Missing the Little Things

Back in August my purse was stolen. I didn't write about it then because it I so bummed out about the whole thing. It was taken out of my van during the night. And no, they didn't hurt the van at all because it was unlocked and all the windows were down and my purse was just sitting on the seat. So you could say I had this coming, but please don't. It's not like it's a secret that bored juvenile delinquents roam my neighborhood looking for trouble. Sheds, garages and cars had been broken into all summer. The feisty old lady down on the corner fought off teenagers with her soup pot who pushed their way into her house. She made national news.


A few summers ago my friend Denise got her purse stolen out of her car while we were hiking at Day Camp. That creep smashed her window to get it. I sat with her while the park ranger investigated the scene and wrote out the report. I helped her make the list of what was in her purse. It was the little things like the loss of an almost fully punched sandwich card and the coupons that caused her the most grief. That and loss of the purse itself. "Do you know how hard it is to find a good purse?", she lamented. I felt for her.


The morning I went looking for my purse and remembered I left it in the car, I had a sinking feeling before I even made it to the backdoor. I knew without looking that all the windows were down, the doors were unlocked and I left my purse on the passenger seat. By the time I got to the van I could only bring myself to peek in to confirm my fears. It wasn't there.


After that I went through the motions of searching the van all over and then searching the house, but I knew it was useless. The cop who showed up had nothing to offer. If it didn't show up in a neighbors' shrubs in the next couple of days, it was gone for good he said.


It didn't show up.


Just this weekend I found a purse to replace it. I've been carrying an old one that's just been okay. I also finally got a new wallet since I've just been using an old change purse for everything. All of the cards that can be replaced have been. I got a new purse brush and a cute box for my Tylenol. But I'm still missing the little things. The purse itself was my vacation purse that I added a button and a buttonhole to for our trip to NYC. It still had some souvenirs from NYC in there too. It had a 15% discount card for all copies that was still good until next summer. There were a couple of gift cards for book stores. Just when I think that I'm over all of it, something else will come up that I don't have because of the theft.


The biggest drag of it all was losing my phone. Not the phone itself, but the pictures on it that I never uploaded. I had that phone for three years and it had some great shots. I still don't have a phone which needs to be remedied. The Man has been sharing his phone with me, but I miss mine.


Here's one of the few shots of the purse that I found. I bought it only a week before we left and it was gone about a week after we came home. It had a short life, but at least it got a really fantastic vacation.

New York -- Day Five-- jamming a few last things in

Our flight to leave the city was at 2:30. We heard someone had tried to take a gun through security at the airport so things were delayed. We also heard there was a car on fire on some highway between us and the airport. With all that in mind, we decided to leave at noon. That gave us the whole morning to fill with a few more things.

We started by headed out to get The Boy a "That's What She Said" t-shirt from the NBC store. Yes, I caved. Then headed up Fifth Avenue toward Central Park to check out all the fancy-schmancy stores. But since it was only 9:30 in the morning, nothing was open yet.

At the park, we took a horse drawn carriage ride. We are all severely burned by our almost getting lost and drowned in Central Park before but the carriage ride seemed safe enough.

Our City Passes were expired but I was still able to get my Central Park Zoo pressed penny since the machine was outside the gates. I ended up with lots of pennies, but I'll save that for another post.

On the way back downtown we stopped by Capezio's, just because it was there. The Girl was crazy excited. We made the rational decision that we didn't have enough time to find "the perfect" toe shoes but since she needed new practice shoes anyway, why not buy them in New York. It was almost time to go. But what's this? Blocks and blocks of Broadway was blocked off for a street sale. We did a quick run through and I bought myself "I love NY" pajama pants.

We packed up our things and checked out at noon. After an extremely quick and smooth cab ride we made it to the airport with tons of time to spare. Our plane home was a tiny little thing and we made it home 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Here's The Boy reading "Of Mice and Men" which they both have to have read and annotated before school starts.

Marco was thrilled to see us. The cats seemed pleased at our return. One of the fish died. The house still smells faintly of skunk.

Home sweet home.

Day Four-- slowing it down

We being our last full day in the big city, we decided to take it a bit easier on ourselves. First stop of the day was the Museum of Modern Art.

An unexpected pleasure was that the big sixth floor special exhibition was all about James Ensor. This was such a special show that they didn't allow photography inside which is a bummer because that man made some freaky stuff.

An James Ensor has a special place in my heart because of this song, of course.

We jumped on the subway again and headed off the the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Pictures in the cathedral just don't come out so you'll just have to use your imagination. It's a big giant building. Awe inspiring big.

One block away was this recognizable diner. The kids were thrilled.

We ended the day by seeing Chicago which blew us all away. And instead of all being dead on our feet tired right now, we are all doing pretty well. We've seen so much on this trip and now it's time to head home.

Day Three--- run, run, run

Up at the crack of dawn so we could catch the first ferry, we headed off to the Statue of Liberty this morning. We actually made the second ferry because of a some huge subway delays, but there still wasn't a line at Battery Park. The ferry ride was a bit roly-poly but enjoyable.

We wandered around Liberty Island. It was a beautiful morning.

Getting into the monument was a huge drag. I don't even want to talk about it and we have no pictures.

After we got back to the mainland we strolled about Battery Park a bit.

We came back to midtown and explored Grand Central Station for awhile since that's where we got off at.

After lunch we took a rest at Bryant Park. Then we headed off to Rockefeller Center. We toured NBC which was much better than I thought it would be but a little short for a tour.

Our day finished off with a visit to Top of Rock which was a completely different kind of view of the city than we had at the Empire State Building last night.

And then we could do no more.

Day Two of NYC

We started today at the Museum of Natural History. We saw many wonderful things but this section of sequoia was my favorite.

It's not easy to take pictures of the blue whale, but here's one of the attempts.

After we left the Museum we went strolling through Central Park. During our walk a fairly serious thunderstorm brewed up. Luckily we made to Belvedere Castle to wait out the storm. Of all the places to stuck during a storm in NYC, you couldn't do much better than finding shelter in this little castle.


We were still soaking wet when we arrived at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. I've been to wax museums before that weren't so great so I had pretty low expectations. But it was a fantastic place. You can go right up to the pieces and pose with them. We took tons of pictures of course. Here's The Man and Boy hanging out with Ozzy.

And this is the Incredible Hulk ready to squish a very willing Boy.

We had dinner a noodle shop and then made our way to the Empire State Building. The outside observatory was closed because of lightening. We were just about to leave when the doors were finally opened.

And that made the visit perfect.

A little bit more of Day One

We are getting ready to go out the door to start Day Two.

Here's a few more shots of Day One.

Times Square from the Duck.

The Hershey store which is a lot more impressive from the outside than the inside.

Between the Duck turning from a bus into a boat you ride into a little hanger which they close up around you and then play a CGI movie of Henry Hudson exploring the river and how it developed. There was thunder and lightening and some actual rain came down us. Finally the front opened up and we drove down into the river.

There's the skyline with the Intrepid sitting there looking huge.

New York City Day One

We took tons of pictures today in New York City but Blogger is really acting slow, so you are only get these six pictures.



We had to get up crazy early to catch our flight. This was the first plane ride for the kids. It was a quick and smooth trip.



We strolled around Times Square to start and ended up at Toys R Us. That's where The Girl found the life sized Barbie house. Ooooh.
Here they are up on the second floor. Ahhhhh.

I was more taken with the Lego creations. So cool.

Later in the afternoon we took a tour on the Duck which is a bus and a boat all in one.

Like I said we have lots of wonderful pictures from around the city and some great shots from the Duck tour. Let's hope the picture situation resolves itself in the morning.

Until then, here's the Empire State building as we drove by in the Duck. More later!