10.07.2008

Jiggity Jig

So we are all back from New York City and resting comfortably. Hazel loved everything about it, of course. We had more fun than I thought possible and I'm still glowing from my visit with my amazing, beautiful friends. Unfortunately, our piece of crap camera finally took its last gasp in NYC, so we only have pictures from the first half of the trip, and they are currently trapped in the camera. Until I get them out, I can't share with you the glory that is Hazel Taking Manhattan By Storm.

We took the train down on Thursday and it was great. Hazel loved it and slept half the trip. Our hotel was way downtown by Wall Street, so of course we went to check that out since it had been such a morbid week for the economy. That night I went out by my lonesome to meet up with my friends Adam G. and Justin Silver for one of Justin's shows. He is hilarious, and it was so good to see him again after all this time, like not a moment had passed. Justin is doing exactly what he should have been doing all along, and I've known him since he was 15! Adam had coordinated his trip to NYC with me and he flew in all the way from San Francisco with his gorgeous girlfriend, Jesse. The next day, we walked from Wall Street to Battery Park (by accident) then all the way up to the East Village at 2nd and 12th to meet our Internet friend Emily at this delicious vegan restaurant. The walking was pretty crazy, and I almost sat down in the middle of the Bowery and refused to take another step. That afternoon we went to MoMA which was absolutely incredible and I had been dying to take Hazel there since before she was born. But as soon as we walked in there, she passed out cold and stayed asleep until my foot hit the entrance to the super-cool gift shop. I'm so excited to see my pictures from MoMA because it was my Happiest Place on Earth.

We did a lot of walking around and I visited neighborhoods that I had never been to, like the Upper West Side, and I spent time in old favorites, like the Lower East Side. We went to eat Indian food on East 6th, the best Indian food outside of Bombay and a meal I look forward to every trip. The place we ate had live sitar music which Hazel adored. One afternoon when we were walking around the West Village, we saw five guys singing doo wop soul on the street. we stood and watched them for an hour because Hazel was having so much fun! She was flirting with them, and they were flirting back, so we bought their CDs. I can't believe how much Hazel loves music. She just shrieks along to everything she hears, and "claps" by banging her little paws in her lap and yelling. She especially loves watching people sing or play instruments. She has even figured out how to strum the guitar strings to make sound come out instead of banging or grabbing. In her playgroup, she crawls to the man who sings the welcome song, and climbs up on him so she can grab at his guitar as he is playing. I got her little maracas and a little piano that she likes, and I think its time for us to maybe spend an afternoon doing one of the baby music classes.

Anyway, we really had so much fun in NYC. We went to the Natural History Museum, which Hazel also slept through every minute of, and did a lot of walking. I went out with my amazing friends again on Sunday night for Family Dinner in the West Village. Dana, Joymala (Hazel's Fairy Godmama), Justin, Adam and Jesse and I then went to play shuffleboard and have beers until 5am. We met with Joya the next morning for breakfast in Chelsea so she could see Hazel one more time before we left, then we hopped up to Penn Station and took the train back home. Jiggity Jig. Now Hazel is dying to go back and dance Fosse on Broadway, and that's just fine with me, because this should become an annual trip. Hopefully, I will get to those pictures in the crappy camera and post them.

I do have this one though.

Aren't they so beautiful? That's Adam, Me, Dana, Justin and Joymala, left to right. I miss them already. They are better than family.

This weekend we will be up at Middlebury for Jamie's rugby reunion, then in St. Johnsbury to see Hazel's grandparents. Someday we will have a weekend at home, but Hazel sure likes to go go go...

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