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..............
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