Getting back to my end of the summer catch-up posts leaves us just after Kerny's birthday visit.
Kent's friend Jill is from Rockaway Beach (sadly, one of the areas hit hardest by hurricane Sandy) and lives within walking distance of the shore.
Jill's family was hosting a block party so Kent, Connor, and I all headed down for a beach day.
I fell in love with Jill's Momma and her Dog, Bocce.
Let the record show, Bocce loved me more than the boys.
It's a long bus ride to Jill's house and these two could barely make it.
Rockaway Beach has my kind of people!
Everyone was sporting as little clothes as possible.
Even Marcel was nekky when Connor found him
(Marcel the shell... with no shoes on).
Connor was scantily clad as per usual.
And this is the only picture I got of Kent, but really it's an incognito picture of that nekky little bum in the background.
Connor & Bocce playing tug-of-war with a toothpick
(no wonder she liked me better).
Am I right or am I right?
How cute. Bocce's a yankee's fan.
And there's KBIII making another partial appearance.
That morning, before heading to Rockaway, Sabrina Beena called me to tell me that she and her daughter-in-law, Sydnie, would be coming into the city that night.
I left my keys with a local store owner and Beena picked them up while I was away. She and Sydnie had gotten tickets to Wicked and I literally came upon them outside of my door headed to the show as I was coming home from Rockaway.
Perfect timing!
Since the boys and I had dinner plans, I left the girls to get to the theater district on the subway all by themselves and they made it there like pros just in the knick of time.
After dinner in Brooklyn, I met the girls again in midtown, we grabbed some cheesecake near my place and headed home.
1AM cheesecake, a 3AM bedtime after some girl talk, and an 8AM wake-up call and THIS is how Beena looked for her travels home.
She's beautiful.
I, on the other hand, was barely awake, still make-up-less, and in my PJ's.
Our time was limited, but I'm so glad I got to spend some time with Beena and Sydnie! Hopefully they'll be back to see me sometime when Kerny's here and we'll make the grandest time of it!
Sorry I haven't been posting much.
It's just that I've been busy watching THESE TWO on youtube all day and night NON-STOP while I waited for Hurricane Sandy to blow over.
I saw these two on the new show, Nashville, and thought, "Whoa! How did they happen to find two little girl actresses who sing so well together?!" They play Connie Britton's daughters and they're adorable.
-all three of the above links were different... check them all out-
Now, that may be a record for number of youtube links in a blog post ever in history, but trust me, they're worth your time.
These are what I watched (instead of the news) to calm my fears while we waited for this year's hurricane to hit.
This year, we weren't so lucky as last year. Although I was lucky enough to maintain power and have no water damage whatsoever, my fellow lower-manhattan-ites weren't so lucky. My glorious city was hit pretty hard in fact and it's jolted us all. Half of the city lost power, all of our subway systems have been shut down and the amount of water damage to downtown is devastating.
I sat watching Maisy and Lennon with a blanket over my head - ya know, just in case my windows went (and it sounded like they'd go at any minute). I was afraid that the shattering glass would get blown into my eyes, blinding me forever. The way your mind works in emergencies is funny. For the most part, I wasn't scared. Not until ConEd cut off the power to lower manhattan, including NYU's medical center, and the back-up electricity at the hospital didn't cut on.
It was then that my heart sank for the families of those patients on ventilators and oxygen and the parents of the babies in the NICU.
Warning: This will be the part where I gush about my amazing friends and how lucky I am to have such heroes here in my NYC family.
I knew that Amy (a nurse) was at NYU and that she was hand-ventilating and carrying patients out of their rooms and down the blacked-out stairwells of the hospital and that with the NICU and pediatrics being one of their biggest concerns, that Yelena (a pediatric nurse) would be the one of the nurses to take on a lot of these patients as she awaited their arrival at Columbia. -Did I mention that Yelz had already been at the hospital for going-on 24hrs and that she was short staffed and would likely not come home the next day?- To transport patients in this weather with such short notice and such little acting time with such precision is a testament to the first responders (in every sense) that we have here in NYC. I've always believed it, but this is just added proof that New Yorkers are a special breed of people and that in tragic situations, can pull together like no other to get the job done and help care for their fellow man.
I love these girlfriends of mine anyway, but knowing they make such a difference in a time of need just makes me even more proud to know them and call them family.
The aftermath for us, our surrounding boroughs (particularly Queens, Brooklyn, & Staten Island), and our neighbors in New Jersey is heartbreaking. A few neighbors that got hit the worst are Rockaway Beach (my summer day-trip there is coming up in the next post), and Atlantic City.
The news keeps showing a demolished image of the Atlantic City board walk and it makes me so sad to know that it will never be the same skyline that was the background for some defining, lifelong friendships for me. I've always imagined taking my children there and showing them where I first met Laura or Mike Perkes. Or where Dave and Em's relationship first budded well before the proposal, the wedding, or babies. Or where I fell in love (silly as it may seem) for only the second time in my life. I still can, but it will look totally different than in these pictures or in my memory... Although, I guess that's what happens in life. I imagine Moore's Lake looks a little different to me (in the works to become luxury apartment rentals and a 40acre business park) than it did to my parents and family who ran it.
Dave and I with Mike, Em and the Atlantic City roller coaster & pier off in the distance, Aug. 2008:
The after math of Hurricane Sandy on the same pier, Oct. 2012:
2008:
2012:
2008:
2012:
I'm hoping that if I keep watching this video over and over, I'll remember A.C. this way always.
The good things about Hurricane Sandy:
She gave me a second chance to use the expression 'hunker down' (which I LOVE) and she created the hashtag #Sandymonium and reworked Olivia Newton John's line from Grease to, "Tell me about it, flood."
Otherwise, she sucked.
Yes, if you were lucky like most of my friends and I, she did give us an excuse to miss work and sit around inside eating and watching movies all day, but that also means she got us out of a paycheck. And let's be honest, who wanted that?
And to the families whose homes, lives, and memories were destroyed, it will take so much time to get things back in order, but I do believe that in time, these areas will repair themselves both physically and emotionally. If New Yorkers can bounce back from 9/11, we can handle a little sass from a snotty-nosed little brat named Sandy.
Thanks for all of the texts, phone calls, and prayers from friends and family during the storm! I'm so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life and to have been basically untouched by this tragedy. I cant wait until this city is back up and running! I know it will be soon!
Also, even though it doesn't feel like it here in NYC, today is Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone!
Love,
~Kare*
She came once in June and she came back for her end of the summer Birthday bash and we had a GREAT time!
She arrived in the city at the stroke of midnight on her actual birthday and we ventured out the next morning for tickets to Broadway's 'Bring it On: The Musical' since I knew she'd love it as much as Haley and I had. At lunch, I came to visit her and brought her a black and white cookie and we took a bite out for my Aunt Melissa since they're her favorite. After work, I found Kerny in the park and we had lunch at one of her local favorite restaurants. If she isn't at home, Kerny is almost always in the park.
We quickly changed (I into my new bright neon pants from Seon) and headed to meet Laura for the show. Kerny went bright too. If you think about it, we were in MBK colors and how appropriate for a High School cheerleader romantic comedy musical. Dressing the part is what we do best.
My seat mates.
Yet again we had partial view front row seats so as the lights lowered, we moved to fifth row center orchestra and enjoyed our premiere $200 seats for a whopping $35 from start to finish.
Afterwards we were feeling super cheerful!
The next day Kerny had her pick of to-do's since all she'd done for her birthday was have me force her to see a show.
Naturally, we started at Pippin.
I may have said it on here before, but this is the best vintage jewelry store in the city.
Hands down.
Kerny loves it.
The pink drawer in the clip-on earrings dresser at Pippin. They have a drawer for every color under the sun. It's glorious!
We decided to walk over to artichoke for some tasty goodness and take it to Highline Park to eat.
The Highline is a beautifully architectural park converted from an old above ground train track.
It's the trendy place to take visitors now-a-days, but it was simply the chance to sit that led Kerny and I there. Luckily for us, it turned into quite an adventure as she LOVED IT!
Rewind-
::(Quickly! I had visited the Highline only one other time and it was the summer of 2010 when Tony and Mike Marcus were visiting Diddz and we did have a blast, but the park was only opened for about 10 blocks worth. The rest was under construction and we were only there for a short time, but the boys still managed to get a few good shots of Diddz and I throughout that day and I will proceed to place them here since I didn't have a blog back then...
These photos start outside of brunch by Diddy's house, then at the Highline, then at Fryin' Pan, and finally back home to my comfort pose... twirling my dread. I was so comfortable in fact, that I even agreed to assume the position in front of the boys. And Yelz, who didn't know me so well at the time, caught us in the act.
I remember we ordered pizza in that night and when the boys stepped out to grab some wine for the crew, they got me my very own beverage so I didn't feel left out... some coconut water. Which I HATED and tried to fake, but couldn't! They're the sweetest, those two! You'll remember Tony from this post. Now let's fast forward back to 2012 and the post about Kerny's birthday in the city)::
Fast Forward-
The Highline.
This time at least 20 more blocks worth of park had opened up and we walked about that many before getting tired and wrapping it up.
Cooling off by getting her feet wet in the inch-deep-infinity-pool-sidewalk.
Yep that's a thing.
Overlooking traffic and where we ate, Artichoke.
I love taking pics of strangers. Like, love.
Another look-out spot.
Street art.
On Sunday, we attempted to go to the beach, but Kerny got very distracted once she started to carve a piece of wax for a ring setting she has a diamond to set in. She lit into balling because she was so happy to be doing it and we immediately nixed the beach... however we managed to stay in our swimsuits for hours and then sent this picture to someone who texted us asking, "How's the beach?"
In her happy place...
The start of the wax carving:
Progress:
The next thing on her bday todo list was B&N. While there, Laura called and invited us to Central Park to wait in line for tickets to Sondeim in the Park's Into the Woods starring Amy Adams.
If we got tickets, Lu and I would be 2 for 2 on Shakespeare in the Park for 2012 and would consider it a win of a summer for that fact alone.
Here we are sitting pretty, waiting for tickets (on my new blanket that folds up into a bag and I LOVE).
We got in! Stopped for food at concessions and headed to our seats for our usual illegal photos.
My most favorite thing about the show was the Witch aka Rapunzel's mother (played by the same actress who does the voice of the mother in Tangled) and her amazing wardrobe, hair (dreads), hands and crutches. She was stunningly beautiful beneath it all and had an great voice which made her even more impressive.
The stars (via google images):
It was good.
The second act took a dark turn and it was very long, but I'm glad we saw it...
if only it could've ended at intermission!
At some point that weekend, and I cant remember when, we stopped on our walk home for Kerny to chat it up with Prince William.
Princess Kerny has a nice ring to it, no?
It sounds british!
Well, you're definitely royalty in my book Kerny and I'll kiss your feet any old day or time... actually, make that your hands. I'd kiss your hands any old time!
