My last New York post ended with the following riveting cliffhanger:

Did Beth really touch the side of Paul Simon’s former apartment building?

Did they see Art Garfunkel on Fifth Avenue?

The answers are yes and no.

After the Circle Line, we made our way to the Upper West Side, which is a decidedly different sort of neighborhood than Times Square or Hell’s Kitchen. We saw lots of families, kids, young mothers pushing strollers, and people walking dogs. We ate lunch at a great sidewalk cafe, Isabella’s, that sits across Columbus Avenue from a middle school.

After lunch, we walked back toward Central Park, down West 76th (or 77th) Street. It’s a beautiful, expen$ive residential street lined with trees and row houses with interesting architecture. This was the first time I’d ever spent any time on the Upper West Side, and I enjoyed walking through this neighborhood.

Walking down Central Park West, we passed the building in which Paul Simon once lived. It’s called the San Remo and it’s a very posh building that faces the Park. There were two doormen standing just inside the door, all dressed up in sharp uniforms. Yes, I did actually touch the side of the building. Which is almost as good as an Art Garfunkel sighting. Almost.

My other must-see in this area was the Fifth Avenue Apple store. Of course. My mom actually bought a new case for her iPad there. It was teeming with people and so crowded it was hard to move around. But still, just a slice of Apple goodness.

You can’t really go to New York without at least walking up or down Fifth Avenue. I took this picture near the Apple store (Fifth Avenue between East 58th and 59th), looking downtown, toward the Empire State Building.

By this time our feet were yelling and screaming for us to please stop walking, so we took a break at the beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral (between East 50th and 51st Streets). I’m not Catholic, but this place cannot help but inspire awe and reverence. I sat near the front and snapped this picture of the altar. Stunning.

Then my mom, a former Catholic, lit a candle for Jim and his job search, which put a nice-sized lump in my throat. Thanks, Mom, if you read this. That was a moment.

After St. Patrick’s we went back to the hotel to rest our feet (and a glass of wine, of course) before seeing Motown and a late dinner at City Lobster. Any day that ends with a Broadway show, wine and lobster is a good day, right?

Tomorrow: Ground Zero. And a nap.

What a wonderful thing it is to wake up in New York City.

Our first outing of the day was the Circle Line cruise. Yes, it’s touristy, but neither of us had ever done it, so I think that makes it OK. The boat goes all the way around Manhattan.

We started at Pier 83 at West 42nd Street and 12th Avenue, in Hell’s Kitchen. The neighborhood, formerly a crime-ridden slum, is now a trendy — and expensive area. Ninth Avenue, around 42nd Street, is known for its variety of ethnic food. There will be a return trip to this part of town.

The cruise took about two-and-a-half hours, though you can take a shorter trip. I stood at the bow for the best photo opps, and was hoping the entire time that no one would feel the need to do the Titanic thing. No one did.

One of the first sights we saw was the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. One of these days I want to walk across it and see lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn side.

Brooklyn Bridge

For about 30 minutes, I heard no English. I was surrounded by Spanish, French, German, and what might have been Russian, but I’m not sure. I think it’s apropos that I realized this as we approached Ellis Island, and passed very near the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, so we got as close as anyone else could. It was hard to imagine I was really that close to the Statue of Liberty. I took about 50 pictures of it. That was the first time I’ve seen it except from the window of an airplane, and it took my breath away.

It was windy and a little chilly, but so very worth it, as the view of lower Manhattan was nothing short of spectacular; the photos don’t really capture it.

Moving uptown into Harlem, the only thing to see besides a bunch of nearly-identical apartment buildings was these colorful murals. For all I know, these could be gang signs, but I found them interesting.

I checked out the south Bronx, notorious for being a rough and scary place to be. Indeed I do believe I’ve seen about all I need to see of the south Bronx.

The South Bronx looked a little scary.

The central-northern part of the Bronx looked a little nicer, with some newer-looking residential development and Yankee Stadium. I liked seeing it, though I’ll never be mistaken for a Yankee fan.

Seeing a game at Yankee Stadium is on my bucket list. It would be awesome to see the Red Sox win.

I recommend the Circle Line for anyone who wants to get a good overview of Manhattan from the water, or for anyone who likes to take pictures.

After that we looked for a cab to make a quick stop at the hotel before heading out for lunch. There were none to be found, so we took a pedicab, which is a bicycle that a guy with very well-developed calves rides and pulls you behind him in a cart. It was a much better way to see Hell’s Kitchen than in a speeding cab, but when we got out, he told us it would be $36 … each. For 10 blocks. So no more pedicabs. Sadly, both my iPhone and my camera batteries were dead by the end of the cruise, so I have no photos of Hell’s Kitchen.

This is getting long, so I’ll do a separate post on our lunch at a sidewalk cafe on the Upper West Side, and touching the apartment building where Paul Simon used to live. 

Yesterday’s flight went smoothly, after the minor glitch with my boarding pass was settled. I don’t love flying one bit, but I survived the flight nicely, thanks to my iPad, New York Times crosswords and my “calm” playlist. And what may have been a tiny glass of wine.

Once we landed it seemed as if it took forever to get out of the airport and to our hotel, which is right near Times Square, at 47th Street and 7th Avenue, an easy walk from the theaters and just a couple of blocks from Fifth Avenue. Here’s the view from our window.

We quickly unpacked and settled in, then hit the streets the way people do in New York: on foot. We grabbed quick sandwiches at a place I’d heard about online call Pret a Manger. They specialize in fresh, handmade food. Everything is made and served on the same day, then the leftovers are donated to charity. I love the philosophy and the sandwiches were delicious. This sign hangs in the dining area:

We walked up Seventh Avenue, over to Sixth, then all the way to Central Park, where we decided to be touristy and do the carriage ride. It’s a great way to see the Park. My heart beat a little faster when we passed the Sheep Meadow, the site of Simon & Garfunkel’s Concert in Central Park in 1981.

Then we saw Richard Belzer, better known as “Detective Munch” from Law & Order SVU. He was walking through the park fast, wearing exercise shoes. Celebrity sighting for day one.

We were starving and exhausted, so we decided to grab a quick bite before heading to see Lion King. The bar at our hotel has great appetizers and a really cool view of Times Square, so we went there before and after the show for appetizers.

Oh, my, Lion King was amazing. The costumes, the sets, the creativity – making people look like animals without being cartoonish is quite the feat. Go see this show. When we walked out of the theater, it looked like it was still daylight. The lights of Times Square are that bright.

One of the things that thrills me about New York is the concentration of talent and the diversity. You don’t see this level of creativity and innovation without different points of view.

Cool sights of the day:

1. The basically naked woman standing in Times Square with “I <3NY" painted all over her body. And no one freaking out, except maybe the guys appreciating her fine derrière.
2. The woman about my age with her close-cropped chartreuse-colored hair trimmed to a Mohawk.
3. My mom getting her picture made with the “Statue of Liberty” in Times Square. See below.

I’m already a day behind, and today was amazing, so stay tuned.

Random thoughts: I still haven’t seen Art Garfunkel and I really might not leave here.

Tomorrow morning I’ll leave for New York City for the first time since 1993. I could not be more excited; it’s one of my favorite places.

My mom is treating me to the trip, since Jim isn’t working now (see this post if you need to catch up).

We’ll see two Broadway shows — Lion King and Motown, and we’re planning a trip to Ground Zero and just chilling in lower Manhattan, which I’m looking forward to seeing more of than I did last time. We’ve got dinner reservations at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill for Saturday night, but the rest of the time we’ll be on our own, to wander as we please.

We’re staying in Times Square which is anything but quiet, so I’m guessing there will be things to see at all hours. I hope I can sleep.

Honestly, New York is so magic for me, just walking down the street and looking around. It’s always fascinated me and I’ve spent hours on Google Street View walking the streets of Manhattan.

Though I’m excited for whatever we encounter, I have five things I want to do:

1. See Art Garfunkel on the street. He lives on the Upper East Side and since we’ll be in Central Park anyway, we’ll walk up Fifth Avenue hoping for a sighting.
2. Visit the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. The one with the glass cube.
3. Get a photo made in front of the Bleecker Street sign in Greenwich Village. If you don’t know why, you’re not a Simon & Garfunkel fan. If you’re lost, check this out:

 

 

4. See Ground Zero and the Memorial. Enough said.
5. Do the Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan. Yes, it’s touristy, but I’ve always wanted to do it and the photos will be awesome.

I’ll blog daily (assuming I have any energy left) and report back on Fifth Avenue, Bleecker Street, Art and the boat.

Stay tuned.

If ever there were an epic social media fail, this is it.

First, Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO states that they don’t make clothes in sizes larger than 10 (for women; apparently men go all the way up to XL) because, well, I’ll let you read it for yourself, if you haven’t already:

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” From BusinessInsider.com

Nice, huh? And, I think, ill-advised. Congratulations, sir, for alienating any woman larger than a size 10 (most of the population, that is), who might ever have bought a gift there for anyone else. If I’m not welcome, neither is my money.

Out of curiosity, I checked out their Facebook page, which I won’t link to, so don’t bother clicking the screenshot. They appear to be blithely posting tiny shorts and tank tops for summer as if they are unaware of the controversy. See all those comments? I didn’t read them all, but at least half of the ones I did read were negative.

I suppose the case could be made that it’s OK for them to ignore the flames because they stand by their statements and aren’t sorry for offending those who wouldn’t be their customers anyway. Even so, the discussion between the commenters is hardly anything I’d want on my company page. You’ve got a few A & F supporters telling protesters that if they would eat right and exercise, they might be able to shop there, and things of that sort, which do not breed a positive feeling.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never liked them because of what, in my opinion, are overly-sexualized ads featuring and targeted to kids too young for that sort of thing. And I’m not a prude. But I really, really, really don’t like them now. They have every right to market in any way they wish, and I have every right to ignore them.

I may not be a cool kid, and I may never be skinny enough to shop there, but my money is just as green as it would be if I were a size two.

And it’s going all kinds of elsewhere.

Your thoughts?

October 29, 2012

Written for Memphis Center for Urban Theological Studies

A Dutch woman, brutally mauled by a 400-pound gorilla at a zoo in Rotterdam, somehow managed to survive to talk about the attack. Bokito, a male western gorilla, burst out of his enclosure to attack her and went on a horrifying rampage in the zoo cafeteria. The woman suffered 100 bite wounds and a broken arm and said she was “afraid she was going to die” during the attack.

Officials marvel at how Bokito escaped the high fence and surrounding moat, but they are fairly sure the reason for the attack is no mystery. The woman, who visited several times each week, ignored repeated warnings from zoo employees not to touch the glass or make eye contact with the gorilla. In spite of their advice, she regularly placed her hand on the glass and smiled and waved at Bokito, as she insisted that she and the animal shared a special bond. Though her actions were intended as playful and affectionate, gorillas interpret human smiling and eye contact as aggression and the attack was brought on by her refusal to listen to authorities and conviction that she knew best.

How often do we ignore God’s ways and convince ourselves that we are somehow different? In our arrogance, we believe that our Creator couldn’t possibly have anticipated our circumstances, that His commands are relevant to others’ lives, but not ours. We justify our sin based on our belief that we are the only ones who qualify for an exception to His ways.

The Bible may be more than 2000 years old, but God’s wisdom is timeless. Though our lives are vastly different from those of the Bible characters we read about, our struggles and our sin are much the same.

We must remember that His ways are higher; listen to His leading and the counsel of godly advisors. There is never a time when God’s will goes against His Word. No matter how unique we believe our situation may be, when we stray from His path, we invite sin’s 400-pound gorilla into our lives.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

I love this guy. It’s a mashup of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Both are favorites of mine; Rhapsody in Blue was my senior piano solo and Bohemian Rhapsody — well, it just is.

I just ran across an interesting article on Lifehacker about the creative personality, called The Seven Elements of a Creative Personality. I read everything I can on this topic because it pretty much describes me. Especially this:

You’re creative if:

Your Mind Has an Associative Orientation

This means that you have an active imagination. “You can fluctuate between daydreaming and perceiving reality,” says Martinsen. “You’re playful and have an experimental attitude.” But you are also able to become deeply absorbed in your work. For example, you might be so involved in your work that you forget to eat lunch. Interestingly, the advertising students scored slightly higher with associative orientation than the artists. But both these groups ranked higher than the baseline sample.

This nails me.

Yesterday I had a few minutes to myself and decided to just sit quietly and relax. I set a timer and closed my eyes. The first thing I heard were birds singing outside. The birds reminded me of my daddy, who could whistle like a virtuoso. He sounded just like the birds and if I’d been a bird, he’d have certainly faked me out.

That got me started thinking about duck calls. Remember, I grew up in Arkansas. There are people in my family who are expert duck hunters and can make the duck call sound just like the real thing. The poor ducks get all excited, thinking they are going to see a friend and end up on someone’s dinner table.

So duck calls and bird whistles got me thinking about how easily we’re all deceived. How quickly we hear what we want to hear and chase after it without fully investigating, only to be destroyed in the process.

I think that’s another post for another day; I’m not feeling that deep right now. But it does lend a bit of insight into the workings of the weird creative mind. A mind that goes from birds singing to complex life concepts in five minutes or less.

If you’re not a creative person and have to work and/or live with one, chances are there are times they drive you crazy. Ask my husband. But you probably drive them crazy too.

I’m grateful God didn’t make everyone like me, though the world would surely be fun and colorful. We need analytical minds to keep us from buying a car because it’s pretty and has a sunroof, or to figure out which TV is really the best for the money.

We see the beauty in our differences when we respect and honor them, rather than trying to fit everyone into our mold. You probably have at least one creative person in your life; I have many analytical types in mine. Don’t just tolerate those differences; celebrate and cherish them as we help each other get things done and have fun in the process.

Rest the rest of the article on Lifehacker here.

I took this photo with my iPhone. Not bad.

I’m a big fan of winter. The main reason I tolerate spring is that it brings baseball season. But I do love flowers, and especially azaleas. This one is in our back yard and it’s in full bloom. I love the vivid color, so I shot this closeup pic.

Now if I can just remember to prune them after they bloom.

Sara Ann is a tireless volunteer with a true servant’s heart. Last week she volunteered for a service project to help with river cleanup with nationally-known environmental worker Chad Pregracke. She told me there were cameras and jokingly said she’s probably end up on CNN. Well, she did.

Proud of my girl. It’s great that she’s on CNN, but what’s even better is the way she serves all the time, with no expectation of reward or recognition.

Way to go, sweetheart!