My weekend in the Big Apple

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit my folks in NYC (linked to whole album) this past weekend.  This was my first trip ever to the Big Apple and I was excited.  I flew out on Frontier airlines Thursday evening and by some odd twist of fate, I was in first class! or *stretch seating*, as they call it.  Arriving safe and sound in NYC later that evening, I had my first experience at the Taxi Stand and it was a lot less stressful then Chicago, I can tell you that.  Speeding away on the highway I tried to absorb as much of the sights as I could even though it was dark and I had no idea where we were going.  *laugh*  

 



I was dropped off in front of my folks apartment building where I was instantly hit with the feeling of being peered down upon by the concrete giants towering over me.  Up the elevator and down the hall brought me to their door where I was finally able to sit down and relax in comfort.  Exploring their apartment while they were making their way home from the show, revealed a cute, comfortable, and compact home just perfect for the weekend.  

The next morning dawned clear and cool so mom and I strapped on our walkin' shoes and headed to Central Park.  I had no idea that #1 they were blocks from the park, and #2 that it is so large!  We only walked a few blocks of it before having to turn around to go back and get ready for the day but seeing it made me happy that those living in concrete jungles have protected green spaces like that.  

 

After Central Park we all got dressed for the day and set out to the subway.  Pushing my father in his wheelchair because of his bum knee certainly made for a good workout while I was there, but I'm still paying for it ;)  So anyways, we made it to the subway and caught a train to Ground Zero.  What an awe inspiring area.  Seeing what is being built in it's place and how far it has progressed was awesome.  The church/chapel across the street that became a source of comfort and security for all of the workers and volunteers brought tears to my eyes.  It was very humbling and I'm glad I got to see it first hand.  

Lunch at the Amish Market then a subway ride to our next stop for the Staten Island Ferry to go see the "Big Green Lady", as I called her *laugh* was next.  That was a refreshing change of pace to ride the ferry to Staten Island and back even though it was raining outside.  It was pretty cloudy across Ellis Island and Jersey, so the pictures don't do the ol' gal justice, but she was pretty impressive to see regardless.












After our jam packed morning, we pushed dad back to the subway and back up the street to the apartment to rest up for my first real Broadway show; "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert".  IT WAS AWESOME!!!  I can't even begin to put into words how fierce, stunning, awesome, and entertaining this show was.  I was thoroughly in love with "Felicia" by the end of the night and my glitter T-strap heels were *just* the shoe for the event.  I highly recommend you go see this show, or rent the movie.  Awesome, awesome, awesome. :)

Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm and I had a date with Physique57.  I've been working out with these dvd's for quite a while now and I figured since there was a studio not far from their apartment that I would try a "live" class!  I was super stoked about the opportunity, and while it did make my muscles shake, taking the live class reiterated to me that I am *so* not a live class girl.  I much prefer my dvd's at home in my room by myself where I can work up a good sweat without lots of people around or an instructor moving my body in ways it won't move.  I was glad I took the class but probably could have slept in instead *laugh*.  
  
Anyways, after that we all had a date with a theater legend, Mr. Tony Walton.  In case you didn't know, my dad's kind of a big deal in the theater world and is writing a book about Mr. Walton which is why they are in New York right now.  So we moseyed over to Tony's impressive apartment in a grand old apartment building where I got to meet the legend, along with three of his friends;

"Mr. Oscar" 
 












"Miss Emmy", 
 












 and the other "Tony's". 
Mr. Walton was an incredibly kind and warm man and I enjoyed listening to his stories as he and my dad chatted.  







After our date with a theater legend, we had a quick lunch at a neighborhood eatery then mom took me to the grocery store.  *Honest moment here...* This experience reinforced to me that I can't ever live in a big city like NYC.  That grocery store really pushed me to my limit.  I feel I move pretty quickly around our grocery store but I move at a snails pace compared to the New Yorkers with their little half baskets zipping around.  I can't count the number of people that I probably ticked off as I got in their way trying to maneuver through the close packed aisles.  I think this is also where my exhaustion level peaked.  We'd already had a full morning of maneuvering the streets and subway with dad and his chair, then through the grocery store, then walking the groceries home down the street to the apartment, up the elevator and down the hall to put them away.  I was worn out by the time we were done but wanted to go to the art fair @ Lincoln Center so off mom and I went.
 
Whew.  We should've stayed at the apartment instead.  We got over to Lincoln Center and it became pretty apparent to me pretty quickly that I was fading...*fast*.  Mom generously realized this when I didn't want to do any shopping and quickly took me home so I could take a nap before the Mary Poppins show that evening.  Second trip into Times Square that evening, and that was more than enough.  The crush of people is ridiculous and the feeling of being hemmed in by tall concrete giants is a touch overwhelming for this midwest, open sky kind of girl.  A little souvenir shopping and a long walk back through the mass of people brought us to Mary Poppins.  Unfortunately for Mary she did not capture my attention like Priscilla did, but it was still a good show.  

Sunday morning we went to the High Line which is a garden walk-way if you will.  From what mom and dad told me it used to be an elevated train, went defunct, then the city wanted to tear it down and some citizens bought it instead and transformed it into a nice walkway with sunning benches, a water area for kids, native/wild grasses & plants, and a shaded tunnel area to get out of the sun.  We dropped dad off and went walking around the Garment District, which was also the Meat packing district? Not sure, I get confused.  Anways, we walked around past all the big wig fashion stores (Diane Von Furstenburg, Alexander McQueen, etc, etc) and I quickly realized that not only were these things not my style at all, but *way* out of my price range.  I'll admit I got a touch irritated because I was bit by the shopping bug and it wasn't being appeased so we went and picked up dad and pushed our way *back* to the subway (oh my back is aching just remembering *laugh*) to go back Uptown to the street fair off of 86th street.

 

Finally some shopping I could afford!  I meandered up and down the street fair a couple of times looking at all the booths while mom and dad enjoyed some lunch and watched the people trying on straw hats.  (Blog forthcoming) I picked up four dresses, four necklaces, two pairs of earrings, and had some fantastic sweet potato fries.  We made our way back to the apartment (via cab this time) to rest up for dinner at dad's favorite restaurant in Greenwich (sp?) Village.  Fabulous food in a quaint little restaurant rounded out the day then a victory lap on the subway finished up the evening.  

Monday morning mom and I walked along a different side of Central Park to 5th avenue to see the Plaza Hotel, St. Paul (or maybe it was Patrick)'s cathedral, Rockefeller square and the like.  After about an hour or so I had to give u.  I was hot, my back was crunched, and I had fully reached my saturation point with all the people so I pleaded with mom to go back to the apartment.  A short run through another grocery store then the drugstore where we bought some Tiger Balm patches and back to the apartment we went.  I plastered all 5 of those suckers on, made myself a nice little bed on the floor and was promptly asleep.  

After a jam-packed and turbulent flight, we touched down in KC right before they shut down the airport and diverted all remaining flights to Saint Louis.  *Thank you to our former Navy pilot who "beat the storm" to get us to KC!*  Tim was waiting for me in the terminal and it was so nice to see his smiling face.  I couldn't stop smiling the whole way home as I looked up at the wide open sky and the trees rushing by on the highway.  Buck and Lilly joyously welcomed me back into the fold and I think I've finally recovered from my whirlwind trip.

Thanks a million to my folks for flying me out there and entertaining me for the weekend.  I had a great time and will come again to visit...but not live.  I'm a midwest girl at heart.  Love ya! 

A whirl-wind weekend in Chicago!

I spent a fast and fun three days in Chicago (and surrounding areas) with old friends and "family".  It was wonderful seeing those old faces, and getting those hugs.  Nothing better.  

I landed Friday morning at about 9am or so.  My most stressful task was ahead of me as soon as I landed.  I had to navigate O'Hare airport on my own;  get my bag, find the train, buy a ticket, get on the train with my bag, get off on the correct stop, *hail a cab* (when the truck have I *ev-er* hailed a cab), and then take a cab ride to Greg's place.  Sounds simple enough right?  *Right.*  I successfully completed all of my tasks in a confident fashion, I thought, right down to hailing a cab.  I got in the cab and said exactly what I was told to say.  The cabbie stars driving and has to ask *me* where that is.  Cheese and Rice.  I *had* to pick the only farking cab driver in Chicago that didn't know how to get to Greg's apartment.  This is awesome.  Finally after a phone call by me, and a look in his book, he got me there and it was still under $10. 

 


I spent the day with Greg mainly at his swanky pad, just chillin', mainly.  We went to "Urban Burger Barn" for lunch, and passed this sign that struck me as extremely funny.  So much so that I had to take a picture on the way back!  Make sure to Unleash your clients before parking! *laugh*






Then Ben *Po*Tatar picked me up in his Prius, and it happened to also be my first ride ever in one of those cars.  Pretty interesting and fancy.  :)  We scooted the short distance to Ben's pad where I walked into a wicked cool house infused with the very essence of my friend.  Very neat.  Pizza, pajamas, and catching up was right in order for the evening.  I introduced Ben to the show "Ghost Adventures", and he introduced me to pizza topped with mashed potatoes.  *I know right?!*  Believe me when I say it was amazing.  I wish I would have taken a picture of that pizza, and of mine as well.  I had a "white" pizza with chicken, spinach, and artichokes (the mashed potato and sausage pizza was a "red" pizza).  I recommend trying The Piece pizza if you're ever in that area.  Good food.

Saturday morning allowed us both to sleep in, and then another first (this trip was full of them!), Dunkin' Donuts coffee.  In all the years I've lived, I've never had DD coffee.  I can't even tell you the last time I had one of their doughnuts.  The powdered, chocolate filled ones were my favorite.  I might have to rectify this situation some Saturday or Sunday morning here soon. :)  After getting coffee and getting dressed, we walked down to "the bongo room" to have brunch with the Tatar clan.  "Ma and Pa" Tatar, and also Jenny and her husband Bill.  Talk about being overjoyed at seeing some people.  I can't even begin to explain how special this family is too me.  They are so loving, welcoming, friendly, interesting, funny, kind, on and on and on.  I wish I saw them more often, but it was so special to have those precious hours with them and Ben.  Onto the bongo room...

The bongo room is apparently *the place* to get brunch on a Saturday afternoon, and I can see why.  The food was amazing.  We all got our protein dish, I had the "Tomatillo Salsa Scramble", with multi-grain toast, then three "sweets" were ordered for the table.  

There was the banana caramel pancake

The berries and cream pancake; I think that's what it was called.  Quite frankly it was so heavenly that I kind of tuned everyone out and had a mini-love affair with it. 

Then the piece de resistance...the chocolate tower of french toast.  *Chocolate French Toast people!*  This is craziness!  Oh but it was soooo good.    

I had a Raspberry and Pear Mimosa to drink.  It wasn't quite what I expected, but it was good.  

After brunch, Ben took me on a train ride into the city where we walked around in the cold, drippy, foggy weather to Millennium park where we saw the Pavillion, the "Bean", and the waterfall art sculptures.  The fog was fantastic as we walked around the city to the Chicago river, and the Trump tower.  A view of the marquee for the CHICAGO theatre rounded out the trip.  It was a fabulous day with yucky weather but that's okay. 

Sunday finally brought me back into the company of my friend Niki.  She is expecting her first child, a boy, with her hubby Josh and I couldn't be more thrilled for them.  Her and I met in college, a tragedy brought us closer, and she's one of those people in my life who may be far away and I may not see as often as I'd like, but is always in my thoughts.  Her shower was filled with love and stylish gifts (that little boy's gonna be one well dressed little dude!) to make sure this baby boy has a good start in life.  After her shower, we went to the local mall to just walk around, shop, and catch up before going to the airport.  It was wonderful filling the time chatting away with my old friend but bittersweet when it was time to go.  

As they say, all good things must come to an end, and on Sunday evening, my whirlwind weekend in Chicago came to an end as Niki dropped me off at the madhouse that is O'Hare airport and I boarded the plane home bound to Kansas City.  I hope to go back at some point after the baby is born to see this wonderful creation in action as well as the mother and father that created it, and of course to see the Tatar's.  :)   

The week in review

The first week back after break is always the hardest.  I was thoroughly exhausted by the time school was over Thursday but I still had 6 hours yet to go.  Tuesday passed in an energy soaked blur, Wednesday settled down to the pace of the grind, Thursday capped it off with a 16 and a half hour day with Friday rounding it out by spending it at the hospital with my husband and mother-in-law awaiting news on my father-in-law's progress.  

It was certainly a face-smacking, reality inducing way to re-enter normal life.  Not just because of the re-entry into school and the craziness that brings with it; but the news of my FIL's (father-in-law) heart and how serious a situation that truly was and how lucky he truly is.  He had a nuclear stress test earlier this month and while his heart was functioning fine, it didn't "recover" like it should have from the test so they wanted to take a look.  Come to find out he was 99% blocked in the main artery, and had to have six stents...did you hear me?  *SIX* stents put in the main artery of his heart, then one in each of the remaining three within a couple of weeks.  

*WOW*

Tim did the math on it and figured he was getting something like 9% of his blood running through his heart at any given time.  No wonder his legs were always cold and his fingers tingled.  Thankfully the doctor said that any and all damage that has been done is trivial and will be completely reversed once the remaining 3 arteries are opened up and the blood really starts pumping.  In the meantime his legs are warmer, his fingers don't tingle and his breathing is better; all in all a good situation.

The hardest part is going to be the diet change, for my MIL especially because she is going to have to revamp the way she prepares the food my FIL eats which is going to go against a lifetime way of thinking and doing.  I think this is my chance to lend a little wisdom to my in-laws and help them through the transition to eating healthier.  In reality it's just simple changes they have to make; ground turkey instead of beef, olive oil instead of crisco, smart balance butter instead of butter, dark leafy greens instead of iceberg, whole grains instead of white, more water instead of pop, and unsweetened tea instead of sweet.  Much like my sister having to revamp her lifetime of cooking a certain way due to my nephew's food allergies, my MIL will have to do the same for my FIL.  

"Well I figure I got to live 69 and a half years eating what I want, so if it has to change I guess that's allright"

I'm glad he has a good attitude about it and even though it was unfortunate this happened, I'm glad it did.  I hope it brings us all around to a little more awareness of what we put inside of our bodies.  I figure that at this point it's all about living instead of eating or working.  Hence why I'm not going back to GC; this life needs to be lived and enjoyed and I can't do that working 7 days a week.  This is also why we can't enjoy it being overweight and out of shape so here's why I hope a tremendous amount of good can come out of this situation for my entire family.  I hope it spurs my husband to take better care of himself, I hope it spurs my in-laws into action to change and trickles down the chain of the family.  

A healthier year would make for a better year for all of us.

Namaste