Pandemic Diaries - Year 3 - New York New York

 15 May 2023 

The car is repaired, our bags are almost packed, and we're nearly out the door.  Or maybe we'll be out the door on Wednesday.

But we have our little car back, looking all new and shiny, and proud of his new mirror.  And we have adventures to report from New York, so one more blog before we hit the road.

 

On day six of our visit, I met up with a friend and we went out to Long Island, to visit a friend of hers (dating back to childhood).  This friend is a professional artist who has done amazing work using chemicals and heat or just natural humidity to create her art.  It was incredible to see what she has done, some of it conceptional, some more representational.  And always fascinating to meet an artist and talk about their intentions versus what I see and think might be the meaning.  It was a wonderful afternoon and on into the evening, very intellectually stimulating!

 

The next day was Sunday, and I think Richard and I both were ready for another quiet day exploring our neighborhood and taking things slow.  We were supposed to meet a friend, but that didn't quite work out.  I thought about going to a museum, but it was chilly and wet and again, it just didn't seem like the day for that.  Unexciting, but we enjoyed our somewhat posh hotel (at least, posh for us), reading our e-readers and hot drinks, and the free food delivery that seems to be a New Yorker's right. 

Monday dawned clear and sunny, and was supposed to be the warmest day of the week.  I took the opportunity to walk up to Central Park and ride the carousel.  I passed tons of carriages with live (and smelly) horses, and turned down all offers of rides.  (I'm quite allergic to the real kind of horses.)  Had a lovely walk through the southern section of Central Park.  

 

Just a few statistics:  Central Park is 1.37 square miles, and is roughly 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide.  That would be 4 km long, .8 km wide, and 3.5 sq km in area.  This is the first landscaped park in the US, and work began in 1853.  I've been told that at least one of every tree or bush indigenous to the US is planted in Central Park, but I wouldn't swear to it.

 

I always enjoy the juxtaposition of the lush park with the ever-taller skyscrapers surging upward in the background.  Really, some of the newer buildings look more like monoliths than buildings where people might work or live!

 

My destination is always the carousel.  This is one of those fabulous huge carousels with 100 year old hand-carved-and-decorated horses, no molded plastic in sight.  The horses all have their heads thrown back or to the side and they gallop, frolic, and cavort their way around the circle.

 

I splurged and bought two rides, so I could try two different horses.  I've always gone for the largest horses, which are on the outside of the circle.  Bigger horse, longer ride.  As long as I could get up and then back down off the horse, fine - even though the tails usually managed to knock one sandal off my foot.  If I could reach the stirrups, fine, it fit.

 

But between approaching age 70 in a bit over a year, not wanting to lose a sandal, and having one hand still recuperating from surgery, I thought maybe it was time to learn a lesson from those sandals flying off.  Maybe it was time to choose a smaller horse.  I do hate succumbing to age and/or reason, but, well, discretion being the better part of valor and all that.  I went with smaller horses.  Still the up-and-down bounding horses, but toward the inner part of the carousel.

I rode a lovely jet black for my first ride, then moved to an appaloosa for my second.  The carousel operator looked at me quizzically, and I explained that I paid for two rides but still had one ticket on me.  He collected it, and proceeded to smile at me every time I circled around.  I guess not too many people splurge on a second ride.  (It was hardly a splurge, each ride is only $3.50.  Though for a child, that is a sizeable amount.)

My favorite horse, though, is one of the largest and I've never had a chance to ride him.  He's a charging stallion wearing Medieval (or Roman?) armor, a truly gallant steed shining in the sunlight!  One of the most gorgeous horses on the carousel!!

I wandered the city a bit more, and had a delightful lunch at the French restaurant Rue 57.  (It's on the corner of West 57th and 8th.)  Have the black truffle omelette, it is amazing!!!

I walked by the Petrossian building, built in 1907 to 1909.  According to the sign on the building, the ornate exterior is made from clay tiles using molds for the repeating patterns, fired and glazed.  There are dragons!!!  Really, dragons guarding the front door!!!  Okay, the sign says they're salamanders, symbol of Francis I, patron of Renaissance art, but these are fire breathing dragons with scales on their backs, not amphibians with water-absorbant skin!

Anyway, it was a splurging kind of a day!

Oh, there's always something to look at and talk about in New York.  I was on my way back to our hotel, walking by Carnegie Hall.  There was a woman maybe my age, maybe a bit older, walking across the street in the opposite direction I was heading.  She was wearing a hot pink top and shorts, with matching swim cap and fins.  Seriously, walking in hot pink fins.  But from her shoulders to her fingertips, her body was wrapped in bright blue plastic rope.  She was just walking, staring straight ahead, stone-faced.

As I reached the opposite sidewalk, I turned to look at her from the back.  I noticed a younger woman whip out her phone and take a photo.  I asked her, "So, what kind of statement do you think she is making?"  She laughed and said she didn't know, what did I think she meant to say?  I replied that I had absolutely no clue.  We both laughed, and that was our entire interaction.

But I'm still thinking about the rope-wrapped woman.  SO many questions!  How did she even get the rope around herself?  There were no hanging pieces!  How did she get out of a building?  How does someone even walk along a street while wearing swim fin????  What does it all mean????

Yeah, welcome to New York.

Tuesday was our cram-in-everyone-else day - breakfast with a friend and old college friend of Richard's, who has visited us when we lived in St. Thomas.  She's doing interesting volunteer work with the Audubon Society in the city, some of which includes mitigating the impact of all these huge glass megalithic buildings have on migrating birds.  Always interesting to talk to her!

In the evening we met up with my two nephews who live a bit north of the city but whose jobs are based here - wonderful young men, always a delightful to see them!  (All the joys of children but zero work for us - we love being aunt and uncle!)  We had a three hour meal back at Rue 57 - burgers for the men, and tagliatelle with black truffles for me.  Yes, I am addicted to black truffles.  Not that we ate for three hours, we probably lingered for an hour just talking and laughing and catching up on life!

Our ten days in New York were over much too soon - we made it to Penn Station to catch our train to Philadelphia, and then hopped on a commuter train back to NJ.  We're winding up the east coast portion of the spring, and will be heading west shortly.

But New York is always a delightful interlude.  We have so many friends and family in the metropolitan area, and there is always something interesting happening.  As well as delicious food.

We'll be back!

Pandemic Diaries - Year 3 - A New York State of Mind (sorry, Billy Joel)

5 May 2023

I know, I somehow missed April.  Between physical therapy sessions twice a week for me (plus daily at home), and Richard going to PT three times a week, we were just busy.  Then re-packing all of our stuff, and cleaning our cute little St. Augustine house, the month just sped by.  Before we knew it, we needed to either drive north, or figure out another option.  (We did have a few beach visits, so enjoy the sunny photos.)

My hand really was not ready for driving some thousand plus miles, not even for sharing that trip.  So Richard and I decided sure, let's try the train again, maybe it will be better with a larger room and not on Christmas Eve.  We splurged for the full size room, twice the size of the "roomette," so we could spread out a bit more.  And the upper bunk actually had a ladder!  I could even crawl on my hands and knees on that upper bunk.  However, it's still a two-inch-thick pad on a metal plank, and while it might be fun for a child, it isn't optimal for a senior citizen.  Oh well, it saved us about sixteen hours of driving, so we were happy.  (I've included a few photos from the train, so you can see our room.  If we ever do the auto train again, we might need to just book two roomettes - at least that is the thin pad on top of seat cushions, so it's a bit softer than that upper bunk.)

We spent a week in New Jersey with S & J, my in-laws (Richard's brother and sister-in-law).  Richard had a minor car accident in which the right mirror was knocked off, so we needed to leave the car to get that repaired.  (Just as well, parking in New York city is always an issue.)  But we all had a big family event in Philadelphia, so off we went for a family weekend.  It was a wonderful double Bat Mitzvah, where two cousins who are best friends did a beautiful job reading from the Torah, we saw tons of cousins, in-laws, nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces and -nephews.  Lots of dancing, almost as much talking, and even a bagel brunch the next morning.

It turned into a rainy weekend, but Richard and I headed to New York City for a little ten day break, and that's where we are right now.  It's been cold and rainy, but we're managing with layers and raincoats.  We're staying in a nice hotel somewhat north of Times Square, somewhat midtown south of Central Park.  I haven't gone over to ride the carousel yet, but will definitely do that before we leave.

 

Actually, we wandered around our neighborhood our first day, and just enjoyed the city.  We both grew up close enough for city visits, and Richard lived here for years.  So we both have familiar places to visit, and favorite foods we want to eat.

 

On our second day, I had an appointment with one of my favorite hairdressers.  Yes, I know, not everyone maintains hairdressers in more than one location around the world.  But my hair grows shaggy rather quickly, and certain stylists seem to do better with my hair than others.  So my guy George, here in New York, gave me a fabulous cut four years ago.  He's at the same salon, and they were able to book an appointment.  Turns out he also remembered me (I was surprised, I don't feel memorable!), and I now have another great cut from him.  We both seemed to click as friends, and enjoyed catching up on each other's travels.  It was a wonderful afternoon on the Upper West Side, and an easy subway ride there and back.  (In my lifetime, subways have shifted from tokens to ride cards, and now cardless rides!  Just swipe a debit or credit card with a chip over the reader, and off you go through the turnstile!  Contactless rides, and SO much faster than a taxi!)

Day three, we had lunch with Richard's cousin, who came in from Long Island.  Lots of talk, lots of eating, and even more laughing.  We have an amusing selfie from his phone, and the photo is on both our phones.  But we're both low-tech people and have zero clue how to get the photo from a flip-phone to a computer, so no, I can't post it here.

I spent day four with a friend down in the Lower East Side, or at least what used to be the Lower East Side.  Neighborhoods shift, boundaries blur, and we're never quite sure.  Anyway, another easy subway ride - our hotel is well-located!  We met at Katz's deli, which opened in 1888, according to one of the employees!  We both had my favorites, a bowl of matzoh ball soup (delicious), a slice of cheesecake (a little slice of heaven), and a Dr. Brown's diet soda (cream soda for me, of course).  We ended up sitting next to an Italian family, so I had a small conversation in my minimal Italian, and helped the little girl build a tower out of napkin holders and condiment bottles.  We said our arrivedercis, and headed to The New Museum.  They had an interesting exhibit showing varied works by Wangechi Mutu, a Kenyan artist who went to school in the US.  Her works are in a variety of media, often mixed, and explore themes of life, death, exploitation, creation, and a synthesis of human/animal/mythical/mechanical bodies.  Yes, hard to describe.  That's why museum educators are so essential!  We had a wonderful educator show us around, and she led us through discussions trying to explore, interpret, and understand what the artist was saying through these artworks.  Then we had time in the museum's studio where we could create mini collage sculptures that were our synthesis of some of the themes of Wangechi Mutu's artwork.  (We started with little boxes - I cut and reshaped my box so it came out like a mini Carnival parade float with a canopy.  I made the outside all pink and frilly, and inside the canopy was reflective silver with a plastic beetle.  It was sort of playing with external societal stereotypes of what is feminine, with all the typical frilly pink, and the internal feelings which don't conform to those norms, and might even include such "masculine" behaviors as liking insects (gasp!).  Playing with what qualifies as feminine and masculine, and trying to blur those lines.  Because none of us are all one or the other, and who defines what is masculine or feminine anyway?)  It was fun, and if I lived in New York I'd be able to attend similar workshops at quite a few museums around the city - that would be wonderful!!!

Today is our fifth day here in the city, and we opted to make it a slow day.  Our backs and knees are tired, we're no longer as young as we feel we are inside, and it's another chilly day.  So, a little more exploring our neighborhood, and a little more relaxing.  At least I have time to catch up on blogging!

 

Our next five days include more meet ups with family and friends, more wanderings, and of course more eating.  We've enjoyed the diverse menus of the city, ranging from Jewish American to Irish pub food to Asian to Italian trattorias.  And the occasional French patisserie.

No celebrity sightings yet, but I will keep you posted!