Day 2...Lady Liberty!

Day two brought a harsh cold snap to NYC. Sunny, but damn cold. One look at the weather for the rest of the week and we decided to attempt to do any outdoor activities. We decided to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. After a VERY long line for security, we boarded the boat to Liberty Island. Rohit was gimping it, cuz he an old man and has "the gout"

One thing I wish I had pictures of was the interesting assortment of entertainers that were working the line for the ferry. First there was an African American gentleman wearing a rainbow wig and playing guitar. The most painful part of that was his attempting to get audience participation. Ouch. Next section of the line had a man playing steel drums, which is fine except he was playing TV theme songs. Mission Impossible on the steel drums. Ahhh, my life is complete. Lastly...not here is where it start to slack...was a Hispanic man signing along to a CD on a portable stereo. The song seemed sad and I wanted to belt out "Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta y no llores" which is "Sing, don't cry" in Spanish, but I held back.














Sadly, we didn't have enough time to make it to Ellis Island. I suppose it just gives us something to do next time.

We then made our way back into the city for a stop at Dylan's Candy Bar...which was at the top of Josh's list of things to do. Decked out for Easter, it was insanely expensive but very cool. There is NO way this Polack is buying Fireballs and Lemonheads for $10.99/lb. Even with a 50% off coupon, and I do love my coupons. We did buy 4 INCREDIBLE cupcakes, that we all cut up and shared over the next few days.







With our cupcakes to go, we traveled to a Mexican place that is a favorite of mine and Rohit's. By this point Josh was dragging. We made it back to the hotel to fall into a coma for the night, dreaming of decadent cupcakes.

You lika DVDs??

Onward into our NYC adventures! Our first full day found us at ABC studios and sneaking in some pictures of Josh on the People's Court set. Since the crew was all around we could not take pictures the way I would have liked but Rohit got a few shots in for me on his iPhone. God bless technology!







And then onward to Chinatown. Home of fish markets and whispers of bootleg movies. Since bootlegs are illegal..they are not out in the open to buy, but as you walk through the crowds you hear " you lika DVD movie??" and a person is willing to wisk you away to a dark corner to show you what they are offering. Me??? Noooooo..nope, never...uh uh. Okay..but the ones I bought sucked. Okay? Happy??




Crappy, cheap fans and out-dated Chinese New Year stuff, anyone??







Rohit had been limping along all day with us, I think suffering from some food poisoning from the Thai resturant the night before. I felt badly dragging him in and out of cabs and up and down Chinatown all day...he was a real tropper.

Chinatown is starting to encroach Little Italy. They make for interesting bed fellows. We ate in Little Italy. Well, Josh and I did..Rohit spent most of it in the bathroom. Classy.


I am not sure you are suppose to eat a meatball the size of your head.


My kid and my ailing Gay.



I know, I know...way too sexy a picture. I don't know what I was thinking.

Rohit stopped into see a Chinese herbalist who gave him some herbs to cure puking and such. And me with my deaf ears had to translate between the Chinese man and the Indian. Talking every day to doctors from every land has helped me hone that skill. And as typically happens, the man thought we were a family. Yeah that olive skinned Indian made the whitest kid in America! Please now. Not only does that give me the heebee geebees but honestly that is hilarious!

We got back to the hotel to settle in for the night, let Rohit go home to rest ( or puke) and Josh and I just enjoyed our king size bed before collapsing for the next 9 hours. Isn't my kid flippin' adorable??

I'll take State Capitals for $1000 please, Alex.

So my five-year old is very strange at times and so completely random. This morning we are watching the Sesame Street movie " Follow that Bird" At one point he looks at me and says " Hey mom, I have a question"

"Okay, shoot, Sammy" And I am thinking it will be a question about the movie. Silly me.

"What is the capital of South Dakota?"

"I'm sorry. What, Sammy?"

"Mom, what is the capital of South Dakota. Come on. This isn't hard"

"Ummm...I dunno...Bismark?"

"WRONG ANSWER!! Pierre! Man, you got it WRONG!"

There you go. A lesson in geography from a five year old. I am deeply shamed. I will never be on Jeopardy now. And Alex is such a Canadian hunk.

There will now be a return to writing about my NYC adventures. Thank you!

NYC adventures, or a slow moving train.

So in an attempt to remember all we did and saw in NYC, I will chronicle it here, as best I can.

So let's see... I used Priceline to get a fabulous deal on a hotel room. A very nice Holiday Inn Express, with free hot breakfast and free ( though often crummy) internet. Great location. Very good service. We decided to take the train, which is about a 8-9 hour ride each way. I upgraded us to "Viewliner" sleeper room. I knew I was working the night before we left so I thought it would be a good idea to be able to sleep for a few hours in private. The night before I left, work was pretty boring. I had one patient and the open "code bed" I was sure to get all my work done quickly. Now, typically I am a talker and terrible at charting. I get my patient care done, but I hate writing out my charts. B-O-R-I-N-G. But Saturday night I was on the ball. I made sure my mother was going to be out on time too. We drove in together. I even sent the supervisor up to make sure she was getting her rounds done on time. If my co-workers saw her in the hallway, she would say "Tell Heidi I am done with midnight rounds before anyone else started them! I will be out on time!" My mother is one fabulous nurse and due to her being quite conscientious and sensitive, she often gets behind due to being pulled into impromptu therapy sessions and the like. And, like me, she knows EVERYONE, so typically she finds a connection with her patients and they chat her ear off all night. I was having NONE of that jazz. I work until 7 or 7:30am and my train left at 10am. My mother was ( GASP!) was even out early at 7 am! Miracle of Miracles!! Wahhooo!!

So what happens?? Yup. A code blue at 5:35. Fabulous. I was panicking. The patient didn't come down until after 6:30, when day shift started. And of course, my friends Sue and Lisa made sure they jumped in and I was out on time. Of course, my train was late. We didn't leave until close to 11. By that time I had been up for 27 hours. I was a hurting dog. Josh was he usual chatty self and I had a HUGE Tim Horton's coffee. Let me just say, I never drink coffee. And I tasted it all day as my body's punishment to me for attempting it. I felt badly, but I needed to tell Josh to leave me alone until lunch, you know, a whole whopping 2 hours of sleep later.

The ride was quite pleasant and much quieter than I would have thought. Our car was the size of a decent closet. Private, temperature controlled by us, ample beverages for us nearby and meals included. As in my lot in life, I was seated with a yappy man for lunch. Why does everyone feel the need to talk to me and tell me their life philosophy? I swear, I have that "please talk to me" face. I wanted to say "dude. I have had 2 hours of clickety-clack sleep for the last 2 days. I can actually feel my brain rubbing inside of my skull. Please don't tell me how to best learn the guitar." But I didn't. I listened. I asked questions. I looked interested. I ate fast.

Actually, even with leaving late, stopping in Rochester for fuel and changing engines( from Diesel to electric) in Albany, we got to NYC a bit early. For those of you who have not traveled by train, let me tell you how much easier it is...wow. No security to go through, quick baggage checking, you can take anything you want on board. It takes a bit longer, but Josh and I actually really enjoyed it. Our car had it's our attendant for the trip. That was a nice touch too. She made sure we had drinks, pillows, answered all our questions, let us know where we were about 30 mins outside NYC and was just generally helpful and pleasant. I even dashed off a note to Amtrak about her.


In general though, the trip there was a blur as I was so incredibly exhausted, but chatty Josh-man kept me upright and conscious.

After gathering our luggage and such, my friend Rohit met us at Penn station. We grabbed a cab ( Josh's first!)


Our hotel was only about 4 blocks from Penn station but with the luggage and such we decided to cab it would be best and since it was nighttime, we asked the driver to take us the long way...through Times Square. Josh was adorable and couldn't wait to be let loose there to shop and see the lights. However for both of us, it was an early night, dinner at a great Thai place and off to bed. Visions of Times Square in Josh's head.

:-)

do not adjust your links...

I am once again slacking on the blog thing. And I don't want a cyber-spanking from Robin! ;-) My 11 yr-old Josh and I are still in NYC and will be heading home late tomorrow. We are doing to many things, walking so much and having such a good time, that by the time we get to the room we are beat and we sleep like rocks. Tonight is the third show in our Broadway viewing this trip. We saw Hairspray on Wed, Young Frankenstein last night and Mary Poppins tonight. Not to mention touring the Empire State building, The Natural History Museum, Times Square, Chinatown, the Statue of Liberty and I am sure a few other things I am leaving out.

I promise a detailed report and pictures. The internet connection, though free, is flaky at best here. Uploading of photos is not an option here. And really what is a travel post without good travel shots? Right?

I will return, on Sunday most likely with photos and the tales of Josh's first time in the City that Never Sleeps.

Just hang in there and don't abandon me!! I will be back to an irregular blogging schedule VERY soon!

Brought to you by Gillette

"Mommy, did you know that animals have special parts of their body to protect them?"

"I do know that, Sammy. Like frogs that have poison on their skin or porcupines with their sharp quills"

"Just like you, mommy. You have "spikies" all up and down your legs to protect you!"

Nice. Thanks. Self protection is a personal mission. I do a fabulous job of it in the winter.

When "I will punch you in the face" really means "I love you, mom"

Today was a busy one on the appointment calendar. All three boys had dentist visits today. Josh began his long road with orthodontal torture and Zach needs all 4 wisdom teeth out. I was highly stressed about taking Sammy. He has the reputation of being difficult and INCREDIBLY stubborn, but he was a rock star. He followed every instruction perfectly. The hygienist just loved him. His biggest problem with the experience was not talking long enough for them to clean his teeth. I wonder where he gets that trait? Hmmmm... Oddly, he only began to cry when we had to leave. A weird thing for the office staff to hear a kid screaming " don't take me! I wanna stay here!" He is a strange ranger.

In the midst of all of our travels today, it began to snow. It does that in Buffalo. I think there was some "Winter Storm Warning" thing, but really, I don't pay much attention to that kinda stuff. You live here, you have things to get done, you learn to drive in it and deal. I think this is my 18th winter of driving in this crap, and it still blows every time. It took us quite a while to make out stop at the vision center. The snow is steadily falling. By our last stop it was quite the storm. After we loaded the car up and even though we had been in the store only 2o mins, the car was completely covered. I got the brush out to clean off the car when Zach returned from returning the cart and told me he would finish cleaning off the car.

"Nah, Zach, I got it. Get in the car"

"Mom, if you don't give me that brush I am gonna punch you in the face!"

That made me smile. Cuz he loves me. He takes care of me. Maybe we don't talk to each other like every other household, but we do understand each other.

We took our time and got home safely. My children are praying for a snow day, with Josh flushing ice cubes down the toilet for the kind favor of the SNOW DAY gods. What moron told my kid this insanity?

I kinda hope they have off too. I love when they are home with me, so much I could punch them in the face. All of them.