Hate Grocery Shopping? Move to NY.

For $9.99 you can have your groceries DELIVERED to your apartment! Not only that, but you can pull up the grocery store's website, shop their weekly flyer for specials, click on anything in the flyer, look at recipes for that item, see what sizes are available and even request that it all be chopped, mixed and cooked before they deliver it. Okay, I exaggerated a little on that last part. But, how great is it that I can skip shopping the aisles and deciding best values in my head, unloading it all at the casier and SCHEPPING back with all that stuff?

I tried ordering my groceries this way last week. I spent 20 minutes on the site choosing my items and was able to select a specific time for delivery! It was 10 in the morning when I placed my order, and I asked for delivery by 4:15 p.m. As I was walking about NY later that morning, I received a call from the grocery store. They were out of the 10 oz. package of cheese, could they substitute 14 oz? Heck, yeah! Substitute any thing you want as long as I don't have to pick all that stuff out and carry it home with me. Worth it!

Great Day

Today I toured the Japanese Society's Good Bye Kitty art exhibit which consisted of some real funky stuff. My favorite was this wall-sized piece of vellum that the artist (Tomoko Shioyasu) had cut tiny organic shapes out of to look like a giant ocean whirlpool. It was hung freely from the ceiling and a light was shone through it, so you could experience the piece itself, then again it's shadow on the wall and also its elongated imagery on the carpet behind the light. It took the artist a year to finish. All I could think of was what if I tripped and fell into it ripping it apart? Would she be mad?

Another favorite was this piece of glued together silk flower petals hanging in layers from the ceiling (Haruka Kōjin). Here's the link for more info: Good Bye Kitty.


Then I was on my hunt for my 3 o'clock chocolate fix. Found that at a yogurt bar where I ordered chocolate yogurt (only 130 calories!) with brownie chunk topping (1,249 calories). On my walk home, I noticed a place, called Sprig, that advertised Peet's coffee and thought I'd try a cup. A friend, Shannon O. gets plenty excited about Peet's coffee. The menu was so enticing and the food smelled so good, I ordered a complete lunch -- this was 3:30 p.m., way to close to dinner -- but I justified it by eating only half and saving the rest for dinner.

About the time my food arrived, Rob S. called me, as I was expecting either this day or the next, and turned out he was only 4 blocks away. He and I shared coffee and tea and had a nice conversation. About the time Rob had to leave, Paul called and headed our way from Herald Square. He got there and ordered dinner and I had a peach martini, so I was at this restaurant from 3:30 until 7. Sweet!

Paul informed me we were eating in the former Bernie Madoff building (also called the lipstick building because that's what it looks like from the exterior). We ate the rest of my late lunch meal back at the apartment aroun 10. A great day.

It's Painful Adjusting to Smaller Living Quarters.

Finishing up my yoga routine yesterday morning -- with the ol' standing forward bend -- I didn't realize that I had inched up too close to the marble overhang of the kitchen pass-through shelf and BANG! I hit my head on that shelf with a force that knocked me on my side. I rolled around in pain until I realized I was not going to pass out. (Today I cannot even comb my hair in that spot-OUCH!)

Later I was rinsing out a tin can that had contained Progresso Chicken Soup (you know, for my cold) in my tiny kitchen sink and SLICE! I had cut an inch-long slice on the top of my left hand just below the pinky knuckle. What to do? Will it go back together and stop bleeding? It would . . . good. But do I need a tetnus shot? How would I find that out? A call to my doctor in West Chester gave me the information I needed which was that I'd had a booster in 2007. Good thing our medicine cabinet is regular size and I had brought bandaids.

It Takes Energy to Live Here.

I have a cold for a second day. But I was determined to get out today. Got dressed, got on the elevator, walked through the lobby, said hi and bye to my doorman, and, even though it was kind of dreary outside, decided I could make the 13 blocks to the Japanese Museum before the rain hit. Three blocks later I was getting wet, and I dropped into a shop to purchase an umbrella. For $22 I bought an umbrella. (Isn't it true that umbrellas exist everywhere but the place you really need one?)

Anyway, three blocks after purchasing the umbrella, the handle broke. One block later, I realized my cold wasn't going to let me have a good time today. I turned around and ducked into a little pizza-by-the-slice place and pointed to what I thought was a tomato and basil slice. It turned out to be tomato and spinach. I'm not a fan of cooked spinach. I took my reheated pizza and sat near the window to eat it. I watched a fruit vendor sell everything from lemons to lettuce while I scraped off the spinach and finished my lunch. Before getting home, I returned to the shop where I bought my umbrella. The owner replaced my broken one with a new one that we opened in the shop before I left.

Back at home, I dropped on the sofa and took a nap. I'm exhausted just writing about it.

We saw this amazing musical, Catch Me If You Can, at the Neil Simon Theatre on Saturday. I must have spent 2 hours on Friday reading about the various shows -- there is so much on the internet including reviews and videos -- which makes it easy, but it is hard to stop! There are only a handful of shows I'm not interested in at all, so it's a good thing we're living here. The best of the best is what to expect here, I guess. No errors, no singing off pitch, no bad acting, amazing dancing, way cool set designs, pit bands, etc. Love it.

Shoes for Rover

Dogs wear shoes here.

The High Line

The High Line is a train line that operated in the 1930s several feet above ground level on the lower west side. Thanks to a group of activists, it's being restored -- instead of demolished -- and turned into a park. You can read more about it at their top notch website www.thehighline.org. Our cab driver knew nothing about it, so it was good that Paul knew the cross streets. Worth visiting. We'll go back on a sunnier day.