A New Way to Journal

When I was in New York, one of our stops was the New York City Public Library.  I am an avid reader of course and was excited to see this famous library.

The lobby was beautifully decorated for Christmas with lights, trees and garland.  All of my pictures turned out blurry so I don't have any of the inside to share.  We went to see a Charles Dickens exhibit that was very informative and interesting.  There was another exhibit that was lighter and focused on the evolution of lunch.  Yes, the meal we eat in the middle of the day.  I wasn't sure how interesting it would be, but I should not have been skeptical.  It was a walk through time looking at the development of the school lunch program, the beginning production of sliced bread and recipes considered appropriate for women of 50's households to serve to guests.  There was a hands on exhibit where you could assemble plates of food by the cost of items to get a feel for food costs of the time.  I was very impressed with an exhibit that quite honestly I thought would be a time waster.

I've always loved libraries, even going back to my childhood when I would visit the public library with my friend Valerie and return home with stacks of Sweet Valley Twins and Babysitter's Club books.  More than once my parents caught me with a flashlight and book under my covers when I was supposed to be sleeping.  To this day I spend countless hours that I should be sleeping devouring novels.  More often than not I re-read books that I've read before, I love finding more parts of a story the second and third time I read it.  If I want to relax I pull a book I've read before because I don't have to pay very close attention to the details to enjoy the story.

One of the highlights of the trip to the New York Public Library was the stop in the gift shop.  This is a book lovers gift shop.  Certainly it includes a book selection that reflects the location, but also other gifts and items book lovers love to own.  The purchase of the day, and if I'm being honest, the purchase of the trip was a journal that both my sister and I bought, Q and A a day.

I've told you before that I'm not a goal setter and that I have a hard time keeping a journal.  That lack of goal setting extends to New Year's Resolutions, I can't keep them so I don't set them.  My journal writing has improved with this blog, but still isn't great by any means.  Part of the reason I have a hard time writing in a journal every day is that I'm not quite sure what to say. What do you put on an empty page that no one else will read?  What is so valuable that I need to record it, so that I can go back and re-read it and question why I valued that enough at the time to write it down?  I've found that sharing with my audience, in the form of a blog, however small that audience may be, causes me to be more thoughtful about myself, my day and my life.  All of that being said, it is my goal to use this book as a journal for the next five years.

What I like about this book is that on each page there is a question with no more than four lines on which to write a response.  I cannot get wordy.  I cannot look at the blank lines struggling to think of things to fill them.  There are only four lines because the other lines on the page are designated for other years.  The book is set up to be a five year journal.  There are specific questions to answer on each page, which will allow me to compare my responses from year to year.  I am exciting about trying to do this.  It not only records my thoughts and feelings about things, but also will document other things going on in society.  Some of the pages ask for the top news story of the day or latest book or movie that's out.  Hopefully I can stick to it, because I think this is a really cool thing to do!

If you'd like to try it yourself you can buy the book from any major retailer.

Rockefeller Center

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving my parents and brothers flew to New York for the holiday.  Due to fog in Tulsa that morning, their flight was delayed and instead of getting in around noon, it was early evening before they made it to Kayla's apartment.  After a long day of travel not everyone was up for heading out in the city, but mom and Justin decided they would join Kayla and I for a trip to Rockefeller Center.

We walked around looking at the lights and watching the ice skaters down below.  The Christmas tree was up but surrounded by scaffolding, so we couldn't see it, but there were plenty of other holiday lights and decorations to enjoy.  We browsed in the stores that were open and window shopped those that were closed for the evening.  This was Justin's first trip to NYC, it was so much fun to see the city through his eyes!  Here are a few sights...

My mom and I...

Justin and Kayla...

Rockefeller Center was built by the Rockefeller family.  A plaque posted in the plaza lists beliefs of John D. Rockefeller, first stated in 1941.  It's a beautiful statement worth sharing.

"I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the    

          people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it 

         owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial 

         structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character not 

        wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only the purifying fire of 

        sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul is set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest 

        fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His Will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will 

        triumph over might."

I am blessed by giving.

I love to give gifts.  I don't spend a lot of money...for those that have received something from me recently and thought otherwise, now you know!  I do not spend lavishly, on the contrary I spend very conservatively.  I either get good deals on the items I purchase or I get creative with my choices.  It brings me tremendous joy to purchase, wrap and give gifts to my family and friends.

I do not give anything with the expectation of getting something in return.  I give because I love seeing the smiles on the faces of those that open them.  I give because I love seeing the surprise on the face of those that receive.

For me giving takes a variety of forms.  It may be something I purchase and wrap.  It may be inviting people over for a meal.  It may be sharing things I've created with others that may be able to use them.  Whatever shape it takes, giving makes my heart happy.

I am blessed by giving.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

When I was looking for a title for this blog post I wanted something that related to art.  I found this quote by Henry David Thoreau and I think it fits.  I told Kayla when we were walking through Central Park yesterday that I feel like different cities have different personalities.  When I think about Boston or Philadelphia I think history.  When I think of Washington DC, I think formal, power.  When I think of Seattle I think romance and free spirit.  When I think of New York, I think art.

New York City has every kind of art there is.  There are the performing arts...music, dance, theater.  There are culinary arts in bakeries, delis and restaurants.  There are textile arts in fashion and interior design.  Then there are the fine arts such as paintings, sculptures and architecture.  So far in this trip I've experienced performing art in the theater and culinary art in the restaurants.  Today I got to continue my exploration into the arts.

Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or The Met.  This is a picture I took of the fountains outside The Met the last time I was here.  The fountains weren't on today, but I really like this picture.  We took our lunch and ate on the steps leading to the front door of the museum.  While eating we were treated to the music of the gentlemen below.  They sang several Motown hits for the crowd assembled on the stairs.  They were selling CDs as well.  We didn't buy a CD but it did make the group more legit than the many random musicians we've seen in the subway or in front of other museums.

The Met is the largest art museum in the United States with approximately two million square feet and a length of close to 1/4 of a mile.  There are over two million permanent works of art housed at the Met with temporary exhibits that also make an appearance.  The works are from all over the world and span from ancient pieces to modern photography.  It would take hours or days to truly see everything.  We started our time in the museum today with the tour of period rooms in the American Wing.  Beginning on the third floor you can walk through history.  There are 18 rooms set up to resemble various eras in history.  From there we went to the musical instruments exhibit.  There were instruments of all types from all over the world.  We also spent time in the arms and armor exhibit and the Egyptian rooms.  Everything that we saw was amazing, you learn so much when you spend time at The Met.  Here's a picture of one exhibit from the arms and armor room.

On the way home we walked by some windows not far from Kayla's apartment building that are decorated for the holidays.  These are interior design businesses with beautifully artistic displays.  I'll leave you with a sampling of New York City holiday windows.

Vertical Living

If you spend much time in New York you will spend a lot of time going up and down stairs.  That is because this is a vertically built city.  There is no room to spread out, so everything is up and down.  Today I got to do several "Day in the Life of a New Yorker" events.  This morning Kayla needed to run to her office to pick something up to take to a client.  We walked to her office building and took the elevator to the twenty-first floor and into the office space filled with cubicles.  Kayla actually works from her home, so she doesn't have a cubicle space, but I got to meet some of her co-workers while we were there.

We walked from there to the subway to head to Grand Central Station.  It was this subway ride where it really hit me what an amazing feat of engineering this city really is.  We were about eight stories below ground riding the train.  A combination of staircases and escalators took us underground.  We took an underground walkway when we needed to change trains, probably three stories underground.  When we got to Grand Central Station this is what we saw.

I didn't take this picture, I found it on google images.  The ceiling is painted with zodiac images.  This is the main concourse.  There are several shops in the wings off of the main concourse on this level.  One level below this is where we had lunch, in the dining concourse.  I wanted to branch out and have something different, so I had a lamb gyro in a pita.  The pita was given a layer of hummus before lamb and slaw were stuffed inside.  I had lamb once when I was in England several years ago and I've had hummus before, but not a gyro in a pita.  It was very tasty!  After lunch we walked through the Holiday Fair that was set up in one of the halls.  They were all handmade items and they were gorgeous!  I wish I could have bought so many things.

From there we went to Trader Joe's in Chelsea.  Trader Joe's is a grocery store.  Groceries here can be very expensive, but Trader Joe's is one of the more affordable places to shop.  The thing about grocery shopping here is that you have you be able to carry everything that you buy.  That limits what you can buy.  We limited ourselves to four bags, two each to carry back through the subway and the four block walk to her apartment.  

After we dropped the groceries at the apartment we went to Central Park.  Kayla lives about five blocks from the east side of the park, so we went there for a stroll.  We walked through part of the Central Park Zoo to get to The Great Mall.  There are even stairs and hills in the park.  This is not a flat island!  We bought roasted nuts and sat in the cool weather to eat our snack.  It was about forty five degrees but I was comfortable.  Kayla, however, was bundled in her parka!  We are very different in what temps we enjoy.  As we were leaving the park we walked past the ice rink.  This isn't the best picture, the camera on my phone isn't great, but the white area toward the back of the picture is an ice skating rink.  Some kids were playing hockey and other people were figure skating.  It looked like so much fun, although I'm not coordinated enough to ice skate.

We took the subway from Central Park down to the lower east side to Hi Thai for dinner.  It was the first time I'd had Thai food.  Greek for lunch, Thai for dinner...it was a day of firsts!  Kayla ordered me the Chicken Pad Thai.  It was really good.  I'll have to try Thai again sometime and pick a different dish.  I'm really trying to branch out and try new things.

From Hi Thai we went to Hotel Chantelle to play Bingo.  Again with the vertical experience, we had to climb two large flights of stairs to get to the Bingo room.  We had such a great time.  It was so hilarious!  The prizes were all very silly and we laughed the entire time we were there.  I won the first round which was a pair of lanterns that light up.  One is a duck and the other is a bunny.  I had to go up on stage when I won to collect my prize.  The emcee interviewed me while I was up there.  I also won a later round and got the DVD board game for The Office and a t-shirt.  The grand prize of the evening was a jackpot of $143 dollars and several other silly prizes.  Kayla and I were both disappointed that we didn't win that prize, but we had such a good time while we were there that we got over it.

It was a great day...tomorrow it's The Met!

Movies in Manhattan

Today was movie day.  I've never before done a double feature in the theater, but that's what Kayla and I decided to do.  We had such fun seeing two fantastic movies!  We started the day with breakfast at a diner just down the block, before heading to an 11:20 showing of Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2.  Who knew you could go to the movies before noon?  Kayla had bought our tickets online last night, so we were quickly checked in.  For the first time in my life I rode an escalator in a movie theater.  We went down two floors below street level for our first movie of the day, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2.

Kayla and I have both read the books and enjoyed them very much.  Movies are never just like the book, they can't be and I don't expect them to be.  I just expect to enjoy the movie, which I did.  It was action packed and entertaining from start to finish.  Just before the movie started we decided we wanted to make this a double feature day and watch Lincoln next.

After Twilight, we had some time to walk around so we went to a small children's bookstore, a toy and party store and then to TJ Maxx.  It was a cool but beautiful day.  I took the picture below of the Queensboro Bridge that we passed on our walk today.

After our walk we went back to the movie theater to see Lincoln.  It was a phenomenal film, of course it's a Steven Spielberg film so I would expect nothing less.  We had popcorn for lunch and sat in a packed theater for two hours, captivated by the history we were watching.  We both left with a sense of patriotism and a deeper appreciation for our freedoms.  Spielberg does a great job telling the story of the thirteenth amendment.

Tonight is a low key night with tacos and a Law and Order Marathon.  Tomorrow promises to be another full day.

Brunch and Broadway

What a fantastic day!  Kayla and I started today by sleeping late.  We didn't get up until 10:00.  Since we went to bed a little after 2:00 we were due for some extra z's.  Shortly after getting up I learned my first New York lesson of the day, apparently brunch is served here from 10:00-4:00.  We went to a great restaurant in the West Village called The Half Pint.  Here's a pic from their website.  The table on the left in the corner is the one where we sat.  It's actually known for being a beer bar but we went for their brunch menu.  Kayla enjoyed the eggs benedict and I had a mozzarella, tomato and basil omelet.  The groupon deal that we had included mimosas.  It was a fun way to start the day.

From there we walked over to SoHo and did a little shopping.  I love going to the Scholastic Store there.  Since I'm not in the classroom anymore, I don't buy many books, but I love walking through the store.  They have a huge Magic School Bus that you can walk through.  They have a fun Clifford display and a fabulous Harry Potter display that includes a lego set to build Hogwarts.  We left just before The Grinch was supposed to make an appearance, but before leaving Kayla and I made a deal.  She's going to read the Harry Potter series (which is a first for her) and I'm going to read The Hunger Games (which will be a first for me).  We left there and went to Old Navy where Kayla found some great deals and then worked our way back to the Subway to head back to her apartment.

Tonight we had reservations for dinner at Stecchino which is an Italian place in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan.  We met up with Kayla's friend Dana for the evening.  We went from there to the Snapple Theater Center where we saw a quirky play called "Perfect Crime."  We sat on the fourth row and enjoyed the play.  Most of the theater productions I've been to were musicals so this was a fun change.

The play was in the theater district which isn't far from Times Square so when the play was over we walked through Times Square and took a couple of pictures.  One drag queen approached us and asked me to take a picture of him.  It takes all kinds to make the world go round, especially in Times Square!  We worked our way to Harold's Square and Korea Town before we made it to our last stop of the evening, Ayza.  Ayza is a Wine and Chocolate bar and it was delicious!  We sat outside to enjoy warm spiced wine and a chocolate pizza topped with strawberries and bananas.

It was a perfect way to end the evening!  I'm so glad I got to spend the day with my sister.  Now for some sleep so we can get back at it tomorrow!