Hitting the Wall

I will start this post with apologies for being away so long, but the past eight weeks and the trip to NY finally caught up with me and I hit a brick wall.....hard. I knew I was tired Tuesday when I took three, yes three, naps during the day. BUT that was nothing to what I woke up to on Wednesday. Wednesday was the Loser Housewives, (something like the Ya Ya's, Dagmar) annual Christmas Shopping Day. I woke up tired, achy and feeling like I wanted to cry. I tried to hide it from the Losers, but they all know me too well and I soon had to confess how I was feeling. Oh, did I mention, the indigestion and over all yukky feeling.

I walked around the mall all morning feeling like I had cement in my shoes. On top of how I was feeling, I found none of the things on my shopping list. By lunch time, I felt like a total failure. HOWEVER, lunch was wonderful. We had a leisurely lunch at an Italian restaurant in the mall. The soup and sandwich was delicious and rejuvenating for me. I'm sure the company helped too as I just love these ladies whose friendship make my life so rich.

The afternoon proved to be better and by the time we arrived home in the evening, I had only three things left to purchase from my list. Although I was beat, I did feel better and managed to stay awake until at least 9 P.M.

So, now I'll finish part two of Kacy Meets NY. I think I left off on Thursday evening. By the time we went to bed on Thursday, we had already scrapped the idea of getting up at 5:30 A.M. to try to go to the Today Show. Instead, we slept a little later and walked to Radio City Music Hall for the 10 A.M. show. Of course, I have no pictures of the show, as my mother taught me to obey rules and that means taking no flash pictures. Must be that hundreds of people in the audience didn't have a mom who taught them well, as the flash cameras were going off all the time.

The show was wonderful, as usual. The Rockettes are such fun to watch. We were in the upper balcony and seeing them dance from above is a delight. They always end the show with a Nativity Scene which includes live animals, camels, donkeys, sheep. I am so happy that Radio City hasn't become politically correct as this is the best part of the show to me.

Did I mention that it was a beautiful day, once again. We signed up for one of the open air tour buses that run around the city.

Some of the sights from the bus, a pretty poor picture of the famous Flat Iron building, the water towers that bring water the apartments in Greenwich Village, Christmas tree sales on a city street, and Times Square.

These buses are great because they go all over the city and you can hop off and hop on as you please. We hopped off in SoHo and walked to Little Italy for lunch. My brother-in-law says you can't find a bad restaurant in Little Italy and we sure found a good one.

After lunch, we shopped. First in Little Italy, then SoHo, then China Town. I guess we would all say China Town was the best. The merchants there are willing to bargain, and bargain we did. It was such fun.

It was dark and quite a bit colder when we arrived back at the hotel. One of the tour guides had given us some good advice about restaurants. We were into American food and found a great little bar and grille on 8th Avenue and 46th St. We enjoyed the food and the atmosphere at The Joshua Tree. Then it was back to the hotel and off to bed.

Saturday dawned cold and rainy. We started at Macy's for breakfast.

Talk about busy, this store was mobbed. I had claustrophobia just trying to get to the bakery. I did manage to buy a couple of items and then did my best to get out into the street without being run down by shoppers.

After a quick stop at the hotel, it was off to more fun things to do. Kacy and Deb were off to China Town again to shop, while I was about to experience the best part of my trip to the Big Apple. An old family friend (old because I've known him since birth, not because of chronology) is living and working in NY and we made arrangements to meet at the hotel where he is the pastry chef for tea.

I met PJ (now P. Julian) in this lobby. What a beautiful and elegant hotel. Thinking I might like to stay here in fashionable SoHo sometime, I asked him about the rates. $500 - $3,500 per night might just a little too rich for my blood. The tea, however, was outstanding and the two hours I spent reminiscing with this delightful young man was precious to me. After tea, promising not to wait 15 years to get together again, Julian walked me to the subway and I was on my way to Times Square to stand in line for cheap tickets.

By the time I reached TS, the rain had turned to huge wet snow flakes. I stood in line for over an hour with my umbrella up only to find when I arrived at the ticket office that the shows we were interested in were not offering any tickets. **Sigh**.

I was wet, achy and tired. I phoned Deb, who was on her way back from China Town, and told her to meet me at the fabulous Joshua Tree Bar and Grille where I would be having a glass of wine. When they arrived we had some more wine (Kacy had Sierra Mist) and some potato skins. This was enough to get me back to the hotel for a little nap while Deb and Kacy went back to Macy's.

I was beat by then and was determined to skip dinner, but Kacy and Deb shamed me into getting dressed as it was our last night in NY. We found another little restaurant on 8th Avenue, this time a European one. We had a great dinner, with Kacy and Deb even opting for dessert. By the time dinner was over the rain had stopped and I was truly happy that I had not been a wet blanket (literally) on the last night.

Too soon, it was Sunday, and we were back on the train heading for Rochester, NY.

If you have read through this lengthy post, I give you my hearty thanks and many, many

~Hippo Hugs~