Yankees Game!

Peter and I went to the Yankees baseball game on Saturday, April 17. They played the Texas Rangers. It was my ideal way of celebrating the big 37 and the first day of his vacation. So, we splurged. $60 a ticket, but worth every penny, I told Peter. "This is why I work overtime!" Indeed. So, although I am a Diamondbacks girl at heart (yeah, we won the world series in 2002!), I can appreciate any baseball game.
I love the atmosphere of a baseball stadium. There are so many interesting people to watch, random spurts of dance/ techno music, yummy hot dogs and ice cream, goofy crowd cameras, etc. etc. And the game itself, of course. I think I love baseball games because I grew up playing softball, so I can relate on a very small degree. I played right field and often missed pop fly's or even grounders, but I always had fun.
Peter was a good sport and didn't ask to leave until the 5th inning. :) We compromised and left middle of the 7th.... to beat the crowds. The Yankees were up by 7, so we knew how it would end up. Good thing we did because the subway was already pretty packed.
The only sour note in our outing was a minor altercation on the subway. I leaped to a bench so that we could sit down on our 47 minute commute home. We got separated in my leaping, and Peter was about 3 seconds behind me. I sat down and a young girl (22-ish) told me to move over so that she could sit down. I said that I was saving this space for my husband who was 3 seconds away from sitting down himself. She freaked out and began yelling at me: "don't play with me or someone's gonna get hurt!" In shock, I remained speechless. She pinched my leg to get me to move over (my calf) and then plopped down on top of me! By that time, Peter had arrived and told her to calm down, that nobody was going to get hurt. He remained standing. In a weak attempt to pacify the situation , I patted her leg and said lamely - "you can learn to be nice to people. Someday you will." She freaked out again and yelled: "Don't touch me! Don't you play with me or you gonna get hurt!" What a wack job. Clearly, there was nothing to be done. We all left each other alone and she got off 10 minutes later. I'm still disturbed, thinking, how could I have handled that better. She was belligerent by nature and upset me that she would pinch me. Wow. True, I shouldn't have "saved seats" on the subway... but avoidance is the only way to survive some people and situations.
It didn't spoil our fun day at the ball park, though!

Moving to Manhattan!

Last week I went and checked out our new apartment on the upper W side of Manhattan. We will be moving in either end of June or early July. Its fantabulous! More square footage, more closet space, great location (4 blocks from Central Park and the Hudson; one block south of Columbia University), elevator, laundry in building, and proximity to Peter's work. He will literally be across the street from the hospital which means we'll see each other more often, even when he's "on-call!" Its such a blessing because its somewhat subsidized and although barely affordable, do-able. Thus, we're only moving five miles north of where we currently live.

A friend at work told me that every October there is a blessing of the animals at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine - located diagonally from our apt. building. Check back in 6 months for pics of that! From what I hear, ponies, turtles, dogs, and cats are brought before priests to be blessed. How random is that!? Looking forward to the crazy adventure that will be the life in the city.

If you're not familiar with the terminology and layout of this here parts, we already live in NYC, but in Brooklyn - which is one of the 5 boroughs that comprise NYC. The Bronx (peninsula), Brooklyn (SW tip of Long Island), Queens (NW tip of Long Island), Staten Island (an island) and Manhattan (an island) comprise NYC. Long Island is part of New York state, not NYC. Confused yet? When people say "the city" they are referring to Manhattan, as if Manhattan represented all of NYC... which it practically does. Thats where most of the action is. Manhattan has Central Park, all of the best museums, the financial district, Times Square, etc. etc. and eventually us. Brooklyn has Coney Island, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, and us! The Bronx has the Yankees stadium, Staten Island has nothing really, and Queens is famous for "Julie and Julia." If you want to visit the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, they are both additional small ilslands just SW of Manhattan island, so you have to ferry out to them. Hope that helps!