Always Choose Adventure.

This whole weekend started with my daughter asking her daddy, "Daddy can I buy Barry Manilow tickets? He's at Radio City Music Hall!", and him forking over a credit card. Airline tickets were purchased, many plans were made and fabulous outfits purchased. Excitement was building, it was my daughter Sarah's first trip to New York and first time on an airplane.

Two days before takeoff, Ticketmaster called. If you have tickets to an event you do not want Tickemaster to call. Barry Manilow had been rescheduled. To a Monday. In April. For many reasons this does not work for us. Much sadness. The show tickets were fully refunded, but airlines are not so inclined. Now we have choices. Eat the $300 in plane tickets or head off into the big city for unknown adventures. We chose adventures!

We are hitting Manhattan early, Friday 10am. Hotel check in is 3 so we are packing light. For the 2 of us we pack one large purse with pj's and one shirt for Saturday because we are leaving at 7pm. This is going to be a whirlwind 31 hour tour of the big apple! We do not need luggage slowing us down. The flight is uneventful, it's just a sky bus people! At LaGuardia we have decisions to make. A cab to Manhattan will cost us LOTS of money, or we can save some money by using public transportation. We like buying shiny things, so we go with the bus that takes us to the subway. Yes, we are going to try to navigate the subway. Sarah and I DO NOT do buses but our boys use them everyday. My husband takes the bus to work and my son takes it to school.We find it fascinating and- very, very confusing-so this is a huge leap for us. We buy Metro Cards, which, in retrospect was the best decision ever, for many reasons.

We emerge from the subway, into the Garment District. OMG. The first thing we see http://www.beadsworldusa.com/index.html This place is glorious. It shimmers and twinkles in the winter sunshine. We want to buy all the things, or at the very least touch them. We make it out of there for under $40. I call this a miracle! The most fabulous gifts were purchased as well as a rhinestone salamander bracelet that I am currently rocking at my desk. We adventure on to Mood, the fabric store made famous by Project Runway. Sarah and I are not unfamiliar with the textile arts; we make costumes and the occasional wearable piece of art. Mostly we are going to visit Swatch, the dog that lives at Mood. We had been instructed by many people before we left to get a photo, or  not bother returning home. The stacks of fabrics were glorious. It was fashion week, the place was packed with tourists and people actually trying to get something done. The staff was extraordinarily patient and informed us that Swatch was everywhere. So we needed to do a doggie treasure hunt. It wasn't difficult. The first couch we found contained one very cute, very tired doggie! After petting him we purchased a rhinestone bow tie applique, and a Mood canvas bag. This bag was our second best decision of the day. We could put our "luggage" and all of our purchases in it and wander around the city looking awesome! The walk out of the district to Times Square was filled with stores that offered sequined fabrics, fringes and treasures. Dress shops and trunk shows every other step. I want to live here. We take a break in Bryant Park, they have swings and benches with heaters to warm our bones. The day is beautiful, 45 degrees and sunshine. People are playing ping pong, and ice skating in the park, while we watch the pigeons.

Swatch! 

It's only 1 in the afternoon! We have packed all this adventure into 3 hours. Times Square is the next step on our journey.  The subway app is summoned forth on my phone. We got this! We head over to Grand Central Terminal call some friends at work and grab a canoli. Yes, we left the gun.
In Times Square we are approached by a man with tickets to sell. He is hired by the venue to draw tourists into their web! He has Comic Strip tickets for us, instead of the 50 dollar cover charge we can  get in for $30 dollars. I am skeptical. I ask him if we are going to show up and find out it's a scam he swears it isn't. Shows us a badge. Still very sketchy, but his act is really good, he was even very up front about the $20 per person drink minimum. Sarah feels he's legit and she has a pretty excellent people reader so, I fork over 30 dollars and get our pass into the 10:30 show. We figure if it's a scam he earned that $30, and we are impressed with his skills.

Sanrio is the reason we have made our way to Times Square. Sanrio makes Hello Kitty merchandise. She has many cute friends. There are very few of these stores in the U.S. so this is a must for us. This is where cute originated. So many things to touch and play with and of course buy. Tokidoki, a designer, has teamed up with Hello Kitty to create mind numbingly adorable wallets, hand bags and luggage. We fondle them all. Sarah thinks she wants the wallet, it's very expensive. We are very prudent and decide to sleep on it.

This is where we originally were going to go to our hotel check in and get beautiful for dinner and Barry. This is no longer necessary. We are going to take on the East Village. Because we can. We want to visit Obscura. It is an antiques shop that deals in bizarre and disturbing treasures. It is featured in a show called Oddities on the Discovery channel. I have plans to buy a birthday gift for my blog partner. We get off the subway and turn the wrong way. The two of us have not yet oriented ourselves, and we go the wrong way often. Even when we try to follow the addresses up and down it doesn't work. We don't know why. This is solved by Saturday, it's a process! ANYWAY, we finally find the storefront. It's for lease.  So we call Cleveland and ask Norman to find out, WHY? They are moving.  It was not mentioned on their website only in blogs and on Facebook. So sad making! We sit on a bench to plot our next maneuver. The most darling pug with a pink outfit came up to love us! Sooo cute and totally almost made up for Obscura being closed. Our next destination is The Wooster Street Social Club, also known as the home of New York Ink. Sarah LOVES Ami James and our goal is to buy a t-shirt. If we can score a photo with Robear that would be excellent. Cue the Crazy Taxi music because it was one wild ride! The streets in the East Village tend to be brick, the chiropractors friend. The tattoo shop is beautiful and clean. Which is a good thing in a tattoo shop! The woman running the merchandise shop was charming and engaging. We bought a t-shirt with one of Ami's koi, it's fabulous. The nice lady tells us how to get to the subway from there. Canal and Fulton here we come! We love filling up our Metro Cards, it's so cosmopolitan! We get turned around a bit, SHOCKING I know. Here is what we learned in the village, if someone has a dog they know where stuff is and are nothing but generous. Thank you, to all the random people who helped guide us along the way this weekend. You make New York wonderful!


We are finally heading to our hotel. The Manhattan Centre Hotel, unless you are looking for  it you don't find it. Its a lovely midtown place right across from Radio City Music Hall. The price was right and we got an upgrade on our room, TWO beds,the luxury! Right next door is a pizza place we each grab a slice, we are so New York, to eat in the room.  It is now 6 o'clock. We are exhausted. Carbs are consumed, and a nap is taken. Sarah wakes up right on cue at 8:30pm, just enough time to get pretty before we hail a cab to The Comic Strip. The Times Square man said to be there an hour early. We take instructions very well, even from potential scam artists. On the advice of the front desk staff we go up to 6th to catch a cab. No subway after dark seems prudent. We are on the corner, flagging away to the taxis that are available. Crickets. No one is stopping, a limo pulls past us and drops off someone a couple of spaces away. Apparently he is watching our unsuccessful attempts at procuring transportation, and asks if we need a ride. I tell him thank you but we can't afford his fancy ride. He says "Pay what you want!" Sarah and I look at each other, this might be a mistake but OK. Yes people, I know many things could have gone wrong, but nothing did, relax. We have a great conversation. He tells us of a place to go shopping if we are left waiting for a World Trade Center tour. He said we had excellent judgement in staying away from the subway, some validation is always nice. He gets us safely to our destination, on streets that are as smooth as glass. Limos > Taxi,some New York math for you.
I give him 20 dollars for the ride, the kindness and the conversation.

This was the view from our seat. No zoom lens! 

We line up at the club, http://www.comicstriplive.com/  I researched, so I knew it existed, and I had discovered who would be entertaining us this evening. Good quality comics, Marina Franklin, Brian Scott McFadden,Chuck Nice and Neil Brennan who we would see on Jimmy Fallon, wearing the same t-shirt, when we got back to our hotel. We were told by Times Square guy that if we wanted to lay low to sit in the back, as those who sit closer can become targets of the comics. We thought this was excellent advice! So when we are finally let into the lounge area we try to do just that. BUT NO, we are instructed to sit at a tiny table for two that practically TOUCHES the stage. This makes us nervous. We order our unlimited virgin drinks, each of us cost $20, I get frozen slushy fabulousness, Sarah sticks with Coke, so boring. I expect to never see our waitress again, but she was very attentive! We purchased an $8 bag of microwave popcorn, yes we did. Yes, it was delicious. I am trying to spend a fifty dollar gift card given to me by my former employer for my 10 years of dedicated service.  I thought that spending it here, on an experience my daughter and I shared with laughter was fitting tribute to the way things used to be at the library. The warm up guy asks us what our story is, I say first mother daughter trip to New York. This draws an aww from the crowd and an instant pass on comic abuse! Except for one comic who pantomimes cumming on our table,we are unscathed this evening!  Everyone was very funny I call it totally worth the money. We get out fast and grab a cab to the hotel. Next door to our hotel is Duane Read, this is New York speak for Walgreens. We buy snacks, water and kerpoppi valentines. We make it into our snug beds just in time for Jimmy Fallon and to see the man who befouled our table mime style. It's 12:30 and we have done much in our 12 1/2 hours in New York. We are tired. Goodnight. Writing about it has been nearly as exhausting as living it!