Return to NYC (part 3)

After a full day of food, walking, and entertainment on Friday, we began yet another day of the same on Saturday (March 7). We woke up, got dressed, and headed down the street to grab some bagels to bring back to the apartment for breakfast. Devoured those, then we took turns getting ready to take on NYC once more. Since we’re quite food-focused while in the city, our first stop was — what else? — brunch. We chose Riposo 46, which had been on our list for the trip in June but we ended up choosing another brunch spot that time instead. It’s a small place with only bar seating and about four small tables, but we were fortunate and got there just as another table was about to leave, so we only had to wait about five or 10 minutes to be seated (and no one was in front of us waiting for a table). I had the citrus brioche French toast, and it was so good! I typically don’t prefer something that heavily sweet for breakfast, but that was exactly what I was hoping it would be.

We left brunch and went a couple blocks out of our way to take some pictures in front of the Belasco Theatre, where our show that night would be, since it would be dark and more crowded when we returned later for our 10 p.m. show. Having accomplished that, we gradually made our way uptown toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we would spend the afternoon. (Confession: We stopped at Magnolia Bakery on the way to grab some treats for later.)

The museum is huge, of course, so it’s impossible to cover every bit of ground there in a single afternoon, but we put a pretty good dent in it during the several hours we spent there. At one point, basically on our feet all day and having walked many miles all over town in my not-made-for-city-walking snow boots since the sidewalk ramps were still pretty slushy, we took a break in the museum cafe to rest our legs and enjoy our Magnolia goodies (we split a brownie and a lemon bar). (In all, I estimated that walked about 15 miles during the weekend, and I think that’s a pretty conservative estimate.)

We were planning to meet a couple of my parenting board friends (whom we had met up with during our last NYC visit) at Thai Select down around 39th and 9th Ave, so we took a cab down there for that since traffic wasn’t horrible, which was a good call since it gave us more time at the museum. Generally we try to avoid cabs — our view is that the best way to see the city is to walk the city. (In fact, we generally try to avoid the subway as well, and never did use it at all this trip.) Dinner with the four of us was just fabulous. The conversation was engaging and nonstop, and there were never any awkward moments among our group. We spent three hours at the restaurant before Serenity and I needed to walk to the theater, but if we hadn’t had our show to go to, I swear we could have talked all night. Definitely a highlight of this trip, and I look forward to getting together the next time we’re there.

And, speaking of trip highlights…

Our Hedwig show was scheduled for a 10 p.m. curtain, and we arrived a little after 9:30. Having already seen the show once from the balcony and wishing we had sprung for orchestra seats, we ponied up the extra money this trip, and it was beyond worth it. We were in the center section toward the left, in row R or S, I think, which was actually closer to the stage in this theater compared to many other shows since there’s no orchestra pit for Hedwig (the music is played by a few band members on stage).

What can I say about the show itself? It’s been a couple of weeks now, and I’ll still searching for the best way to accurately capture the experience. I can’t quite declare it my all-time favorite theater experience quite yet — I feel like it’s too recent to make that bold statement at this point — but I think it might be headed that direction. John Cameron Mitchell simply IS Hedwig, and no one else can tell her tragic story quite in the way that he can. He carries himself so naturally in the role, and he keeps you both laughing and on the edge of your seat, gripped by the harsh circumstances this character faces. Neil Patrick Harris’s Hedwig was more polished and energetic, but Mitchell’s is more raw and exposed and vulnerable. As Serenity (who also saw Michael C. Hall in the role in November) said, “It’s like a completely different show.” And it really was.

I suggested that we go to the stage door to greet the actors as they were leaving, which we didn’t do for the NPH show since I figured it would be a madhouse due to his celebrity status. After the show, I leaned over to Serenity and said, “I really, really have to pee, but if we don’t book it out there immediately, we’re not going to stake out a good spot.” With a chuckle, I said, “Do what you wish, but I’m holding it and gunning for the door.”

And that’s just what we both did, eventually securing an excellent (if crowded) spot in the second row of people behind the barricade they had set up between the stage door and the car. It was cold outside, and I had to pee, and we had to wait about half an hour before anyone came out (since they had to take off their makeup, change clothes, etc.), but it was so worth it. The first person to come out was Matt Duncan (who I later learned is from my hometown), then soon after, Tony Award winner Lena Hall was the next to arrive. (Side note: Lena’s character was so much more robust this time than the first time. The first time I was wondering why she earned the Tony. The second time, I could see why.) Lena (we’re on a first-name basis, you know) was so incredibly nice to all of the fans there to get her autograph and take her picture. (I could either manage to get autographs, or take pictures, and I opted for pictures. I wasn’t close enough to wrangle pictures WITH the actors, but that’s okay.)

Finally John Cameron Mitchell came out, bearing a box of autographed Sugar Daddy candies to give away to the crowd. (One of the songs in the show is called “Sugar Daddy,” so very appropriate.) I was still trying to take pictures, so I said to Serenity, “You had BETTER get your hand over there and get one for me!” and she was successful in nabbing one for each of us. YES!

By the time we were done at the theater, it was 1 a.m., and my feet were toast, so we took a cab back to the apartment and crashed. Oh, and did I mention that the time changed that night and we lost an hour? Yes indeed. But yet another fun adventure awaited us on Sunday (we know how to maximize our NYC weekends!), so we proceeded forward as is our norm.

Return to NYC (part 2)

I woke up around 4:30 the next morning (Friday, March 6), and my phone said that my flight was still listed as being on time, so I got ready, packed up, and headed toward the airport. I got through security, walked to my gate, and they were in the middle of boarding for my zone at the time, so I was able to hop in line and board the plane immediately. Even with being on the plane, I still didn’t expect that our flight would leave on time, either because of the weather in Louisville or in NYC, but sure enough we did, and we even landed at LaGuardia a little early.

I went to ground transportation to wait for the shuttle that was going to take me to Manhattan. (Much less scary and expensive than a cab ride! I did that on my first trip to the city, but hopefully never again unless it’s unavoidable for some reason.) Ultimately I was going to Serenity’s uncle’s apartment in Gramercy Park, but the closest the shuttle gets is Grand Central Terminal, plus Serenity wasn’t in town quite yet (she was driving from Boston and pushed her arrival from Thursday night to Friday morning due to snow in the NYC area), so I went to the food court area downstairs at Grand Central, grabbed a lemon blueberry scone and cinnamon sugar mini-muffin from Magnolia Bakery, and found a table to read and people-watch while I waited.

She kept me posted on her arrival time, and when she was about an hour away from arriving, I began walking from Grand Central down toward Gramercy, about 22 blocks. For the most part, the sidewalks were clear, but the sidewalk ramps were kind of nasty with hunks of sorta-melting snow and dirt, and since I had my suitcase with me, it was slow going with walking toward the apartment, but I wasn’t in any particular hurry, so that was just fine. Serenity found a nearby parking garage and arrived at the apartment probably 3 minutes before I made it there. We went inside and briefly ran into her aunt, who was packing up stuff to spend the weekend with friends (leaving us an empty apartment to ourselves while there — score!)

After we’d settled for a bit, we put on our snow boots and walked about a mile to the West Village to have falafels at Taim for lunch. Taim was a super-small restaurant with only about five or six counter seats along the front window, but thankfully we were on the late side for lunch and caught it not as crowded as it could have been, though it was quite cramped trying to eat at the small counter. (This is clearly a place that does a lot of takeout. If the weather hadn’t been so cold, it would’ve been great to take the food to a nearby park or something.) Oh, but it was so worth it, because the falafels were quite amazing! A definite score on our first meal in town.

After lunch, we headed up to the Fashion Institute to check out their free museum there, partly to get us out of the cold. (And boy, was it cold that day!) I wouldn’t call the museum ground-breaking or anything I’d recommend as a must-do in the city, but it was a decent stop for free. We left there and went to Dough, a doughnut shop on 19th Street that was highly recommended by Serenity’s aunt and uncle. The doughnuts there were huge yeast donuts, and I do have to say, they were quite delicious. I chose a hibiscus one, and she chose a chocolate one with cocoa nibs, and we split them in half so we could have some of each. So, so good!

We considered wandering around a bit since we didn’t have definite plans for that afternoon, but since we were semi-close to the apartment and had a busy evening planned as well as a full day on Saturday and Sunday, we decided to go back there for a couple hours to chill out and freshen up before heading out for our comedy show that night. We had tickets to the 7:30 p.m. “comedy for grown-ups” show at Gotham Comedy Club on 23rd St. We had pondered doing another Broadway show, but ultimately we decided we liked the $15/ticket price of the comedy club, plus it’s still a great New York City kind of thing to do.

The comedy show was in the basement venue at the club, which was pretty small. We didn’t quite have a full crowd for our show, clocking in with about 25 people in the audience by my count. I wasn’t quite sure how that’d play out with the comedians, but it turned out to be pretty good. We were the second table back, so we weren’t the main focus for audience interaction with the comedians, though we were the token married people and token parents for the comedians and interacted with a couple of them during the show. Normally that kind of thing puts me on edge, but with a small room like that (and a couple of drinks in me!), it really wasn’t a big deal. Overall the show was a lot of fun, and definitely great for the price, so I think we were both glad we did it. The first comedian wasn’t really my style, but the others were more relate-able and had a better flow.

After the show, we stopped next door at Doughnut Plant to grab a couple of doughnuts from there to try later (yes, our second doughnut stop of the day), then we walked down to about 11st St., I think, to go to a Latin/Caribbean diner we’d been hoping to try, however when we got there, the place was super-crowded and loud, so we decided to backtrack to the restaurant we’d passed that had great-smelling burgers. (I still don’t even know the name of the place!) We met up with Serenity’s uncle for dinner there since it was our only chance to see him that weekend, and the classic burger I had there was excellent, as was the pumpkin martini I enjoyed. (Wheee! Three drinks! The walk home was quite silly! But hey, at least we weren’t getting on top of each other’s shoulders like we saw some drunk girls doing. We were just in the “everything is freaking hilarious” stage of drunk. Not the “I’m a gymnast” stage.) We got to the apartment, ate our doughnuts (mine was a cashew orange blossom filled doughnut — very good!), then hit the sack, wiped out but quite happy with our reunion in the best city in the world.

8-year-old well check

The Big Sis had her 8-year-old well check on Monday, and here were her stats:

Height: 4′ 2.75″ (50th to 75th percentile)

Weight: 61 lb. (50th to 75th percentile)

BMI: 16.6 (50th to 75th percentile)

Blood pressure: 96/50

No concerns, and she continues on her growth curve just fine.

Return to The Big Apple (part 1)

I went to New York City back in June to see “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” starring Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway, and it was such a wonderfully perfect weekend that I wasn’t sure whether Serenity and I could have topped it.

Now, I recognize that a little more time needs to elapse before I can make the official declaration, but it’s quite possible that we outdid ourselves with our recent weekend in the Big Apple. The primary purpose of the second trip was to see “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Yes, again. But this time, John Cameron Mitchell was re-donning the wig to play the role that he originated off-Broadway in the late 1990s and in the 2001 movie. Neil Patrick Harris was a great performer, but as soon as it was announced that Mitchell would be playing a limited run, that set the gears in motion to plan a sooner-than-anticipated return trip. We snagged theater tickets (orchestra this time!), I booked airfare, and we awaited our girls’ weekend escape planned for the first weekend in March.

Now, we planned the weekend for March because Mitchell’s engagement was in the dead of winter, and we wanted to minimize the risk of winter weather disrupting or canceling on our weekend. My area had a once-every-20-years snowstorm on Presidents Day, so I figured we’d be pretty home free. Ha! HA! Hahahahaha! Mother Nature decided to show us who’s boss. I was due to fly out at 6:20 a.m. on Friday, March 6, and we got hit with 17.1 inches of snow on March 4-5 — a 2-day record for snowfall here that was easily broken. The Presidents Day storm had “only” amounted to about 10 inches (followed by another 4 inches a few days later), and that had us homebound for nearly a week, so I had no idea how I was going to manage to make it out of my house, to Louisville an hour away, and to NYC, as our city just can’t handle that volume of snow very easily.

School and daycare were canceled on Thursday because of the snowstorm, so I was working at home that day, trying to focus on my required duties but also trying to play out my scenarios for getting to NYC. To say it was a pretty stressful day is a bit of an understatement. How was I going to get out of my neighborhood? How was I going to get to Louisville when the highway webcams were showing interstates that were not fully plowed? Was my early-morning Friday morning flight even going to make it out on time — or at all? What would happen if I couldn’t make it out of town — could we possibly rebook, or would we just be out of luck?

Serenity offered encouraging words, listened to my rants/stresses about the situation, and began trying to find out if we’d be able to rebook the tickets we already had, just in case. The Husband went outside, even while the snow was still coming down, and spent more than two hours shoveling the sidewalks/driveway, digging out my car, and even shoveling part of the street in front of our house to help me get out my car to the tire tracks that had been established by some cars that day. The snow finally stopped late morning, and I kept a close eye on the highway webcams to gauge the state of the roads between here and the airport. By mid-afternoon, those were looking quite a bit better, however the challenge was going to be record-low subzero temps descending on the area overnight that night, making the roads (especially the smaller ones) much more dangerous. After carefully considering my not-great options, I finally decided around 4:30 p.m. Thursday to take advantage of the sun being out, as well as the daylight remaining, and drive to Louisville that evening, getting a hotel near the airport. I was able to secure a room about four miles from the airport for a great price (and bonus: it had an indoor pool!), so I quickly finished my trip packing (which thankfully I had done the bulk of it the night before), gathered winter travel supplies like food, water, sand, shovel, etc., and hit the road to Louisville by about 5:45 p.m.

The neighborhood streets were pretty dicey, but I was fortunate that several cars had traversed the streets before I was out, and they laid down a pretty solid set of tire tracks that I could follow. Without that, there’s no way my sedan could have cleared the deep snow that had fallen. I took it slow and steady and finally made it out to the main road that connects to our neighborhood, which was plowed but still not completely clear. The on-ramps to our local beltway and the interstate were white-knuckle-inducing, but once I got to the interstate, things were in fairly good shape. For most of the way I had at least one lane, and sometimes two lanes, clear, though there were many slick spots that caused traffic to hover around 45 to 55 mph the entire way. Thankfully I was well aware of my surroundings at all times, which was especially helpful when I was traveling in the completely clear right lane and all of a sudden came upon a section of that lane that had NOT been cleared. I had full awareness of the cars around me at all times, so I was able to make a quick move to shift lanes, and all was well. I can’t say the same for the car that had evidently not seen this unexpected obstacle and was getting help after skidding off the road into a snowbank off to the side.

It was starting to get dark as I approached Louisville, but by the time I reached their city limits, the roads were once again much more clear, basically just wet, and the driving was significantly less stressful. I kept thinking that I was so glad I’d made the decision to drive up that night, as I couldn’t imagine tackling some of the driving issues in the dark with frozen roads. I got to the hotel a little before 7:30 p.m. and got checked in and settled before going to swim for about half an hour. I have to say, that was an unexpected but nice perk — really I was just looking for a hotel close to the airport, but to find one for $45 that also had an indoor pool? BONUS! Sign me up. After my swim, I went back to the room, took the longest and hottest shower I’ve had in a long time, then settled in to read before going to sleep in preparation for the big weekend ahead — assuming I was able to get out of town.

Update from the ortho

Both of my fractures are well-aligned enough that we’re trying a cast boot instead of a traditional cast. This will allow me to remove it when sleeping, if desired, and for showers. I go back for new x-rays in a month, and they’re expecting I’ll have the cast boot for 4-6 weeks. Still have a good deal of pain and swelling, and I’m not allowed to bear weight on it for now, so crutches are my friend/enemy.

After the appointment, I had to go to the county clerk’s office downtown to turn in my application for a temporary handicap tag, and that outing nearly did me in. It was a long walk on crutches from the garage to the office, then I had to stand in line for about 15-20 minutes. Have you ever stood on one leg for 15-20 minutes? My non-injured leg was on FIRE!! I was writhing and moaning the whole time, and had a nice crying spell when I got back to the car.

Though, this was a little funny. The people in front of me were nice and asked what happened, etc. The woman behind me complained about having to come to the DMV, how she was upset that her son sent her there, how she went to the courthouse first because that’s what he told her, but that was wrong, and she still wasn’t even sure she was in the right place. Absolutely no “you gonna be okay, lady?” through my grunting and writhing and sighing and near-crying. LOL

Feeling pretty emotionally and physically drained now, but I’m taking off work at least today and tomorrow, so hopefully things improve shortly.

Gimme a break

Back in January I decided to sign up for the Horse Capital Half Marathon, which would have been my third half. I really had no intention of doing another half, but I was having trouble forcing myself to make the time for exercise, as even on a normal day, my clock goes off at 5:20 a.m. (and I’m not a morning person, so exercising before work is brutal for me), and I’m not done putting children to bed and getting necessary household tasks done until 9 or 9:30 p.m., and it’s hard to want to exercise once that’s all done. But I needed to do something, so I committed to it, tricked The Husband into signing up with me, and training began. I quickly realized, while running in the cold winter temps, that my expectations were too high, and I allowed myself more of a walking or walk/run approach instead, which eased some of the pressure I’d put on myself. The Horse Capital also has a full marathon with it, so the time limit for the course was very generous for those doing the half. Even if I walked the entire thing, I’d still be able to complete it in less than 6 hours and 15 minutes. No problemo.

I endured running through the cold temps and the snow, and I was excited that the weather was becoming more spring-like; just last week I had a run in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Hooray! My mileage was gradually increasing and things were going relatively well. I am not fast — and I’ve got to accept that I never will be — but I was at least getting out there and getting it done, which was the whole point. A mile is a mile, right?

So yesterday I was going out for a seven-mile training run. I got up, got ready, and drove my starting point. Per my plan, I walked the first mile to help warm up, as I know that if I start running any sooner than that, my calves will get too tight. I waited at a light to cross a street, and I was going to start running once I got to the other side. On the other side, there was another runner that I was going to be approaching and I had to figure out how to get around her without breaking my stride or hers. I was about four or five steps into the running I’d just started when I stepped on a small but thick twig, causing my left foot to twist. I tried catching my balance, and my foot twisted again, I think, when it landed on the sidewalk, and down I went. That approaching runner was just a few feet from me when it happened, and another runner approached us within a few seconds, so they came over to make sure I was okay. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to just shake off the fall and continue running, but I’m not sure I knew quite how bad it was.

One of the runners suggested that I could go to the nearby doughnut shop and get some ice from them, so I hobbled over there and did just that, also calling The Husband on the way to come pick me up since I knew I couldn’t walk the mile back to my car. Being a Saturday morning, the doughnut place was crazy busy, but I went up and explained the situation, and they were so incredibly nice to me. They gave me a big bag of ice, a cup of water, and someone had some ibuprofen in the back that they went to get for me. Since I was fighting back tears, I went to one of the store’s outside tables to wait the 20 minutes or so for The Husband to get there, which felt like forever, but I know it really wasn’t. The longer I sat there, the more the pain and swelling were becoming apparent, and I soon knew we’d be making a trip to urgent care that day.

The Husband finally arrived, I sent him in to buy some doughnuts (since they were so nice to me, plus it was a good salve for my situation), and I finally broke down in the car, mostly from the pain, but also just because of the situation in general. He drove me back to my car, which I thankfully was able to drive home myself (since I’d hurt my left foot). With lots of support, I hopped straight to the bedroom and iced my ankle in bed the rest of the morning and early afternoon. I had two main areas of swelling, one on my ankle, and one a little higher up on the outside of my foot. The Big Sis had her dance pictures that I didn’t want her to miss, so I decided The Husband would take her for those, and then we’d head to urgent care after they got home from that. The fact that I wasn’t really resisting a trip to urgent care was a sign that something really was wrong, as I’m often stubborn about going for medical care (since it always seems like there’s not much that can be done). I contacted a good family friend and asked if she’d be available to come over and stay with the girls for the afternoon, and thank goodness she was.

She arrived at the house around 2 p.m., and The Husband and I headed to urgent care. During the afternoon, I’d heard a few anecdotes from friends who said they’d had instances when they too thought they’d broken their ankle but it turned out to be just a bad sprain. So I was trying to prepare myself for a possible ankle break with the knowledge that it’d likely “just” be diagnosed as a sprain. We waited a little over an hour in the waiting room, then I finally was called back. Somehow the urgent care center didn’t have a wheelchair, so I was still hopping on one foot this whole time (which made me nervous I’d injure my other foot), though later they did find a rolling office chair that they used to take me to/from the x-ray room.

The nurse came in to do the intake questions and initial assessment, then took me back for x-rays, which hurt just as much as I anticipated because of how I had to position my foot on the table to get the angles they needed. We went back to the exam room and the doctor came in to do her assessment, which was uncomfortable but she didn’t push my range of motion as much as I expected so it wasn’t too bad. She went to check on the results of the x-ray, coming back to tell us that the ankle was indeed broken. I will admit, I was surprised and a little upset to hear that even though I had been trying to prepare myself for that possibility. She also said she’d like to get an x-ray view of the rest of my foot since they didn’t get that the first time (!!!), so back to the x-ray room I went. That result came back with a break in my foot as well. So from stepping on a single twig I ended up with TWO breaks.

They got my foot wrapped, cleaned up my hand that I’d scraped when catching myself, gave me scripts for some pain meds, gave me some crutches, and set up an appointment at the orthopedic doctor for Monday morning at 8 a.m. to probably do a casting. I spent the rest of yesterday afternoon/evening in the La-Z-Boy recliner, icing my ankle and trying to move as little as possible. I was hoping I’d get to sleep easily, but I was in quite a bit of pain and had trouble finding a comfortable position for sleeping, so I had trouble at first, but the second half of the night was a lot better.

My ankle and foot are still pretty swollen today but it looks a little better than yesterday. The discoloration so far is a widespread but uniform light purplish/greenish — so far I don’t have any darker bruising at the break sites.

So that’s the update for now. I’ll see the ortho tomorrow morning, and the big question is whether surgery will be required or not. (Hopefully not!) So far I’m in pretty good spirits despite the situation. There’s quite a bit that still feels daunting as it relates to making it through everyday tasks, but I figure I can either choose to feel sorry for myself, or I can try to figure out a way to make it work, and hopefully with a smile on my face. That’s not to say I won’t have complaints or frustrations as I recover, but I’ll try my hardest to make the best of it.

Swollen ankle and outer foot:

Broken ankle:

Broken foot: