The following is from my sister in NYC. I'd asked her to Guest Host during the RNC, but she had company and just got this to me. Just a little slice of her life from last week(sorry about the format).
My New York (Aug 28 - Sep 2)
The Republicans were coming, but I had more important things to do. I had to get things together after having just painted my apartment (including some major spackling, caulking and sanding) and having a friend (VRK) visiting for the US Open.
I live about 25 blocks north of the George Washington
Bridge and the choppers were already circling. VRK arrived on time and beat me to Port Authority. Once we got settled we started to hit the NYC type stuff on her list. Both of us were hungry so first stop 2nd Avenue Deli. V's Hot Pastrami was fantastic and although it had about 3-4 servings of meat for a regular sandwich, she was starving and polished it off - and meat is your friend if you are on the South Beach diet (we would overload on carbs later).
Now I am not much of a red meat eater and I love cheese, so a kosher deli is not a regular stop for me, but I had a tasty turkey sandwich, We were
planning to walk and it was hot so I couldn't take the 2 servings of meat I had left over with me. 2nd Ave Deli for me is good quality, but a little pricey.
Off to China Town - I needed a new $10 watch. In less than an hour V was fading fast. The cheapest flight took her to Atlanta to change. A two-hour
journey took 5 hours plus the hour on each end of ground transportation. She left her house at 4:30 am and had not slept the previous night. So we
jumped an A train changed at 59th Street for a 1 and embarked upon the Upper West Side to grab supplies for the next morning's repast. 80th and Broadway
is Zabars where we bought some yummy apple danishes and the across to H & H Bagels. It would be great to live around here and enjoy all the amenities of the upper west side, however I have an upper Manhattan budget.
We took a leisurely stroll to the park (Central that is) enjoying a couple of ice-cold pops (I only say "pop" on occasion when a Midwestern friend is
visiting). Hopped a C train switched to the A at 125th street and arrived at my little walk up pad by early evening. V seemed pleased, after a brief recovery from the 4-flight climb, with the apartment makeover. She drifted off twice over the next few hours and we were both asleep for good by midnight on a Saturday night. Ahh the New York high life.
Sunday morning we enjoyed our yummy apple danishes -worth the upper West side price and headed down for a lottery shot at discount matinee tickets. Instead
of waiting in line for hours and hours like a bunch of dead-head fans many shows have a lottery that requires a limited amount of time two hour
before the show. Your name in a bin, spin the bowel and if you get picked you get a discount seat.
At the 42nd Street stop the police were assembling en
mass underground. I have never really seen that many cops together up close. I had forgotten about the big protest march past Madison Square Garden
and up 8th Avenue. We arrived at "Avenue Q", the south Park meets Sesame Street Tony winner, to find it canceled. I don't know if it was the republicans
(Ave Q was not one of the recommended shows for the uptight conservatives. Too bad, Up With People on Broadway has never been an option) or perhaps the
protester march that was coming up 8th Avenue scared off the producers or maybe the cast was part of the march, I just don't know. I thought of the next best show that I knew had a lottery and V might enjoy, HAIRSPRAY. Everybody with a name in the bin got tickets thanks to the republicans scaring
off the locals and many tourists. We killed time for a few hours at the American Girl Doll store and the NBA store (both on 5th Avenue) as well as the Times Square Toys R Us. We actually rode the Ferris Wheel - yes two grown women with no child. We shunned the Barbie car and went for the Tonka truck.
There was a nice AC breeze and I have to admit it was a little fun, but I am a thrifty gal (yeah that's right I'm cheap) and $3 seemed a little much.
We enjoyed the show and after clawing our way through Times Square - more protest stuff we headed for the grand finale of our day . . .. Amy Ruth's.
Good Homecookin'. We got off the 2 train at 116th and Lennox, the line - there is always a line- was short and we were seated in 15 minutes. We had done
full dinners last fall on V's last visit, so this time it was Chicken & Waffles (I did Bacon). A side of Collards and candied yams. Ooh let
me tell you, THE best waffle I have ever had and I love those yams. V rounded hers off with a little sweet tea and that was some meal.
It was still early so we strolled through Harlem to 125th Street. Just east of the Apollo Theatre was
a vendor selling old music videos and had a sample showing on a 13" set. The Jackson 5 (sans Jermain and plus Randy) in the white glitter suits.
Dancin' Machine! Ah Michael, with only one nose job under his belt. Ooh bop diddy-bop. There's little Janet in the audience on a break from Good Times.
We headed home.
Monday morning. The morning session was sold out. We took a dry run out to Flushing to pick up our tickets for the evening. The #7 was a smooth
ride but we were opposite the rush our and no express trains were running so I was a bit impatient with all the local stops (as it turned out we would
always be traveling against the rush so we never got to ride an express train). The next to last stop on the 7 and you either go to Shea Stadium or the Tennis
stadium - you never have to hit the street. I love seeing the world's fair globe that is part of the park and tennis grounds. Lots of lines and security, but it wasn't very clear where you went to get the tickets. V had been a little bothered by the gruff and not very helpful responses to
our questions, but we found it and got what we needed. We decided not to try getting any scalper's tickets and headed back to Manhattan. We were
debating whether to hang out in a nice air conditioned movie house, but I explained that once inside the Magic Johnson Theatre in Harlem it was just like being in the suburbs. Also I was not really up for a Tom Cruise movie - not my favorite actor under any circumstance. Besides we were both hungry, having had our H7H bagels a few hours ago. I chose my favorite West side restaurant
"Vnyl". On 9th Ave and 54th Street we chose from our record album cover menus (Sinatra & Rondstadt) Delicious Sesame Chicken and Chicken Veg Stir Fry with a spring roll appetizer. It was delicious all around. The Sesame Chicken fad a slightly citrus flavor that I hadn't had before. New recipe yum. We
ordered out desserts off the Motown 45 dessert menus to go and headed to the A train.
We caught Jennifer Capriati's 1st round match on TV (one of the must sees on V's list) had a quick nap, ate our take out treats, changed clothes and back
to Flushing. Now I'm not a huge tennis fan but IU have to admit it was pretty cool being there. We found our seats up in the stands and prepared for
Serena Williams - what would she be wearing? At 7:00 we were ready but the opening ceremony was not. Finally the Afro-Latin ensemble form Jazz at Lincoln
Center started playing - delightful of course - actor Live Schreiber made some introductions and then the Bush's came to officially stat the open.
There were boos from the crowd and I have to admit I was doing it too until I realized it was Bush 41 w/ Babs - I stopped - wrong Bush (but I didn't clap
either). Just before 8 pm the players hit the court, Serena in a denim skirt and these patent leather looking Nike boots up to her knees - After the
warm up the top part of the boots came off leaving just the sneaker part. She won quickly in two sets and we awaited the next match. The evening was
beautiful - rain had been a threat all day but never happened and now the evening breeze was quite refreshing. Half way through the Agassi match they
gave out courtside passes for people to move down (I guess they wanted seat fillers for the TV cameras after some people started to leave). V saw a guy
ask a couple if they wanted to move court side and she yelled, "Hey, what about us. I'm from Cincinnati!" I'm not sure what the Ohio connection
was good for, but we got them and took off for courtside. You have to exit the stands level run down two levels and re-enter. We got two seats in the second level up from the end of the court. I was ready to settle in, but V was coping out for better spots. You have to move when the ball is not in
play so we waited for the end of one game and took off. We got to a space facing the side court and stood to wait for the next break in play, then scrambled down to 4hth row right on the net - woo hoo! And for this near-sighted girl I have to
say closer is better. Agassi won in 3 sets and V got some great pictures. We followed the crowd, ran to get on the 7 and headed back to Manhattan.
Once there we changed to the A (local by now after 11pm) arriving at my place about 1:15am. The temperature was cooling, but the humidity was still going strong, so we cranked the AC back on and settled in.
Morning came quickly and I opted out of the neighborhood diner breakfast for a bit more sleep. We got some Dunkin' Donuts mediocre breakfast and
headed out for a full day of Tennis. Some of the information folks were much more helpful this time - although I noticed some southern and Midwestern
accents -not locals. V found the clothing souvenir from a very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful Nike worker (Midwesterner) and when informed that the top
had matching pants she was hooked. She was unsure of the size and the friendly Wisconsin lady told her she could try them on anytime today and exchange the
size later. We caught a few matches in the Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums (I still have to find out what connection Louis has with tennis in
Flushing) and forgive me if I don't know all the players, and moved around to some of the smaller courts for a set here and a set there. had a bad
soft pretzel - very dry, V had a pretty good hot dog. . V saw a client that she knew would be there and she was in the president's box in the Ashe stadium, but we weren't allowed near it. I berated V for not having her # and calIing to set up a meeting, but oh well. The main attraction for us that day was Venus Williams - 4th up in the Armstrong stadium. Well match #1 went to 5 sets and when we checked in with match # 3, knowing that the popular Venus might fill the stadium and wanting to get a good seat, we found
that this was a long match too Zep and Hinedman. We were hot and tired from a long morning in the sun - I got a little sunburn, which is rare for me, so
we found seats in the shady part. I drifted off to sleep a bit. After an hour we thought we would chance it and get some dinner. I was delighted to
find a make your own salad stand - I would not have to have burgers, fries or Pizza yeah! V had a not so great hamburger. People were arriving for the evening session and Venus had yet to play. We had day tickets and got back in the Armstrong and found good seats. The match was still going on. Hindman
a seeded player was really getting a challenge from Zep. By now many fans had switched to cheering for Zeb.. After 4 hours and 5 sets Hindman pulled it out.
Now it was Venus time. Just before they entered, V took off, "there she is." I thought she was going for some close-ups of Venus, but when she returned it
was the client that she had seen. She had courtside seats and some of her colleagues were leaving soon and we could join her. The match began and Venus
was doing well. At the end of the first set we got over to the courtside seats and the FRONT ROW. When Venus was on our end we were 10 feet from her.
The client friend, her sister and I all giggled to see V' excitement. Well Venus won the match all to quickly and we moved on over to the Ashe stadium
only because we had the evening session tickets. Roddick, Ruddick, Reddick(sorry I always get it wrong) was playing a 17 year old new kid Jenkins
who could barely keep his serve. He won a few sets and did return a few good ones even got 1 ace. The crowd was rooting for him because they knew what
he was up against. We left in the 3rd set and headed for the train. It was a super and long day.
Wednesday morning we had one more food stop, The Pink Teacup, a Greenwich Village soul food place. We had been before on a Sunday on V's last visits.
Today it was empty no waiting outside. We had a delicious breakfast (I now like grits) and ahead of schedule we spent a bit of time in the lovely
now not humid and sunny morning in Washington Square Park. The Gate that had been around the arch for a few years is down now and the graffiti is gone too.
Time for a last picture by the fountain and off to port authority for the bus to Newark airport.
Time for me to get back to normal, I stopped at the actors equity office to check what I'd been missing for the last few days then headed home for
a nap. Then I had a 6:30 audition for a play festival. - Btw -I think I just got offered that job. V made it home safe and sound many hours later.
I might have been protesting if V had not come, but I did the NYC thing instead. Thursday when I left my temp job some motorcade of cop cars and those black suv's had disrupted 23rd street so I walked across town to my A line and later that night watched W's speech hoping that he might flub up like he does, but alas he did not ad lib the well rehearsed and formal
speech. I did yell back at him a few times especially when he started talking about health care and education (I haven't heard a word for months about such things)and I saw that 60 minutes repeat about how the Houston schools when Bush was Governor that pretty much faked, flubbed, fixed and LIED about there drop out rates and test scores. It was all LIES - LIAR!!!!!!!
One final bit of indignation when I realized that the national news carried Bush's speech and the little after party picture op until well after 11:15pm
So the Bushies got more air time that the Democrats did Grrrrrrrr.
Now they are gone - or leaving. I won't hear any more choppers over my apartment - until the next highway or code orange incident occurs, my streets
will be clear, well, ok that's a relative statement. I missed the whole tax-free week and didn't get to buy any clothes. I love my city. NYC and we can go back to out numbering the republicans 5-1 or whatever it is.
Posted by chinquapin2
at 1:01 AM PDT
Updated: Saturday, 4 September 2004 11:42 PM PDT
loud
quizzical
party time!