…some moldy Babylonian god is going to drop in on Central Park West, and start tearing up the city?
Actually, it turns out that it was just hundreds of millions of people who were all in town for Thanksgiving. I know why I was in NYC this weekend, and I had a great time catching up with my sister, but I cannot work out why so many other Brits were all there. It is not a holiday in Britain (as far as I know) this weekend, not a long weekend of any type, no freebies thrown in for weddings, and no school breaks for another few weeks… so how come all you could hear were English accents?
The tearing up of the city does seem to have been very tourist, not Babylonian god, related this weekend. It started on Thursday with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The parade started along side Central Park at 9am in the morning, but I think people started lining it to see it well before 6am, and given the number of people on the streets I can see why you would have to get there early to get a good view. I unfortunately, am now old and miserable and having driven down from Boston after work on Wednesday evening was fairly keen to stay in my very warm and comfortable bed for as long as possible. Therefore I took the easy way out, and watched the start of the parade from my bed and then drifted in and out of CBS coverage, as I got ready for the day. Not that this meant I didn’t get to see it. The parade goes on for hours! By the time I was leaving the hotel and heading out for brunch the parade was flowing down 7th and I was perfectly positioned on the corner to see Spiderman’s ass, among other things. Being in no particular hurry for brunch I stood and watched, people and floats for a while. The people watching was almost as entertaining as the balloons and bands. Started in 1927 the Macy’s parade ties with Detroit as being the second oldest Thanksgiving parade in the country, Philadelphia being four year older, but is certainly the biggest and most watched so it was good to be part of it this one time.
I finished Thanksgiving Day with a trip to the theater- "Avenue Q" now playing just off Broadway. It is a coming-of-age story, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood. Yes, when I left college I could be anything, I could do anything, turns out life is harder than you think. I would say, “It sucks to be me”, but actually, apart from the age thing, my life is pretty awesome when I think about it. It does reflect that children are so often told that they are "special" and "can do anything"; but as adults, you discover that in the real world your options are not unlimited, and they are no more "special" than anyone else. Equally it does this by pointing out, in song, that… ahh, get the sound track, and if you aren’t rolling your eyes in disgust you’ll be rolling on the floor laughing. Turns out you can get away with saying a lot of inappropriate and politically incorrect things if you have a puppet on your arm.
Of course being the Thanksgiving Weekend means Friday was shopping day! Pre-Christmas sales have always seemed a good idea, and I really think everyone else should get on board with this tradition. Then again, I have always liked shopping. Maybe too much… I was initially very excited about the four block queue outside my hotel on Thursday evening, I was thinking great shoe sale must be coming, turns out it was just teenage girls wait and hoping to catch a glimpse of Justin Beiber at 2:00pm the following day. All I can say it that they have some very dedicated parents who are prepared to camp out on the street overnight in freezing temperatures for 16 hours in the hope of seeing some teenage singer- wow! Generally speaking (apart from sparkly jewelry, which doesn’t count) I eschewed the shopping in favor of some culture and headed to the MET.
Founded in 1870 the MET contains more than 2 million exhibits spanning 9,000 years of history, and prehistory. I’m sure people will tell me- but really prehistory makes no sense to me, how can something be prehistory… If it happened it is history and can be studied as such. Anyway, there was no way I was going to see everything in the few hours I had so, I “skim read” the important parts and did what all children will tell you is the best part of any field trip and headed to the gift shop. This truly was a joy, and I can’t believe I have never thought of this before- see I am “special” if you go to the gift shop they have replicas and postcards of all the most important and famous pieces in the museum. No more expensive entrance fees, in future I’ll stop in the gift shop first and see if I can spot anything worth paying to see then head on in. J
And so back to Boston… and as Christmas gets closer, and the weather gets colder, my calendar is looking fuller, I really am having second thoughts about buying new boots. With Black Friday over, and Small Business Saturday done, maybe I can justify buying them on cyber Monday… gotta love hallmark days.
No comments:
Post a Comment