New York City Trip

New York City. A confusion of color, light, sound, smell, taste, and emotion. If NYC were an image it would be a yarn tangle with spots of beauty and other spots of misery. Amelia and I went with Columbia HS Choirs to NYC for a music festival hosted by PPPPP . The few days after St Patrick’s day were a blur of kids drunk on Spring Fever at school. It was a crazy three days. I started a unit using Sphero Bolt robots I borrowed from the district. Monday I tried letting the younger grades use the bots, that did not continue. The kids were crazy. Changed my plan to only instruct 2nd-5th grades with the code module and bots. We had quite a fun time playing with the bots. I was exhausted by the time Wednesday rolled around. I was able to squeeze in some extra morning minutes before Wednesday afternoon so was able to leave at 3:45 instead of 4:30! Amelia came down with the stomach flu Monday, she stayed home from school. Evelyn was also sick with another horrid cough. Evelyn stayed home again on Tuesday, this time with Everett who barfed a couple times. I was praying no one else got sick. 

Amelia and I packed up our bags for our 5 days trip, just a carry on with the bare necessities. I ran to Walmart hoping to find a wind breaker type jacket. Instead I found a Men’s golf jacket. Promptly forgot the jacket at home as well. 

Justin dropped Mia and I off to the airport at 6 am. He went in to work Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, worked from home on Friday. The kids went to school Thursday and Friday. I got several texts from Mrs Curtis letting me know how much Evelyn was missing me at school. She was really worried Josie would not go home with the back walkers. The girls slept in our bedroom, Justin put the cheetah tent up in our room for Josie. Evelyn slept on my side! Evelyn and Josie slept over at the Ostler’s Monday night! Friday and Saturday the kids started camp Minecraft where the kids made a huge camp in the same world. At one point Justin took the kids to get their own little pint of ice cream. Josie had a meltdown over a scrap of spinach on her noodle, no ice cream until the scrap was eaten. She eventually ate it after the shopping trip but before eating ice cream. Justin kept the seams together which is a big accomplishment. 

New York Trip:

We congregated at the Alaska Air terminal, waited while Adrianna checked everyone in, 9 chaperones and 27 students. We made it through TSA and got a very excited group to the airplane gate. I purchased a derpy unicorn keychain to photograph throughout our trip for the little girl’s amusement and pleasure. I named it F.U. for Fabulous Unicorn. Later it morphed into little Fufu. Our first flight went to Seattle, for about an hour’s flight. Then made a connecting flight and short layover, a chance to stretch our legs…phew. The long flight was 5+ hours from sea to shining sea. I was able to edit a few photos from each of the 5 photo sessions I had on my editing plate. Hooray! I have a hard time resting, no rest for the ADD soul. Amelia was quite bored after a couple hours. The onboard wifi offerings were appealing to me: the new Indiana Jones movie and the newest Mission Impossible! We finally landed around 6:30 pm at Newark Airport. We nabbed the suitcases for those checking in luggage then boarded a bus for Hampton Inn by Hilton at Times Square. After checking in and getting the students to the proper hotel floors we had 20 minutes to get settled before meeting in the lobby. Our mission was to get some dinner before curfew at 10 pm. We all walked around necks craned up dazzled by the lights of Broadway. Everyone started to split off into groups depending on what foods appealed to each chaperone. Amelia and I did not want McDonalds, Applebys, or the foods we can easily nab in Nampa. Keaton joined us for dinner at a Shawarma called Burger Man. Mmmmm. We walked down Broadway until curfew, stopped at a cute store called Miniso. Keaton was “mind-blown” over all the cute Korean stuff. I met my roommate, Margot Moss. Phillip and her son are in a couple classes together. 

Friday our main event was touring the 9/11 memorial. We split into groups to make the journey easier, Google Maps did not work very well with all the buildings! In the end three of the four groups merged into one just because we had no idea where we were going. I loved watching the student’s reactions to the subway! Everyone was over-the-top excited to find a subway RAT. That was the fascination. We made the trip without much ado, no lost students! The subway stop merged with the train station situated in the “oculus.” The oculus was quite an amazing sight from inside, outside it seemed to shrink with all the high rise buildings. We ended up walking around the block before Google Maps righted itself, we only had to cross the street instead of walking around a city block. Our first sight of the memorial complex was the impressions of the towers, water flowed down a black hole. It was humbling to know many folks lost their lives on that black day. We had a couple hours to tour the museum. The base of each tower is a museum, the first tower held most of the footage, personal effects, and story of 9/11. The other tower museum contained photos of each individual and artwork. The very structure beams that caught the brunt of the airplane crashes were mounted in all their warped glory. I went through the second tower museum first not know the first tower took an hour to peruse. By the time we met up with most of the group I only had 10 minutes to race through the first tower’s museum. It was worth the rush to see the museum, Trinity rushed right along with me! After the 9/11 memorial we split into 3 groups: 1 group went to tour the Intrepid, Margo’s group went shopping around Chinatown, Little Italy, and Thrift Stores; Lastly, our group went to tour the Statue of Liberty. Jeff led us on a 20 minute walk to Battery Park where we caught a ferry to Liberty Island. It was CHILLY. Of course, I forgot my jacket/coat (gotta keep up my streak) so I was extra shivery. The weather was sunny, so that at least kept the mood bright. I sewed up Keaton’s bag strap during the ferry trip. The Statue is truly colossus up close, the harbor dwarfs the statue. The face alone is twice Mia’s height. I enjoyed the little museum, especially the old lantern on display with its patchwork of yellow glass. The ferry took us over to Ellis Island next, the nexus point of immigration for many, many years. We missed the ferry by a few minutes after 3:45. Turns out the ferry comes every 40 minutes after that time. Brrrrrrrrr. We gratefully defrosted our fingers, faces, and bums on the heater vents once the ferry arrived. The students were excited to try out the Stardust Diner, not known for its food but rather the entertainment. Once again we waited about an hour outside in the cold for a table. The draw of the restaurant vs the cold was not enough to deter our group! Broadway hopefuls and singers in between shows often pick up shifts at the Stardust. The main draw is the entertainment of singing and dancing while eating. My milkshake cost $17, for a small glass cup…yikes. I tried a reuben that arrived all soggy on one side, boo-hoo. We were all ravenous enough after just breakfast and a hot dog stand lunch that the meal almost tasted good. Stars were shining in our eyes with delight over the fun songs and singers. Amelia and I settled up our bill then left the group. We jotted down the street a block to the Gershwin Theater for our 8 pm tickets to WICKED! SQUEAL! Oh my gosh it was delightful. I got tickets for $160 per if I purchased tickets apart from each other. Amelia got the better seat at stage center in the back, I was on stage right. I’ve heard hype about Wicked for years and knew the popular songs and general gist of the story. Experiencing the Broadway version was a dream come true. The story ended quite unexpectedly, the witch lives and loves, not wicked in any way. It was honestly a powerful story about perception and stereotypes. Amelia loved it so much. The Krispy Kreme “hot” light was on at 11:30 pm…why not? We ordered and snatched our cold doughnuts, not hot at all. We also stopped at CVS for melatonin, mascara, snacks, and drinks. 

Saturday morning came all too quickly. We had an early start with the students festival performances starting at 11 am. We caught the subway uptown to Riverside church, near Columbia University. As fate would dictate it rained, not a sissy misting but cats and dogs sort of rain. Amelia and I donned our ponchos. I suddenly regretted the red poncho, I was little red riding hood protecting the back flanks. We made it all in one group (miracle) through the subway system. The closest stop put us 4 blocks away, which in the rain was a fun trek. Mia sang in both choirs, Con Brio and Chamber. Con Brio warmed up first in a room downstairs. The rest of us waited in the chapel, listening to other schools perform. Imagine my surprise when I recognized an MCO mom (and GC singer) from Idaho. Mr Curtis’ dad is the Ridgeview choir conductor, he was there to support his dad and enjoy NYC. We listened to a middle school choir singing Dancing Matilda…oh my gracious…they were singing in 4-part harmony with all sorts of complex swooshing sounds. They blew me away. I was so proud of the Columbia singers, they did a pretty god job. Once again, just fix that minor tuning issue and bam! I loved the Con Brio’s African hymn song. They rocked it. After singing one of 3 professors got up for feedback and critiques. During the next choirs last song one young lady passed out and bonked her head on the piano. That took a hot minute to manage, poor kiddo. Chamber sang at 12:45, their choir is quite small, so the sound they achieved was impressive. Yay. The facilitators gave really good pointers to improve each choir some small measure. The most impressive choirs were from affluent parts of the country, our little Nampa group kicked butt. Mrs Sene wanted a group photo outside the cathedral, it was still pouring rain! The walk back to the hotel was a very wet one. I was so impressed some of the students threw caution to the wind and jumped in puddles, sang songs, and skipped about in the rain. I love it when kids act like kids…I must be part kid. Our ponchos kept us quite dry, at least my knees up stayed dry. I packed 3 pairs of pants, that morning I put on my black pants only to realize the elastic around the crotch was all bunched up and loose, it looked almost vulgar. Once we got back I regretted throwing that pair away, I was down to 1 dry pair of pants. Amelia wanted to visit the Disney Store before we needed to get on a bus at 4:50 pm. We had exactly an hour to dry off and run over to the store. A line snaked outside the store because of the rain. We got inside and spent a lovely 20 minutes perusing the fun decorations and ambiance. I spotted a cute Nuimo Cinderella, got that to complete my collection of original 1990-2000 Disney princesses. A bus provided by the choir festival picked up our group at 4:50, stopped by to pick up a small group from Ridgeview, then headed back to Riverside Cathedral for the awards ceremony. Columbia won two silver awards and Jaritza won overall amazing student award. Ridgeview, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and a school from MN won the top awards. The awesome middle school walked away with a top title too! Worldwide Pathways provided a cruise ship party boat for all participants as a celebration. We loaded our bus again to head back to the docks. We boarded a fun cruise ship for dinner and dancing while the ship puttered to the Statue of Liberty and back. Amelia was very tired, did not seem to enjoy all the chaos, the loud music and even crazier students. I don’t know why cruise ship soda fountain drinks are disgusting, they are watered down glasses of grossness. Dinner was tasty, probably because we were all starving. Mrs Sene ordered several pizzas after our waltz in the rain to tide everyone over until the dinner cruise. My wild hair wanted to dance, my body followed. It was very fun. One dude was wearing an inflatable carrot costume for the dance frenzy. Froze our tushies off once the ship neared Liberty island, seriously freezing out on the harbor. We were all exhausted by the time James, our bus driver, returned us safely to the hotel. Tired, so tired. Margot and I checked rooms as soon as we shoved all the students into their rooms, it was bedtime. 

I wanted to attend a Catholic mass at St Patrick’s cathedral, opened the offer to anyone interested. I was the only chaperone doing anything remotely religious that Sunday. Jasmine joined Amelia and I for the 10:15 mass. I got turned around (thanks Google Maps) for 2 city blocks, it was getting too quiet for our destination on 5th Ave. We got extra exercise. Sunday was Palm Sunday! The line outside St Patricks was not overly long. All 3 of us got inside after just a 10 minute wait in line. We got palm fronds from a table near the entrance. A priest was playing quite a lovely organ solo until mass began. We found an empty pew for mass. The archbishop of St Patricks led the mass starting with a host of deacons waving incense and blessing the palm fronds. The mass text was in a book located next to the hymnals. We all sang “All Glory Laud and Honor” as opening hymn. It took a moment to figure out how to follow the mass. I was sad the story of Easter did not include one mention of the atonement, Gethesamne was mentioned as simply a place where Christ prayed. It felt very sterile. The impressive silence with hundreds and hundreds of worshippers was amazing. We knelt several times to pray, responded as a mass when prompted by the narrator, and listened to the story of Easter. We left when folks were invited up for the sacrament. Interesting. We jaunted over to the Lego store, heck it was across the street. That line took longer than the line going to mass! So fun! We wanted to find some food before meeting at the Richard Rodgers Theatre for Hamilton! Mia noticed the Magnolia Bakery, heard about their banana pudding, we walked out with a cup of blissfully delicious banana pudding. The girls were still hungry so we stopped again for pretzels at a food cart. It was freezing with our dresses and bare legs, could hardly wait for the rest of our group to show up. We were the first ones to the theater. I enjoyed Hamilton for the 4th time, it was so, so good. The music, the actors, King George! Huzzah. We all headed back to the hotel for a short rest and to regroup for late afternoon excursions. Most of the chaperones wanted to rest, just stay inside. No way! I volunteered to take a group of 12 students out shopping and exploring 5th Ave. We went to a Korean store (very popular with the teen crowd) and the Disney store. Kat is wheelchair bound and went out with us all including Mrs Goodman and the Starks who mostly wanted dinner. After the Korean store Mrs Goodman and the Starks were done. Kat looked completely torn, wanting to keep going but also wanting to please Mrs Goodman, her personal chaperone. I volunteered (aka commandeered) Kat and her wheelchair for the rest of the evening. Oh how her eyes sparkled as we bumped and sped all around central Broadway area. The Lego store was epic for the second time. I was sorely tempted, wanted to design personal mini figs for all the kids. It was insanely packed with all the Sunday shoppers making the wait time too long. All the teens managed to stuff themselves into a nifty Lego car. We saw Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. Walked over to Fao Schwartz toy store for a very amusing hour perusing the store. We passed by ice skaters at the Rockefeller center, felt slightly disappointed Buddy the Elf was not there. We admired the Nintendo store and all the high end stores we’ve only heard tales of. Everyone was ravenous after walking for miles in the cold. Hot Ramen sounded divine! The teen crowd all agreed on that idea so we found a restaurant nearby that served Ramen and sushi. Kat was very nervous getting up two flights of stairs to the restaurant. Oscar and Clyde made sure Kat made it up the stairs with her wheelchair safely stowed! Those two boys made sure Kat was well-taken care of. It was stifling hot inside the restaurant, felt nice for 5 minutes then we roasted. Dinner took about 90 minutes, which was a nice break for visiting and planning the next day. I texted Mrs Sene asking her to meet me because we would not get done with dinner until 10 minutes before we had to be at the Rockefeller Center for our 8:30 pm visit to “the top of the rock.” Most of the students did not have tickets so needed to head back. Mrs Sene laughed at my request…I realized why after Google Maps finally oriented itself. We were 1 block away from our hotel! All that walking turned me around. Amelia and I joined several others for the Top of the Rock experience. Its claim to fame is a reenactment photo of the workers sitting on an I-beam eating lunch 85 years ago. We skipped that attraction set on viewing the city at night. It was fun to see the Empire State Building this time! Amelia and I split off from the group spending lots of time on the tip-top floor. Amelia ran her nose into a glass partition, she saw two steps so stepped up once then tried to take the next step…alas it was behind the glass. We could see the top of St Pats cathedral. The kids called while we were up on top, they got a primo view of NYC glittering like a galaxy of stars. Most of the group was already at the hotel, ice cream was calling our name. Amelia had her heart set on gelato but a trip to Little Italy was not a sure deal. We settled for ice cream cups to end a perfectly amazing Palm Sunday. 

I think everyone rolled out of bed with stiff joints, muscles, aches and pains on Monday morning. Margo and I had some interesting conversations, she said I was the strangest Mormon she’s ever met! I’ll take that as a compliment! Everyone was due in the lobby by 9 am in order to pair off with a chaperone. I was heading up the group going to the MET. Other options were: Brooklyn Bridge and exploring South NYC; Museum of Natural History; and exploring around the hotel area. I had 3 girls join my group. That was a small entourage compared to the night before. Jeff showed me how to use Google Maps to navigate the subway…geese…it was easy once he showed me. By the end of the day we were adept at subway travel. Spring was fresh and lovely outside all Monday, it was glorious. Our walk along Central Park was so gorgeous. Right outside the MET a table spread with glittery silver jewelry captured all our attention! I snagged two fun sets of earrings, felt like I was back in an Egyptian bazaar for a few moments. We spent three glorious hours inside the MET.  I admired a gorgeous painting of Joan of Arc, it was stunning. Amelia and I spent most of our time in the 18th century art wing drooling over the Renoir’s, Van Gogh’s, Monet’s, Vermeer’s, and even a few Bouguereau’s. I loved the glowing stained glass masterpieces as well. Amelia was a bit embarrassed over the amount of nude figures. Yes, the human body is a masterpiece! We went to the museum store last just to peruse all the fun trinkets. I found the boys gyroscopes and tiny sets of colored pencils for the girls. We met back in the lobby to regroup and plan our next steps. First step was fude.  Hot Dog stands were conveniently parked right outside. We basked on the steps of the Met eating street food in the most amazing spring sunshine ever. Alitzel was celebrating her birthday, she was keen to visit a KPOP store. So off we went! We walked across Central Park dressed up in spring flowers and new green grass. I think we all had a spot of Spring Fever. The store happened to be underground steps outside the subway station. Alitzel spent a very happy 40 minutes perusing two stores, she bought cute fuzzy phone cases that represent her favorite band characters. By this time our tummies were grumbly, Amelia voted for Little Italy and pasta. Let’s go! Stepping out of the subway between Little Italy and China town was quite different than the posh 5th Ave area. A large dude got into an altercation with the metro police right behind us, used drug needles littered the ground, and the smell was interesting. We hot footed it out of that area to the security of tourists traps. Kate spotted a crammed full curio shop. It was stuffed with every possible item relating to Italy for the past 40 years. We all loved the crate full of mismatched tea spoons and tea cups. I found a Fontanini drummer boy for this year’s figurine addition to my ever expanding collection. Amelia said the female store owner told her she was half Italian and half Irish, one leg loved wine and the other loved scotch. A street hawker pulled us into his Italian restaurant boasting freshly-made pasta and the best wine on the block. We drank our tap water out of a fancy green bottle. Fufu took a dip in the red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese he was that hungry. My pasta was perfectly al dente, so good. We walked off our dinner popping into store after store just for the heck of it. Kate wanted to go into a Christmas ornament store where out of the blue I found lockets matching Josie’s greatest desire. We walked over to Chinatown so I could find baoding balls for the boys. Our dogs were barking by the time we headed back to the hotel. Before we left Little Italy we stopped for gelato. Oh my gracious, it was divine. I got a scoop pistachio and another of hazelnut…stop time insert Jenni back in time to Florence, Italy summer of 2002. Kate and Madi wanted to visit a thrift store they went to on Friday on the way back. Unfortunately, I overshot the directions we were all too tired to turn back for more walking. Amelia was saving the perfect bite of gelato half mango and half lemon, as she spooned it up the bite fell to the pavement. We stopped for an impromptu funeral and memorial as Amelia mourned the loss of her gelato. Kate sang Amazing Grace, our hearts touched we soldiered on. The culmination of the entire trip happened during our last subway ride: we spotted a subway rat. Amelia named him Remi, even wanted to put a hat on it. The rat was nibbling on spilled chips much to our delight. We rested our aching feet for a total of 10 minutes back at the hotel. I took another group of kiddos wanting to visit a record exchange store. Another group went to the Nintendo store. We met back at the same Ramen/Sushi restaurant for dinner (like why?). Mrs Sene wanted everyone to meet outside the hotel at 8:30 pm for last instructions and shoutouts. The bus was coming to pick us up at 7:00 am. Mrs Sene picks 4 students to single out another 4 students for awesome acts of kindness. I got a shout out bracelet for dancing and joining the students. I’m so honored! Thank you. 

Tuesday was a looooong day of travel back to Idaho. We were much quieter on the way home, some slept the entire flight. Justin picked Amelia and I up at the airport at 5ish pm. I had a queer comparison flash across my brain, “what would a New Yorker think of Boise?” The busy of NYC faded back to normal, though for a few moments our city seemed like a spacious boon of sky and land. My crowd of cute kids were waiting on the lawn for us to arrive. I got all the hugs and kisses from the past few days, the best gift ever. I felt like a cotton-headed ninny muggins, the fatigue was very real. I handed out the little trinkets collected in NYC to the kids. They loved the hats, snow globes, MET gifts, and of course the lockets for the girls. I had to make a run to Walmart for Phillip’s medication, the girls accompanied me telling me all about their stay at home. It was good to go and wonderful to come home.