New York City November 2024

Monday November 18

I’m in New York with Sarah. She had a business meeting and asked me if I wanted to tag along. She would extend it a day and we could go see The Outsiders on Broadway. Of Course! So here I am.

I drove to her house this morning and we drove to the airport together. Lots of the expenses for this trip are comped by her client so I don’t have to pay for the hotel, or the Uber from the airport to NY, but of course I have to pay for my own flight, the show, and my food while we’re here. 

Our flight was kind of crazy. Only 2.5 hours, way shorter than going to SF, right? But first we’re delayed because of airport congestion (thank you, I’d rather be delayed than risk a close call!). But THEN as we’re taxiing to the runway the pilot gets on the intercom and tells us that we have to go back to the gate because a passenger needs to get off the plane! That’s a first for me. We don’t know why, but Sarah heard the person say to a flight attendant “I thought I could get it to stop but….” so we’re thinking some kind of medical emergency.  Not overt though. We’ll never know.

So that took a minute, and then apparently we missed our takeoff window so we ended up delayed another 20 minutes after that. I think we ended up being delayed about 2 hours. Sarah had a client meeting she missed, but what are you going to do? These things happen.

Our hotel was very nice, in the financial district, right on Wall Street near the East River. The Wall Street Hotel. It was very fancy, we would never stay at a hotel like this in New York if her client wasn't paying for it! Our room had a big bathroom with two sinks and lots of counter space, a luxury for two high maintenance women sharing a room! And even though we were only on the 3rd floor the room was quiet.

While she went off to do a client dinner I did a little research and went to an Irish pub right around the corner. I sat at the bar and had an Old Fashioned, their butternut squash ravioli and a piece of apple crumb cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. I was hungry! It was all very good and the Old Fashioned was great. They always taste better in NY.

Tuesday November 19

I made myself stay up until almost 10 pm, after Sarah came back from her client dinner. Then I somehow slept until 7:30, unheard-of for me, over 9 hours. Sarah was still asleep and I didn’t want to wake her so I grabbed my jeans and sweatshirt and walked to a Starbucks down the street. I got a latte and some oatmeal and took it back to the hotel lounge to eat. I chilled there for a while and then went up to the room to change to go run.

I’m not as familiar with running on the east side, and I’m definitely not familiar with running around Wall Street! But after looking at Strava I decided it made sense to head toward Battery Park along the East River and then hopefully up the Hudson side a ways before turning around. I worked out great, even though Battery Park has a lot of construction going on and I had to zig and zag a little bit. It was a nice run with a bit of speedwork thrown in and an only mildly wonky GPS signal.

Back at the hotel, I took my shower and planned out the rest of my morning. I was going to try a place called Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodles in Chinatown and then go check out The Eldridge Museum. I decided to walk since taking the subway would save only 10 minutes and it was a beautiful day. I was able to find my way there without too much confusion, even though I had forgotten how crazy Chinatown can be. Unfortunately Tonii’s turned out to be carryout only so I had to find a park where I could eat my lunch. There was one conveniently around the corner from the museum so it all worked out.

I got the noodles with chicken, which I figured would be a safe choice. I also got some lemon tea. The noodles came with lots of different sauces, soy, hoisin, peanut, chili. I used the soy and hoisin. I could have used a little chili but decided not to risk it. The noodles were ok. I mean there was nothing wrong with them but they could have used something more. There were a lot of different options so maybe it was my fault for being too cautious. Oh well! The tea, however, was delicious.

I signed up for a docent led tour at the museum, because at $11 for seniors, why not? I was a tour group of one. My docent was ok. He was very knowledgeable, but a little grumpy. There were a few other tours going on and he got very annoyed when the other docents were in the same area as he was, so we kept moving around. Honestly his irritation was more distracting than the other docents! But the synagogue was neat, and beautifully restored. It was a grand orthodox synagogue, built in the 1880’s and in use from then until sometime in the 40’s when most of the congregation had moved to the Bronx, Brooklyn or beyond. Then the building fell into disrepair until the 1970’s when the slow work of restoration finally began. It took a lot of work and the building opened as a museum in 2007. The building is worth touring, and maybe you’ll have better luck than I did with your docent! Or you can get an online tour instead.

Wednesday November 20

I walked back to the hotel. Sarah was already there, finished with her work for the trip. Around 3 we decided to go ahead and take the subway to SoHo and do some window shopping before our dinner reservation at 5. 

We got ourselves all dressed up, Sarah in a beautiful green skirt from Farm Rio and me in my fancy skirt from Nuuly.

First of all, using Omni Pay to pay for the subway is amazing! You just have to authorize it on your phone and then just tap as you go through the gate. No more metro card, the charge goes on your primary cc in your Apple Wallet. If you lived in NY and used the subway a lot you never have to pay more than $32 every 7 days so it’s economical too.

Second, we’re both fairly experienced subway users but we got on an express train without realizing it, so we overshot our stop a bit. It wouldn’t have mattered except that my boots started to hurt my feet after a while. I was fine that morning because I wore my tennis shoes, but after about 30 minutes of strolling back to and then around SoHo I was starting to feel my age.

We both like Farm Rio so we looked in there. I walked into the UGG store and then walked right back out, too crowded. We went into Paige so Sarah could check out their jeans, and I found myself looking at a variety of silky button down shirts. Hmm. Finally we went into Free People and I saw a houndstooth overcoat I really liked. I wanted it but I wasn’t about to buy it in NY instead of MN where there’s no sales tax on clothes, so I’m going to look for it online.

We still had lots of time. We took the subway to a stop closer to the restaurant. We went into a chocolate shop and bought some truffles for a snack for intermission at the show. We walked down the street to the restaurant and  popped into a lovely shop that sold artisanal things by various makers from all over the world. We were both tempted! I loved some oyster shells that had been dipped in gold paint and filled with a painted ceramic flower. Not practical or really very useful but pretty! There were also some ceramic dishes made by someone in Brooklyn that we both really liked. And glass platters with flecks of silver and gold paint, and silk scarves, and Norwegian sweaters and….

It was finally 5 o’clock so we went across the street for our reservation at Seema. This restaurant had seen a lot of hype and it was hard to get a reservation but I focused and hopped on Resy right at 8 AM 15 days earlier and got us in.

We both got a cocktail, very good. We followed our servers suggestions and got dumplings, scallops, a dosa (giant), a branzino steamed in a banana leaf, and the oxtail. It was too much food, but so good. It was a shame to leave some of it but we couldn’t help it. 

Seema Dumplings

At 6:30 it was time to go. The show started at 7. We had to walk 5 blocks to the subway, then a 15 minute subway ride, and then hoof it through Times Square to the theater. I put my Hong Kong hat on and led the way, weaving expertly through the crowds. We made it with a few minutes to spare. Sarah scooted to the bathroom. The lights went down and there was Ponyboy, writing his story about a week in Tulsa in 1967….

                                                               

The Outsiders is an interesting story in a lot of ways. The most fascinating part to me is that SE Hinton wrote it when she was 17 yo, and it was published by the time she was 18. How she managed to do that I’ll never know. Not only that but she managed to get herself inside the head of a 14 yo “greaser” boy, and make him and his friends real, and people any teenager could identify with, no matter what class or social milieu they were from.

The Outsiders has always been one of my daughter’s favorite books. I didn’t read it until my 40’s (I generally read anything my kids read if they thought it was worth reading). I reread it on Monday and I think it made the musical more interesting.

They made a few changes to the plot that I thought actually improved the story, simplifying the love interest in the book and changing how Dallas dies in the end.

The songs were good, but at least without listening to it again a few times, nothing too memorable. It reminded me of Rent, both in the set, and the general theme of misunderstood kids against the world. However, the music of Rent was electrifying from the get go, and something I listened to over and over, until I was sick of it. I doubt that I will do that with the Outsiders.

The one thing in The Outsiders that was just astonishing was the rainfall during the "rumble" (gang fight) toward the end of the show. Water fell in torrents upon the stage, but no puddles formed even though everything got wet. And it fell for several minutes, at least. Where in the world did it go? The floor of the stage was covered in pea gravel (another mystery, how did they keep that gravel in place with people dancing and singing all over it for almost 3 hours?). The “rain” fell on the gravel and disappeared. There must have been some kind of grating underneath the gravel that would let the water out, but keep the gravel in. And how did they manage to dance on that kind of surface? I’d love to know!

After the play we strolled back to the subway and this time gratefully took an express train back to Wall St. We were both in bed by 11. I didn’t sleep great, heartburn and a nightmare (Harper ran away and we forgot to look for her for 2 days, in retrospect ridiculous but terrifying at the time). At least on the way home everything has gone smoothly (so far, I”m writing this on the plane) (it did).

I’m so glad Sarah asked me to come. It was a lot of fun. I miss New York and it was great to get a city fix.

 

Now back to Minnesota where it may be snowing. Time for thanksgiving!