Why I (Heart) New York

Oh New York, how many years have we known each other?  And yet each time we meet, it's different.  But still comfortably familiar!  Like a favourite pair of shoes.

(Ooh, shoes.  I'll talk about that later)

This year, since I had spent a considerable amount at the outset with my great Australian adventure, I decided to postpone my annual NY trip to November.  Not only to partake in some Black Friday deals (or so I thought, back in June), but also because I had never been in the city during the holiday season.  And hey, I had never seen the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, not even on TV.  So, in what I thought was a stroke of genius and insanity, I paid a small fortune to book a hotel room with a guaranteed view of the parade route.  No way was I going to freeze my butt off and huddle with the masses.  Plus I could catch all of the good performances on TV at the same time!  Yup, I had considered everything...

Something I did not consider: the marching bands rehearse on the street at 2:30 in the morning.  I jolted awake in the dark, thinking, "Oh my God, something is exploding!"  Given recent events, it wasn't an unreasonable thought.  But then, it seemed to be exploding rhythmically.  Then I sank back down in the pillows, realizing what was happening.  I took a quick look out the window.  Sure enough, there were girls twirling flags and the drummers were going all out.  I pillow-smothered myself until I was exhausted enough to fall asleep, so I'm not sure exactly how long they were out there rehearsing.

People to whom I've told already told this story have remarked, "Why couldn't they find somewhere else to rehearse?"  My answer is three-fold:

1. I would guess that most, if not all, of the marching bands are from everywhere else in the US, and not from New York.  So really, where could they go to rehearse?

2. If you've ever seen the parade, you'd know that each band consists of dozens, if not hundreds of kids.  Where would you find a place big enough?

3. The streets of the parade route were already closed by Wednesday night, so why not rehearse in a huge, free-of-charge, traffic-free zone, where you're going to be marching down in the morning anyway?

And for that matter, I would assume that they would need to be at the top of the parade route by, I don't know, 6 or 7 in the morning, to be lined up for the 9 o'clock start, right?  So, by rehearsing at 2 in the morning, are they going to get any sleep before the parade, or were they already awake for the day?  And this year it was mercifully warm and dry (actually, abnormally so).  I couldn't imagine if it was freezing cold or pouring rain or blinding snow.  So, okay.  I felt a little bad for them.  But those streets of New York echo like crazy...

Anyway, I woke at 8:30, made some hotel room coffee, turned on the TV and settled in.  The top of the route was at 77th and Central Park West.  Since I was at 35th and 6th (diagonally across the street from Macy's), it was going to take a while for anything to show up outside my window.  Sure enough, around 45 minutes later, I heard some cheering from the crowd down on the street (my room had a window that could open, but only a crack).  I took a look, and was puzzled.  The marching band I had seen on TV at the start of the parade was running full speed down the street, all out of formation.  I was beginning to think that this was the strangest parade I'd ever seen, when I realized something.  This was being broadcast live, and there was a spot set up on the street in front of Macy's where the performances were taking place.  These kids were probably a little slow making their way along the 2.5 mile route, so they had to run in order to be at the right place and keep to the schedule.  As the band passed, I saw a poor soul, carrying a tuba, trailing the rest of the group and obviously trying really hard to keep up.  But, minutes later, the band was on TV, lined up and playing their hearts out.  I forgot to look for the tuba though.

The rest of the parade was pretty typical.  The balloons were terribly impressive, although when they mentioned how much helium they needed to inflate them, I cringed a little.  The world is running out of helium.

But still, when you need this many people to hold Hello Kitty down...

Moving on.  I was less prepared than I normally am on vacations.  The night before, after I bought some breakfast supplies from a nearby grocery/convenience store, I casually Googled "restaurants in New York that are open on Thanksgiving".  I found a site that had a list of restaurants and their set menus.  I cross referenced, checked online reviews, and found David Burke fabrick, which stood out because they had turducken on the menu.  Then I saw that the dessert was "pie-cake-en", which was described as a pumpkin pie-pecan pie-apple upside-down cake in one gigantic slice.  Sold!  Then I considered my strategy.  If Best Buy was going to be open at 5:00pm, and Macy's was going to be open at 6:00pm (remember, this is on Thanksgiving Day), then it would make sense to make a reservation at 4:00pm, fuel up, and then hit the shops and hope for the best.

This is where I had my best New York experience to date, and why I (Heart) NY.  I got to the restaurant, was seated, and ordered.  It was actually quite full of people.  The soup I had ordered arrived, and I had just tasted it when I felt a tap on my left shoulder.  There were two ladies sitting at the next table.  The one who tapped me said, "Excuse me, but are you eating by yourself?" I replied that I was.  Then she said, "Do you want to join us?"  I was almost shocked into speechlessness, but after confirming that they were sure, I slid my table over to the left and joined Kristen (sp?) and Kate ("it's a lot of K's!").  We chatted amiably for the whole meal, and laughing quite a bit I might add.  It was noted by all parties that this really was a lucky call (I could have been a weirdo, they could have been weirdos, etc.).  But they were the nicest people, and they thought I was too.  They shared their bottle of rosé with me and ordered a second bottle (it turns out, in NY, if you don't finish your bottle of wine at a restaurant, you can take it with you!  This is a game-changer!).  I didn't order the pie-cake-en, but Kate wanted to try the chocolate handbag, and got 3 spoons to share.  Unfortunately, it turned out that there was a layer of coconut in it that nobody was aware of, and since none of us were fans of coconut, we ended up leaving it on the plate.  As a final touch to a great experience, the waiter came to us at the end and gave us each a turkey sandwich to take home ("We wanted to make sure you'd still have leftovers!").  Seriously, best restaurant ever.  We said our good-byes, and I stepped out onto the street and started my shopping odyssey.

Best Buy wasn't a total mess.  There was a half-hour line-up on the street, but they kept it civilized with a wristband policy: for example, for TVs, they'd ask what one you wanted and if it was available they'd wristband you on the street so all you'd have to do inside the store was pay.  Then they had Geek Squad trucks lined up on the street filled with TVs, marked with different coloured balloons.  You'd go to your designated balloon, show your receipt, then they'd hand you your TV and off you'd go.  I just bought a couple of things and left for Macy's.

I needed to replace my favourite pair of Italian black leather boots that I'd been wearing for decades.  As it turned out, there was an extra 25% off boots.  I also opened a Macy's card (there was a bit of drama for that, since I didn't realize I needed my social insurance number, but it turned out well in the end), so I got an additional 20% off.  I wandered around the shoe department for a while, and was making a second round when, on top of a pile of Nine West boxes, there was one box that was different.  It contained a pair of black leather Vince Camuto boots.  They were my size.  Cautiously optimistic, I took them over to the side and tried them on.  They fit great.  And they were additionally on sale.  So, when the shopping gods smile and hand you a gift, you say thank you and run!  I got exactly what I was looking for.  Which was great, until I came back the next day and found a pair of Coach boots, also additionally on sale, that were really pretty and mostly different (they were grey suede!), so I ended up buying them too.  Hey, do I need to repeat myself about the shopping gods?

The rest of the NY trip was pretty standard.  As usual, I saw a Broadway show (Fun Home), I took my night photo of Times Square at the same spot as always, and I made sure I tried a touristy thing that I hadn't done before (I went up the Empire State Building).  I also had some more great foodie experiences, like bibimbap at Danji (a restaurant highly recommended by friends), and ramen at Ippudo (a restaurant highly recommended by the internet).

The best part, there were no incidents.  Why?  Because there were cops EVERYWHERE.  Not just the cops that were taking care of the parade, but even walking down 5th Avenue on Friday night, there was one spot where a pen had been constructed out of barricade fences, and officers wearing helmets and body armour that said "Counterterrorism Unit" on the back, as well as carrying automatic machine guns, were standing inside, keeping an eye on the crowds.  Some people might be freaked out by that.  I felt mostly reassured...and maybe a little sad.

Oh New York, until we meet again...take care.

"Hello, it's me, I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet"