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!
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