First weekend of a new year

                   "Some pursue happiness-others create it."    Ralph Waldo Emerson

               Feeling like it had been awhile, I headed down to New York after work on Friday.  Why do the shorter Holiday work weeks sometimes feel like they’re twice as long as a regular work week?  Thank God I can sleep on the bus.  Arrived at the Hx3 just in time to wish Kris a fun night going to a swing dance party at which she had a great time.  Makes me want to check it out!            

Appetizers!

               Saturday we lazed around and headed out to lunch.   I had read about a small French place in the Sutton Place neighborhood (my “old neighborhood from my Winter in Manhattan Odyssey two years a ago).  Larry Olmstead from USA Today gave a great review of Les San Culottes (“without fancy pants”..an ode to the Revolutions’s Blue collar guard) on 2^nd Avenue @ 57^th Street.  My Bosses went earlier this fall and were impressed, if not awed by the amount of food!  We loved it.  It has some amazing deals, and the food is simple authentic French.  I didn’t expect so many great small French places in New York.

                Home to nap, I love naps.  I later headed out with Kris when she left for work.  I continued to  Times Square, which even in January is a zoo.  But I now know how to navigate it.  It is a bit Disneyesque, as there are “characters” everywhere for tourist families to take pictures of…everything from Mickie and Minnie Mouses, to Sponge Bob, Batman, Pacman, and so many more.  I headed right to the TKTS booth and it was actually quiet. 

From the Official website of "The Heiress"

                I picked up a 50% off ticket for “The Heiress” with Jessica Chastain, Dan Stevens (from Downton Abbey fame), David Strathairn, and Judith Ivey, among others. It was excellent. After the show I did something I’ve never done before, waited around the Stage Door with the crowd waiting for the Stars to come out. I was impressed. Jessica Chastain and Dan Stevens were very friendly and gracious for quite awhile. The young actress who played the maid Maria, Virginia Kull, had snuck out unobtrusively ahead of them, but I told her she had done a great job. She smiled, said thank you, and just walked down the street. I pray someday my Daughter can walk down the street contentedly after performing on Broadway!

Before the play I had time to meander over to Rockefeller Center to catch a close up of the “Tree” that I really hadn’t done during the Holiday rush.  It is always a wonderful treat that I never tire of.  I also got to see Saks  5^th Avenue’s clever light show.                    

          After the show I visited Kristi at work at Valhala for a bit and giddily showed her my tourist pictures of the “Stars”!

             Sunday we had another lazy start.  Then we treated ourselves to one of New York’s biggest bargains, a mani-pedi in a neighborhood salon.  We shared a wonderful left-over dinner of trout almondine from Les San Culottes and Kristi headed off to a jam session with some Original Bindings friends.  I relaxed and wrote til it was time to catch my bus back to reality.