It's the little things that can really make my day.........

It's been an interesting last few days. Last week, Morgan Stanley displayed on their multi-story electronic ticker tape, which is situated in the middle of Times Square, the names of all the employees who volunteered with community projects over the last year. Bob's name came across around 4:20pm on Friday afternoon. I met Bob there in Times Square with my camera to capture the moment. I mean how often do you get your name flashed on a huge ticker tape in Times Square.  I was so ready to capture the moment that I had my camera targetted to the ticker tape too long and the camera screen went to sleep....and because I don't know how to work my camera very well I got rattled and wound up missing the shot. I got the beginning and the end but not centered. Bob and I had a good laugh over my ineptness with the camera. People are just going to have to trust that there is no one named obert Treder and Robert is followed by Treder.  Check out my photo gaffes below.

Later that evening, we had a fun dinner with friends at a vegan restaurant in Chelsea called Blossom.  These friends are not vegan or vegetarian but live right across the street from this restaurant and had been wanting to try it. It was a good choice for us to try as we continue to find a place we like as much as Carmelita's in Seattle. Overall, the appetizers were the BEST, really well done and creative.  I had raw sweet potato wraps filled with various julienned vegetables with a dipping sauce and Bob had mushrooms in phyllo dough on a bed of pesto sauce.  The main entrees were good but I would say that my vegetable mezze was rather uninspired.  I thought the chef would have done more creative preparations since this is a vegetarian restaurant. I could have prepared the vegetables the way they came. After dinner, they also introduced us to Billy's bakery and cued me in that in NYC cupcakes are all about the frosting and not about the cake which explains why all the ones that are promoted and awarded to be really fantastic have been a huge disappointment to me. The ones I've tried based on rave reviews have all been really dried out. Furthernmore, I am not a big frosting fan so I usually scrape it off and toss it. Who knew I was defying the laws of NYC cupcakes. I had a great piece of chocolate cake from Billy's which just begs the question as to why can't they just shrink it for a cupcake? Anyway, still in search of what I would rate as a really good moist cupcake and have others on the look out as well. I think I am going to write to the NY Times restaurant guy and see if he will answer my inquiry of where to find a really great cupcake where the operative word is CAKE. Our next dining adventure with these friends will be to Pure Food and Wine--a very well known raw vegan restaurant. It's gotten really great reviews by carnivores and non-carnivores alike and exuberantly recommended by Bob's nephew and his wife (both big meat eaters) who loved it so much they bought the cookbook and have been enjoying preparing the recipes. 

We spent a few hours on Saturday late afternoon early/evening volunteering at Mother's Kitchen which is a free hot meal program organized by devotees of Amma here in the New York City area.  I had a very wonderful seva (selfless service assignment) which was standing at the entrance door to greet people coming and going, helping them get up and down the steep stairwell leading down to the church hall, carrying their carts or bags up and down the stairs as needed. It was great because even though it is supposed to be selfless volunteering, I wound up getting so much from the many people who came to partake in the meal. Lots and lots of "God Bless You"s, thankful handshakes, hugs, a couple of kisses,and lots of smiles. It was very touching. We won't be able to do it again until probably June or July given our travel and visitor schedule but we already look forward to helping out again.

On Sunday we attended an all day retreat with Br. Dayamrita, one of Amma's chief bramacharis. It was a good gathering of Amma devotees and we've finally started to make some solid inroads in getting to know people and connecting with key people in the NY satsang so as to be more involved with the tour when Amma comes to NYC and for helping with special events as they happen, similar to what we were doing in Seattle. Br. Dayamrita has become noticeably more relaxed, funny, and comfortable in imparting Amma's teachings. There was a lot of wisdom amongst the stories he shared and the answers he gave to questions asked from devotees. We were able to mingle more comfortably having met several devotees at the Queen's Satsang and at Mother's Kitchen.

On Monday I went to my first lab meeting at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and received my official ID badge. I was so happy to get my ID Badge. I've worn one for so long in my work at Children's that it was a very grounding and a wonderfully familiar experience. I was really happy to get it. It was quite interesting to observe the dynamic of this rather large fMRI lab meeting. The project I am working on is a very small study relative to the number of studies being conducted in this lab.  The dysfunction and challenges of making progress in data collection, subject recruitment, equipment failure, writing papers, etc must be universal to all university settings. I am just glad to be in the role of a minion rather than a principal investigator. For now, I am quite happy to mostly have a back seat in all of this. I also got my automatic refilling metro card yesterday. We'd been mostly walking to the majority of our outings but now that I'm needing to get up to 168th more regularly it's great to not have to worry about whether I have enough fare on my card.

I've been busy getting us scheduled to see a number of plays over the next several months: That Championship Season, Good People, The Importance of Being Earnest, House of Blue Leaves.  I need to still buy tickets for a play for when my mom visits. We will probably go see the Lion King or Phantom of the Opera or maybe both, or maybe Billy Elliott.  I am also wanting to schedule Avenue Q for sometime in July.

We got a bookcase delivered for the guest room tonight. The only things left to buy are a filing cabinet and a tall floor lamp. The lighting is terrible in the guest room.  Little by little we continue getting our lives together here in NYC.