New York City Scenes

I am absolutely in love with my new Canon Rebel T2i that I received for Christmas. It came with a free introduction course which I took earlier this month. I will NEVER go back to just using the camera on the “Basic Shooting” mode ever again. I plan on signing up for some more courses or “photo safari’s” to learn as much as I can.

 

I LOVE this camera. Here are just a smattering of the pictures I took out and about in Manhattan and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not too shabby for a complete amateur.

 

 

    

 

A Sunday Afternoon in Central Park

A wonderful afternoon in Central Park to round out a special weekend in New York City with The FireMarshall & Princess Cara.

 

Sunday in Central Park

Charlee's Homecoming

While Erin and I were galavanting all over NY (not really) visiting Maia, Ron and my mother were sending Charlee off to Homecoming....

http://sandysprogress.blogspot.com/2008/09/charlees-homecoming.html

We did managed to get in some shoe shopping while also shopping for Maia. I mean, really, the stores were along the way. Now how am I gonna get all of this home. Good thing we are taking the train.

Random Thoughs/Sights from Manhattan

These are just some scenes and random thoughs/questions I had during my walk about downtown Manhattan and on the subway. Erin and I went shopping for Maia today and I just had to catalog a few sights/sounds/smells....

• Toe nails so long and thick that they curl almost under the meat of the toe. Top that with crusty feet and you have NASTY.
• Talking to yourself on the subway train.
• Well dressed white children with black nannies.
• Screaming and cussing ("you mother f*&&#ker.....") at the top of yoiur lungs on your cell phone.
• No eye contact by anyone, especially on the subway.
• Nail art galore
• Lots of bad weave. Lord have mercy.
• Nails so long they curl. eeeewwwww
• Four very large (VERY) get on the subway car with us. Question? How did they get throught the turnstiles? Sorry, I diregress. Why do they have to be so gosh dang loud? Why. Loud and Ghetto fabulous. My eardrums almost burst.
• Lord, I need to pay attention when picking a train to get on. Erin and I ended up in Queens. Oops. Good thing I can read a map.
• Why do funky people not only smell like feet & azz but spicy too. What is that?

There was more but I got tired of pulling out my "handy dandy notebook" to write down everything I saw. I should have just recorded it on my phone. Hmmmm. Tomorrow is another day.

Who Goes to Niagra Falls in November?

Terri posted a video of our visit to the Falls.

http://homeatlastfarm.blogspot.com/2007/11/who-goes-to-niagra-falls-in-november_25.html

Niagra Falls

We went to Niagra Falls today. It is only about 20 minutes from Terri's house so we embarked on a mini field trip. Even in the fog and snow it was a thing of beauty.

Shopped Till We Dropped

Bummer! The fun is now over. Back to reality. We literally shopped till we almost dropped in the street. I didn't think I would make it back to Valerie's to get our luggage in time to catch a cab and make our train. After a late night of drinking and hanging with good company, we crashed back at Val's and slept in. We didn't get out for breakfast till about 10 am and went to this interesting diner up the street from Val's house. The toast and bacon was great but my omelet wasn't as good as it was at Annie's. After getting sustenance, we walked around the neighborhood visiting local shops. Erin found ANOTHER pair of boots - they were kind of cool. I picked up a nice refillable notebook for my purse and to hold the beautiful Cartier pen that Ron gave me for Christmas. I refused to take the pen set anywhere until I had an appropriate book to hold it in for fear of losing the pen in the black hole of my purse - and NO you can NOT borrow my pen. Don't even think about it.

We also visiting a thrift store across the street from Val's co-op and if I could have figured out how to get the red leather sofa and chair on the train - SOLD! There were some really good items in the store. We went back to Val's to leave our luggage with the doorman and venture out on our own for a few hours since Val had a doctors appointment. She got us safely on the subway and we were off to 59th & Lexington to walk over to Central Park. We got a little side tracked at the Stewart Weitzman Store - everyone is having a sale and spent an hour trying on shoes. AGAIN. I bought a really cute pair of shoes and then we did a force march through the throngs of humanity to see if we could catch a carriage ride through Central Park. No dice. The line was too long so we decided to just window shop our way back to the subway stop with a side stop at Bloomies again. One guy tried to convince us that riding in his bicycle rickshaw for $85 would be just a good (even better) than the carriage ride. Ya know man, crack kills. Just stop the madness.

Erin and walked up 60th back towards Lexington and stopped in at a really nice shoe boutique. We should have known better when we had to be buzzed in and that they did not have ANY prices on anything in the store. I nudged Erin and gave her the eye to politely leave the store after some browsing. If you have to ask the price - you definitely can't afford it. I didn't even want to know.

We stopped in Bloomies to go to the MAC cosmetic counter - Erin needed a new foundation and we were greeted by some really BAD looking female impersonators or drag queens or whatever. I can't recall what the difference is. These two gentleman looked really bad - not the MAC inspiration that I expect to see when you approach the counter. EEEEEWWWWWAH.

We managed to get back to Val's, pick up our luggage and board another taxi cab ride from Hell. You have to have nerves of steel and be very aggressive to drive in the city. I saw my life flash before my eyes numerous times. We managed to get on the train and promptly fell asleep. I woke up two stops before our final destination. Home Sweet Home.

Top of the Rock

Day 2 in NYC. We start the day...well I have to get everyone out of bed first...with breakfast at Annie's which was great and uneventful, went over to the FedEx Kinkos and sent our shopping loot home, and then started our day.

Off to Rockefeller Plaza where we watched the skaters on the ice rink and then went to the "Top of the Rock." What a great view of the Central Park and the Empire State Building. We could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, but that is exactly what it was...distant. After getting a birds eye view of our surroundings we embarked on further adventures of SHOPPING.

Our first stop on 5th Avenue was at Saks where I visited the Trish McEvoy counter to pick up a few essentials and then over to Sissely to pickup my favorite perfume lotion and body wash...Eau du Soir. Valerie and Erin plant themselves in chairs and proceed to tell me that "we don't shop at counters like this." BULL Sh--T. They just didn't know what to ask for. Interestingly enough, the Sissely counter was demonstrating a new fragrance, Valerie fell in love with it and now she plan to go back and "visit" this counter to pick it up. Oh what a day makes.

After doing minimal damage at Saks, we then walked down/up (I can't figure out where I'm at) 5th Ave visiting St. John, Cartier, Louis Vitton, Nike Town, Trump Tower and Bergdoff Goodman. I'll tell you why New Yorkers stay relatively slim...they walk everywhere! Those city blocks make for a wonderful workout. It is definitely not a place to shop in heels though. After stopping in Cartier to look at the ring Valerie would like to get as an engagement ring (that is another long story), we made a side stop in Nike Town where I picked up a pair of shoes for Ron. On our way out, we saw the cutest walking shoes and boots. Val got the boots and I picked up the black & gray walking shoes. Decided to trade in the boots I was wearing for the walking shoes. Now I can keep up with Val hustling through the streets of NY. We stop in Trump Tower for a sugar fix at Starbucks and have to get a little assertive to gain some seats. I learned that "Sorry" is a universal language as we grab a table right from under the noses of a family from India. Saarrrrrieeeee.

I never knew that going to a public bathroom could be an experience until we decided that we could do better than standing in the VERY long line in Trump Towers by going across the street to Bergdoff Goodman. WOW!!!! Not only is Bergdoff the new stardard for power shopping (WOW!) but any other public bathroom is substandard compared to this. Even the Ritz Carlton has nothing on Bergdoff. An attendant, private stalls, wonderful products to wash your hands with (the milk scrub was absolutely divine), hand towels and more. It was well worth tipping the attendant. I am absolutely in love with this store.

Erin wanted to do some last minute shopping in a store that she could afford so we hop on the subway to go over to Macy's to find a little black dress for Erin. Valerie picks up a pretty red dress but, ALAS, it is not in her size (4), so instead of deciding to try the 6 - OH NO - she picks up the size 2. I said "Wow, Val, that's aggressive." In my head, I'm like BEEYACH! She's says,"Laugh if you want to - watch my smoke - I'm getting in this." And she did get in it - BEEYACH - but what you don't know is that she couldn't sit down, exhale or eat. It is not getting it on that is the problem, it's getting it off. After finding a cute little dress for Erin, we raced back to Val's to change for the dinner & theater.

We went to dinner at the Firebird Russian Room. It was great. Once again, we had wonderful food. Of course, we were the only black people in the entire restaurant. Doesn't anybody try different food - where are all the black people. Always makes me go Hmmmmm. After dinner we went to see The Color Purple. The play was well done and I just had to get the "Hell No" t-shirt. My new phrase for 2007. HELL NO!

After the play, we met a few friends of Val's at a hotel called Dream in their Ava lounge which overlooks Time Square - awesome view. We drink until about 2:00 am - whew! its been a long time since I hung out that late - and then went back to Val's to crash. Gonna take me a bit to recover. Another great day in New York City.

NYC Lessons Learned...

1. FOCUS...on where you are going or you could easily get hit by a bus or white panel truck. Yeah it almost happened as I look around like a tourist crossing the street.


2. You can walk yourself thin.


3. Saks sucks - Bergdoff rocks


4. There is such thing as a wonderful public bathroom


5. You can get awesome theater tickets 5 minutes before the show.

New York City - Just Getting There Could Kill You

Today Erin and I set off for NYC for her Birthday Trip to the Big Apple. We are staying with Aunt Valerie and she came back from visiting family in Texas to ride the train up to the city with us. We make it to the train at BWI Airport without event (except for Ron nagging the shit out of us about leaving on time). We get on the train and it is complete pandemonium - everybody seems to be traveling north after the holiday. We barely find seats in the next to the last car. I sit in an empty seat, but there is an coat in the seat beside me. No person - for a LONG time. About 20 minutes into the ride, Fat Bastard shows up from the Cafe Car. OH MY GOD! He has a T-Shirt on that he cut the arms off of - so if he lifted up his arms (which he did) you could get a nice view and smell of his ARM PITTS!!! Lord Jesus help me now. The conductor comes by, takes one look at my stricken face and tells me that 3 seats will be available together in 5 minutes as soon as we get to the next station. Whew!

Well, it's noon now and I'm hungry, so off I venture to the Cafe Car. While standing in line, I notice this women behind me that has this really short buzz cut with a Rat Tail. What -is that some kind of modified Mullet? Anyway, I'm gonna mind my business except these 2 couples sitting at a dinning table decide that they are NOT going to mind their business and proceed to discuss the fashion sense of a rat tail hair cut. The woman's son says "Mommy, those people (pointing) are talking about your hair." Oh Hell! There is definitely not enough room in this car for a scuffle. I couldn't get out of there fast enough as the Rat Tail woman started telling them a thing or two. The rest of the ride was uneventful; however, since we were daydreaming, sleeping and reading we almost missed our stop. Managed to get off just in time.

We arrived safely at Val's house and then went out to 59th Street for some mindless shopping. Went to Nine West - awesome sale! Two pairs of shoes down. Spent the rest of the evening in Bloomingdales where everything (except wallets for some reason) was 30 -60% off. We did wander around the 4th floor - Designers - and I found a wonderful pair of silver St. John slacks and matching jacket that was on sale already and then another 30% off. AWESOME!

We finally decided we were starving and went back to Val's, dropped the bags and went across the street to a really nice Italian restaurant called Cafe Buon Gusto. The food was great! We rolled out of there and up the street to get some snacks from the grocery. We are safely tucked in back at Valerie's place having a carpet picnic.

A great 1st day in the city... till tomorrow.

Hudson, New York - More Details

Well, we are back from our trip from the country and we were spared the projectile vomit from Cara on the way back. Everything was uneventful on the ride home except the fact that we knew we had to return to work. SUCKS.


While at the Pollhein Retreat, Terri and I visited the Sheep and Wool Show. Fascinating for a city girl. First time I saw an Alpaca in real life beside on one of those commercials where it would be great to have an Alpaca farm. Yeah right.
Cara is having a ball pushing her stuffed Llama (is that even spelled right) around and getting on the nerves of every New Yorker in site.


I saw so many types of yarn and wool, it would make your head spin. I'm crafty but this was over the top for me.

I'm going to stick to the antique shops - although some of these places thought that junk was worth a small fortune. I just couldn't see how an old RR sign that was mounted on a stand was worth over $700. I was just perplexed the entire day about how in the world that woman stayed in business. Really cute stuff but way over priced.

Hudson, New York Trip to Visit Friends

This weekend we embarked on a trip to the country in Upstate NY (Hudson, NY) to visit our best friends, Joe & Terri Pollhein. Joe is Ron and my classmate from West Point. USMA Class of 1987. We are about to go out to lunch at the local diner and I took a beautiful picture from the front porch. It is really beautiful here.

More later.

Visit my friends at their blog...

http://homeatlastfarm.blogspot.com