after lunch, we zipped uptown to Columbus Circle
where we met my sweet (fairy) godmother, Jo <3
(she has spent her adult life in & near NYC,
but she and my mother are both from
a small town in Ohio.)
Jo was a flight attendant for Pan Am
& jetted internationally for awhile,
then spent a long career as a
public health nurse in NYC.
at one point, her maternity home visits
took her to the crumbling
& impoverished East Village
(where we currently resided).
we took on crowded Fifth Avenue with Jo,
in this part of Manhattan
including the iconic Christmas tree
in Rockefeller Center
the crowds were thick,
so we didn't really linger...
mainly, we simply enjoyed
being with each other!
eventually, we crossed the street
and perused the windows of Saks
(then went inside to wait in the long line
for the women's restroom...gah)
eventually, we had to part
so that Jo could drive the hour north
to her home in Nyack
(on the Hudson; a delightful wee town
i had the pleasure of visiting with my mom
a couple of years ago, pre-pandemic)
***here's the link to one of those blog posts***
hubby & i strolled a bit through Central Park
(it was another cold, windy day!)
trying to reconfigure our evening
because - oh, i didn't tell you! - our plans
collapsed under the weight of Omicron
with Joe's Pub cancelling their show
(the one for which we attempted to get
negative COVID tests...results still not in...)
so.....after much dithering & looking at
possible last-minute tickets to a Broadway show
(while huddled on a bench in Central Park),
we decided to try and exchange our tickets
for Cecily Strong's preview run of
her new (yet old) show of
(originally Lily Tomlin's one-woman show)
from our original Thursday plan to tonight!
(this was a just-in-case move
as we saw shows close down all around us
due to Omicron...we didn't want yet another
of our plans to dissolve!)
the subway had us popping up right near
The Vessel, aglow with nighttime gold.
sadly, it is closed off right now
due to tragedies...
(& one wonders what changes they will need to make
to its structure and safety to permit it to ever re-open).
we were (YES!!!) able to exchange our tickets
for that night's performance,
then took ourselves over to the stunningly bright & glittery
Hudson Yards indoor shopping mall
for a bite of dinner.
(i had a "run over" baked potato that appeared
to have been squashed by a rolling pin.
it was entirely too expensive for a baked potato -
so i guess i was paying for the squashing action,
which was vigorous.)
we thoroughly enjoyed the show,
which was the FIRST night of her preview week.
another fascinating New York thing to see.
she did a great job!
(though Lily Tomlin is so iconic,
it is a little bit of a cognitive jump
to forget the original)
some of you will know Cecily Strong
from her current gig, Saturday Night Live.
she did a sketch this past November
as a clown that was, in my opinion, incredibly brave.
(it is about abortion, so you are forewarned
before you click on the link below.)
as the clown says, "the last thing anyone wants
is a bunch of dead clowns in a dark alley."
after the show, we actually ended up
walking back to the East Village,
which took us past McSorley's
(the previously photographed Ale House).
it's iconic, so we stepped in
(and i used the bathroom)...
but it was full up of unmasked revelers,
so hubby drank his mediocre ales outside
(you get two, a light & a dark).
not to be outdone, i double-fisted my H2Os
but just couldn't keep up.
the evening was a good substitute for Joe's Pub,
(but very different)
which just gives us reason to return!
