We are in the presence of greatness tonight!

When Justin and I returned to the hotel late afternoon, the walk in front of us was stacked rows deep with luggage, with a truck being unloaded by the bell men, luggage and trunks, all sort of suitcases. I thought perhaps the Queen was staying here or something, but as we walked beyond the hotel to the drug store, we discovered buses parked around the corner, and some well-dressed men standing nearby, chatting. We were waiting for the light to change so I glanced at the tag on the one guy's portfolio, Philadelphia Flyers. A lady had something with New York Rangers stuck to it. Ah, hockey players! And they don't travel light!!

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This afternoon was spent at the Museum of Modern Art, just a few blocks from where we're staying. It was a nice walking day, although it did get a bit chilly when the wind caught us between buildings. This is quite the contrast to the Met, which features the Old Masters but I did get my picture taken with Starry Night today. It may sound simple-minded of me to say this, but upon close scrutiny of some of the pieces today---I think the world is being 'sold' a bill of goods, trying to pass some of this stuff off as being "genius".....Justin does like the Warhol work and some of Jackson Pollack's work, but I have troubles accepting some of this "paint on canvas" as art. Makes me feel better about my paint playing! And I am not saying one thing, giving one message about WWI in my work either, which some of the pieces we saw today claimed to be in response to. (This is not grammatically correct).

Someone, either at Art Guild or Great Hang Ups, made the pronouncement that the Great Masters would not be such today, so good thing they made it when they did! Maybe it was my art teacher saying that---anyway, I just remembered that today as we looked at some of the pieces.

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All in all, it was a good day together, and now we spend the evening watching, of all things, "American Idol"...Sort of in keeping with the art we saw today, one flows into the next.........Justin loves it so I can amuse myself with the blog and reading my book. Turns out that Francis Mayes' husband is originally from Winona! Now, that's worth knowing!

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Good night all!

They are all named Sean or Michael today!

Much of our day was spent on the streets of New York, watching the St. Patrick's Day Parade with half the city. We had an excellent vantage point, having to walk only about a half block to get to the route. We timed it just right, getting into position just as the parade began. And it was cold! The high today was expected to be mid-40's with sun, but that 'heat' doesn't get to the city streets until later in the day. The sky was beautiful, a rich blue, and, wouldn't you know it---left the camera in the hotel room, of all things!

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The most spectacular sight was the row upon row of policemen and fire fighters that came by. And the soldiers, oh, my, the soldiers! My hands were sore from clapping, each time an American flag went past us. The crowd loved the guys in uniform as well as the bagpipers and drum groups. I never in all my life heard that many bagpipes, or saw so many men in kilts. Quite spectacular, each clan in a different plaid. Even babies in strollers were featured in the parade as certain "counties" marched--Cork, Louth, Glenkerry, etc. I thought of Peggy Lessig when the New York fireman group went by, as her brothers are firefighters up here. We weren't able to pick out the 2 Clay County fireman that flew with us on the plane but we clapped for all the guys, hopefully they heard us!

It was hard to just stand in one place like that for two hours or so, our legs and feet complaining. Justin wanted to go to the Apple Store so we decided to walk along as best we could, keeping up with the parade as we went. It was difficult walking against the crowds lining the streets but we managed, stopping in between to rest.

Justin found plenty of things to entertain him in the state-of-the-art Apple Store and I waited most patiently for him on the benches provided for spouses and moms while their geek relatives enjoy themselves. He finagled a pair of ear buds out of me, just to say he got something from the 5th Avenue Apple store! As we slowly walked back in the direction of our hotel on Madison Avenue, we discovered a match to the Apple Store in the Sony Plaza. He had fun there as well, having to go into different towers to view all the Sony products. Even I was enticed by the tiny cameras, about the size of a cigarette pack, some in my favorite colors! Hey, I could roll the camera in my sleeve and look really cool.........

Upon leaving the Sony Plaza, we headed back toward the hotel, finding a Burger Heaven to have a late lunch. Justin and I love these hole in the wall places, even though it's on Madison Avenue! We no sooner placed our order when it was brought to the table---as if they knew what we were planning to order! This place was the United Nations of burger joints, every language being spoken around us. Several of the marchers came in for lunch, having reached the end of the line for them.

While we ate, mounted TV's showed live footage of the parade which was still going on. It was "only" forty blocks long and groups were still coming onto the route! We heard one person say the parade lasted all day and thought he was exaggerating! The live coverage ended at 4:00 p.m., starting at 11:00 a.m., and it wasn't over yet when the TV station cut away. Wow! That's a parade! No floats either, only marching groups.

It was truly a "God Bless America" day today! And Happy St. Patrick's Day, too!

Happy Shampoo, Happy Necklaces

I have a friend in Orange Park whose job it is to sell shampoo, lotions, mouthwash, conditioner, bar soaps to hotel chains. Until I met Natalie, it never occurred to me that someone had to do that...I'm a bit thick sometimes...no need to agree. She now also sells the Vera cloth bags and purses that many are crazy about. I wrinkle my little nose at them, with the extent of my collection being a coin purse with a photo slot that Natalie gave me just before CHRISTmas. I put Lucas' photo in it when they were visiting me and he carried it around with him for awhile. I just can't warm up to that Vera stuff, sorry, but it reminds me of diaper bags...what can I say?

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I do, however, like the soaps and lotions in the hotel bathroom! Natalie came to mind this a.m. as I prepared to shower and was gathering the supplies I needed. Ah, let's see--Happy Shampoo, Calm shower gel, and Peaceful body lotion. I'm nearly in a trance from the effect of these names alone!

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The Happy Shampoo also reminded me of a necklace Lori made for me a couple years ago which Justin described looking as though she cleaned out a drawer and attached the found items to the chain....never mind, I LOVE it! No one else in my circle or the world was wearing such a thing so he didn't undersand my "need" to have one like that. When Justin and I were in Santorini, where there are jewelry stores upon jewelry stores, one of the lovely shop keepers admired my necklace, then enticed me with the words, "You have happy necklace--come into my shop and I show you happy bracelets!" We just looked at each and chuckled, him knowing that "happy bracelets" were exactly what I'd be tempted to buy! But, I resisted the temptation of happy bracelets, while cherishing the invitation. It seems very unlikely she had anything in her shop to compare to my happy necklace!

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So now I wear a joyous necklace, tame by comparison to the one I wore that day, but have washed my hair with Happy Shampoo, and am ready to take on the Big Apple!

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Happy Palm Sunday all!

A Day at the Met

Our first full day in New York was spent at the wonderful Metropolitan Museum of Art, affectionately known as "the Met". Our last visit here was spent in the Egypt and Roman section of the museum with only cursory glances at the other galleries which make up the expansive Met. Justin could recite to me the things I was actually trying to read on the glass cases, as he knew what they were after studying that in school. We got our money's worth from St. Johns that year, that class, anyway.

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A brand-new exhibit opened featuring Greek and Italian architecture and art...right up our alley. It takes me a long time to get through a museum as I like to read about what I'm seeing, but Justin hurried me along from hall to hall, claiming we'd seen this stuff already in the "old" area...it was new to me, that's all I can say! My memory is short when it comes to this, but my appreciation is great. Finally we arrived at the new exhibit, greeted by an enormous column centered in the hallway.

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Justin and I simply marveled at what it took to transport and establish the enormous displays. There were many funeraries and frescoes, actual rooms reproduced from Italian villas, stories painted on their walls to enjoy while dining. Amazing, I can't even tell how much we enjoyed it. I can tell you that it certainly makes me want to book a trip to Italy and Greece post haste! For those not traveling overseas, this is a wonderful taste of the antiquity seen in those foreign lands.

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I was concerned earlier in the week that my tired back would be a problem for me but so far, so good. If there was a bench to rest on in a gallery, I took advantage of it, but didn't let it hold us up. I even climbed up and down staircases to get to the other galleries. My boy, on the other hand......his feet hurt, his back ached, he had sinus pressure, a real mess! If he was a horse, we'd have to shoot him!!! I had some cold tablets and ibuprofen in my purse to give him and we pressed on, after a cold drink in the cafeteria.

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We managed to last the day but ran out of gas about 5:30 or so. Our cabbie dropped us at the door and we were back upstairs by 6:oo pm, not quite ready to have dinner. I was prepared to go out for dinner somewhere but Justin was just as happy to dine in. We shared a Cowboy steak and mashed pototoes and he enjoyed a pizza for one. Since he wanted to make sure all the food was eaten, he tried to eat the zuccini squash that came with the steak, but just couldn't choke it down, even with Grey Poupon mustard on it! It was after 8:00 when we had dinner and I was ready for bed after finishing my posting. Oh, by the way, that steak was absolutely delicious, tender and flavorful, quite a delight.

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I read some e-mails last night before climbing under the covers. One was from Judy R., with whom I am reading a book, 1200 miles apart! The book, brought to my attention by Christine, is written by Francis Mayes, who also wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun". Judy said she's skipping around in it, "A Year in the World", telling me she tends to get hung up in the Greek Isles portion. A girl after my own heart! Judy paid me a very, very generous, heart-building compliment, however. She said that my writing is like Mayes, using 'bolding' words. My, oh my, the gauntlet has been dropped!

We were no where near the falling crane

New York City always has some sort of newsworthy event taking place when we are here, this time being no exception. Today a 19 story high crane fell into an apartment building about 4 blocks from our hotel. It looks just terrible, from what we've seen on the local news, with some fatalities, but don't know if they are residents or passers-by.

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As we drove in from the airport yesterday, our very, very nice cab driver commented that he hoped we didn't run into any of the traffic mess involved with having the President in town....cool! It turns out President Bush was addressing an economic conference from the Waldorf Astoria, where we have stayed a couple times in the past. Justin and I listened to the speech in our hotel room at the Omni, instead of at the Waldorf! And no traffic tie ups either. Our driver was listening to WABC, the flagship station of Rush and Hannity, etc. as we drove in from La Guardia, so we did, too.

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Our room was ready when we arrived, which was much appreciated. Justin and I were quite tired after getting up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport. We sort of vegged out in the room the balance of the day. This is such a nice hotel, with an extremely comfortable room, not like that room from last summer at the Paramount, which was the size of a postage stamp! Our room has a love seat, desk, chair, side chair with ottoman, armoire with TV and closet space.....the foyer area has a credenza with the mini-bar and the top covered with purchasable items. Too costly to devour but tempting nonetheless.

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We weren't in the room 20 minutes when company started coming over--the doorman brought up our luggage, a man came to change the shower curtains, housekeeping came to make up the room (it was already done!), another man came to check the mini-bar after the previous residents checked out, and then room service brought our lunch. A bit later the housekeeper came by to turn down the bed which we didn't need but got her to remove the food cart remaining from our lunch. I commented to Justin, "I get as much company here as I do at home!" It was getting comical already, not wanting to get too comfy in case someone came to the door again!

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Justin fell so fast asleep that I didn't even try to wake him to go out anywhere. I rested on and off, read my book awhile and tried to get warm. It's cold here in the Big Apple! Glad I have my fancy red leather coat with me, earning its keep!

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For dinner we went to the dining room and had a nice meal, expensive of course, as hotel restaurants often are. The diet Cokes are served here in the tiny glass bottles with the metal caps, requiring the old fashioned bottle openers to get at the soda. The price we paid for glasses of soda in Florence is closer to being fair than $5.00 each for the 8 ounce bottle! The housekeeper told us about a bodega a couple blocks away so after dinner we walked to Smilers to score some soda. (I can't believe that we didn't bring some with us...we usually do). Once there we found this place was part deli/part grocery store, with a long buffet of hot and cold foods to scoop into to-go containers. Everything looked and smelled wonderful, wishing we hadn't just eaten...They did have 20 oz. sodas so we stocked up and headed back to the hotel. It didn't take long to get settled in and I got under the covers to get warm. My sleep was good, the afternoon nap not causing a problem at all. Justin did have a bit of trouble at first, but eventually had a reasonable night's sleep.

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Justin and I had breakfast in the same restaurant as dinner, this morning having eggs, toast, and breakfast potatoes. Justin was coaxing me to eat every bit of food on my plate but I just could not finish it all. I rarely eat all my food anyway and today was no exception. He felt like it was too expensive to leave anything plus we'd not have to eat lunch early if we had a big breakfast. We like to eat at the Cafe in the Met, so planned to do that later in the day so we'd be less hungry come dinner time. It's wonderful to have some sort of delicacy while gazing across at Central Park! Tomorrow, more about the Met and events of today....

Some more musings...

I just watered the lemon tree and am getting "so 'cited" to see how many lemons its growing right now! I've tried not to fuss over it very much, to spook it into dropping them, but so far, so good.

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For those who don't know the story of the lemon tree, I will tell (my foreign accent there!).........not long after Timmy died, his teacher, Mrs. Booth, called to tell us that Timmy's lemon seed had broken through the ground. What? We didn't know anything about this. Apparently after Christmas break, the pre-k class planted a seed from a lemon tree in a Styrofoam coffee cup and were watching for them to pop through the soil. They'd kept Timmy's going and when it sprouted, she called me. I picked up the cup when I got Justin after school and sure enough, there it was, a tiny tree!

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We nurtured it, moving the tiny plant into a larger container when it outgrew the foam cup. Eventually the seedling became a tree and we transplanted it into a large plastic planter on a wheeled stand, and let it spend some time outside in the sun and pollen. About four years ago it made a single lemon, more the size of an orange, which I promptly stored in the freezer. (I didn't mention that in my "Fond, Frozen Remembrances" posting....)

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The following year the tree surrendered three lemons, one of which I cut into, to harvest more seeds. I planted those seeds and eventually got several more seedlings to grow. They were divided into two pots, one of which "disappeared" from the base of the big tree. I gave a few of the seedlings to Timmy's father so he could have an off-shoot as well. I squeezed one into a sort of lemonade and froze the remaining one.

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Upon moving to the condo, the tree seemed upset, lost all its leaves two years in a row, and made no more lemons. Upon inspection, it became obvious that the tree had a disease of some sort, tiny bugs making white gobs under the leaves, and so on. Last early fall, Fausto, who is a Master Gardener, gave me a recipe for a concoction to spray on the tree every couple weeks to knock out the bugs, and IT WORKED!

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After re-doing my "river room" this past December, I decided the tree needed to come inside, to protect it from any further infestation. It is safe to do that now that Boots was gone, and wouldn't use the tree as a substitute cat box! I had to move the green plants from the funeral outside because of that rascal, and now have only a few of those left. Cats!!!

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And now, the lemon tree is trying to produce just a few more pieces of fruit for Mama, so she can cut them open to find more seeds to grow more seedlings......

Justin is having another adventure

"The wind is in from Africa, last night I couldn't sleep. Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave you, Carey, but it's really not my home. My fingernails are filthy, I've got beach tar on my feet, and I miss my clean, white linens and my fancy French cologne. Oh, Carey, get out your cane and I'll put on my finest silver. Go to the Mermaid Cafe, have fun tonight! Ooh, you're a mean ole daddy but you're out of sight...."

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What does THAT mean? I have no idea, but its a song by Joni Mitchell that rattles around in my head periodically, and you just caught it as it came through....lucky you!! This came from memory, I'm not even listening to it on the iTunes!! Why does one remember such things yet forget others??? Anyway, "Carey" has a jaunty melody, not deep or dramatic as some of her pieces are. This one always makes me want to go to Joe's Crab Shack and sit on the deck with a lovely adult beverage, watching the sea gulls beg for crumbs...ahhh, Spring must be coming!!!

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Christine and I were lamenting, as only we can, about the fact there are no Writer's Conferences planned locally this year. She was going to look into some Statewide ones, as we are in the mood for a conference! I've checked a few websites in the areas and found a couple along the Gulf Coast, which are held in late summer, early fall. The height of hurricane season....not that this would prevent our making plans to go, just another consideration. Those held in the spring at the Sea Turtle Inn were timed just right, for us, anyway!

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Our art teacher is out of town this coming Monday so I won't even be missing a class when in NYC. Bob offers make-up opportunities which is nice, but the times don't work very well for me, as Wednedays are used for church stuff usually. April won't allow for classes as I'll be away, trading travel and scrapbooking for watercolors! Even trade.....

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I nearly forgot to mention Justin's pending adventure! He has been asked to serve as Olivia's escort for her Debutante Ball at the end of the month! Justin, as far as we've been told, will need to wear a tux, and supposedly learn to ballroom dance.....in about two weeks' time! Of course, I am going to miss this big event, too, just like the Prom! If we'd known ahead of time I could have scheduled my trip to WI/MN for afterward, but.....anyway, I'll have to call Sandy to find out what's what and get the "Ball" rolling for this event as far as Justin's participation is involved. This means Justin will be getting his hair cut, helping him make his decision for now, rather than later!