Lazy Friday

Dave's been super busy lately and has a lot of evening classes this semester, so we haven't had much couple OR family time.  But he ended up with some free time this weekend and we made the most of it.

We went on a date Friday night, which consisted of sneaking pizza into the AMC at Lincoln Square, and then dessert at Magnolia's Bakery afterward--yum!!  Somewhere between the movie and Magnolia's, we realized that aside from the title of the harmless fantasy adventure flick we saw (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), and less dropping of the f-bomb on our way to the theater, we'd pretty much reenacted Lazy Sunday.  Nice.

Saturday, we took Rhys to Union Square to have lunch and get an umbrella stroller (Um, hello Mr. Stroller.  Where have you been all my life?).  As we were leaving the subway on 14th street, I realized that Richard Kind was holding the door open for David.  If you're like the 3 people we immediately texted about this and you just said, "Uh, who is that?" then,
A) That is why you will never beat us at Scene It, and B) He's this guy:

 Except he was with his 3 little girls and looked more like this:

Now, you may be thinking "What's the big deal?"  But we've lived in NYC for almost 2 years and the only celeb sighting we've had until now was when I got fooled by the wax figure of Morgan Freeman in front of Madame Tussauds.  Yes, if you must know, I gasped and got my camera ready and everything before I realized.

Anyhoo...after that, we saw a city bus pulling away from the curb, with it's LED display (usually where it's route/destination is posted)  flashing "EMERGENCY - CALL POLICE."  So, I did.  I'm guessing I either helped thwart a hijacking, or I got some poor bus driver fired for unwittingly flipping the switch.  I'm going to go with the former explanation so I can feel like an extra in Speed.

At this point, we realized it was WAY past Rhys's nap time (getting anything done in NYC usually takes about 5 times longer than you anticipate) so we decided to just let him skip it (yes, you heard me right- I can relax and be flexible, occasionally) and headed to Times Square to ride the Toys'R'Us ferris wheel.  The line ended up being really long, so we saved it for another day but still had a blast exploring the store.  Rhys enjoyed the magic demonstrations, visited Lightning McQueen heaven, had his face stroked by Geoffrey the Giraffe (yah...we thought it was a little weird too), had a roaring contest with the T-Rex from Jurrassic Park,

 The T-Rex, and our friend...um...Bill.  That's right, Bill.

*have you figured out yet that I forgot to bring our camera along on this trip?

and met your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He was in absolute awe of Spidey.  It was so cute, and the guy was really good at getting down on his level and talking to him.  It was all Rhys could talk about for the rest of the day.  He kept pointing to this picture we got, shouting "Man! Man!"

 All he wanted to do was look at Spider-Man and talk to him; hence the "Why won't everyone stop asking me to look at the camera and just give us a minute?" expression on his face here...

After all that excitement, Rhys conked out in his new stroller on the way home.  This kid hasn't fallen asleep in anything but his own bed since he was about 6 months old. 

*This was also the moment I realized I had a cell phone camera.  C'est la vie.

Snowed In

The infamous "blizzard" of aught 10 swept in today with a gusto, dropping an unbelievable several inches of snow within hours!  Everything in NYC shut down last night until further notice, in mere anticipation of this unlivable amount of white stuff.  Being the seasoned Utahns that we are, first, we laughed.  Then, we laughed more heartily.  Then, we put on our boots and went out to play...

Back in the City

We've been back in NYC for almost 2 months and I need to catch up on all the fun we've been having.

David turned 30 at the beginning of September and I surprised him with tickets to Phantom since he'd never seen it live before. It was really good- and the cast was actually operatically trained! I couldn't have been happier. I grew up listening to the original cast and saw live performances in S.F. and London when it was still in its heyday- but it always bothered me that a singer with a girlish, lilting, high-pitched voice could out-sing an actual Diva. Sorry Sarah Brightman fans-- the chick can hit a mean high E and has gotten a lot better over the years, but let's face it...she more often than not sounds like a caterwauling tabby.

Anyhoo- the new guy playing the Phantom (just replaced the previous long-running one) was AMAZING! The chandelier crash was disappointing- it kind of halted and jerked slowly down instead of a dramatic plunge, and for some reason both David and I remember glass crashing sound effects- but not in this performance. All in all though- it was a great evening.

It's on the most adorable little theater district street, and Hamlet was playing next door starring Jude Law...it made us giggle.

The next day, we celebrated David's birthday as a family with a trip to Central Park Zoo.  It's small, but has some great exhibits including penguins, sea lions, a snow leopard, 2 polar bears in a gigantic habitat, and a great little children's petting zoo.  Rhys got "attacked" by the snow leopard who leaped at the glass while Rhys's nose was pressed up against it.  It made the crowd scream, but do you think our little daredevil was shaken?  He just kept right on pointing and babbling about the "kitty."  I got some great shots, but unfortunately they are all from my new Nikon and have to be converted first, which I don't have time for.  But we went back a couple weeks ago with some friends, so these will give you the idea:

Our apartment is also way better this year.  We had to give up our previous one for the summer because they don't allow subletting, but it ended up working out great.  We got the exact same layout, two floors higher, which puts us just above the top of the building behind us.  This means MORE LIGHT and a bit of a view!  Hooray!  It also has better floors and a linen closet in the bathroom.  I literally had tears spring to my eyes when I realized I didn't have to keep our towels in the bedroom drawers anymore.  Oh- simple joys!

Here's a great shot of our "view"

Immunizations? Fuggedaboutit!

After several months of standing in lines, waiting for processing, wondering if we should have just shelled out the 6 G's Columbia wanted for health insurance, and watching Rhys turn 9 months old without having had his 6 month immunizations, Rhys was finally accepted to Medicaid. Hooray!

I thought it was a little weird when I learned that they just assign you to a doctor but I was so happy to finally have a pediatrician I called to make an appointment right away. But, as with every other gosh dang business in this city, the phone just rang, and rang, and rang. No message, no way to leave a message, just eternal ringing. Honestly- how New York can consider itself progressive and efficient I will never understand! After a few hours of this, I decided to look up the address- only to find the office is located just around the corner from us. So I bundled us up and strolled down there.

Posted inside the darkened office, and behind a locked security gate was a cute little sign that said "Office Hours: Monday-Friday 10 am to 5 pm." It was 2:30 pm on a Monday. I couldn't believe I'd waited 3 months to get a no-show pediatrician without voicemail.

So today on a whim I decide to give the phone number one more try- totally expecting to listen to a ringer on repeat again. To my surprise, it was answered on the first ring. Here's how the conversation went: (you'll have to add in Dr. Vitale's strong New York Jewish accent on your own- think Woody Allen mixed with Mel Brooks and make it really fast and really loud)

DR. VITALE: (so loudly I have to pull the receiver away from my ear) Hall-o?
ME: (rubbing my ear while recovering from the shock of someone answering) Umm...is this Dr. Vitale's office?
DR. VITALE: Yah- that's me. Whaddya want?
ME: I need to schedule an appointment for my son.
DR. VITALE: Why? He sick or somethin'?
ME: No, no. He just got approved for Medicaid and he...
DR. VITALE: Oh yah and they assigned you to me huh? Alright, here's whatcha gonna do. You bring him on a Friday or a Monday at 10 am and bring his shot record. You won't wait long, 'cause I'm outta here by twelve, see? So you can't wait longer than that. How old is he?
ME: 9 months.
DR. VITALE: A little guy, eh? Well that means we gotta have some blood. So you bring him on a Friday 'cause I've got a good girl in here on Fridays. Real good at gettin' blood from those little ones. Okay?
ME: (starting to stammer again) Um. Okay. Well, we just moved here recently and I haven't had a doctor until now so he hasn't had...
DR. VITALE: Just moved here huh? From where?
ME: Utah.
DR. VITALE: (with incredulity) Utah? You Mormon?
ME: Yes, I am...
DR. VITALE: Oh, well that's okay. We take care of Mormons here too. The doc who trained me was Mormon. Cheap guy, real cheap. He told me a lot of stuff about the Mormons. All that 10% stuff and what-not. Anyway that's good. Well, we'll see you soon okay. Let me give you my home number so you can call me after hours. (rattles off his number) This is my home number, and I'm married so I'm there all the time, you know what I mean? But don't call me too late unless it's an emergency 'cause I'm OLD, see? Alright, buh-bye now.
(hangs up before I can finish telling him Rhys is 3 months behind on his shots)

So. There's really no point to this story. I just wanted to write it down so I can laugh about it someday and so you can laugh at it right now. It's just another great example of what it's like to live in New York City.