Fact: Day Thirteen

Dwight, in case you hadn't noticed, is taking a time-out from traveling. Manhattan is not the best place for a bobblehead from Scranton. And I'm still mourning the loss of my camera. But it was a lovely day anyway.

We spent the morning sleeping in and then getting our laundry done. I was about 3 minutes late getting to the basement after the wash cycle was done and my 3 loads of laundry were carefully piled on the folding table. Believe me, I was NOT late getting them out of the dryer!

Jim and Will went off on an adventure (did I mention how hard it is to keep 6 people together?) and they spent the morning on an in-depth search for Count Olaf WITH treasure map (and an in-depth study of Central Park in general) and the afternoon taking the boat out to the Statue of Liberty (which we did not know required advance tickets to ride up to the top of her base...ugh). The good news is that they found the EXACT right tree indicated on the map. The bad news is that Count Olaf was not there. He must have found a new home with someone else. The good news is that Will LOVED the area of Central Park and Jim loved that he could people-watch some high society snobby mothers taking their kids to the park on the holiday. Win-win.

Rachel, Matt, Jourdan and I took the subway to Union Square and hung out there for a bit. We went to both Max Brenner and The Strand Bookstore looking for statues Laurie had hidden. Both were a strike-out. We found the exact right spots, no statue. In both places, we talked to employees (to see if they had found them and put them in a what-the-heck-is-this drawer somewhere), in both places they were HIGHLY entertained and impressed by what we LJ & Adam had done, and in both places they had no idea where our statues might have been. We immensely enjoyed hanging out at both places. So it was NOT a wasted trip.

Then we walked up to Times Square which was celebrating its first day as a pedestrian-only street by setting up lawn chairs in the middle of the road and giving away thousands of free hot dogs. The city had brought out something like 500 lawn chairs for people to sit in. It was hilarious! We caught the uptown route of the double decker bus tour, got off at the Plaza Hotel and watched some street performers (and Matt got that ice cream...FINALLY). We rode back to Times Square, had the salad and breadsticks dinner at Olive Garden, and met up with Jim & Will at our prearranged spot.

Today is mine and Jim's 14th anniversary. So we planned to bring the kids back to the apartment and then go out on a date. But life happens. And since the boys were exhausted and getting punchy, and today is the last day The Empire State Building is lit red, white, and blue and the girls were DYING to see it, we skipped the date. I put boys to bed and Jim took the girls in the van to see the Empire State Building and drive across Times Square. I have been updating the blog on the balcony while watching some GREAT drama unfold across the street (apparently DeShaun has her money...after all, it's what she's been screaming for the last 20 minutes at anyone who will listen). Update: whoever she is, she's been screaming about the money for the last 120 minutes...and counting. It's 1:30am here. I am absolutely spellbound by this tantrum-throwing woman. If I had just a bit more guts, I'd take her picture (with Jourdan's camera, of course) just so you could see her...impressive that she can go on for so long!

The Plaza Hotel on the edge of Central Park.
Lawn chairs in Times Square!

mmmmm...dinner!
On the TKTS bleachers.
The Empire State Building at night--lit up red, white, & blue for Memorial Day.

I'll end this post with a little story. I let Matt pick a can of soda from a street vendor (who happened to be a woman) . Now this vendor and her cart weren't even at Times Square--we were a good 3 blocks south of what one guy working in Times Square called "Disney World dropped into the middle of Manhattan". So when she told me that she wanted $2 for the can, I initiated a conversation that went like this:
me: WHAT? No way--it's one dollar. One dollar, right?
her: No, two dollar (noticing my scrunched up, disbelieving face) Okay, for the little boy, one fifty.
me: This should be ONE dollar.
her: I swear to you, if you go up to 47th, you'll pay two dollar, but I help you for the boy--only one fifty.
me: Matt, give her back the can, we'll go up to 47th and get a can for a dollar.
her: OK, OK--for you one fifty
me: I have one dollar to pay for a can of soda. Matt, give it back to her.
her: OK, give me the dollar.
me: (default) LOVE you--thanks!

A few observations about this exchange--she had the unfortunate luck to be the first vendor I encountered after a discussion with myself about being more aggressive with street vendors who thought I look like the type who will pay more so they charge more.

Also, I end most conversations with "love you"...a preschool teacher and Mia Maid advisor, what can I say?

Also, I can't believe I feel like I got the best of this exchange...by paying ONE DOLLAR FOR A CAN OF SODA. I should definitely stop feeling so smug.