Turkey Day Redux

Special K and I spent Turkey Day in Dallas again this year with his mom, his siblings (and siblings-in-law) and 11 busy little bodies known as the "smellies". (Special K has 11 nieces and nephews, ranging in age from 5 months to 16 years.)

"Crazy Uncle K" masterfully wound the 2 - 10 year-old smellies and released them like spinning tops, watching them collide with furniture and with each other as they whirled around the house fueled by caramel apple dip and homemade fudge. He also doubled as a human jungle gym and any time I looked over, he had no fewer than three smellies hanging around his neck, from his arms or from his legs.

On Black Friday (as far as shopping goes, it's like Boxing Day for you Canadians out there), we took six of the smellies shopping. Oh. My. God. From Toys R Us to Game Stop to Circuit City, I could barely keep up. I'd look up in Toys R Us just in time to see the five-year old go peddling by the end of an aisle on a tricycle. Just as we were about to check out, a soccer ball was rather aggressively kicked and nearly took out an entire endcap display (never mind another customer). And to top it all off, the kids were bound and determined to somehow ride in the TRUNK of the rented Chevy Impala. (Can you say "You have the right to remain silent"?)

The biggest laugh-out-loud moment, however, actually happened on Friday evening. Special K's oldest niece is an extremely accomplished ballerina and she was dancing in a performance of The Nutcracker. Right after the "Waltz of the Flowers", in the quiet of the brief break just before "Pas de Deux: Adagio", a young man's voice rang clearly through the theatre with a plaintive "aw, man!" (sounding more like "meee-an") when he realized that the brief break was not actually the END of the performance.

Aw, man, we haven't even seen the "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy" yet!

Road Warriors R Us

Here's a quick snapshot of how the month of November has unfolded for me:

-- New York (5 days)

-- San Diego (3 days)

-- Orange County (36 hours)

-- New York (36 hours)

-- Santa Clara (3 days)

-- Orange County (4.5 glorious days)

-- Dallas (4 days)

-- Orange County (16 hours)

-- San Diego (36 hours)

-- and finally back to New York two nights ago ... and will finish up the month of November in NYC. Whew.

This means that in the month of November, I will have slept in my own apartment in NY a grand total of 10 nights (which makes me want to throw up when I think about my monthly rent payment), I will have been on 8 flights and flown a total of about 14,000 miles.

No wonder I'm a little knackered!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving (almost) to all my American friends! For once, I will be making a trip sans laptop today (yeah! my back and shoulders will be thanking me) when Special K and I head off to Dallas for the Turkey Day holiday.

For my New York friends, I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds for tomorrow's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (remember the rain LAST year??).

For everyone, I wish you safe travels and plenty of good laughs with family and friends over the coming days.

And just as a matter of principle, please don't let me hear that any of you were in a mall at 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning, no matter HOW good the deals are.

Is that Rupees or Dollars?

So, I have discovered a local Indian restaurant where I will quite often order dinner and have it delivered. I've sort of narrowed down my order to a few key things that I really like from this particular restaurant and the last few times I've ordered from them, I end up getting Chicken Dildar (a nice combo of Chicken Tikka Masala and saag), naan and a couple of vegetable samosas for good measure.

What's absolutely fascinating to me is that every single time I order the EXACT same combination of food, I always end up getting charged a different amount. And it's not like the amount is slowly and surely creeping up as they increase their prices. Nope, sometimes it will be about $18, then the next time, it will only be about $16, then back to $18 and then if I'm really lucky, back down to $15.

I'd hate to be that restaurant's bookkeeper.

Dinner with Friends

I love it when friends come to New York to visit! Last weekend, Lisa and boyfriend, Rob, came to town and I, of course, was back in California. So I flew back on an early flight on Sunday so that I could at least meet them for dinner on Sunday night before they left.

Everything seemed to be going in my favour -- my flight actually landed early and I was out of the airport in record time. And then... my towncar drove straight into a giant traffic snarl and it took almost two hours to get into the city. I got a very lengthy tour of Queens and THEN my driver tried to charge me extra "waiting fees" because he claimed he had to wait for me at the airport. Buddy, my flight was EARLY. Try bamboozling someone else.

I not only love having friends in town, but you all know I also love completely random situations. And I was not to be disappointed last Sunday. It turned out that Chris, Lisa's brother (also from California) was in town for work for a few days, so he was able to join us as well. Lisa and Chris joked how ironic it was that they had to travel almost 3000 miles to see each other when they only live one county apart in SoCal.

We had a great dinner at Ustav (Indian food) on 46th and as luck would have it, half the restaurant was closed off for a Diwali party and so we also got to enjoy some great Indian music.

And I was doing some Bhangra moves in my seat.

Heaven On Wheels

A couple of weekends ago, I went to see Xanadu on Broadway. Oh yes, this is indeed the musical stage adaptation of the 1980 movie. For those of you not familiar, it's the story of a Greek muse who descends from Mount Olympus to come to the inspirational rescue of a struggling artist in Venice Beach, California. She helps him realize his dream of opening a, um, roller disco. (What more could you possibly want in 1980?)

We weren't sure if we were going to like the show or not (it was one of the only tickets we could get at TKTS 15 mins before curtain), but we gave ourselves up to all its kitschy glory and transported our minds back 27 years (1980 was TWENTY-SEVEN years ago?? Ugh!) and laughed at the semi-lampooning of a questionable (at best) movie and story line.

Tony Roberts and Jackie Hoffman both starred, the lead character spent much of the performance cruising around stage on rollerskates, and there was just enough balance of darn good singing with purposely cheesy lines and situations. It's also in a relatively small theater so it seemed like every seat was probably pretty decent.

Still not sold? Not sure you'd actually fork over the precious cash for the tickets when Wicked, Lion King and Spring Awakening are all playing just down the street and around the corner?

Well, you have to believe we are magic, don't you then?

Taser Parties

This has nothing to do with random UF student, Andrew ("Don't Tase Me, Bro!"), but I did learn today that coincidentally (ok, not really), women in New York are now beyond tupperware parties, Mary Kay parties and maybe even botox parties (ok, maybe those are still going strong) and are starting to host taser parties.

That's right, now you too can hire a law enforcement professional to come to your home where you can host all your closest girlfriends for a self-defense mini-seminar on how to use a taser. I had no idea tasers were even really legal for civilians to carry.

I sense a whole new business opportunity here... taser accessories like bejeweled carrying cases, taser charms that express your individual personality, even tasers in every colour of the rainbow.

Taser-ific.

Random Updates

- Oda found a butter knife in her purse the day after Halloween after we'd been in the Village with all the crazies. We have come up with a number of interesting ideas about how the butter knife came to be in her bag. Lucikly, the knife was not bloody (just buttery), so it wasn't like someone was ditching a used weapon or anything.

- I flew back to San Diego last night and once AGAIN, someone had rifled through my suitcase. Thankfully, nothing was stolen this time. I have to consolidate my packing better so I don't have to ever check bags again.

- On this, my first day back on the west coast, I forgot my laptop power cord at the hotel (and had to fight traffic to go back and get it) and showed up for two meetings early because I was completely screwed up on what time it actually was. Can someone build me a "Where in the World is Shari?" widget for my Facebook page??

Since I Know You Must Be Wondering...

Yes, the Useless Cable Company actually finally DID show up and has now upgraded my service to IPTV. And yes, I am getting channels I didn't used to get (score!) which is great because I have been dying to see "Mad Men", but until my cable upgrade, I didn't get AMC. So, maybe the cable company is slightly less useless now. We'll see what happens when my first bill comes.

First Fridays at the Gugge

What do you think of when you hear “Guggenheim”? Frank Lloyd Wright, visionary architecture, fabulous works of art? Well all of that would be accurate, but it turns out that on the first Friday of each month, the Guggenheim is all that and more.

On “First Fridays”, the Guggenheim is open well into the wee hours of Saturday morning and the impressive, open rotunda becomes host to hundreds of culture-seekers cum Friday night revelers. There is, of course, a bar and even a DJ spinning just loud enough to create a definite nightclub vibe, but not loud enough to prevent conversation.

Mike suggested First Fridays, having been once before, and had also found out that another of our former college classmates, Steve, was now living in New York, so we all agreed to meet up at a bar on the East Side, not far from the museum. Mike and I arrived first, so we order a drink and start catching up. After about 15 minutes, we’re wondering where Steve and Irene are. We realize we’re actually supposed to be at another bar down the street – oops! Bottoms up, throw some cash at the bartender and sprint down the street – sure enough, Steve and Irene are there.

Off we go the Gugge where Kim meets up with us and the five of us enjoy a fun, random evening socializing and check out the Richard Prince “Spiritual America” exhibit. I have a little bit more of a traditional taste when it comes to art and while I appreciate modern art, I admit that I just don’t get a lot of it.

Richard Prince has been a key contributor to the development of contemporary art since the 1970’s when he made an impact by rephotographing existing magazine advertisements and presenting them as his own art. In a similar vein, much of Prince’s work is appropriated and repurposed images and material direct from a variety of pop culture sources. Many of the giant canvases featured stencils of off-colour jokes and tawdry comments. Of course, one of our favourites was the repurposed cartoon whose caption read: “My father was never home, he was always drinking booze. He saw a sign saying DRINK CANADA DRY. So he went up there.” (This is when I got yelled at for taking photos of the art – oops.)

Even though Halloween was over, there were still three guys dressed up as 70’s porn stars, so I definitely had to snap that photo.

And finally, the most random part of the evening was meeting Andrew, the University of Florida student who was tasered by police about a month or so ago at a John Kerry speech on campus. NBC had flown Andrew to New York to appear on The Today Show the day before and we spent a good hour chatting with him and his cousin, Jason, and hearing more about the “incident” and the fall-out. Apparently, he still has a mark on his back from the taser gun.

We said our goodbyes, went our separate ways and I sang “Let It Be” and “Material Girl” with my cab driver on the way home, cutting across Central Park.

Can't Get an iPhone? Just BE One

The funny thing about New York is that even on Halloween, it's sometimes hard to tell who's wearing a costume and who's not.

"Oh, look -- a lady in a bee costume... oh wait... no.... it's just a yellow and black striped sweater."

"Oh, look -- a pregnant, trailer trash Britney! Oh wait... no.... not a costume either. Oops."

Alyssa, Oda and I were walking back to the office from The Daily Soup when we bumped into a quartet of Ghostbusters. These guys were the real thing -- proton packs on their backs and even a lifelike Slimer hovering above a modern day Venkman. While we waited for the light to change, we inquired about the briskness of the Ghostbusting business these days and learned that our phantom hunters had been on the Today Show that morning and had come in second place in the costume contest.

After work, Nick, Oda and I bravely headed down to Greenwich Village to the annual Halloween parade, stopping on the way for Mexican food near Union Square. (Queso Fundido = heart attack in a bowl.) We were seated by Quasimodo and served by a decaying corpse. A giant bouncer escorted me to the men's restroom since the line for the women's was not moving. He stood guard while I was inside and when I opened the door to come out, the entire opening was filled by this giant man's frame. Leaving the restaurant to find Nick and Oda outside, another masked crusader demanded a hug before he'd let me pass.

We got as close as we could to the parade without getting crushed by the crowds and had a blast checking out the various costumes and enjoyed the general party atmosphere.

I'm sure this must be the worst night of the year for the NYPD. Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of people pretending to be whoever they want for a night, fueled by alcohol and by each other. Many are in masks, concealing their true identity, feeling like their actions have no consequences -- at least no consequences that they'd have to deal with in their real lives. Mostly the revelry is harmless and fun (like a red-eyed Barney hugging passers-by!), thank goodness. (Unfortunately, there was a shooting and stabbing in Union Square last night, but hours after we'd left the area.)

One of the funniest moments? A slightly inebriated reveller stumbling up to one of New York's finest, saying "Dude, great costume! It looks SO REAL. Damn!"