Tag Archive: Central Park


New Best Friend

Filed under: Manhattan, Miscellanea — 1 Comment
April 24, 2009

Today was a regular work day, nothing special, I do have a few things to blog about however. When Gwen and I went to see Phantom, I wore a dress and the Crocs pictured at left (the blue ones). It is a bad habit of mine to wear new shoes when I have to do a lot of walking. I guess I thought that since they were Crocs and they weren’t heels like my Cyprus Crocs I would be alright. Well, I was wrong, by the time we got to Central Park my feet were starting to develop blisters.

My dermatologist is near Central Park and on Tuesday when I got the prescription I dropped it off at the Duane Reade. They had to order it, which I was ok with since I knew we were going to be in Manhattan on Wednesday. So we went in to get my medicine and look for bandages. Gwen had some but I wanted the special kind for blisters.

It was there that I found my new best friend (relatively speaking). Band-Aid® Friction Block™. Claims to prevent blisters and it does! It looks like a little tiny deodorant stick and you just rub in on your foot where your shoes rub. You are not supposed to use it on already formed blisters (I did, and it kept it from getting worse). At the end of Wednesday, the only blister on my foot was the one that I had before I put this stuff on.

So today I decided to put it to the test, I took it to work and wore my Cyprus Crocs, all day with no tape on my toes, just the Band-Aid® Friction Block™. No blisters, not even any red spots, and no tape residue on my feet. I am definitely taking it with me tomorrow.

For those of you who are expecting pictures from tomorrow, I have some bad news, I lost my camera today.

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>Phantom of the Opera

Filed under: Manhattan — 1 Comment
April 22, 2009

>Was so cool, so very, very cool. I loved everything about it, from Christine and Raoul, to Carlotta to the ballet teacher/coach to the little blond girl that would run across the stage, stop, face the audience and sing, ♪♫’The Phan-tom of the Op-er-a’♫♪, then continue across the stage. I have been wanting to see it since, I can’t remember, it become real and I have been actually waiting since the 25th of February when I bought the tickets.

Today started early, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. with a headache. A bad headache, I couldn’t even get up to take the medicine for my rosacea. I finally managed to get up and take it. I went back to bed and then Em started texting me at 6:18 a.m. That is when she left for the city. Gwen was down soon after that because she wanted to have breakfast in the city and ‘explore’. So I struggled out of bed and we caught the train at 7:30 a.m. or so. We had breakfast at Pershing Square. Have I mentioned that Pershing Square is my favorite place for breakfast? I will have to blog about that later.

Then we walked up to Saks and got our make-up done at the Lancôme counter, I really liked the colors he used on my face so I bought them, bronzer, eye shadow and lipstick, I was going to get the gloss but they didn’t have it. I have the name though for later. We continued walking uptown to Central Park, Gwen wanted to go down by the water so we took a little walk through the park. No I do not have pictures, I didn’t bring my camera since we were going to be in a theater later and I know taking pictures is not allowed.

We started back toward the theater stopping for lunch at a place called the Applejack Diner (no they did not serve Applejacks for breakfast, Gwen’s little joke) and got to the theater in plenty of time. I could have brought my camera, after all there were a bunch of teenagers there with their cameras and they did not search us, they didn’t even look in the bag Gwen had, she brought the tote bag she takes to college. I keep remembering how D, Em and I got searched at Radio City Music Hall. Well anyway, it was great. The white spots on the cover of the playbill are where it got damaged from being in my pocketbook. At the end, during the curtain call, as the actors were coming forward, first the ensemble then the main characters, Raoul and Christine and the applause was getting louder with each one, I leaned toward Gwen and said, ‘Wait till the Phantom comes out.’ He came out last and the audience started screaming and everyone was standing, as Gwen later said, ‘It takes a lot of acting skill to play a role like that.’

Then we met up with Em, did a little more walking and went to Annie Moore’s for dinner. It was very late when we got home and I was very tired. I knew Kay would like to see a picture of me with my makeup done, so I took this picture when I got home.

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>Doctor appointment and other sights.

Filed under: Manhattan, Miscellanea — 1 Comment
April 21, 2009

>This morning was my follow up with the Dermatologist, she was not happy about the bumps still on face, she wasn’t the only one. She gave me script for Oracea. Since her office is near Central Park and I had some time before I had to go to work, I walked around Columbus Circle for a while where I took this picture. Before I took the picture I was standing looking at it and eating fritos out of a bag, I looked down at the step in front of me and there was this bold little sparrow, as I watched it hopped off the step towards me, I think it was waiting for me to drop a chip. So, shhh, don’t tell the parks department that I was feeding the sparrows, dropping my chips.

At one time I was posting weird things I saw in New York, I stopped not because I stopped seeing them, I guess they started to not seem weird to me. Here are some random things I saw this morning.

Walking to GCT I saw a man with his pug, he stops and the dog sits and looks up at him with that, ‘You’re sharing your lunch with me right?’ face,

I got a sandwich for my lunch and resisted the urge to take all the Splenda packets. (I steal Splenda packets from restaurants, I don’t use them, I just can’t resist the yellow packets for some reason) It was hard but I did it.

I saw a girl smelling her hair, it made me want to smell mine.

I saw a woman holding an ice pack to her jaw. I resisted the urge to ask her ‘Dentist or husband?’

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>The Library vs. Perkins

Filed under: Manhattan, Weather — 2 Comments
April 19, 2009

>It was a gorgeous day yesterday. As you can see, I was wearing my new sundress, I was also wearing my blue Croc sandals and nothing on my legs, glorious! When I left the house I put on my jean jacket. Em said I would roast, I said no, I’ll be all right. I was thinking of the wind, and the air conditioning in restaurants and the train. Em said true, then admitted she had a sweater in her bag. I didn’t roast, and I was glad I had the jacket when we got on the train to come home.

Em and I did our usual, have lunch, get our nails done, do some shopping. I had them trim my nails, I was having trouble getting my contacts out of the case, she was done before me so she walked up to Central Park. When I was done, I was making my way toward her, trying to get there, text her and take pictures in Bryant Park all at the same time. We ended up meeting at Rockefeller Center. Then headed back to Annie Moores. Stopped at a street vendor where I bought a purse colorful for spring, summer and fall.

This morning Tigger started bugging me around 9. He wanted me to take him to the Verizon Store so he can get a new phone for Em. I didn’t want to. I instead said I wanted to go to breakfast. We swung by the library first since my books are in, but they don’t open until 1 on Sunday. So we went to Perkins for breakfast. I was thinking about the library, trying to figure out if I would be able to fit in going there before church, and I started to think about that blog I found, ‘Librarians that say M__ F___’. I was thinking that its not hard to get Librarians to like you, just obey the rules, don’t talk on your cell phone or eat in the library. Be specific in your requests, return your books in good condition. Pay fines without complaint. Unless they are charging you a fine when you returned the item on time. I was thinking this as Tigger was sliding the huge ball of butter off his french toast onto the table (he was aiming for the napkin and missed) and was thinking as much as the library must like me, Perkins must hate me, butter and lemon wedges on the table, syrup rings, used tea bags on my plate, Splenda packets mysteriously disappearing . . .

I turned to go to the library on my way to church. I was looking at the clock and realized I didn’t have time, so I turned, since I was coming the opposite way, I was driving and driving and thought I had missed the turn, and then I saw the sign for ‘All Angels Hill Rd.’, yes that really is the name of the road my church is on.

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>~ On This Day ~

Filed under: Manhattan

>On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)

Is it just me, or does it seem that lately all the ~ On this Day ~ have been newsworthy but depressing? I decided that I would go to the NY Times website and read them all and find one that was not depressing. Here is what I found:

1775: The American Revolutionary War began, (war depresses me),

1897: The first Boston Marathon was run.

1933: The United States went off the gold standard (I admit, I don’t know if this is good or bad, I don’t even know what it means).

1943: Tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against Nazi forces (I suppose this is good, but it makes me think of all the horrible things happening at the time, and that makes me sad).

1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Harry S. Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

1989: A white female jogger in New York’s Central Park was brutally beaten and raped. (Five black and Hispanic teenagers were imprisoned, but the convictions were overturned in 2003 when a serial rapist confessed and DNA evidence tied him to the crime.)(Doubly sad, for the crime and incorrect convictions)

1993: A 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in. Dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.(Really sad)

1994: A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King. (This is sad, not because of the award, but the reason he got it, he got beaten)

1997: Flooding from the Red River forced more than 50,000 residents to abandon Grand Forks, N.D. (This is an exercise in futility)

1999: The German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its prewar capital. (Not sad, not happy, just news)

2001: The Mel Brooks musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway.(Finally!)

2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI. (Something else I am clueless about.)

So some good, or at least not depressing things happened on this day, but the majority? I’m going back to bed.

~The New York Times~

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>Yes we did it again.

Filed under: Beauty, Manhattan — 1 Comment
March 28, 2009

>Em and I went to Manhattan again. Gwen and Tigger went with us. Originally Em was going to get a facial at Lancôme but Leonardo is no longer there so she decided not to get a facial there. I had an appointment to get my nails done so Gwen and I went there, she got a manicure also. Em and Tigger went shopping, she wanted to get D some shirts for Puerto Rico, they are leaving Tuesday.

After Gwen and I were done we headed up Madison toward to Central Park. I forgot my sunglasses so we walked over to 5th Avenue to find a street vendor. Gwen loves street vendors, I thought we were going to have to stop at everyone we saw. We got sunglasses and watches, she got a big digital diver’s watch, I got a little black bracelet watch. Emphasis on little, it fits my wrist.

We had lunch then continued on to Central Park. Em told me they were on the West Side of the park so we went over to 6th Ave. I was getting ready to head for 7th Avenue when she asked me where we were, she said they were going to be coming out at the 5th Avenue exit. They were on the East Side of the park.

When we got to the park, we saw the carriages, Gwen was excited, she also loves horses and wanted to go on a ride, I didn’t tell her that Em and I had already discussed this and were planning on it. So after several text messages back and forth and having to find a bathroom for Tigger (Em and he did), we were waiting by the vendors and I was getting annoyed at the guy who wanted to sketch me, “Only 7 minutes!” Em calls, “Where are you?”, “Waiting by the carriages across from the big statue in front of some street vendors.” “Where are you exactly?” “Near the scary gold lady.” She starts laughing, I thought because of what I said, actually it was because she was on the other side of the scary gold lady. Tigger took a picture of her. I will have to have him send it to me.

The ride was nice, the driver was chatty and funny. Then we went to the zoo, but didn’t go in, decided the price wasn’t worth it. So we went in the gift shop and spent a bunch of money there. I got Em a stained glass box with 3 votive holders in it, she got a snow leopard for Stitch and I got a Tamarin for Tigger. A stuffed one, not a real one.

We had dinner at our regular spot, then rushed to get home cause Gwen was tired and grumpy. After she had a nap on the train, she was in a much better mood. Tigger fell asleep too, right on my arm. We stopped at Ron’s, it is open now, unfortunately Ron is still not able to walk. Maybe by summer. When we got home, Em realized that they hadn’t got anything for Fred, so she gave him the squirrel she bought while she and Tigger were in the park. They had named him Beauregard.

I took pictures, but I am too tired now to put them in a side show.

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My long day and poor Fred

Filed under: Uncategorized
March 22, 2009

I am starting this post with some advice, don’t ever break a bone before a holiday or on a Friday (I actually recommend you don’t break a bone at all, but if you’re going to insist on doing it, follow the above advice). The urgent care put a splint on it, he was to go to a orthopedist for a cast today. Well, D couldn’t get one to return his call, so he called the pediatrician who told him to go to the hospital ER to get it done. Well, they put a temporary cast on it and Monday Em has to take him to the orthopedist for another x-ray and cast. Poor kid.

The worst thing though? Em had told him that after spring break he could start riding his bike to school. Well, now he can’t.

On to the massage, when I made the appointment, they asked if I wanted a female, since I never had a massage before I didn’t know what to expect and so I didn’t know it would make a difference whether or not I had a male or female. So I said it didn’t matter. Ron gave me my massage, he said to let him know if he was pressing too hard, since it was my first massage. When he first started he pushed real hard on my lower back and I thought I was going to pass out from not being able to breathe, I was just about to shout, “Stop I can’t breathe!” When he let up, so I guess he knows what he’s doing. He also asked me if I was just there for a massage or if there was anything else, so I told him about my injured shoulder, and I noticed he did things with that shoulder he didn’t do with the other, so it ended up a little sore, but better in the long run. In fact right now, I can almost lift my arm straight up. He didn’t do much of a head massage, probably cause I have all this hair. Note to self: before getting another massage. Shave head.

After we showered and Em went in the steam room. I didn’t because I was getting a headache. We walked across Central Park to Cafe Frida for lunch, where I proceeded to make a total mess of myself with my burrito. I thought I could pick it up and eat it, and in doing so I got sauce all over the place and on my pants. Then we walked up to the Crocs store so I could get the sandals I saw the last time we were there. It was there that I realized I didn’t have my debit card with me. Em gave me the cash for the Crocs and I was then racking my brain trying to figure out what could have happened to it. My only thought was, since the last time I had used it was at the gas station, and I normally put my card in my pocket after I swipe it at the pump and it wasn’t in my pocket now, was I had taken it out of my pocket at home and left it on my bed. I called Gwen and she looked, but couldn’t find it. I wasn’t too worried, since I hadn’t gone anywhere after the gas station so I was pretty sure I hadn’t left it anywhere (I found it on my bed when I got home).

We stopped at several stores on the way back to GCT, Em was looking for a bathing suit for Puerto Rico, but didn’t find one. We also stopped at a Chase bank to see how much was in my Chase account since I did have that card with me. We also looked for a place where we could get Fred an NYPD hat since he can’t wear his shirt right now (can’t get it on over his cast). Em didn’t find a suit and we couldn’t find a hat. So she got him an i-Tunes card so he could get stuff for his i-Touch and she also got chocolate mousse cheese cake from Junior’s.

When we got to the train station at home, since I drove, so D could have Em’s van to take Fred where he needed to be taken, I asked her if she wanted to go home, she said, “No I want to go to Macy’s to get a bathing suit!” She ended up getting one at Penney’s and I found this really adorable sun dress on sale, and the cashier scanned this coupon for an extra 20% off.

At home Em gave Fred his i-Tunes card and as she was apologizing for not finding something authentically NY he said, “Its an authentic NYC i-Tunes card.”

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>Signs of Spring

Filed under: Weather
March 18, 2009

>Officially the first day of Spring is Friday, 20 March 2009, I have been reading about how people decide its Spring or what they feel is a sign of Spring. For some its when they see the birds flying about or flowers blooming. The black capped chickadees are in the trees and the crocuses are blooming, a couple weeks ago in Central Park, Em and I saw these flowers, I think she said they were ‘Snowdrops’, pretty little white flowers, they bloom before the crocuses in Spring. I used to say, that for me, the first sign of Spring was an itchy nose and watery eyes. That is not the case so much anymore since I am getting allergy shots.

Now, for me, the first sign of Spring is, and I know you are waiting for this, ants in the cat food. Now, I keep his food in a plastic container so far no ants in there, the cat food I am talking about is the cat food that Butterscotch scatters all over the floor. Then from there, they find the bowl and **yuck! I hate ants!** then I have to throw out the bowl of food. This year I moved the bowl to the step next to the toilet, so far they have not found the bowl. I have told Butterscotch that if he didn’t leave his food all over the floor the ants wouldn’t come. I think he hates ants too since he will not go near the bowl when the ants are in it. However this has not stopped him from scattering his food. He must either (a) not understand me or (b) know that I will clean up the food and get rid of the ants. I have put out the ant traps, I don’t know if they will work because (a) I just threw them in the wall space behind the loose board in the bathroom instead of carefully setting them down since I was getting ready for work and was rushed, (b) they are left over from last year, I bought two boxes and never opened the second since the ants didn’t come back after the first traps were put out. So now my morning routine consists of, bathroom, contacts, brush teeth, clean up ants and cat food, get dressed, put on makeup and jewelry, leave for train. I really need to get up earlier.

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D left today

Filed under: Uncategorized — 1 Comment
March 1, 2009

Business trip. Em drove him I went along for the ride. I took my little notebook along. Was planning on a nice entry, all I got was:

Going to Newark with D and Em. He going to Toronto. Em wants me to be sure I know way back
I am trying to write down directions as we go but D’s driving makes me sick.

So did you understand any of that? OK I will explain. D left from Newark, and I went with D and Em to the airport. Reason being, when they fly to Puerto Rico, I will be taking them to the airport and Em wanted me to ride along so I could be sure to know the way home. That doesn’t bother me. What worries me is when I have to drive to the airport by myself to pick them up when they are coming home. Did I ever tell you about picking Em up in Buffalo when we lived there? I couldn’t find the airport. Yes, that big place with the planes.

The rest of this evening was spent playing with the Wii, I got Tigger to make a Mii for me. Then I played bowling with Gwen, then tennis with Stitch, then baseball, then I let Tigger take over with the baseball. Then he and Stitch started playing tennis. That is where I left them. I realized it takes awhile to download a movie and I wanted to download a movie for Em and I to watch tomorrow. There was a major snowstorm forecast for tonight but it hasn’t started yet. The snow that is. I was really hoping for a snow day tomorrow.

1502earringsnailsHowever I promised to write more about Manhattan. First, I had the address of the salon wrong, not the address the cross street. As we stood there and looked at the street sign, Em said, I have West down and this is East, that means the salon is on the other side of Central Park. So we had to walk across Central Park and the up Columbus, because you can’t go straight across the park. We had to stop for lunch then. Em was good and had a salad but I was bad and had a burger, but it was good. On to the salon. Em wanted a spa pedicure and when they asked her which kind she was confused, they had 4 different ‘flavors(?)’ of salts, I guess you would call them. I had a regular pedicure but it included getting my legs exfoliated with some citrus smelling stuff. I also got a leg massage, which I told you about. My calves were still sore this morning! Since I have gel nails, I needed a fill so I had to wait to get my nails done. The lady that did my pedicure gave this little girl a manicure, green polish on one hand and sparkly red on the other. Her mother said, “Now when you get your nails done, you can’t bite them.” In a very soft voice the little girl said, “I won’t mom.” Kind of a sighing voice, like, “Mom, you’ve already told me a hundred times.” Of course Em and I think, since she is a former nail biter and I am a friend of a former nail biter, that its not going to work. But the nails looked very pretty. As do mine now, however if I keep talking about manicures and posting pictures of my nails, I am going to have to change the name of my blog to either Fashionista Bella or Nail Diva Bella, and those are the earrings I bought to replace the earrings I lost, and no I didn’t find them, but I did find my hockey puck.

hockypuckIt’s not really a hockey puck. It is a backup for the computer, like a flash drive. It has been ‘lost’ for over a year, and when I tore my bed apart looking for my earrings, cause I was sure they fell out of the pocket of my sweater when I took it off, and I took it off when I was standing at my bed, I found it on the plywood that is under my mattress. I have no idea how it was there for so long and I never saw it, but . . . I now have it, which is good. I can back up my documents now.

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>Manhattan

Filed under: Beauty
February 7, 2009

>This is getting to be a recurring post.

Since I spent 3 days in Albany Em decided I needed a trip to Manhattan, I suspect she was just using that as an excuse and just really wanted to go herself. I am her friend however so I went along with it. That sounds like I didn’t really want to go, of course I do. I wrote the above on the train, then I started to get motion sick, so I stopped. I just took some Tylenol® PM so I have to stop now. I will finish this tomorrow.

We didn’t go down real early this time. Em went to BJ’s so I decided I would go to Target to get a purse that I could carry my stuff and my camera in. Tigger wanted to come with me. So first I put gas in the car, then we drove to Target. I didn’t like how the car sounded so I checked the oil when we go to Target. Plenty of oil but dirty, so it needs to be changed. I will schedule that for next weekend. Em called while we were at Target so we met her at Panera for breakfast, we took a little too long so we had to drive straight to the train station, that meant I didn’t have my camera, I only had foundation on and I was wearing my Crocs™! My fuzzy ones. I was not very happy about that.

After making a stop at the bathroom, we started walking up 5th Avenue toward Central Park. I was looking for a perfume store I saw on 5th Avenue once. We didn’t find it, Tigger found it on his I-touch, but we didn’t go to it. I stopped at Sephora to see about getting a makeover, didn’t get one there, got one at Saks and bought some lip gloss. Em bought a bunch of makeup, enough to get a free gift from Lancôme. Tigger got a shirt and another jacket, navy blue this time. We went to Cafe Frida for lunch again. I had the same thing I had last time and Em had fajitas and Tigger had Salmon. This is some of the decor there. Kind of cool huh? Em said the waiter was kind of cute, I said yeah, in a South American Rebel kind of way!

It was a fun day after all. I bought lip gloss and two new pairs of Crocs™, we finished our day at Annie Moore’s as usual. I didn’t have Scotch this time, need to see if that is what makes me drag the next day.

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