a picnic lunch at the little park on the East River that faces the Brooklyn Bridge and has great views of Manhattan (of course we loved that spot because it viewed Manhattan!!)  Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope is new family CENTRAL.  Seems that about 90% of the people we saw were pregnant, pushing a stroller, and/or had small kids in tow. This is apparently the place you go to incubate future Manhattanites. We aren't sure when our next venture into Brooklyn will be but this excursion didn't exactly whet our appetite for more. If we ever do go back to Brooklyn, we do have the advantage of getting there fairly directly as there are several direct subway lines from our Times Square subway station.

Given our disappointment of not being able to eat at DiFara's, we trained back to Manhattan, got off in Chinatown, and ate dinner at Vegetarian Dim Sum, picked up some ginseng filled vials for Bob, and bought some really beautiful pomegranites from one of the street vendors. We enjoyed our walk around Chinatown more this go round than last time. Not sure why, just did.

Kelly is in town this weekend and she and her friend David came to our place for brunch today. It is so nice to have her in town, a rare treat for us. She along with other African American medical students are charged up to propose changes in the UW med school curriculum to increase the thoughtfulness and relevance to information about treating people of color.  They are a determined group--I hope the UW can be positively responsive.
To end this entry on a very whimsical note, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take a few minutes (less than 4 to be exact) to check out this incredible You Tube video. Kelly's friend, David, showed it to us today. It is so sweetly amusing......the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU&NR=1 and it is titled Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

one more thing......about the music

At the request of my 4 year old grand niece who fancies herself a ballerina, I've added a collection of ballet music to my ITunes collection so that we can dance to it when I see her at Christmas time. It's also my way of prepping myself for taking advantage of seeing world class ballet while here in NYC. I also downloaded a great album of the 50 Essential Classical Music pieces to get myself better familiarized for future performances we will be able to see at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center. It would be such a waste to live in NYC and not make it a point to take in the classics of dance and music.

Ahhhh, New York, New York

We've been busy steeping ourselves in NYC traditions.  There is a really great thrift store a few blocks from our apartment that raises funds for housing and advocacy for those with AIDS in NYC (Housing Works Thrift Shop). They have lots of donated designer clothes for incredibly cheap.  I picked up a really nice pair of Italian made black leather ankle boots for 35 bucks and a couple of very nice wool sweaters for $15 each. It's fun to go in periodically and see what's new. It's a cheap way to experiment with dressing differently and not spending an arm and a leg.

On Friday night, we ate at one of the many cafes that line 9th Avenue.  We finally tried a pizza place, Zigolini's, that has gotten a lot of great reviews. Bob really misses Serious Pie in Seattle, the downtown Tom Douglas gourmet pizzaria. Zigolini's is now our new favorite pizza here, really great gourmet pizza and considerably cheaper than Serious Pie. We had a really great dessert of honey, berries, crushed pistachios, and mascarpone.

Saturday was over the top busy.....we started with a subway ride at 7:45am to get to the upper westside at 107th to volunteer at Mother's Kitchen at St. Ascension Church. Devotees of our spiritual guru Amma, gather from early morning to late evening to provide a free multi course dinner to about 250 elderly people every first Saturday of the month. Bob and I got there for the early morning set up shift and then helped with some of the initial food prepping.  We had to leave around noon to get back to mid-town for our next event. People come in at varying times of the day and evening to carry on the event. Next time we will stay longer, it's a really nice group of people doing a really loving selfless service. We are hoping to connect with more Amma devotees this way. As an aside, there happens to be a really outstanding bagel place right around the corner on Broadway, Absolute Bagel.  Really great bagels, I would say better than H & H, hand rolled and boiled.

We had gotten free tickets to a matinee of the Broadway musical Chicago as incentive for joining a discount theatre ticket online service. We got really great seats in the orchestra section for this performance. No big recognizable names but they were so into their perfomances, connected really well with the audience in the relatively small venue, and the musical itself is prototypical Broadway--great singing and dance numbers, very fun scenes, great music. It was a VERY ENTERTAINING production--we really enjoyed it.

After that, we had a brief break and then we were off on our next event. We went on a ghost tour of the lower east side, it was definitely spooky for me and I had goosebumps for most of the 90 minute tour. We walked amongst several synagogues and churches and school buildings. The stories were very believable and supposedly authenticated by many people repeatedly reporting similar experiences. Our tour person was very theatrical and a little more than entertained by his own performance but he has the personality type to pull off these kinds of tours.  Although the tour was at night and it was pretty dark, it did give us enough of sense of the lower east side and convinced us pretty quickly that is not a neighborhood we would ever be interested in living in. It's a neighborhood best known for it's night time bar scene and doesn't have much of the charm that the West Village has.  I do want to go to the Tenement Museum in the East Village that is supposed to be exceptional in its historical accounting of immigrant life in the late 1800's.

On Sunday it was a fabulously beautiful sunny crisp fall day--perfect conditions for the New York Marathon. Thank god because Monday was miserable--cold, wet, and windy.  What an amazing tradition the NY marathon is....lots of articles of present and past runners in the paper the preceding week.  Prior to our move here, Bob and I were pretty oblivious to the NY marathon but this year we really got into it (not literally of course), a lot of our interest and enthusiasm came because a close colleague of Bob's was running this one as his first marathon. We watched the male and female winners on TV before we headed out to see Scott at points we thought we could spot him. It was crazy being out there with so many people lining the course and SO MANY people running--over a hundred countries were represented in this marathon. It was fun to watch all the different runners, some had on crazy costumes, hats, shirts, face paint, whatever would help them stand out. We tried to spot him coming off the Queensboro bridge at mile 16 but there were too many runners to track and too many people to look over to find him. After what we thought was long enough to figure we probably missed him, we headed over to Central Park to see if we could spot him towards the end. We stationed ourselves at mile 25 and did spot him, he was looking really good and finished in under four hours. It was really cool to be so close to the end and see all the determination on people's faces knowing they were so close to finishing.

After the marathon, we made our way over to the Flatiron neighborhood to cash in on a restaurant coupon I had bought a while ago with Groupon. It was for a Greek restaurant, Kellari Parea Bistro. We had to laugh coming off the subway because there before us was another one of the ubiquitous street fairs--this one seemed a little better than what happens at in Mid-town. I wonder how long into the fall and winter these street fairs go on for. Dinner was delicious, we had a bit of a tasting menu of most of the vegetarian side dishes and a cheese flambe. We finished off the meal with the fig ice cream and warm chocolate cake freshly baked just for us. We were very charmed by the neighborhood and could see ourselves living TOO in this neighborhood. LOVED IT!

On Monday I went to get fitted for a new bra (is that TMI for a blog??) and went to THE PREMIER theatre district bra, underwear and legwear store--Bra Tenders. They fit ALL the Broadway performers and TV and movie celebrities. They have all kinds of pictures, letters, cards, and lingerie signed by celebrities and famous personalities. It's a by appointment only and they really dote on you when you get your hour fitting. Another quite unique experience since living here.

I'm a bit under the weather today so have put exploring on hold for a few day. I am also so BUMMED that my dear friend Paul is not visiting after all...........turns out he has kidney stones he is dealing with. It's not very safe for him to travel. sigh..............

Things I get to do more of now

One of the things that I get to do so much more now than pre-NYC is listen to music. I've been racking up charges on I Tunes more than I care to admit but music has definitely become my companion during stretches of the day when I am on my computer. I have mostly been adding music that I am familiar with and just never bothered to purchase since I didn't listen to much before. It's one of those things now where if I hear a tune or artist on TV, read about it in one of my many delivered publications, or when I am out and about (they play music EVERYWHERE in this city) I keep a mental note to check it out and buy it if I really like it. I've been leaning heavily towards R&B and peripherally related female artists as of late, but am open to suggestions. It's a really nice bonus to my life right now.

On becoming a New Yorker

I cast my first vote as a New Yorker on Tuesday. If I had known that Patty Murray was not a shoe in for the WA senate seat, I probably would have waited to change voter registration and voted for her via absentee ballot. It will be very disappointing if Rossi wins. Cuomo did not need as much support here for the governor posiiton. Anyway, it was kind of cool voting for the first time as a New Yorker, another official milestone. The lady volunteer at the polling booth had unwavering patience and people skills in checking in people with all kinds of foreign accents and names. She was a natural for that position. I complimented her on her patience and skill when it came to my turn to sign in.  I have yet to get my actual NY voter registration card but apparently didn't need it to vote.  When I called to find out the status of it, the woman told me there is such a back log for getting these out to people and because you don't need one to vote just as long as your info in on the list, there was a good chance I may not ever get a card! 

The NYC marathon is happening on Sunday November 7th. We will be out on the lines with 2 million other people cheering on the 40,000 plus runners and keeping a very special eye out for Scott Solomon # 40716(BIG SHOUT OUT FOR SCOTT AND TEAM SCOTT), one of Bob's very close work colleagues who will be doing his first marathon. I am sure it will be very exciting and a crazy time on Sunday. It's a whole city wide event in that the marathon course goes through each of the five boroughs, starting in Staten Island, then Brooklyn, followed by Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, then back to Manhattan and ending at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. All along the 26 plus mile route are entertainment stages, photo ops, cheering stations, etc.  Quite the event for sure. Another baptismal initiation to living as New Yorkers. I suppose it would be most meaningful if I was actually RUNNING the marathon, but that just ain't a gonna happen, period. I have always been a better spectator than athlete, so it's good to do what you are good at ; > .

Seduction and Surrender

Okay, yesterday really made us more decisive to get a small click and shoot camera so I can add pictures to this blahg. It'll be a Christmas gift to ourselves. Our Fall Foliage trip up the Hudson River Valley was so rejuvenating for both of us. The colors were on their way out given that it's so late in the fall but it was still pretty spectacular--mostly golds, oranges, yellows, and occasional brilliant reds. The forests are SO THICK on the far off hillsides from our view points. It's like you could dig your fingers into sheeps wool the hillsides are so carpetted. New York State is so damn picturesque--it's impossible to not be seduced.  You add the railroad tracks and trains you see hugging the river along with these tiny little villages dotting the road ways and you immediately want to plan a train trip to Montreal to see the whole valley from that vantage point. We had a most amazing stop at Blue Hill Stone Barn Farm near Tarrytown/Sleepy Hallow (which is where Washington Irving situated his Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane classic story--The Legend of Sleepy Hallow).  This farm is so cutting edge with their growing, composting, recycling, animal raising, etc.  The animals on this farm were the happiest animals Bob and I have EVER seen, they literally FROLICK about their pastures and pens. We saw turkeys, chickens (laying and for meat), pigs (babies, teens, mama's and papas), geese, and sheep.  Whether these animals know it is their dharma to become a feast for consumption is unknown, but wow, up to the day of slaughter, these animals appear to have the epitomy of an idyllic pastoral life. They actually looked like they were smiling when we watched them play about and socialize with each other.  Bob even said that if he were ever going to eat chicken ever again, he would want to eat one from this farm.  They have a very nice restaurant here (and another in Manhattan) where the vast majority of the food prepared for the seasonally changing menu is raised or grown on this farm. Even though it is a very pricey meal, seeing just how progressive this farm is makes you want to support them in every way possible with their mission and vision.  You can walk freely about the farm and the beautiful stone structure/barn that surrounds a courtyard and includes the restaurant, a gift shop, a small cafe, reading and small conference/meeting/exhibit rooms, a small farmers market, and enclosed garden. There are two really cool silos that have been redone for use as small public spaces.  The farm connects to a network of trails in the adjoining Rockefeller State Park Preserve.  We took a most lovely walk around Swan Lake. The weather was sunny and a crisp fall day. Fantasies grew out of control of wanting a place here too! Ergo, the SEDUCTION part of this blog entry title. We bought a couple dozen of HUGE eggs and a loaf of the restaurant's famous potato and onion bread. We continued our drive as far north up to Newburgh, crisscrossed the Hudson River on a couple of bridges to capture scenic routes on both sides of the river. We were out for about 9 hours on our day outing and came home to Manhattan feeling very rejuvenated....so much beauty so close to our new home.

The SURRENDER part of the title has everything to do with knowing that we will NEVER have an easy time of getting off Highway 9 and being able to easily get to our parking garage on 43rd.  We thought we had it down, mapped it out from several previously painful attempts (one time it took longer to get from the freeway to our garage 5 blocks away as the crow flies, than it did to take the trip up to the Botanical Garden 12 miles away) and still we were FOILED by some unforeseen street blocking at Bryant Park when we wanted to turn on 6th Ave. We were so excited as we got off at the right exit, had only one traffic cop yell at us for changing lanes in a no change lane zone (couldn't he see the desperation in our eyes for NEEDING to make THAT lane change), and barely got bogged down or side swiped in the bottle neck going down 40th. We naively thought we were home free as we approached 6th Ave to turn left but DAMN if there wasn't  road block sawhorses and traffic cops stopping traffic cold. Bob and I just couldn't help but moan and laugh at the same time. We next sent up a prayer that Madison Ave would be open for a left turn and nothing else would be blocked on 43rd as a result of Halloween so that we did not spend the next hour trying to figure out how to get to the parking space.  If you don't drive in NYC, it's probably hard to appreciate this story but our attempts to get to our parking garage have made for memories Bob and I will not soon forget....

Lastly, Bob had never seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show despite it being shown for the last 35 years, this last week's episode of Glee was his first introduction to it. I've seen it several times and have been to a couple of the midnight participatory shows in Berkeley and Seattle. So in honor of Halloween, we watched it on Saturday night. He loved it....I was glad because I wasn't really sure how he might react to it. If by chance, you've never seen it, treat yourself, it's wonderfully campy with great music.

It's sunny and cold outside now, I need to bundle up and head out for groceries now.

it's kind of silly I know

So I have all this really great literature to read every week (e.g., the New York Times and the New Yorker), which always has great well researched articles written in very compelling style, world reknown and award winning, and yet I do really miss the PARADE magazine insert that came with the Seattle Times/PI Sunday paper.  I grew up with Parade Magazine on Sundays even as a kid. Maybe it is a West Coast thing....it's kind of like comfort food only in paper form, kind of filling but not all that good for you. It's strange where we sometimes draw comfort and familiarity.....a sense that all is right with the world.

So we went to Sardi's for dinner last night with colleagues of mine in town for the AACAP meeting, the atmosphere was less than what I expected....I really couldn't make out many of the caricatures on the walls and somehow I just thought it would be more intimate but the food was actually better than I thought it would be.....certainly Per Se has nothing to worry about but, overall, it was a pretty good meal (crabcakes for me, spinach canalloni for Bob) but a bit overpriced. It's really a theatre goers restaurant. They are expert at getting you fed and on your way to make the 8pm curtain. The place was virtually empty except for the four of us after 8pm and when we were leaving at 10:30pm, all the Broadway shows were letting out and a new waves of diners was coming in. That was kind of cool to see the rhythm of the Theatre District play itself out.

I finally got to see a full episode of Cash Cab....it's great fun. I saw a glimpse of it on 30 Rock a couple of weeks ago with Tracy Morgan answering the questions ala Slumdog Millionaire and had no idea what they were referencing. Then my niece who will be visiting in early December told me all about it. She really wants to try to get in the Cash Cab.  I think btwn the 4 of us (my niece, her husband, Bob and me) and our two shoutouts (a phone call and a random person on the street) we could probably get all the way to our desired destination with a wad of cash in hand.  While Bob and I were checking out the Bryant Park Ice Rink and walking down 5th Ave to see the 34th street Autumn decorations I was totally checking out the cabs to see if I could spot him......HA....7000 cabs in this city, what are the chances? Anyway, it's kind of fun knowing the possibility can happen. I clued in my colleagues about this just in case they get in a cab and all kinds of lights starts flashing.

The Bryant Park Ice Rink is NOW OPEN -- the parks around here really do it right in creating fun and welcoming places for people.  It's very joyful to watch the skaters--the really good and the brave ones new to the ice. Clearly New Yorkers love to skate, there were old, young, males, females, body shapes across the spectrum and it being so close to Halloween, people in all kinds of costumes were on the ice. I am terrible at pretty much every activity that requires some serious balancing ability. It's truely a miracle I can ride a bike. I have terrible ankle support, I literally fall off my shoes all the time, I've fallen off my flip flops my gait is so bad. But I think I will probably sign up for a private skating lesson and see what comes of it. Bob would really love to skate together and it does look like a lot fun though I do harbor very bad fantasies of shattered knee caps and multiple people pile ups. Plus just how many of us really awful beginners can hog the skating rim? I will need to look into ankle strengthening exercises. 

There was several kid halloween activities going on about town so we got to see lots of little kids in their costumes which I love....though one kind of disturbing costume was a boy who could not have been older than 4 or 5 years dressed as the Joker from the Batman movie (the Heath Ledger version).  We wondered if he even knew about the movie but I have to say that so many parents do not screen much of what they see and so their kids watch the same movies. It would not surprise me if he knew full well who he was dressed as...........this can't be a good sign for longterm outcome.

The Autumn decorations of hay, pumpkins, squash, dried ears of corn, and corn stalks along 34th from Herald Square to 8th Avenue were very thoughtfully done. I wonder if that is as close as many New Yorkers get to farmlike surroundings.

The weather has turned from summer (balmy mid-70's and sunny) to COLD pretty much overnight! So abrupt but I was wondering just how long the warm weather was going to go on for, afterall, it's going to be November on Monday. We've had to pull out some sweaters and warmer jackets. The days are getting increasingly shorter but the sunsets over the Hudson River that I see from our apartment window are just as beautiful as ever.

I was up at the New York Psychiatric Institute on 168th yesterday to further discuss job opportunites. NYPI is just one part of a HUGE conglomerate of the Columbia Medical School, Morgan Stanley Children's Hosptial, and every other university/medical affiliated program. The streets were just swarming with patients, docs, residents, hospital personnel, etc. A real hub for the ill and those trying to help them.

I am learning that I need to keep a very close eye on tabs charged, just this past week, I got overcharged $4 for a pair of really crappy earphones on the plane coming back to NYC. I didn't let it go and Delta is sending me a check for $4. You have to wonder if this is just an honest mistake or a scam for the airline to make money because it's just enough that people might not bother to follow up with if they even notice it on their statements but enough that over time, accrual of these overcharges could be substantial profit for the airlines. It probably was an honest mistake but anyway. Then at dinner at Sardi's, it was only after we paid and had left the restaurant did I notice that we were charged $9 for coffee that was supposed to be part of our fixed prix dinners. I had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, which since I don't drink much, I am sure dulled my attention when reviewing the bill. I HATE being overcharged for an already over priced anything!

So I continue my struggle of sorts with what to do about defining my life since work is no longer central. In the past it was all about getting things ACCOMPLISHED and being HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL at getting things ACCOMPLISHED. Now not so much. It felt pretty good when I was living that lifestyle but it also took it's toll on me.  I could re-enter that whole scene pretty easily here yet am choosing not to.  The choosing to be more selective and really prioritizing less stress and fewer demands to ACCOMPLISH is harder than I thought it would be mostly because I am in such an unusual life situation. I worked long enough to have a very successful and accomplished career and yet I am young enough that barring this move, I would still be very much in thick of my work. Now I don't have to be, but by not being, I keep feeling like I am not living up to some standard --of the origin I am not even sure of.  I am still settling out a lot and re-orieinting to life here. Bob and I are both confident that things will shake out as they should over time. I don't think I've ever had enough down time to have an existential crisis of sorts, so maybe this just comes with the territory. I've always liked that bumper sticker that read, "It's just the stress that's holding me together."

Tomorrow we check out the foliage along the Hudson River Valley.......and if the timing works, we will attend a Satsang in Queens in the late afternoon.

Happy Halloween!

A shout out for Newark Airport

Before I forget, I want to give a big SHOUT OUT to Newark Airport. Bob and I recently flew out and in from Newark Airport. We'd had been somewhat offput to travel thru that airport but were very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get to and from there from our apartment.  The airporter bus run by Olympia Trails leaves and returns just a block from our apartment (doesn't get more convenient than that) at the Port
Authority Bus Station.  You can buy your ticket on line or on the bus, $25 dollars round trip or $15 one way. It's really easy to find and get on both at the Port Authority and at the Newark Airport. It will also picks up and drops off at Bryant Park and Grand Central Station. I highly recommend it and now we have no qualms about traveling thru the Newark hub.

What is it that I do with my time that I can't even write routine blahg entries??

I swear to the almighty powers that be that I am in some kind of really bizarre time warp since moving to NYC. I DON"T WORK and yet I honestly do not know where the time goes each day that I can't find the time to make regular entries. I am simultaneously VERY BUSY and NOT BUSY AT ALL (kinda like from a Laurie Anderson song or something).  I can make any time for any thing pretty much all the time except the things I need/want to do. --it's like a bad sci fi movie. Sometimes I get a bit distressed about how easy it is to fritter a day away, especially since one day just leads into another day of frittering. I can not believe it is now coming on to two months since leaving my job and moving to NYC. I have to remind myself (as does Bob) that I have attended to a lot of the necessary details of getting situated in a new home and city but still..........it's a weird experience. I always have felt very grounded by my professional life but also really stressed by it, so now I am not stressed but not grounded either. It's an interesting trade off. I feel a bit like a balloon floating about and easily directed one way or the other depending on how the wind blows--in this case the wind being some interesting article or fragment of informaton in the paper or one the many magazines I subscribe to that sends me to the internet to look it up and one thing just leads to another. When friends in Seattle ask me, so what do you do with all your free time?, I am so embarrassed as to how to respond.  Anyway............on to life in NYC for those expanses of time that I can account for!!

So I think I mentioned that I went to Gracie Mansion but what was most significant about that outing was that I finally made it to the other shore of Manhattan island. I finally got as east as to walk along the East River. It's UGLY over there..........at least on the Upper Eastside where I was roaming that day. Not really worth the walk across town especially after being SPOILED by the beauty and sereneness of the Hudson River, my new found love. I wish they moved all the good stuff on the east side to the west side---by that I mean all the museums on the east side. All the really good ones are on the East Side, luckily not as far as the east river.  I went to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum up at 91st. As part of some art event in NYC, admission was free and being the scrounger I am for cheap entertainment and freebies, I went!  It came highly recommended by a Seattle friend. It's a very cool place.......the building itself is a wonderful historical landmark, probably several hundred years old, and the contents of the museum are all modern innovations for everything imaginable--fashion, furniture, transportation, housing, jewelry, engineering, cities, etc.  Very cool and very clear that the place to be is in the Scandanavian countries--they have the most exhibits in the museum and are very advanced in their thinking for ecological salvation for all of us---thank GOD for the Scandanavians!

After the C-HNDM and my walk along the UGLY east river, I went to Sotheby's auction house because they were having a FREE exhibit of a collection they put together themed after Dante's Inferno.  They had three exhibit rooms representing works that were grouped as representing hell, purgatory, and heaven. It was spectacular.  The art pieces ranged across time (modern abstract to classical) and included paintings, sculpture, etc. There was one REALLY DISTURBING modern sculpture piece that looked like a representation of the worst psychotic hallucination...it was a collection of naked child mannequins with penises for noses and vaginas that joined various parts of their bodies and other really bizarre juxtapositions of genitalia and these child mannequins. I got into a rather thought provoking conversation with the security guard there. I asked him what was it like to have to stare at something like that for hours on end.  He really got into telling me how he could not possibly see how this could be called ART and that they were all a bunch of kooks for buying and selling such crap. (Everyone's a critic!) He then took the conversation in a direction of telling me his experience in meeting an "in process" transexual in a bar and how he didn't want to get into a "dualing sword" situation with this person so told herm that he could only be friends. He then went on to say how this is happening EVERY DAY that men are becoming women and did anyone really sit down and ask them if they really wanted to cut their "swords" off.  I think these poor guards are ABSOLUTELY STARVED for conversation, just standing around all day having to guard things they could not care less about.  I would not be able to do their job or the job where people stand as human billboards for various companies. They have a work ethic that goes way beyond mine ever could go.  So it was quite a fun time at Sotheby's! I highly recommend it as a FREE outing to see some really great and highly conversation starting artwork.

We had our first dinner party in our new home......Bob had a couple of his colleagues and their wives over for dinner.  We made a selection of Indian curries and accompanying dishes. Despite our apartment kitchen being about a quarter of the size of our Seattle house kitchen, we managed to work well together preparing the dinner. In our old house we could easily sit 8 to 10 people with all the food on the table. Here we managed to squeeze six of us around the table and all the food had to be dished out in the kitchen off the stove. It was funny in that Bob had mentioned that we had such a smaller place to entertain than what we had in Seattle. OtO (one of our guests--who I only realized that night is Egyptian thus making him being an Oracle even WAY COOLER) stated that size is all relative and he has a right to talk.  He and his wife just recently moved from a two bedroom two bathroom apartment that was 375 square feet (yes, non-NYC dwellers, you read that right, NYC archictects managed to squeeze 2 bdrms and 2 bthrms and a living room and kitchen into that tiny of square footage!) They now live in a spacious 975 square foot coop!

Our other guest and his wife gave us a terrific handy dandy compact book titled NFT (Not For Tourists) Guide to New York City. It breaks the whole city down to very specific sections, provides great tips on what all is going on in each neighborhood (culture, food, shopping, parks, etc) with maps, short descriptions of highlights, transportation, directions, etc, etc as experienced by the locals.  I think it is going to become my new bible, especially when Paul gets here to visit. Such a great gift for newcomers to the CITY. They also brought some great Jacques Torres chocolates and tipped us to Magnolia Bakery cupcakes.  Haven't gotten there yet to try them but I did spend time on the internet checking them out---one of my many frittering time internet explorations. I will take my niece there when she and her husband and baby come to visit in early December.

We were in CA last week visiting family with very intermittant internet access so that also explains some of why the entries have been few and far between lately. I just noticed (or one just opened recently) a hole in the wall pizza place at the END OF OUR BLOCK---with 99 cent plain cheese pizza slices-----They provide the extras--Italian seasoning, hot pepper flakes, and parmesan to doctor it up.  It's actually pretty good with all the FREE extras on it----------DANGEROUS!!!!!!!  I gotta watch myself in this town lest I go from a floating balloon to a giant hot air BLIMP!

Okay, enough for today.......this brings us up to date. Trying out Sardi's Friday night with colleagues in town for the AACAP meeting--it's a little corny but it is quintessential NYC and I would have gone at some point anyway, besides we couldn't get into any of the really good restaurants, looks like you have to reserve any of those well in advance. If the storm this week doesn't blow all the leaves off the trees and continue into the weekend, Bob and I are going to hopefully take a drive to see some of the remaining Fall foliage along the Hudson Valley and maybe into Connecticut or Vermont. Cheers everyone, I now need to get busy doing something I actually have a deadline to meet-------a little grounding and stress here and there can be a good thing!

On Becoming a New Yorker

I was told by a couple of my blog followers to add any new entry as a new post so that they get alerts that a new entry is available for viewing. This is in lieu of my first approach of updating within old posts. So I will try this and see if it works better for folks.  So in an effort to dress in uniform like the legions of NYC women I also bought what I call a booty cover, which is essentially a bandeau of a black skirt that covers my backside enough so that I don't have to buy a dozen new sweaters and can just wear my own favorite sweaters when I wear my leggings and boots.  When I modeled the "look" for Bob, he thought it looked very NYC, so hopefully I don't just wind up looking like a dork. The other thing that has become quite evident as I walk and walk and walk the city, my right foot is definitely bigger than my left foot.......never noticed before because I wasn't walking nearly as much as I do now, so had to take a couple of boots into be stretched. Once I collect those back, I am really ready to rock the legging and boot look.

I also felt it my duty to go check out the mayor's digs and took a stroll around Gracie Mansion. From what I could see of it, it wasn't that impressive. It's a historical landmark and all but really, I would have thought the mayor would have a more impressive residence. Maybe it's better on the inside. The park that it is in is very nice so that's a plus.

On becoming a New Yorker

Another new section to the blog as of 9/28/10

Updated 10/13/10  Today I bought my de rigueur New Yorker woman's uniform. A pair of stretch black stirrup pants and a pair of black leggings. Now I can be out on the street like millions of other NYC women with their black covered legs and boots. The look is actually flattering on the majority of women so I see why it's so popular, Anyway, I feel like I'm now able to go out in public and be one with my new people: the WOMEN of NYC.

Updated 10/11/10  It's best I think if one develops a deep (or at least) deeper appreciation of the fine arts or classical style of the arts. The venues for seeing art work, symphony, orchestra, ballet, opera, etc are so magnificent and the talent that performs in NYC is world class. Not a time to say "Not my thing" or "I'm not into that."  Taking it all in is the far better approach.

Updated 10/1/10  I will likely be buying my first pair of high fashion galoshes (rain boots) in preparation for the upcoming weather. Seems you can't be a true New York City woman without them. The choices in all the major shops is astounding and designers have a lot of fun with the patterns and colors. Don't know how bold I will be but it'll be fun shopping for them.

Updated 9/30/10  I suppose if I wanted to be a real New Yorker, I would need to get a pocket pooch as they are called here. NYC is definitely the Land of Very Small Dogs. They are tiny and they are everywhere. It's kind of funny to see big hulking men walking their itsy bitsy chihuahuas. There is the occasional Big Dog that you see now and then and I can't really imagine how people can share their tiny to small apartments with an animal of any normal size.

9/28/10 A recent transplant who thinks after 7 months he is a New Yorker tells me that a Yellow Light at a crosswalk means "you can still go."

I tell a friend from Seattle who just recently went to the new South Lake Union Park how nice that is that Seattle has another park then proceed to tell him about the FABULOUS and WORLD REKNOWN New York Botanical Gardens that we visited earlier in the day. He asks how it compares to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens and I tell him the NYBG makes the BBG looks like someone's backyard. He then tells me, "You're becoming one of the THOSE TYPES of NEW YORKERS." And yes, I am, it's so easy to do when so much of everything here IS world reknown and without comparison to the rest of the country. It's just that way here!!!

Things to do even if you don't live in NYC--Rose's picks

New section to the blog as of 9/28/10

9/30/10  Watch 30 Rock, so the wit comes fast and furious, they still have it strong going into their 5th season

9/28/10 Catfish is a very interesting movie, pair it with a viewing of The Social Network, the two will make you think twice or more about online socializing.

Watch GLEE.......so much FUN!!!

Good Wife starts tonight (finally!!!), another excellent TV drama

NYC's seductive qualities

9/30/10  Just became a member of Theatre Mania Gold Club where for an initial fee you get lots of complimentary tickets (read that you just pay for the $4.50 service charge fee) to all kinds of plays and performances (music, comedy, special events) and discounts to a lot of the major Broadway shows (though the discounts aren't any better than what I am getting on Playbill.com, another discount website). We also got two free tickets (read that no charge at all) for the Broadway show Chicago just for joining. It's fun. I am hoping we take advantage of the complimentary opportunities to get a good survey of lots of different entertainment events for really cheap while we live here. Really want to make the most of our time here especially since we are living so centrally in Manhattan.

9/27/10  So much going on, it's hard to keep up with posting all that is happening. The New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx are exceptional. So vast with so many ecosystems represented. It was a really outstanding outing for both of us. 

Taking advantage of the Morgan Stanley freebies is gonna be nice...........free admission to the NYBG instead of paying $20 bucks each admission. NYBG does offer free admission on Wednesdays and between 10am and noon on Saturdays so it's not totally elitist. MS has lots of  free admissions to a host of NYC landmark museums and attractions........the best part is Bob can take others for free to alot of these places so when visitors come, they too can take advantage

9/21/10  I love it that I can walk out the back exit of my apartment building, step into the 7-11 convenience store right next door and do all my banking that I can't do electronically. It's crazy convenient, hardly ever any wait and it's open 24-7!!! We kept our Seattle Credit Union account because I so believe in WSECU and their mission and with so much done electronically, it's easy to do. And now with being able to deposit checks at the V-com kiosk and get photos of the deposits, it's pretty cool. There is also a post office station just across the street, another fabulous advantage to living urban in mid-town.

9/20/10  The West Village and Lower Chelsea are so very lovely...........we love walking around those neighborhoods.It feels so European and quaint.  If we were to live elsewhere in the city, I think we would probably want to live there. It's not as conveniently located as where we are now but maybe in time that won't matter as much. It would be a nice cap to our time in NYC if we did live in the west village towards the end of our stay here..................

Another good example of how this city just pulls you is just how fun it is to walk down the streets and see the greatest mix of people living their lives...........so I am walking down 47th street at around 8pm trying to find this bakery I read about and on my walk, I pass by this group of Latino men with their table and chairs set up on the sidewalk playing some very serious dominos........they are all laughing and slamming dominos and having a great time on this balmy evening and then just further down the street is a mixed race gay couple sharing a very intimate kiss. It's all just there on the street mixing it up..........I love it. 

I get out and walk so much more here, partly I obviously have so much more time now to get out and do things but mostly I know there will always be something really interesting to see and so it's more fun to be out than in.

9/16/10  Okay, so WOW, I had the most seducing experience on Wednesday evening thus far. I say thus far because I am just sure there is more to come.  I decided to get out for a walk around 5pm-ish because I hadn't been out all day and Bob was going to be at hot yoga til early evening anyway. So I decide to take a walk along my new love--the Hudson River, and it did not disappointment me one bit. The evening weather was perfect, the sun was still warm and there was a gentle breeze blowing. I decided to walk north and the riverfront path winds around to these very sweet small parks with lawns, chairs, fishing stools, etc, that are strung along the riverfront.  Eventually the path meets up with the South Riverside Park which is absolutely heaven on such an evening.  I don't think tourists either know about this part of NYC or just aren't interested to get off the main drag to check it out. So here is the really fabulous outdoor venue and walk and it's not crazy crowded or loud like so much of Manhattan can be.  The river is wide and beautiful here with lots of leisure crafts, kayaks, sail boats. The sun setting on it is so beautiful and serene. There is a great open air cafe with umbrellas and tables with a good affordable menu of food, desserts, and beverages.  The cafe is the starting point for Pier 1 which goes way out and in the summer they have open air concerts there. NYC really likes to party in the summer with free music and cultural events everywhere.  I am quite looking forward to next summer already.

After walking a leisurely two miles up to that point, I decided to take the steps up to 72nd street and come back by way of the upper west side.  Bob and I had initially thought we wanted to live around this area and while it is definitely more architectally lovelier and cleaner, it does come across with a certain sterileness that is not as appealing, at least not yet anyway, of living in Mid-town which has lots more warts but also tons more character and diversity. We are really happy with our current location.  The really fun thing about coming back the way I did was being able to stop by the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts. This is where Fashion Week is finishing up and there was a lot of activity going on, more than usual, on the plaza near the big fountain. There were lots of camera people and fans hoping to get a glimpse of all the celebrities that attend that function. The buildings and surrounding area are very cool to check out and just hang out on the steps. Lots of students from the Julliard School for the performing arts tend to be there. It's so oozing with a great energy.

I will share a weird thing I saw that was quirky and therefore appealing to me...as I was walking past 51st street parallel to the West End Highway, I see Larry Flynt's Hustler nightclub (that's not the quirky or appealing part of this story). What is the quirky thing is that it's situated in kind of warehouse district and from the outside, mainly looks like one big giant warehouse, but on top of this warehouse structure is some very fancy and overdone Greek Panthenon like look building plopped right on top of it. The building is so out of context and so weird.........I decide to go online to see if there is anything written about it.....truly that is the only reason I would ever google Larry Flynt's website.  Turns out that is where the really high rollers go for a good time. It's called the Dome Room. The other thing I found out by researching this, which is way cooler, is that Jon Stewart's The Daily Show is filmed just down the block from the Hustler Club. Supposedly, JS has a sign on the window of his studio that says "If you are looking for Larry Flynt's Hustler club, it's down the block."  I am going to try to figure out how to get tickets to be in the live audience because I love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The Mundane and Sublime and random things inbetween---observations as a function of attending to daily life in NYC

10/11 and 13/10 It's been a while since I've given attention to additions to my blahg (as I am referring to it). I have the good fortune of having a connection to an up and coming director for live theatre thru my friend Darrow. His nephew, Andy Donald, works with a company Naked Angels to produce new plays. I went to a reading which was directed by Andy. It was a great opportunity to see the process of bringing a play to off broadway or Broadway. The actress in the lead role for the reading was Alison Pill, a quite talented up and coming TV and movie actress. The reading was in a very small venue allowing the audience to be very close to the actors. Heather and Luke were in town visiting and in my walk with Heather we found "little India" in east mid-town, found an amazing Indian grocery store, Kalustyan. Heather and Luke's son, Jason, and his partner, Sherwin hosted a brunch at their loft near Chinatown. It was interesting to see someone else's living space, they have about twice as much room as our place but I like our location and views better.  Sherwin's brother-in-law Adam offered to show me around Brooklyn. I plan to take him up on that, I've actually found a lot of interesting things to do in Brooklyn. It's attraction is starting to grow on me.

Bob and I went to the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday to see the Matisse exhibit which gave a progression of his work as it became increasingly more abstract. There was also a great exhibit of modern abstractionists. Rothko, Pollack, de Koning, Rousseau, Picasso (great collection showing his progression as well), etc. The Sculpture garden is really lovely, a great place to take a break when feeling "arted out."  We went to our first Carnegie Hall performance to see virtuoso violinist, Alexander Markov. He's an extraordinary performer in that he loves playing both classical and rock music, which we saw him perform both. The acoustics at Carnegie are amazing...even in the nose bleed balcony seats we were in, the clarity and beauty of the notes he played for the Tchaikovsky piece was evident even way up there.

We are giving our first dinner party this Saturday night. In Seattle, my friends eventually became Bob's friends, it may be the other way around here. It's Bob's work friends we are having over. I am looking forward to meeting new people.

10/3/10   Yesterday we walked thru Central Park and wound up on the Upper West Side (UWS). There was a streetfair going on and this had to be about as opposite of what occurs in mid-town. The booths at the UWS fair were all high end jewelry, designer artwear fashion. high art, etc. There were no food booths or booths blaring music. Bob and I were thinking that if this is how street fairs go in the UWS does the Upper East Side (UES) even have street fairs???

Bob is so mellow and uuassuming. He rode in the elevator of our building today with an academy and emmy award winning actress who is staying in the building while she is doing an off broadway show.  Bob mentioned to her that she looked familiar to him and asked whether he might know her in some way. She said that he probably recognized her because she was in movies and tv. Bob asked what her name is and she told him. He then said, oh, that's what you do for a living? She said yes. Then as she was getting off the elevator, she asked him his name and he told her and she said good bye. I am hoping that she will leave tickets for her show with the doorman in Bob's name! Such is our life here in NYC.

We explored a bit of Chinatown this afternoon, Columbus Park was really interesting. It was literally packed with older Chinese people there playing and singing very traditional music, palying card games of some sort and a game with small discs and a board similar to a checkborad but it wasn't checkers.  Some of those playing had big crowds around them and there was a lot of concentration and animation. Bob and I would like to go back and just be witness to this cultural gathering. It felt like we had been transported to another country.

9/30/10   I love the weather here at night, so balmy and fantastically windy. Even though humidity makes my hair look like Rosanne Rosannadanna's I still love it!

9/27/10  I will need to expand on these things later but just want to get them entered for now, and further expounded on 9/30/10  Finally get a chance to give a little more detail on these entries.

Lexington Avenue--a really great upper eastside street, if a dowager could be a street, she would be Lexington avenue. At least in my mind. It feels more like a real street than say Park Avenue or Madison Avenue. Those streets have been all dolled up with the outrageously expensive stores and shopping, while Lexington serves the more day to day needs of the Upper East side. It has it's share of discreet expensive shops but it also has the hardware stores, small grocery stores, butchers, etc.. It feels older, more lived in but still with a certain feeling of elegance and taste not seen in mid-town despite many of the day-to-day stores selling the same things.

Luke's Lobster on East 81st street really does have an Uber great lobster roll--it truely lives up to the hype (I suspended my vegetarianism for a day). I highly recommend it if you are a lobster lover or want to experience really good lobster for the first time. It's a very simple place, mainly does take out but has some seating as well.

Metropolitan Museum tours are so worth the time -- makes a huge difference to know what you are looking at and why it's a masterpiece and deserves to be seen by millions.  I took the museum highlights tour that takes you through 5000 years of art landmarks. The docent was an older woman who was rail thin and very simply but elegantly dressed. Made me think of the saying "You can never be too thin or too rich." She seemed so nervous talking but managed to get the info out in a very accessible explanation. It was so helpful to have this intro to the artwork at this world famous museum. The Met offers about 10 different tours, most specializing in a particular art period or type of art. I plan to eventually take all 10 tours, I've always only experienced art on a visceral level so to understand it on an intellectual level will so enrich my experience.

Next to Normal--Broadway musical depicting significant mental illness and family dysfunction--topic is handled realistically and respectfully. This is a play that several friends have recommended and I am so glad we went to see it. It does a good job of depicting the impact of severe mental illness on the individual and their family and truthfully, coming from someone in the business, there are truly humorous moments that occur within what can be a devestating life course. The song lyrics were so spot on. Highly recommend it if you get a chance to see it.

Completely inundated with reading material, between the weekly New Yorker, New York magazine, Friday, Saturday and Sunday New York times and different editions of Edible Manhattan, Brooklyn and East End. I totally over did with subscriptions!!! There is just no way I am keeping up with all the reading I signed up for plus on the email announcements for the god knows how many various NYC related websites I signed up for. At some point I am thinking the info will just repeat itself and I won't feel so bad about not reading every article on everything happening in this city. For now, I am taking it at a topographic level, getting the terrain of the land before getting too immersed in the details. I've started tearing out pages of magazines and the newspaper and putting them in a big folder labeled "THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE WE LEAVE NYC"  better yet, I hope to do a lot of these things when friends and family are visiting.

Perhaps once the novelty wears off or the weather gets just awful, I will finally be able to read a list of books I've wanted to read for a very long time. Right now, it just doesn't seem possible. It's kind of silly how I use to do so much when I was working a lot of hours and now that I am not working, I feel like I absolutely do not have enough time in the day to get done all the things I want to do. I am joking with Bob that I don't think I will have time to work for a long time!!  Or really perhaps if I did work, I might actually be more productive with my time. It's a strange life I am living now.........

The Nanny pick up scene at an elementary school on the upper east side--I felt like I was witness to a classic New York moment. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that these were the kids' mothers but it's kind of hard to do that when all the ladies there picking up kids are of very distinct ethnicities while the kids showed not even a hint of biracial or biethnic appearance. There were lines and lines and lines of nannies--so interesting.  It was rather endearing to see all these little ones so happy to see their nannies and walking off hand in hand to the nearby ice cream truck. There was the occasional parent there to pick up their child and one conversation I overheard was a boy asking his dad if he had time to have a piece of pizza with him before going back to the office and then whether he would see him before bedtime. The dad was sweet and answered yes they could have a piece of pizza together before he headed back to the office but he couldn't be as definitive about seeing him before bedtime. 

I thought it would be kind of fun to see how the other half of .01 percent lives so went to the designer shoe floor at Saks Fifth Avenue (it has its own zipcode). The Prada shoes at Saks are absolutely beautiful, practically works of art, I can definitely see the appeal and had to watch that my drool didn't touch the shoes for fear of being made to pay for them. The price tag for a pair of anklet boots was close to $2000, and on a Thursday late morning, this section of the store is full of people--lots with foreign accents. Between checking out the high end stores and perusing the New York Times ads, it's seems that the recession just hasn't touched some people.

9/20/10  Last Friday night I went to a free concert at Bryant Park, it was a 90 minute performance by the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra.  They did a really fabulous review of WAR songs and the lead singers were amazing. It was so much fun and people of all dimensions of diversity were having a very good time of it all.

We took the car out on Saturday to get it tested for the emissions and safety standards required by NY and of course got stuck with a major bill in the process since they "found" a bunch of things wrong with the car.  Some of the stuff I suppose is legitimate since I've not really had much service done to my car in the 8 years I've had it but some was a rip off for sure (I have my ways of knowing).  Anyway, it's done now and hopefully it won't need any more work on it for a while. While we had the car out of the parking garage, we decided to check out the South Bronx Food Coop since I am still yearning for a PCC type of place to grocery shop.  Anyway, going to the Bronx was a real eye opener.  I now have a much better understanding of why it has the reputation that it does. People have to be tough there for a reason. Much of it has to do with how run down it all looks and feels and there is very little relief as you drive through the streets. I don't think I could live there despite my previous statements elsewhere that at least right now, I prefered the grittiness of mid-town to the upper west side. The Bronx makes mid-town seem like the upper west side. It was quite an important experience in really getting to know NYC as a whole and not just Manhattan. The SBXFC was a bust as far as what I was looking for but I have to give them tons of KUDOS for successfully pulling off what they do have in the neighborhood it's located in. They have my total respect if not my business.....ultimately though, even if it had been a great place to shop, it was way too out of the way to have been able to go with any regularity.

I think our only other forays into the Bronx will be to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and to go the NY Botanaical Gardens......supposedly the gardens are one of the most beautiful in the world. We are going for my birthday next weekend.

Later that night we went to the West Village to see a wonderful play at the New School Cherry Pit Theater called the Awesome Dance. The Director and Lighting person are very good friends with our very good friend Paul so that was a cool connection.  The village is such a lovely neighborhood, everytime we are there for whatever reason, it stimulates fantansies of someday owning a flat there. It feels very European. On Sunday we had every intention to explore Chinatown but there was a MILE long street fair going on just outside our apartment running the length of 8th Avenue from 42nd street to 58th Street on both sides. The city shuts down the main avenue and leaves the cross streets open to traffic. These street fairs happen a lot in Manhattan, I had not been to one yet despite their frequency and because this one was literally right out the front door of our apartment building (well okay at the corner) we decided to DO the street fair instead.  It's pretty fun for people watching and eating but there is so much repetition of the booths selling the same t-shirts, dresses, hats, REAL bug key chains, big chunky glass pendants (these were literally about every 100 feet or so), and selling lots of the same food. Every once in a while you would come across a booth selling more unique/original wares. I have to say that the Carribean/Reggie CD booths are a lot of fun to hang out at. The guys who are selling the CDs are really having fun with the music and customers, dancing and singing, and making their very special sales deals JUST FOR YOU!! I liked those booths the very best. We were looking for a good street fair deal (supposedly, the street fair deal is THE cheapest deal you can get) on the NY Times and signed up for the weekend plan for less that $4 a week, that's pretty good considering that just the Sunday edition runs five bucks at the newstands. We even got a NY Times t-shirt and water bottle for signing up. Christmas gifts for the lucky few!

One more thing.........shopping at Macy's at Herald Square (home to the Miracle on 34th Street movie) is crazy.....that place has more deals and discounts than seems possible. They must make a profit on sheer volume of sales because it never seems that you ever pay full price for anything. I never shopped at Macy's in Seattle but it is such an institution here, seems like you just can't not shop at the one here.

I've gotten some important feedback on my blog.....ADD PHOTOS!! Will do as soon as I can figure that out and have the equipment.  BTW almost switched from Blackberry to an IPhone but just couldn't go thru with it........too many fees and added yearly costs. Despite the coolness factor, just couldn't justify it.

I think the diners in NYC are way over rated..........still looking for one with stand out quality....they all just seem pretty much the same despite being voted or touted as THE BEST DINER!!! The search goes on.

9/17/10  Okay, I have to say that I am getting more and more comfortable with not working.....there I admitted it. Now maybe I can start to let go of so much of the guilt I feel knowing only too well how hard my friends and former colleagues are working. I don't expect my unemployed status to last forever but I am finally settling into in a bit more each day for what it has to offer.  I still try to be productive with at least a few things every day be that wrapping up work tasks, errands for Bob, doing things for the apartment, attending to details in getting us settled on all fronts, etc. But the thing I like best about not being so pressed for time and having more energy is that I can finally be a nicer and kinder person. I finally have the time and energy to make positive notice of people's efforts, to be more friendly with people, to say hello and please and thank you more consistently, to be less irritated or actually quite okay if things take longer than I thought they would, to not feel I always have to make a beeline to wherever I am going and instead can stop and cross the street to look at something if it interests me or go completely out of my way on a whim. I've not had that sense of freedom from workaday pressure in so long. I'm sleeping a lot better these days too. I know other people who do all these things even though they work really hard, I just wasn't able to be one of those people. I have a one trackedness about my behavior which can be really good in some ways and not so good in other ways. Anyway, I am learning some important life lessons right now, quite a luxury indeed and I am very thankful for this opportunity.

9/15/10  A wise man told me today that life is a series of iterations.....hmmmm, still wondering what my end result is supposed to be with this iteration

I am already developing a love for the Hudson River. It's one hard working river and even from my apartment window, I see barges, ferries, cruise ships, and the like traversing in one direction or another throughout the day. I know it provides the water source for all that great farming up and down the Hudson River Valley. It helps soothe my view as it forms the backdrop to the skyscrapers and traffic in the forefront. The Hudson Riverwalk is pretty fantastic and we will soon rent bikes to ride along side the Hudson the full north to south Manhattan trek.  Hudson is a really good name for Dave and Jean's son.... I more fully get it now.

One other very fun find that I will also list below in the Things to do in Manhattan section is from the book Darrow gave us, The Back Stage Guide to Broadway by Robert Viagas. It mentioned Shubert Alley situated between West 44th and 45th Streets and Broadway and 8th Ave.  It's hardly an alley as many of us think of alleys...it's really a very cool (and very clean and airy) passage way which is lined with fabulous full sheet posters of most of the plays currently showing on Broadway.  I don't think I would have found it on my own very easily.

Bob and I have really been enjoying the proximity of where we live, work, and play. It makes it very easy to have a date night.  We joined up at Bryant Park last night for the free performance, walked over to check out Shubert Alley and were both quite charmed by it, then headed to dinner at Zen Palate, a good and relatively inexpensive vegetarian restaurant, and then to Amy's Bakery across the street. Amy's is Bob's FAVORITE bakery after having tried probably close to at least half a dozen other bakeries. He's got an internal radar for that place.

9/15/10  During my many walks, I've noticed that the street people tend to be, in general, well read.  I often see them reading a variety of newspapers and having rather indepth conversations with those who stop and chat with them. I may have a  biased view of street people in Seattle because I mainly was exposed to homeless youth on the Ave who were not reading or having indepth conversations.

The other thing that Bob and I have yet to understand is why New Yorkers have such a negative reputation for being rude or cold.  We've not found either to be true at all. People here are, as a whole, very helpful, social, and kind. We had the same experience when travelling in France......we found the French also very warm and friendly and eager to make our experience of travel there a pleasant one. I would say the only time we've found people to be rather aloof and cool and not interested in being helpful is in the big stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.  Customer service is just not a priority in these places while I would say the opposite for Seattle--at least the part about finding help in big stores. Okay, I'm kind of getting my sections a bit blurred now.......it's hard to keep them separate.

9/14/10  Why is it that in Manhattan, I do not have any issue with walking anywhere from 1 to 4 miles to take care of an errand or get to an activity, yet would not have even thought of doing that in Seattle?  I think that walking in Manhattan is really reinforcing because you feel like you are always making so much progress as the numbered streets just keep whizzing by and you are constantly being given feedback on your progress to reaching your goal. I like it! I think too that there is so much stimulation and visual distraction that it's easy to get caught up in the sights and be at your destination before you know it.  Walking here is as much process oriented as it is goal directed.

9/11/10  On Saturday while out succumbing to the many temptations NYC has to offer and trying desperately to keep the indulgences down to only 2 a day, I saw a young boy, maybe only 4 or 5 years old at the most, singing rather loudly but very much in tune with the song Empire State of Mind--the part that Alicia Keys sings as the refrain that was being played in a shoe store.  It was really great--he was so into it, already a true New Yorker, born and bred!  He had found his theme song.

Major concerning observation--money flies out of your pocket at incredible speed! It's like the streets have a magnetic force and vacuum sucking power unknown to me before. It's always best to leave with the apartment with no credit card, no debit card, and only 20 bucks and a metro card!

9/13/10  Yikes!  I've only been really living here for less than a week and I already have a pet peeve!  When I am out taking my granny cart for whirl to get groceries or whatever, it really bugs me when there are two or more people standing right at the corner curb with clearly no intention to cross in either direction. They've just decided to plant themselves there and chat it up while taking up precious passing space or access to the curb ramp for easy rolling up and down the curb when crossing streets.  What's up with that? (I hope, some of you at least, are now free associating to the SNL skit with that line being the center piece---I love that series of skits).

Also I think there should be separate lanes on all the sidewalks, one for people who live in the city and want to get to places in a timely fashion and the other for people who are just making a day for themselves getting to know NYC.  I would certainly be a high user of each depending on the day and activity.