Sunny 9 for 2008 July 14

"Lily, you really need to start practicing wiping on your own so you can get good at it before school."

"No, I just want to get really good at pooping."

Me reading a book "Boa Constrictor, Boa Constrictor, what do you hear?"

Lily "Hey, snakes don't have ears."

She's been so good at cleaning up her messes lately. Thanks Sherry, for training her so well. She came back from AZ cleaning up great. I love it!

Well, I've blogged all my pics of my trip to nyc. As if that didn't take long enough, I have procrastinated way to long writing it in words. Warning- this post will be long, so don't feel obligated to peruse every paragraph (*peruse-not to be mistaken as 'to skim' as it says in my Verbal Advantage, rather to examine in great detail...I thought it was really interesting that most people misuse this word, or so it says). If I had a private button on this blog, I would use it on this post to spare you guys all the mundane details of my awesome trip so everyone wouldn't have to get so jealous.

WED NEW YORK! I see you...from the plane and the Statue of Liberty looks so small compared to the movies. Julie and I landed in La Guardia within 10 mins of each other. We met in the bag claim and hugged and peed our pants with excitement. We got our bags and went outside. We were immediately greeted by this man asking us if we needed a taxi. Why yes we do, so he asks where we were going and I had the address printed out and as I read it aloud he grabbed the paper out of my hand and started carrying my luggage. Julie and I looked at each other as he walked past the line of taxi's and took us to the parking lot. By now I was freaking out because he didn't have a taxi cab, he had a Crown Vic and there was no way I was getting in a car with a stranger. I started seeing headlines in the newspaper "two girls get abducted and sold as mail order brides outside nyc airport" or "two girls found chopped up in the trunk of a car in nyc". Yes, I watch too much Law and Order: SVU. I started wondering why I had ever thought to go to a big scary city without Aaron to stave off strange men. Luckily, Julie took control and asked to see his license and id. He was legit with a chauffeuring company, however he was charging twice the amount as the regular cabs were. No, thank you. Of course he was rude as we said no, and as we were waiting in line for a taxi, we saw a few other people fall victim to his scheme and also walk away. At least we weren't the only ones duped.

So we took a taxi to our 'hotel'. It was on a nice, quiet residential street on the upper west side. I really loved the location. That's why we booked it. Technically it was a hostel. We didn't share a room with strangers, but we shared the bathrooms. At least we had a sink in our room. The bathrooms were old and scary. The shower wasn't any scarier than the one in the first basement apt Aaron and I lived in, except I knew I cleaned the shower. I hoped this one was cleaned regularly, but just in case, wore flip flops anyway. Hey, I camp, so I'm not that squeamish about bathrooms as long as it isn't long term. We got our own soap and toilet paper to take in and out with us, so that was good. We never had to wait for the bathrooms either so it was no problem really. I would totally stay there again. The price was right, and it was two blocks from the subway. Very ideal compared to the alternative of staying in New Jersey and coming into Manhattan everyday, and we would have been screwed when we needed to come back to the hotel when we needed to.

So after we checked in and freshened up, we got down to business. We headed to Canal Street for some serious shopping. But first we bought a hot dog to split for lunch at Gray's Papaya, a famous place I guess. It was good, I guess. I got a few things...couple purses, jewelry, a hat, a shirt and belt, some more jewelry, and I kick myself for not getting those white Ray Bans. So cute. As I was looking for a Coach for Erin we asked this guy if they had anything and he told us to follow him. He led us across the street and down the way to an alley with these other guys using walkie talkies. The other guy then unlocked this sliding retractable door and was showing us all these cuuute Coaches. I got on the phone to call Erin to see which color she wanted and the man about had a heart attack. He was so scared he closed it down until I was off the phone. I guess he thought I could be calling the cops or something. Anyway, all in a genuine New York experience, eh? We also hit Urban Outfitters. Such a cool store. I wish we had one in TX

We walked around a lot more and it actually started raining. The forecast called for rain the whole time we were there, so I bought an umbrella and lugged it around in my purse the whole time in case, but luckily it just rained that night. I had to buy a zip up sweater too, there was like no selection since it was June, hello!, because it was so chilly at night. It saved my rear every night and waiting in line at the Regis and Kelly show since 5AM. I can't believe it was still cold that I just didn't think I would need to pack a sweater. The weather was so nice though, the whole time, so refreshing from the TX heat.

We ate dinner at a place called Josie's and I sat like elbow to elbow to the other tables in the restaurant. It's crazy that people get used to that. You can totally heard everyone's conversation. That's how it is every where and I guess you just extend the courtesy of pretending they're not there so people can have a little privacy. Dinner was good. My salad had the best tasting mangoes in it and I am not even a mango person. After dinner we walked a few blocks to the studio that Regis and Kelly taped at so we would know where to go in the morning to wait for standby tickets. Incidentally, the temple is just a block away from it in Lincoln Square. We also got to see Juliard. While walking around as I mentioned on my other blog, there were cleaners on every street. The price you pay to live in ny and have no room for washer and dryers...these places charges by the pound to wash and fold your laundry. As tempting as that sounds to me, I still prefer to wash my own clothes. I would give up washing the kids clothes and Aaron's in a heartbeat though.

We saw a city bus totally crunch a Lexus that was to the right of him, as the bus was taking a wide right turn. I guess he didn't hear because he didn't even stop. I wondered how that worked there. I mean the driving is so crazy that when those things get in accidents, what do they do. There is barely any room to park and trade info. Or if your taxi, say, runs over a pedestrian, what do they do? Everyone drives so crazy there, I was so glad we walked or used public transpo because I could not bring myself to get behind the wheel there.

Also, we saw a clearly mentally unstable person drop her drawers in the middle of the sidewalk and pee in a planter right in front of everyone. Julie and I were stunned...our first day turned out to be quite eye opening. We went to bed early (11) in anticipation of getting up at 3:30am to get ready for the Regis and Kelly show.

Thurs- At this rate I'll finish my summary by next week. Thurs morning we got up at 3:30 to shower and leave by 4:50 to walk to the studio to wait in line for standby tickets for the Regis and Kelly show. We were the first ones there when we arrived at 5:10ish. It is so nice to get up early and be in a big city with hardly anyone on the street. Don't get me wrong, there were people, but not a lot. I love having the streets to myself. So after about 10 minutes of waiting a man and his mother showed up and then ten minutes later another woman and her daughter came in line. It was all over from there, people just started trickling in. We froze our tails off and waited until 7:30 to get our ticket for the show. We walked down the block and ate breakfast at this European Cafe and Bakery called Euro Pan right next door to the temple. We had omelette's and toast and went straight back to see if they were going to let us in. Even though we had standby tickets, we weren't guaranteed to get in until they knew all the ticketed people where there. By 8:45 they knew we were a shoo-in and while walking into the studio, guess who was walking behind us??? None other than Gelman and his daughter. He was talking to her and he was the same ol deadpan Gelman he is in the show except in miniature form. Seriously, there, people are tiny in real life. I would look like a blimp on tv apparently since I don't weigh 95lbs like Kelly does (but, you know, I'm pretty close to 95 lbs ;) I sat in the back by the same couple who stood behind me in the line because the first seats Julie and I got together had a bad view behind the camera men. So we split up and got in the middle. I got to be on tv because the couple next to me were the only two who gave Regis and Kelly a standing ovation and Regis got a kick out of it, so the camera panned up the audience and showed us. Yay me! On tv! Mike Myers was the guest and then Nael Naim was the musical guest. Since they don't tape on Fridays they taped their second show and let us stay. That show had Chris O'Donnell, JC Chasze, and some gospel singer as musical guest. They were both good shows. All I will say is Mike Myers is killer funny.

After the show we took the subway downtown. Thank goodness Julie was there to show me the ropes of the subway. So confusing. We did a "walking tour" that was in this nyc guidebook that started on Wall St. All of Wall St was so cool. We saw Federal Hall where Washington was sworn in as first pres of US, NY Stock Exchange, Am Stock Exchange, Trump Tower, and there were lots of little kiosk on the street. I bought Aaron a few ties on Wall St. How cool is that? Where'd you get that sweet tie? Oh this? On Wall St. In New York City. And they were $5 each. I wonder how many millionaires on their way to work at the NYSE spill coffee on their tie in their limo and stop on the side to pick up a tie to wear. A tie just like the one Aaron has. Ha.

We bought a pretzel on Wall St too to tide us over. You have to eat at the NY food stands while you're there, right? We apparently spent a lot of time on Wall St because we also grabbed lunch at this cafe that was to the left of Trump Tower. I sat there eating my salad wondering how many rich people were sitting in the same cafeteria as me. Has Donald Trump ever eaten there? Am I lame? Yes. Excuse me, I was just so star struck by the entire city.

We went to Trinity church and saw all these old gravestone pounded smooth by the elements. I love that these stones went all the way back until 1700's. So much history. And of course I got the picture of the bronze tree root system that was uprooted by the collapsing of the World Trade Centers. We walked right by the World Trade Center site and the memorial structure in the park near it. We went into Century 21--a huge department store with discount designer clothes. It was so crazy and unorganized, it stressed me out just being in there. It was like TJMax on steroids. We didn't bother looking too hard. We were too exhausted to look around. All that walking around and getting up at 3:30 setting in. We went to St Paul's Chapel and saw the booth that Washington liked to sit in while at services. It is also the chapel that the rescue workers for 9/11 went to rest and meditate while volunteering.

We wandered around some more and ran into the ticket salesperson for the organized bus tours that take you around town on these double deckers. For $40 and a whole 24 hours worth of using the buses we were sold. It was nice getting to see so much without having to walk. Don't get me wrong, I loved walking everywhere. It was one of my favorite things about new york. These things took us everywhere. We didn't do it all at once...we would get on and off the bus when we saw H&M for example, or what not. On the tour we saw the Seaport and Brooklyn Bridge, Chrysler Building, Waldorf Astoria, Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, and Times Square area. We ate dinner on Broadway at O'Charley's right before the show. We had tickets to Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. He is hilarious and boy can he sing. I loved it, the music was awesome. It was sooooOOOooo (a la Melis Wood) good. O'Charley's sucked there and it's expensive as every restaurant in ny is priced at $15 and rising. Long story short, go see Curtains, don't eat at O'Charley's even though it is right by the playhouse your going to. After the show, we took the subway home and crashed. Home...ha, our home-y hotel.

More later when my fingers have feeling.