A Little Bit of Wonderful

Piano Lady and I are in The City and having a wonderful time.

Last night we went to see Grease. I know, you're all saying "Grease? Is that all you could get tickets for?" But it was great. I loved the line during the dance contest where the emcee says "That was a little bit of wonderful." I knew when I heard it that it would translate perfectly into a blog post.

I wish I had the energy of these young people on stage. Great choreography, incredible dancing, wonderful voices, over-the-top energy. I had actually had doubts about the show when we got the tickets, but I'm glad we saw it. When we reached the closing scene, the old lady inside me asked, "What was the point, exactly? You have to go along to get along?" I didn't like that Sandy goes along with the Pink Ladies in the end to get her guy. Of course, my life right now is all about learning what I won't settle for, and that I don't want any man whom I have to convince that he wants to be with me. And in the end, isn't that what Sandy did?

Anyway, moral-of-the-story aside, it was the perfect end to a great day.

To recapitulate, I woke up in Katelyn's bed in Hawthorne, NY, to rain. (Katelyn wasn't actually in her bed. She's at University of Tampa in her dorm room.) I had packed very lightly for this trip, just a carry-on and my large handbag. So I didn't bring a raincoat, but luckily the rain stopped before time for us to leave. I spent a couple hours on computer work, then Cheryl's neighbor drove us to the train. We got into the City around noon and walked over to Bryant Park to have lunch outdoors at the Bryant Park Cafe. A surprise: when we asked the hostess for the location of the restrooms, she pointed us to outdoor restrooms nearby and we groaned. She said, "No, they're the cleanest public bathrooms in the city." Cheryl went to check them out and came back astonished at the cleanliness and the fresh floral arrangement on the table.

After lunch, including great sweet potato fries, we started to walk across the park to see the carousel when we saw a bunch of people standing, looking. Not wanting to miss anything, we walked to 40th and soon found out we were watching one scene of the "Sex and the City" movie being shot. We watched as Carrie jumped out of the limo in her wedding gown, ran to another limo and whacked Big over the head with her bridal bouquet, and then was hauled back to the first limo my Miranda and Charlotte. We sat in the park and pretended to be park-sitters. We understood from the guy who kept walking by telling us to just pretend to be sitting there that the limo would drive down the street and we would be visible in the scene. During the fourth shoot of the whacking scene, when "our scene" would be next, we heard some chanting. Looking to the right on 40th Street, we saw about 10 picketers marching down the street toward the limos, chanting "What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!" and carrying signs demanding justice for film and television workers. As they got closer to the cameras and film shooting, they started all blowing whistles, determined to disrupt the shooting. (I'm still annoyed as I write this 20 hours later!)

We knew filming would not resume quickly, so we got up and headed for our hotel. I stay at Marriotts when I travel, and have a Marriott Rewards Visa, so Mr. Marriott likes me. Last year we were on the 29th floor overlooking Times Square. This time, the desk agent said, "We're giving you an upgraded room." And we're on the 34th floor! At this rate, in 2010 we'll be on the roof!




After checking in and sitting to admire the view for a few minutes (and my getting connected and checking my e-mail), we walked over to Dean & DeLuca (Yes, the Dean & DeLuca that you see in the Today Show crowd shots) for mocha, then to l'Occitane where the new fragrances were too expensive, the French bookstore where we invited to put our mochas down while we shopped, and to Gap where we looked at clothes that might make us look a little younger. We started walking back to the hotel and, right by the Rockefeller ice rink, a man in a hat stopped us and said we couldn't walk down the street because they were shooting and they didn't know what was in our cups. Gullible as we are, we started telling him our "Sex and the City" story. He gave us NYFD hats and went on for another ten minutes schmoozing us, and it turned out he was an off-duty fireman soliciting funds for the soup kitchen. (Yes, he had a badge that showed he was legit.) Feeling rather silly for swallowing his what's-in-your-cup line, we gave him a couple of bucks each and noticed he was truly the cutest of the three men soliciting for the soup kitchen.

Back to the hotel, changed clothes, and walked to 123 44th Street for our annual Cafe Un-Deux-Trois dinner, then to the theatre on 47th for Grease.

Now you're all caught up, and we've had our morning Starbucks and are heading out for Top of the Rock and matinee performance of The Drowsy Chaperone.

Having a wonderful time (more than a Little Bit!) and wish you were here.