Has it really been this long!!?!!

Wow the holidays always get a little frantic for me, but I didn't realize it had gotten as bad as it had! For starters, from our family to yours, we hope you had a wonderful holiday! We're about to celebrate the new year - which means one big thing for me... 2009's 365 day project is almost done!! I can't hardly believe it! I say 2009, because I almost have myself convinced that I'll do a 2010 365 - this time focusing completely on portrature of my daughters. Almost. We'll see ;)

Until then, lets talk some more about New York, since I'm barely half-way through my trip! Tuesday the 24th!

So Tim and I started the day by going back to Times Square by ourselves. We wanted to see it during the day, and my sister (along with every single other person who lives in New York that we met) vowed not to go back there after showing us the once. I guess the crowding and the tourists are just no fun to people who live there. I equate it to going to Walmart for me.

We stopped at a bakery place and got giant cookies

Poor Tim and having me next to him all the time...


At the center of Times Square, there's these giant red bleachers. We decided to eat our cookies there, and that way I could stand still and take pictures without getting into a local persons way.









I attempted many times this trip to take pictures of myself. At this point in the trip, I was actually changing lenses, so I had the right one on to get the shot... only I manage to make myself look terrible every time I try to take a shot like this! I just don't know my angles, I guess. But I love how Tim looks, so I can just look crappy (heck, he looks like crap in plenty of pictures I take)






Lets see, from here we wandered around until we got to Central Park. Amazing park - if I lived in NYC, I could see myself hanging there in my free time. We didn't go to deep into the park (its actually really huge!) just stayed around the edge.

Statue when you go in




Two of my favorite parts of the park... 1. all the bedrock. I saw a dad with his kids (or maybe a manny? who knows!) letting the kids slide down the rock like a slide. So fun! 2. the buildings circling the park. I just loved looking up and seeing both the tree and the crowdedness of the buildings. Nice contrast!


There was this kids park that we stopped at, and let me tell you, my kids would tear this park apart! Its just different levels of concrete... nothing crazy or out of this world, but everything a kid needs. I wish my kids could have been there for it!


Poor Tim again


We ended up wandering to Rockerfeller. We didn't stay, because we knew we were going to come back, but I did get some shots of the tree all full of its scaffolding.




So after talking to my sister on the phone, we started our way to Grande Central Station. Jessica had told me when we first got in that some of the best times in NYC is when you get 'lost' and stumble upon things. That happened to us many times, and she's so right, its so exciting when it happens. I saw this from accross the street, and made Tim and I take a detour just so I could photograph it. Took FOREVER to get a shot without someone else in the picture (apparently lots of people put kids in the L... Tim wasn't about to get in for me... shocking LOL)


We also passed by this really cool church, and I got my favorite shot of the day
328 of 365: hustle and bustle


details from the church


And Grande Central Station. Yet another thing that prior to seeing it, I was all 'ehh' about seeing it... but once there I couldn't believe I might have passed it up. Its so big and gold and and... grande! We actually ate dinner there (not in the expensive nice restaurants up top, but pizza named after Seinfeld characters in the lower levels.)





There's frescos on the entire ceiling, of constellations. Of course I took a shot of pegasis

And if I didn't already have a fav shot of the day, this would have been it.

Nov 23rd: part two

As I said before, the big news about Monday was that Tim and I had a hockey game to go to.

Now we live in Columbus Ohio, and being that Tim is a major hockey fan, he obviously likes the Blue Jackets (though the team is sucking... like a lot...) Tim and I planned our NYC trip back in June. JUNE! I think it was in September or October that the game schedule came out. Tim had planned on going to a NYC Rangers game if one played while we were there, regardless of who the Rangers were up against, but neither of us thought this would happen. Oh yeah, Blue Jackets played the Rangers on Monday! So off to Madison Square Garden we went.

Walking up to it, I had no idea how to get in. I think we went to the right. It's not very big, which I guess at this point we should have expected.



I thought the inside was neat. It's definitely a very old stadium. Yes the seats were those colors - I did not enhance them! It was also really closed in. I think Tim said it had the same number of seats in it as Nationwide Arena in Ohio, but had we had the same seats in Nationwide, we would have been so high, it would have definitely qualified as nosebleeds. In Madison Square, I would not have called our seats nosebleeds... it was actually a great spot to me!




Tim, obviously, was in heaven


During warm-up, I realized that people could go down close to the ice to take pictures. I'm dumb and had never really thought to do that before. I ran down there, but missed Nash (Olivia's favorite player.) The usher actually moved me so that I was like right there on the ice - look how close my pics are!




I didn't take too many pictures during the actual game. I'm slightly mad at myself, because the Blue Jackets actually played a good game for almost an entire period! We were up 2-0 and were way up on the Rangers in shots on goal. That's impressive for you non-hockey fans! I should have taken a picture of the dang scoreboard!

Now what I loved Loved LOVED about watching the Rangers in Madison Square: It's people my age who love and understand Hockey. You have to hear where I'm coming from. Ohio is a football town. Always has been, always will. I've accepted that. So when you go to a hockey game at Nationwide, the crowds aren't the same as true through and through hockey fans. Don't get me wrong - there are those people there (believe you me every single person in my husbands family falls in that crowd) but the vast majority of people there are just people curious of what hockey is and have a free night, or they won tickets somehow: either through work or whatever. So the jumbo screen gets a lot of action. Lots of people paying attention to the thing - clapping along with the thing - looking to the thing for it to tell you what to do. Not so at Madison Square Gardens. You might as well have taken the thing down. Everyone knew what to do. And when their team was sucking (like when their team let such a crappy team as the Blue Jackets be up 2-0), the crowd boo-d the team until they played better.

Thats right, they BOO-D THEIR OWN TEAM!! OMG it was so cool to be in! Tim actually warned me ahead of time that it might happen. I think he was reading the crowd better than me, and he leaned over and said "Just so you know, this isn't like Ohio. This crowd won't let their team suck like we will." And let me tell you, the boo-ing lit a FIRE under the Rangers... they scored 7, yes SEVEN more goals, and then we scored two final more before the end of the game... us losing 7-4. Man it was a great game! And we got HECKLED! Sure, I brought it on myself, but all in good fun. Oh and I got a Free Rangers Santa hat with my $10 Cotton Candy.

After the game, we took our time getting back to the apartment... partly on purpose, and partly on accident. Lets talk about the Subway


I think I love the Subway. I would give up my car in a heartbeat if we had a subway system like NYC in Columbus, I love it that much. It wasn't as dirty as I thought it would be. Though, there was that one that was ick ick ick, but Jessica's roommate Matt said it was a weird train for us to have been on in the first place (we were lost, and took a J train) so really every train we were supposed to be on was cool. Most of them were packed, much like this.


Tim posed for this picture in front of a train we thought wasn't ours, and realized afterwards that yes, in fact it had been ours, and now we had to wait for another. Some trains are express trains, and some are local, but then after hours only a local runs but it was the express train... I don't know, it gets confusing to me. Tim and I never did find out when "After Hours" is exactly. NYC most definitely lives up to it's 'the city that never sleeps' hype.


I've joked with a few people that I want to make a small book for myself titled "Tim's bored in New York" because he looks so dang bored in every photo I took! It's not his fault, he just photographs that way, but its hilarious!

Cool mosaic wall in the subway


Tim bored in front of cool mosaic wall in the subway


I wish I had been able to get a shot of my sister like this... I terribly wanted an image of someone waiting for a subway, and for the person to be in focus, and the train to be rushing past them. In my head it looked so cool. Tim, well, he's doing some weird thing with his chin - but the shot is still kinda cool


Want to know how much I loved the Subway? I still have my metro card in my wallet! I realized it yesterday that I never took it out. I'll probably keep it in there too, just as a reminder. We lived in the subways for that whole week!

Nov 23rd in NYC: part one

Sorry for the slack again. I have to start breaking the days down into smaller bits, or each post is going to be hella long! Even with it broken down, they're going to be long!

The big news about Monday was that Tim and I had a hockey game to go to. More on that later. So the morning/afternoon of Monday was more for Jessica and I to shop, and obviously more sightseeing.

Up until this point, Tim had complained about the lack of video game stores in NYC (and honestly, there really is a lack of video game stores... what up with that??) But on shopping day, we found a building that was spouting steam, and below it, a Best Buy! Jessica and I did not go there - we went to Filenes Basement (which I probably butchered the spelling of) and got some fabulous dresses (me for Thanksgiving, and her for her birthday extravaganza that we missed by one day)

Everyone keeps asking me what my favorite part of NYC was. Its a logical question, but my honest answer? There's just so much to photograph! I honestly could just wander forever and not get bored. Like here, random picture of a cool building with a clock, and some dude selling hotdogs and fruit


LOVE IT! Want another cool building with a clock??


BA BAM!

Okay enough silliness... but in all honesty, loved that part. Really the only thing I managed to not take a picture of that I meant to was of the Brownstones. They're neat. And there's a couple different types (I think Jessica said it had something to do with when they were built) and we saw them practically every day, and I managed not to photograph them. Sucks. They remind me of Sesame Street.

Big neat building of this day? The Flat Iron Building. Its cool! Now, if there's one thing I learned about NYC, its that there is NO WASTED SPACE! I mean literally, if they can build a structure there, by god there's a structure there. So it seems like every building rounds a corner, or at least cuts off around the corner. But the Flat Iron Building is by far the most impressive. We came up from behind the building.


I could tell from there that it was the Flat Iron! So cool!






Oh another thing I didn't get a picture of? This entire building top to bottom in one shot. It would have required me to change lenses. I know I know, you're saying to yourself "Heather! But why didn't you just change lenses??" NYC is overwhelming, and at the beginning of the trip, while it dawned on me that I should be changing lenses and taking as many images as possible, I was afraid of missing out on something by slowing down. I got over that by the end of the trip ;)

Oh but look closely at this shot - its the Flat Iron up close and personal. The Sprint ad is right inside the rounded glass window of the front - you can see the sidewalk going down the other side. I could wrap my arms around the building if I wanted to!


Another big thing we saw that day? The Empire State Building. Okay, I'm going to admit it... I wasn't all that into the Empire State Building. I don't really have a reason why, just wasn't. But I love the shots I got.




We had to walk down fashion district to get to Madison Square Gardens. I have to admit, I literally squeeled, and turned around to Tim and squeeked "ITS PARSONS!!!!" Jessica hadn't even had a chance to point it out. I watch too much tv LOL!


Bryant Park was neat. There's a carousel that was really neat inside. No, we didn't ride it (shoulda dang it!)


And there were a couple neat statues on the way. I remember studying the dude that made the needle and button. I swear, mom-dom has ruined my brain, and I can't remember the guys name, but it was impressive seeing it in person


You can see this guy sewing in the other picture, but here's a closeup


And lastly, my pic of the day for this day. Its out of order - I can't remember when we saw it in relation to the other stuff, but its from the New York City Library. I need a lion for my doorstep dangit! So regal and wonderful

327 of 365: Lions and Libraries


to be continued....

my sister, a ham for the camera

I love when people aren't afraid of cameras. These were all taken in Little Italy where we had dessert.