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!