Hi friends! It's been a busy month since I last wrote. Work hard, play hard - that's been the motto. Not a bad one to live by, I think.
Here's what happened during the rest of February:
Mom and Nick braved the bitter weather to spend some time here and to celebrate Valentine's Day. We went to some fantastic restaurants, including Gaonnuri, a Korean grill restaurant on the 39th floor of a building close to Herald Square. What a view! And the food was delicious. They cook the food on a small grill that's built into the table. It's not theatrical like at Hibachi places; much more subdued. There were great views of the city all around!
We also found an amazing steakhouse - Gallagher's. White linens, impeccable service, a nice place to celebrate something special. We ate there before seeing another play on Broadway. We saw It's Just a Play with Matthew Broderick, Martin Short, and Stockard Channing. Martin was hilarious and Stockard was spot on. Matthew Broderick was a little stiff...we weren't sure if he was supposed to be that way for his character or what, but he was just ok. We also saw You Can't Take it With You, which was hilarious. James Earl Jones was in that and we waited outside afterwards and got to speak with him briefly and take his picture.
We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Saturday. It was really windy, but we bundled up and managed to stay inside for most of the excursion. Lady Liberty is pretty impressive. I enjoyed Ellis Island. Lots of interesting history.
That weekend kicked off my midwinter recess. A week off and it couldn't have come during a better week. I did a lot of relaxing, sleeping, cooking, reading, some work, and other excursions in the city.
That Monday was President's Day, which Matt had off too. We decided to go and check out the Westminster Dog Show!! We went during the day, when all the individual breeds are being judged. That went on at two of the Piers on the West Side. We walked around and flashes of the movie Best in Show came to us. If you've seen the movie, it's not far off from real life. The people are just as interesting to watch as the dogs. We could walk through the grooming stations and see all of the handlers and dogs preparing. We could also see what happened in the ring. There were some beautiful dogs, some that were kind of goofy looking (poodles), big and little. Matt wouldn't let me smuggle one out, so we just took pictures instead.
Another thing I did that week was go see the Chinese Cultural and Fireworks Festival. I didn't really know what to expect, but I went and found out. The day was so windy and it was about 15 degrees outside. The event was more of a show, not so much a festival. There was a group of women playing drums and cymbals and waving scarves around. There were some dragons that came and danced to the music and eventually they set off some fireworks. That's about all I gathered because most of what was said over the loudspeaker was in Chinese. After 2 hours of just standing in the freezing cold waiting for something to happen, I'd seen enough and quickly got back home in the warmth.
The last weekend of February we decided to treat ourselves to the massage Matt had bought me for Christmas. It was a small Chinese massage parlor, a little sketchy, in Alphabet City just a few blocks from our apartment. "Great!" we thought, "It's so close, we can do this all the time!" Little did we realize that our entire body would be pummeled and kneaded within an inch of death. We emerged more sore than we had been when we first entered!! What an experience! We laughed about it, but we won't be going back there again!
That same day, our church 20s/30s group went ice skating in Bryant Park. You can see the fountain was completely frozen over. The rink was packed, of course, with people, so it was difficult to navigate and get anywhere with any kind of speed. But, we had fun. It's just one of those things that people ask you about and now I can say I've been ice skating in NYC. Ice skating usually makes me sore, but I think it actually helped to relieve some of the soreness from the massages earlier in the day.
March came along and the weather has started to ease up. I've never been so happy to see 40 degree weather! We're practically wearing shorts and t-shirts now. I'm trying to run more now and keep walking to work as much as I can. Bathing suit season is just around the corner.
This past week, the first grade went on a field trip to a puppet show in Brooklyn. We rode on a school bus because they're free for schools to use (a really different concept than in NC). It took about 45 minutes to get there and we had no problems. The adventure began on the return trip. We took the FDR to come back, which is the large highway that circles around the edge of the city. It's 4-5 lanes across and it's always busy, busy, busy. We were going right along when the bus started getting slower and slower, until it just stopped. The rest of the cars around us kept zooming past. We had broken down without any way to move over or get out of the way of the other cars. Traffic built up about as quickly as teachers' panic set in. The bus driver didn't know what to do, so the police were summoned. They called for another bus to pick us up and then proceeded to shut down the entire highway so that we could transfer from one bus to the other. That was the only part of the field trip the kids remembered! How crazy!!
We did one of the most fun things yet last weekend: the Johnny Cash Birthday Bash. A group of us ventured out to The Bell House in Brooklyn to see a cover band play a 3-hour straight set of Johnny Cash songs. They were great - the lead singer wore all black and had an incredible bass voice that matched Johnny's so well. We danced and belted out lyrics for hours. It was a blast!
Today we had a fun time making some history. We went to the debut home game for the New York City Football Club (soccer) at Yankee Stadium. 30,000 of our closest neighbors piled in to the stadium and cheered and had a great time, albeit a cold one, cheering on the newest NY team. I can actually root for this NY team. We plan on going back to more games once the weather decides to cooperate.
On the horizon: Charlie's 5th birthday is on Thursday and we plan to celebrate with doggie treats and park time. The ice and snow has mostly melted, so we can go and play more now. St. Patrick's Day is Tuesday, I don't know if we'll have the time to experience any of the festivities. I have report cards/parent teacher conferences this week (wish me luck!). We are excited to celebrate Easter in the city. Who knows what else will come our way!
I hope your month has been a good one, and I hope the next few weeks will bring warmth and sunshine to you, wherever you are. I'll write again in the next month or so!
