TRAVEL PLANNING 101

Today was the day!! Time to pick up travel books for all of the upcoming destinations this spring!! First Dan and I went over to Labyrinth Books, a local neighborhood bookstore here on the Upper West Side. This was my third visit to this store...and the third time that I walked away empty handed. They don't even have a travel book section (although they are considering adding one.) They mainly seem to sell text books for Columbia University. To rev back up we stopped by Oren's for aome coffee, hot cider and a good muffin. I've lived in this neighborhood for nearly 7 years and have never thought to go to the Columbia University bookstore. It's now a Barnes and Noble (yeah member card!), and we were able to find everything on our list!

From here we dashed to Brooklyn to catch Asbury Shorts 2 at Lyceum. First we popped into Bogota Bistro on 5th Avenue (in Brooklyn.) YUM! The photos are from this meal. Double yum!! For more info and my review, click the link above.

Back to the Asbury Shorts...this time they were all award winners...darn some of them were funny!! The Brooklyn Lyceum seems to put on a unique variety of programs. It's not a typical theatre, but a large screen on the back wall of a warehouse like space with risers holding folding chairs on the other end. This leaves a large empty space in the middle that seem to be used for concerts and readings. An orchestra was packing up when we arrived. Neat space.

What a nice day. Now I've a heck of a lot of books to get to...it's DEFINATELY going to take up some of my knitting time! Speaking of knitting... only 2 weeks left to finish the secret project.

Double Date Friday night

By double date I mean back-to-back dates. The first being a lovely dinner with Dan at Victor's Cafe 52 (yum!). We really enjoyed our meal!! The service was excellent and the food so tasty! You can never go wrong with pork at a Cuban place!!!


Then he walked me over to the New World Stages (a great theatre group that has multiple stages/shows going on at the same time each night) to meet up with Linda & Shinobyu for our late night girls theatre night...we were to see the 11pm showing of the Off-Broadway show: Evil Dead The Musical.

Evil Dead was PERFECTLY B-Grade fun. (Looks like a fun show to perform!!) Exactly what I'd expected!

It closes February 17th, so get there if you want to see it!

New Year's Eve!!

There's nothing better than a lazy Sunday morning with the NY Times and a good pot of something hot! After my lounging was done I dashed to Bryant Park to wait in the line, carrying Meg's skates (I'd brought them home the night before -- not exactly what you want to carry to the opera!) She and Dan were at a Children's Opera at the MET and would meet me later.

I arrive at The Pond early, prepared to WAIT, and... I was SHOCKED... The line was 1/5 the size it'd been the day before! Fantastic! When my skating companions arrived there was a mere 20 minute wait and then, voila, we were rink bound!

It's true, ice skating is like riding a bicycle in that you never forget! After a few rounds to find my ice legs I was zooming forwards, backwards and sometimes sideways to avoid some of the wee daredevils out on the ice! We were all grinning ear to ear. What fun!! Wwat laughs! I gave a single skating backwards lesson to Dan to boot!

After we'd skated our fill we headed over to

What a fun day!

I said my goodbyes to Meg (she'd fly back west tomorrow) and they headed back to Brooklyn as I dashed home to change!

Now onto the night time plans!!

Michelle soon arrived and we were off to Birdland to ring in the New Year with some Jazz. Yippee!!!
A fruit/cheese plate and a good bottle of bubbley and we were shimmying in the night from our chairs. How can you sit still when listening to this music??? No way!!

I love Birdland. Love it. It's one of my favorite spots in town to see live Jazz. Great sound and good seats all around! Tonight we were here to help them celebrate the 11th year of the 18pc Chico O'Farrel's Afro-Cuban Jazz Band calling Birdland home. Hillary Kole joined in to sing a few lively and sultry numbers (Dan and I had seen her here last Valentine's Day in fact.)
What fun!
Great company, great music and a great atmosphere!
It was the best New Year's Eve I've had in years!

The Eve Eve
At 11am my doorbell rang. Dan and Meg were here to start our day of fun.
First it was present exchanging time.
Meg opened hers first. Some favorite books I'd picked her up in London.

I opened my gifts. A great Yarnhead doll from Meg (I love it Meg!) A beautiful bracelet from Dan and a wonderful piece of Art (a cool print of a knitter - I still have to photograph it!) Then Dan carefully opened his gift as not to rip the nice paper. (JUST TEAR IT OPEN!!!)

Next it was brunch time! We enjoyed our brunch at Mama Mexico's - tasty as always! Meg enjoyed singing along with the roving Mariachi singer. He seemed to enjoy it too!

Onward! We went to Rockafeller to go skating, but the line - OY - the line!!! So we occupied ourselves at a bookstore before walking down to Bryant Park's rink, The Pond... Again, the LINE! There would be no time for skating now as we had tickets for a late afternoon showing of Charlotte's Web.
We all enjoyed the movie. What a great book! So glad the movie did it justice.

Walking back to Bryant Park, the line...was even longer! We grabbed a few cups of hot cider and sat to watch the skaters on the rink. Poor Meg had been carrying around her skates all day and was aching to be out there on the rink. This was going to be my first time on skates in over 10 years AND my first time in NYC!
Don't worry, we decided to come back the next day!

What's a girl to do? Go to dinner! We walked up to Trattoria Dopo Teatro. Yum as always!!!A lovely day was had by all. I needed to get home for a good nights sleep if tomorrow would bring skating with an 8yr old! I'm out of practice!

Number 2
What a day!

I met Dan for Dim Sum in Chinatown for the start of Date #2.

Yummy Dim Sum followed by a walk through Chinatown, a spot of shopping (bought a fun gunmetal silver dress) all on our way to 11 Spring Street.

11 Spring Street is the location of a building that has been filled with street art by artists that flew in from all parts of the globe. It was open free to the public Friday through today ONLY. Then the owner plans to convert it into condos and most all of the art will be covered up behind the new walls.

After waiting over 4 hours in line, we were in the last 12 people to gain entry! Wow! Dan had been the day before as well, so he has many more photos of it than I do (see them here).

I've scattered a few of my photos around this entry (for more see my flickr page).

It was... completely...wow! Even some floors and ceilings... everywhere you looked someone had created something beautiful, interesting... moving!










This was my favorite piece. As the crowd dispersed and folks left, I planted myself in front of this wall and just stared at it until I had to leave.


For more on 11 Spring Street, see their own Flickr page and check out the Wooster Collective.

The date ended with a lovely dinner in Little Italy at Benito's.
We both agreed that the Marinara there was some of the best we've ever had!!!

New Beginnings...Striking a Balance

The line has come together.

London has come and gone and my weekend of travels to Maryland is at end.
Tonight...Dan and I had our first date.

It was fun. So nice to see him again...and we broke in my new grill!! Yeah!!!

This is not a race to the finish line. One day at a time.

Searching and thinking on how best to strike balance within my life.