I Heart NY

Wow....how lucky can a girl get? Boston in the fall one weekend, hanging out in Manhattan the next.....

So, yes, these were work trips. I had lots of time crammed into hotel and hospital meeting rooms. Reviewing slides and videos, arguing the precise angle that is considered "prone", sitting for hours upon hours and trying to stay alert and interested the whole time, smiling and nodding and acting just right. So the fun stuff was much appreciated!

I got up early Friday morning (3:30 am) in order to leave my house at 4 so that I could make my 6:00 flight into New York. The greatest thing happened as we were approaching New York City. There was a little boy sitting behind me. He was in the window seat and I was in the aisle seat. All the sudden I hear such excitement in his voice. "There's the Statue of Liberty! There's the Statue of Liberty!" His excitement was so contagious. Before I knew it, I was almost in the lap of the poor guy by my window trying to see it as well! The view of the skyline flying into the airport is amazing. I don't think that you could ever take that for granted even if you flew into that airport 5 times a day. At least I don't think you should.

A therapist (Catherine) from St Louis was flying in around the same time as I was and we had made plans earlier to try to meet up so that we could go sight see a bit before the meeting started. Catherine had flown into JFK and I had flown into LaGuardia Airport , so she and I decided to meet at Columbia Medical School, drop off our bags and then we would take off for an adventure together. Getting from the airport to Columbia required taking a NYC cab, but you will be happy to know that my first cab experience in NYC was a great one. The driver actually pointed out certain sites as we drove along. He drove me through Harlem and pointed out the Apollo Theater and some other things. I had been told that the meeting would start at noon, but we actually didn't have to be there until 4pm. we arrived at the airport around 11am, so that gave us some time to play. Neither of us knew where we were or where we were going, but we were game for anything. We headed straight for the subway and tried not to stand out like sore thumbs, but I am afraid that we didn't quite look like New Yorkers as we both stood and stared at the map the whole time, asking one another "is this the stop?" We got off the subway at Rockefeller Center and walked around a bit. We saw the spot that the big Christmas Tree will be, the famous Dean and Deluca that is behind all of those people cheesing for the camera on the Today Show every morning, great people watching, and the NBC studios. We went in to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It is amazing that this beautiful church is smack dab in the middle of all of these high rises. http://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/

Then we walked along 5th avenue and window shopped for a bit. We did actually go in Tiffany's. By the way, there are no price tags visible in Tiffany's and I didn't have the guts to even ask how much something was. So, I just browsed and admired. What is it about that little blue box? I'm not even a jewelry fan. Audrey Hepburn must have been a huge marketing ploy! : )

The city was everything I imagined it would be. Sidewalk vendors on every corner. The smell of hot dogs - actually a really good smell - steaming from the vendor's cart. People are moving quickly - but darting in and out around the slow moving tourists. They have "No Honking" signs, but it is obviously not enforced, because there is rarely a moment when a horn is not blowing. I was amazed at how quickly I learned the pace and seemed to fit right into the pace. At least I thought I was - the locals may have thought differently! : )

Catherine and I headed back to the hospital for our meeting and we finally wrapped up around 9 pm and then boarded a shuttle bus back to the hotel. We stayed at a hotel in New Jersey. I guess the company sponsoring the research study didn't see it feasible to spend $500 a night on hotel rooms in Manhattan for 15 different PTs and a few others. I can't imagine why not! : )

We were back up early Sat morning and back to the hospital by 7:30 to start up the meetings again. We worked straight through lunch, but actually finished up a little earlier than the agenda allowed (around 4:30). Several of the PTs were leaving Sat night. The rest seemed to have plans with friends that lived in the city. So, after the meeting, I decided to take off on my own. I boarded the subway and rode it down to Times Square. I walked around taking in all the sites and sounds. i couldn't resist taking this picture. As I walked by the window of the Hershey's Store, this caught my eye. All I could think is how happy my nephew Matthew would be if he had this. (That Starbucks cup is the small/tall cup - so that is a rather large bottle of chocolate syrup.) Then I wandered onto the half-priced Broadway Show booth. Why not? So I got in line and waited to see what I would get myself into. The cheapest show I could find was $28 for Legally Blonde. The lady in line behind me had told me that it was really cute and worth seeing. (By the way, people in New York are actually really nice....I was shocked) So, I decided Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera could wait. Who really wants to see true theatre anyway? This show had a pretty blonde and actual live puppies (yes, 2 of them). How could you pass that up? I had a couple of hours to kill, so I walked some more and stopped in for some pizza and a beer. This, my friends, is what a $10 beer looks like.

So after my really good New York pizza and a really expensive beer, it was time to head on to Broadway to see the show. (Yes, Laura, I was 20 minutes early and was in my seat long before the show started) I was sitting really high up, but you could still see pretty well. The whole experience of seeing a Broadway show was really fun. The show itself was actually really cute. I laughed out loud through the whole show and the cast was really good. It made me realize how little talent I have. After the show I caught a bus back to New Jersey and got back to my hotel room around 1:30 am.

So, the plan for Sunday morning was to get up, get ready to go jog in central park. I planned that I would need to leave the hotel at 6:00 in order to get to the park around daylight. I could jog for a couple of hours and then make the trek back to the hotel in time to check out by noon and get to the airport for my 3pm flight back to Dallas. I actually did get up and got my jogging clothes on. I trudged downstairs and headed out to the bus stop to get to the city. I would have a 45 min ride on the bus, so I took along some granola and coffee to pass the time. I stepped outside and it was RAINING. What is it with rain and these trips? I didn't let it stop me....I trudged on to the bus stop. I sat at the bus stop for about 20 min and no bus showed up. As I sat and waited, I started to plan my time and realized that if the bus didn't come soon, it would really limit how much jogging I could get in. I made the decision that if the bus didn't make it to the stop by 6:45 I would go back to the hotel and order room service. I started to really pull for the latter option, looking at the headlights approaching wishing and hoping that they weren't big bus headlights. There were a couple of trucks that passed by that really scared me, but I lucked out ...... I mean unfortunately, my time was up and it was so awful that I had to walk back to the hotel, go back up to my room, curl up in bed, and order room service......guess I will just have to go back to experience the whole central park plan another time!

I think that my busy weekend in NYC must have been nothing compared to what Maddie and Hudson went through. Other than the initial excitement when I first got home, this is all that they have done....