One Acts

     Lizzy has enjoyed being in the one-acts. The high school has a director's class, and seniors who have taken those classes get to direct a one-act on their own. This year, there was only one senior; she was one of the girls who went to London with us, so that was fun. 

    Since there was only one play, the director decided to do one too. She had done one when she was in high school and really liked it, so she brought it back to give more actors a chance to shine.  They decided to make it a traveling show as well. This year, both middle schools got new black box-like theaters that double as a storm shelter, and we had to try them out. Since it was a traveling show, that meant that our van came to the rescue. That also meant that our van held the set pieces for 2 weeks.

    The first show was on the same night as the kids' activity night, so Teddy and I went to cheer Lizzy on. We got to sit up front with Rosalee. Unfortunately, Teddy lost interest quite quickly, and we were in front of the directors, so we were a bit disruptive, but we survived. The plays went well. Lizzy asked if she could crochet on stage, and her director loved that idea. 

The whole Bear Family.

With Rosalee.

    The second night we all came and split up a bit. I prepared by giving Teddy plenty of snacks to keep him occupied. I filmed some of it; my camera shut off on me twice, but you get Lizzy's part for the most part.

    This time the actors had a bit more fun with it; there was a bit of improv, it made for a hilarious show.

    One actor was both the wolf and Grumpy the dwarf; he is quite tall, so he walked on his knees.

Baby bear kept throwing Lizzy's yarn ball.

    It was a great show, and I was excited to have the van back, but it turned out that we had to hold the set for another week. Emily also had injured her foot this week. She was playing downstairs and somehow knocked one of our wooden benches onto her foot. It wasn't broken, but severely bruised. We tried a boot, but she couldn't use it without pain. Daniel had this knee contraption from when he injured his foot years ago. He never used it. Emily took a bit to get used to it, but she mastered it pretty quickly. She ended up needing to use it for 3 days, which was difficult with school, but she managed it with grace. She did call herself a pirate a lot, though.

Back Home

     Henry got invited to a princess party that encouraged dressing up; luckily, he just fit the prince costume I had made for Charles ages ago. The epaulets are a little worse for wear, but I thought he looked great. He was the only boy to dress up, but the guests loved it. 

    We were lucky to have Charly's family stay with us a few days. They loved playing games and Pokémon. It got a little problematic with the enthusiastic trading, but it was fun.

    Lizzy got cast in another One Act; she is Mama Bear in Goldilocks on Trial. This was her first try on of the outfit. Isn't she cute?

    Lizzy also had her award "banquet." She was recognized for her wrestling achievements. It started late as Aubry was late. 

    Teddy kept asking to go to the duck park; I had no idea which park that was. I guessed it was Keystone, as we had just seen it in a picture. I drove there, and Teddy threw a fit. Wrong Park! Eventually he was able to communicate that it was the space park. Look how happy he is!

    For April Fools' Day, I made a fake German chocolate cake. It was a box chocolate cake with the real frosting. It made me appreciate the real cake so much; this was not up to par at all! The kids loved it, so I guess I was the only fool.

    Also, Teddy demanded a holder for his water bottle, so we looked at fabric from my stash. He wanted it to be Spider-Man; I had some comic book fabric that had Spider-Man on it, and he approved it. I had made the strap in red and blue, but he told me it had to be Blippi's favorite colors, so I swapped the red for orange. 

    For our FoE Craft swap, the challenge was books. I had wanted to make these bookmarks for a bit, so I knew this was the time. My partner loves Beauty and the Beast, and I had some fabric in my stash that worked perfectly. I made another one as well, but felt it wasn't enough.

    I had wanted to try my hand at making a book, and this felt like the right time to try it. I went through my stash and couldn't think of what I wanted to do, but then I spied the denim pants I had set aside to cut up. I loved the idea of a denim-covered notebook. I went right to work making my signatures, the paper sets you fold together in groups. I decided to do 5 sheets of paper per signature. I sewed them together and made the covers with a slight cardboard and covered them with the denim. I wanted to keep the pocket and logo.

    I really liked how they turned out. I hoped my partner would appreciate them. I packaged it up and mailed it off. She reciprocated with a cross-stitched Dr. Who-themed bag. I love it!

Day 3

     Our third day started with Jessica braiding my hair, then it was a brisk walk to the garment district. Any fan of fashion and/or Project Runway is familiar with the garment district. I wanted to check it out, and Jess was game. Since it was Saturday, a lot of the stores were closed, but Mood was open. Along the way, we passed this church.

We also spied the headquarters for the Girl Scouts, as alumni, we had to take a picture.  

    Check out the venting of the streets! It is crazy that beneath the streets of Manhattan, there are more than 100 miles of service pipes that bring steam to about 1,800 buildings. It's been in use since 1882.

We spied the fire department. They had Batman on the building.

Jessica matched the Mood elevator doors, kismet!

    Even the walls had fabric on them!

Look at all the pretties!

    I matched the wall! Jess found some neat fabrics for a quilt she's working on. I found some buttons to repair Henry's coat. I saw this girl with a unique shirt that she made herself, and I loved it.

    The buttons got pulled, and I took them to a desk to get a ticket before purchasing. I noticed, however, that I was overcharged. The buttons were $2 a piece, and I was charged $3.40 a piece. So I took the box up to the front to verify the mistake. The gentleman who made the ticket was quite affronted, but recognized his mistake and walked away very disgruntled. Goodbye and thank you, Mood!

    We stepped into another shop that advertised $5 a yard, and you went past all these gorgeous beaded and sequined rolls of fabric, down a wide staircase into the basement, where it was all self-serve. Jess found some fun fabrics, and I found a yard of Tabsco fabric.

  

 Then we meandered our way towards the theater district, stopping at a conveniently placed pizza shop.

The pieces were huge and delicious!

Our matinee was for The Buena Vista Social Club, a musical about Cuba's musical history. 

    The live band was amazing, and the songs were beautiful. I purchased the album after the show. We were seated right on the balcony, and the usher was adamant that nothing was to be placed on the banister. She said that once a program fell off the banister and sliced a patron down on the floor below. I'm sure it was a bit of an exaggeration, but who knows. My neighbor felt it was overeach, as she had only set her program down on it to adjust her coat. We shared a giggle about it. 

    After the show, we walked to our early dinner reservation, and I spied a few of New York's finest! Our destination was the Buena Vista. When I saw its name, I felt it was meant to be. However, once we entered the narrow, dimly lit hallway of an interior, I began to have second thoughts. While they served Latin-inspired dishes, they didn't even have Latin music playing! I was hoping for a continuation of the show, but it fell flat.

     After some delicious Empanadillas, we waited and waited for our main course to arrive. I had ordered the braised oxtail, and Jess had the chicken rollade. 

    After an unreasonable amount of time, in which I began to panic we would miss our evening cruise, we were informed that they gave our dishes to a different table, so they were being remade. They finally arrived, and though very good, our taste had soured by the experience; they didn't even try to make it up to us. We ate and hurried to our last destination of the day.

Circle Cruise's night cruise!

    We got there in plenty of time, so I needn't have worried. Along the way, we were passed by a delivery driver blaring Latin music, and we joked that he had a better ambiance than the restaurant. Jess stopped to use the facilities, and I stood at the front of the boarding line. She came out and was mistaken for a priority passenger, and that caused a bit of a hullabaloo, but it was corrected, and we boarded the ship. The seats are first-come, first-served, and though there were several passengers, there were plenty of open seats; we got a nice spot by a large window.

    The tour guide was interesting. He kept using pop culture references, some of which I didn't understand. It made him very hard to follow, but the ride was lovely, if chilly. This Pepsi-Cola sign has been in Long Island City in Queens since 1936. The Pepsi bottling plant closed in 1999. It was lowered from its original location in 2009. So now it sits in front of a million-dollar apartment building. I pity the poor person who laid out a million dollars only to have to peer through a neon sign every day.

    The Brooklyn Bridge! A nice skyline.

    And the Lady herself!

    The tour was nice, and the bus stop was just across the street. Unfortunately, we had to wait 30 minutes for the bus to arrive, but it was a nice night. We passed the Radio City Music Hall on our way back.

    It was a great day. My flight was early the next morning, so we didn't stay up too late. I did ask the concierge about getting a taxi. I was afraid the bus wouldn't get me there in time.  Turned out that getting a taxi is dead easy at 6 a.m. I said goodbye to my sister, then bundled my things into a taxi van and headed to the airport. I got there just in time to get through security and grab a milk for my shake before getting on the plane. 

    The flight home was uneventful, and I was glad to see Daniel when I landed. Jess had another day in the city, so she braved it alone, but she did great catching a few more shows and sightseeing. I think she may be ready to be a New Yorker.