Friday night grateful moment

hat's not to love? A warm house, a cozy sweater, a steaming cup of soup... it's Friday night and I'm in heaven. This week has felt especially dark. Doh! The switch to Standard Time seems to take me a bit to catch up with, and I am hopeful that this weekend I will get not only caught up, but spring out ahead of the curve on the dark and dreary...

Meanwhile, it's Friday. Grateful for that. Fo sho.

The election is over. Extremely grateful for that. I wish for, dream of, pine for a different way for our country to approach these big decisions, but alas, divisiveness and polarization is still the way of it. I am grateful to have avoided much of the nastiness, just by paying attention to other things; but next time, I do think I'll take a total social media break for the week prior and after (at least). Remind me of that, would you?

nice

I'm grateful for the flavors of the seasons... still eating on that squash! Had a gorgeous bowl of borscht tonight with husband. Spent some time gleaning pomegranate seeds from their pith earlier this week and enjoying them by the handful. Looking forward to many Perfect Bites for Thanksgiving dinner. Oh joy. (If you're new here, the Perfect Bite is what I call the sublime combination of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, maybe a little cranberry sauce and a bit 'o gravy, all on your fork, headed into your mouth for a piece of Thanksgiving heaven! I talk about it a lot: here and here, just for starters.)

Had birthday lunch(es) this week, and packages in the mail too... I'm grateful that the birthday celebration has stretched out so lovely over the past couple of weeks! I've gotten to enjoy tidbits and meals--glorious meals!--with many dear and loved ones.

I walked in the back door to an afternoon surprise visit from Seth. He's on a bit of an extended time at his other house before an extended time with us around Thanksgiving, and so it was a lovely surprise indeed to actually glimpse that beautiful boy and not just have to make do with texts and phone calls. We had a lovely catch up and he had a snack (of course). I'm still smiling and so so grateful for such a boy.

feelings

The East Coast is still in repair mode, and I'm grateful for them that the end is somewhat in sight (though, oh what a clean up!). I'm grateful for Corinne and I that our trip was the week that it we happened to schedule it, as Sandy actually hit land on my birthday itself.

It's been a hard week for many, as every week is. A coworker has a sister who is recovering from a catastrophic car crash, a friend's father experienced a stroke and most recently I learned of a missing son for a blog reader/Facebook friend. Sadness and hard times persist; I'm grateful that every one of the people I mentioned above has a support group of family and friends to see them through these challenges. 

This variation on the iconic I heart NYC logo seems appropriate (and some days, not just for NYC!).

Being November and all, gratitude gets a bump up on everyone's to-do list, and it's fun to see some of the daily thankful lists on Facebook and other blogs. My friend Lisa always keeps me laughing with her insights and witticisms. My favorite of her gratitude posts so far is about punching babies. Seriously. You'll want to check that out.

I think I might need one of these. You know, to keep track of the thankfulness.

calendar

I'm also grateful for all the usuals:
my Creator
my health
my man
the prospect of hours of deep, deep sleep
lazy weekend breakfasts to look forward to
naps by the fire
maybe (just maybe) watching a few snowflakes
color,
music,
kind and thoughtful words...
You know, MY usuals.

I hope you have some usuals in your life--things you can count on to lift your spirits when needed, and to rely on in good and bad times. What would make your "usual" list?

Happy weekend! Peace.

Glimpses of fame, in the city

ome on, you *knew* I'd have to share the low down on celebrity sightings, right? What's a trip to the city without looking around for the famous folk?

This small list is in addition to the Matthew Morrison/Kathie Lee/Hoda photo bomb moment on Tuesday morning, which doesn't really count, as they're rather like specimens under glass through the NBC window. And the other famous thespians we saw in the play on Tuesday night (Paul Rudd, Ed Asner, etc.) don't *really* count either, as they were paid to be present. The folks below, they were out in the wilds of the city, spotted in their natural habitat...

Walking in SoHo: David Allen Basche

I remember him mostly from Lipstick Jungle and The Starter Wife, but he's also now on a sitcom called The Exes. It was definitely one of those "I know I know who that is, but who is that?" moments that plagued both Corinne and I ALL day. I could picture him in a setting, but not WITH anyone, and so it was really difficult to get him in a context--it seemed like it should be a work-related sit-com, but not something currently on TV, what could it be? He looked very suited up--navy with fine pinstripes--and put together... seemed like he was in working mode, and was walking and talking on the phone before he ducked into a building down the street (probably to avoid the two strange ladies who did double takes and watched him walk away!). I finally latched onto his name, associating him with Kristen Johnson (from The Exes, but more notably Third Rock from the Sun), and sure enough, IMDB did the rest.

Late night in the East Village: Angelo!

I already posted about seeing Angelo Sosa, one of the finalists for Season 7 of Top Chef, but I have to mention it again, as it was probably my favorite sighting of all, and the least traditionally famous of the lot. He was someone who, if we hadn't been actually crossing the street in traffic, I might have said, "Hey Angelo, congrats on Top Chef," and he *seemed* like that would have made his day.

Sauntering in Rockefeller Plaza: Shaquille O'Neal

I was looking down at my phone texting or reading or something and looked up to see a bunch of people all looking in one direction, sort of in my area, but beyond me. Ah-ha, I thought. They see "somebody." So before I even knew who I was looking for, I did a (very natural, of course) 180 and started walking back toward where they were staring. I looked across one of the side areas of Rockefeller Plaza--before you reach the busy part--30 Rock, shopping, NBC, etc.--and there was a scrum of people, with one super-large person more than a head above. Yep, Shaq. He had a small smile on his face, but was otherwise completely mellow and saunter-y. The whole group went into a building, and I continued on my merry way.

Cool as a cucumber on United 0703 JFK>LAX: Gayle King

Did not expect to see Gayle King sitting in first class on my morning flight out of NYC. She was dressed very nice (purple!) and was in her seat checking her phone (good way to avoid eye contact with crazy gawking women!) and I obviously just kept walking on by to my seat a little further back from her spot.

Now, who I wanted to see, but didn't try very hard: Carole Radziwill

Carole is an author and former TV producer who was on the most recent season of Real Housewives of NYC. Yes, we've previously covered this as one of my guilty pleasures, let's not go over that ground again, shall we? She was indeed the one breath of fresh air to an otherwise tediously drama-filled season. I went in skeptical that she'd even give the show the time of day, but came away more of a fan than ever. She has style, grace and wit, and doesn't take herself too seriously (from what I could see).

Having returned from the city and now (didn't think of this beforehand, doh!) following Carole on every social media platform there is, I am confident that by the time I return to NYC: a) she will have a restraining order out on me, b) she will no longer be even semi-famous, or c) I will be able to perfectly time bumping into her at her favorite hat store on Thompson and we'll become fast friends. Ha ha, sure. That last one, definitely.

I know, there are many more important things to occupy my time than celebrity sightings; combined, the above viewings took about 2 minutes, tops. And goodness knows if I lived in the city these wouldn't even have made my radar, I suppose, I'd be so "oh, yeah, whatever" about it.

We did learn, Corinne and I, that we have little stamina for the papparazzi life. On the subway Tuesday morning down to SoHo, a guy with a beautiful camera and large lens was sitting across from us, catching a few zzzz's. I thought, gorgeous camera, but didn't for a minute consider what he'd be doing wandering around the city with it. A few minutes after we'd all gotten off the subway and had walked around a bit, we saw a group of men (including our subway companion) with cameras, all huddled around a corner. Across the street was Trump SoHo. Of course we wandered over (we were going that way anyway), and hung out for a minute... a couple of minutes of nothing happening and Corinne asked one of the guys, "Who are you waiting for?" He answered, "I don't know." Brilliant. Of course he's not going to tell US. We gave it about 30 seconds more, and were gone. It was cool and breezy and catching a glimpse of someone going from a hotel to a black Excursion didn't really seem like a good way to spend our day... we had lunch at L'ecole to get on with!

Sadly, this was the first time I'd been to L'ecole without seeing Jacques Pepin. The three times I've been there previously, he's been in the restaurant, teaching and then sitting up at the bar having a little meal after the main lunch service... no such luck this time.

Thus ends my celebrity sighting career for, well, awhile... until Tom Skerritt comes back to Walla Walla again (he was here last weekend and oh how the Facebook pictures got posted, poor guy).

Who's the most famous person you've seen? Curious me wants to know!

NYC Day Four: More walking and eating

This morning Corinne had a class from a flower guru that she wanted to attend over by the UN/Tudor Place, and I certainly know how to entertain myself in the city, so we parted ways at Starbucks and agreed to meet up for lunch... I headed down to Chelsea to a quilt shop I found somewhere online, probably a quilt blog... I was curious to see how the city folk would present fabric and such.

I arrived at the store just before it opened and was amused to see a clump of ladies gathered and waiting. I was the youngest person on the block, I'm pretty sure of that! I like hanging with the older ladies, it is true... I wandered the fabric, looked at the finished quilts and of course indulged in a bit of fabric for my stash at home. But I was definitely reminded that we have an excellent quilt shop in Walla Walla, and there's not much lacking from the selection I have every day. That was a nice reminder.










There's a quilt museum on one side of the quilt shop, with some beautiful pieces. This is where the husbands hang while the women wander the fabric aisles...

After a quick lunch at 'wichcraft in Midtown, we found ourselves some bikes to ride around Central Park and set off. It was a bit of an experiment in going against the grain--I think for most of the ride we were going the wrong way in the bike path, and thankfully no one yelled at us. That actually surprised me. But the signage was so completely lacking, we really had very little idea of how to get to where we wanted, and most of the time we accidentally arrived at a scenic spot. A little frustrating...

Regardless, though, it was a lovely outing, and more peaceful and quiet than Midtown, where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were arriving at the Waldorf Astoria for some dinner or other, and the NYPD were out in full force.








Our final dinner in NYC was a doozy, in the best sense of the word. Corinne did the hard work of getting a reservation at Per Se, Thomas Keller's restaurant at Columbus Circle. I am still processing the experience, but it was definitely one for the memory books. It deserves its own blog post, once I've had a chance to mull it over. Alas, the lighting was such that no pictures were possible, so we just had to dive into each course and try to commit it to memory. Yeah, like that's going to happen.


Tomorrow morning it's back to JFF > AWK (ha, I wish that was the way the flight went!). Regardless, home is on the agenda, and I'm looking forward it! It's been a truly lovely outing, but home is always where my heart is. (That's you, husband.)

NYC Day Three: A double-beet day!

Day three: another sunny morning dawned, and we headed straight out to Grand Central for our trip up the Hudson River to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

This particular jaunt came up late in our trip planning, but what a pleasant addition! It wasn't until the trip drew closer that I realized how very much I was looking forward to it. While attending the school has never been really high on my priority list, or really an option--by the time it occurred to me I was OLD by CIA standards--it is a setting that I imagined would be inspiring. And it was, indeed.


Figs and coffee! A perfect breakfast. When Seth and I had our NYC trip in 2005, that was my morning tradition (his was hot chocolate and a bagel). I was thrilled to see figs at the Grand Central Market this morning, and just had to indulge.




Both of our mothers said they want pictures of the two of us together, so of course we oblige! Nothing like a little time on the train...

Two quick hours later, and we were there!





Very Vanna White of me. Couldn't resist posing by the campus sign... The campus is 150 acres, and beautifully landscaped, along the Hudson River. At least a dozen buildings--four restaurants, four dorms, some student housing...


Before I found out that we weren't supposed to take pictures of the students, I took a few pictures along our initial pass through the school. My main takeaway from observing the kids (yes, they were awfully young) in a varuiety of food-prep situations was the glacial speed at which they moved. When I catered, time seemed to always be too short to get everything done that I wanted, and moving quickly took on prime importance. Not for these kids... the real world should wake them up to a different pace, I would think!


This teaching theater was between classes, but someone was getting schooled up front... we kept moving.


Beet and chevre salad. Divine. We ate in the American Bounty restaurant, and enjoyed our meal--made by and served by students.


This is the view of the river from the front of the campus. Absolutely peaceful and beautiful. All too soon our lunch and tour ended and we headed back to the city. We landed in Grand Central again, and at my dad's advice, checked out the Apple store there. This is the view from the store. What an amazing place! The second picture is one of the bars where you can check out the product.



From Grand Central we made our way to the East Village where I'd sussed out a pierogi restaurant. I can't remember which NYC-specific email pointed me toward Vaselka, but it proved definitely worth the trek. Borscht and pierogis? Yum. We sat up at the bar and listened to all the Russian chatter as they prepared food. Simply awesome, to have a casual, quick meal, after the more formal reserved dining occasions of the past few days.


Second round of beets for the day! For someone who doesn't seek out beets very often, it was memorable and both dishes were fabulous.



My pierogi selection: Potato, cheese, sweet potato and arugula and goat cheese.


On our way home from Vaselka, we passed by Momofuku's Milk Bar, and I got a cookie selection to share back at our hotel. Yum. Oh, and as we crossed over 2nd Avenue, we passed Angelo of Top Chef season 7 fame. Awesome; especially awesome given that we saw his name up at the CIA today as a graduation speaker this weekend and regretted that we'd miss him.

Happy tummies, happy girls. Only about 11,000 steps today, which was a nice break from yesterday!

NYC Day Two: Sunny in the city!

Day two dawned beautiful and sunny. C and I hit the streets ready to explore, knowing that we needed to be available for a possible private tour of the NBC studios at 11a.m. We headed toward 30 Rockefeller Plaza with coffee in hand. Once we arrived at the outside of "The Today Show" studios, Kathie Lee and Hoda were interviewing Matthew Morrison of "Glee" fame (see below, really that's them through all those lights!) so we obnoxiously snapped pictures of the back/side of his head until security told us to get behind the barriers with the rest of the throng... Um, no thanks! We'll just keep moving along...


We had a quick breakfast at Bouchon while waiting for confirmation of our tour, which was ON. My sister-in-law's good friend Sheryl (who works at NBC) asked a co-worker and former NBC page, Marie, to give us a tour, which was fabulous! We saw the sets of SNL and Jimmy Fallon, passed by Dr. Oz's area, went into the MSNBC control room (very quietly, as we weren't supposed to be there), smelled the commissary (yum), and in general learned a great deal about NBC history and trivia. Very fun! (See Molly Shannon's Mary Catherine Gallagher get-up below. It was beside Dana Carvey's Church Lady costume--which was currently missing [?], and Jane Curtin's egghead outfit... that's before my time, I think?)



Corinne and our tour guide Marie checking out the Jimmy Fallon set.



We had 1:30 lunch reservations at the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute) in Soho, so we subwayed down to that general area and walked around for awhile, exploring.




A fabulous three-course lunch later (see my halibut above, and I bet you can't guess what I ordered for dessert, ha ha) and we were back out on the street, wending our way from Soho to TriBeCa, the East Village and Chelsea areas, stopping at Washington Square Park for a brief stop before continuing on to Union Square, where we subwayed back up to the Theater District, where we saw "Grace," a play with Paul Rudd and Ed Asner. It was very intense and dark-ish, but well done. After the play we had a quick Indian meal at a nearby restaurant and called it a day.




These boys were belting out some jazzy tunes in Washington Square Park and it made me think of Seth and how he might be able to fund college, while he's in college! They were good, and having a bit of fun too... had people dancing, even. Well, one guy. But he was very into it!

18,000 steps on the FitBit. Shops visited: Sephora, Apple, Purl Soho, Pearl River, DSW, Apple (again), Aerosole, Steve Madden... Notice the plethora of shoe shops there? Alas, nothing purchased at those... interesting. But oh how our feet were feeling those 18,000 steps...

NYC Day One: An excellent beginning!

We landed in NYC after a red-eye where Corinne and I both slept surprisingly well. A cab ride into the city where we dropped off bags, and away we went, walking over and up to Central Park South, where we enjoyed a quick breakfast of eggs and baked goods at Sarabeth's.


Then we thought, might as well head off walking to our next destination, Pier 83, where we'll take the Circle Line boat tour around Manhatten... many blocks and a blister or two later, we did indeed arrive at the pier in time for our jaunt.


Yes, we did wander through the craziest few blocks in the city--Times Square...

On our tour a zesty guide named John regaled us with interesting details on both sides of the Hudson as we set off toward the Statue of Liberty. We then dipped around the bottom of the island and headed up the East River, all the while soaking in the sights of so many beautiful architectural details.






What's that last picture, you ask? Why, that's a Costco! I saw the sign from the boat and just had to capture the picture for husband. That is one mega-Costco, fitting for a mega-city.

Crossing under many bridges, we finally found our way back on the Hudson side of the island, listening to "New York New York" sung by Frank Sinatra. Funny guy, that John. Funnier still was the lady who (with a little help from our friend Gallo) thought John surely must be speaking just. to. her, so responded to pretty much everything he said with her own, quite enthusiastic, responses. It was a very entertaining three hours.

Giving our blisters a break, we cabbed it to the World Trade Center Memorial. Quite a security process getting into the area, but completely worth it. The peace and quiet of the two reflecting pools dampen the noise of the city, and the cut-metal nameplates are a beautiful touch. You can search for a name on computer kiosks and they will tell you right where that person's name is located around the pools. And the trees that line paths between the pools are beautiful, creating a very serene environment. A really beautiful outcome, these 11 years later. I thoroughly enjoyed soaking in the sense of remembrance and solemnity, especially so with Corinne, who I spent the original 9/11 day with, 11 years ago, in San Diego...


"Generations do not cease to be born... and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."
-James Baldwin
(From "September Morning," a book of readings from the first 10 years of 9/11 memorial services.)

From the WTC we headed back up town to our hotel, just in time for the rain to start in earnest. We slopped through the rain to dinner with John and Wendy, friends from Walla Walla who relocated to NYC 8 years ago, and put our tired feet up while we phoned our dearests at home.


Wendy and I after a lovely dinner in the MetLife Building just off Grand Central. Pizza! A very fitting ending of our first day in the city.