planetpayne

This morning we got up at 4:30am and walked five blocks, rode the subway for 22 minutes, walked eight blocks more, then sat on the sidewalk and froze for three hours while waiting for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to start. To be honest, I wasn’t sure it would be worth it. But then the clowns on skates came by and sprinkled confetti on us, and we saw a HUGE spider man balloon emerging from between two buildings, and I knew that I would never forget this moment. We spent the next several hours clapping and cheering and waving and pointing. It was pure joy watching those balloons float over our heads. Amongst our favorite balloons were: Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Mickey, Kermit, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Buzz Lightyear, Dora, Smurf, Horton, and a little clown that was said to be the oldest in the line up. My favorite float was the Sesame Street float, with all the famous puppets hanging out of windows, Oscar in the garbage can, and the real Gordon, Susan, and Luis!

We also got to see… (hang on to your seats for this one)…

Cyndi Lauper!!!

Yes it’s true, we saw Ingrid’s most favorite singer in the whole world, in the flesh, perched atop a bright pink castle. How great is that?! There were other celebrities too, like Gloria Gaynor and Miss America and many many more. But we couldn’t have picked a better one than Cyndi Lauper to be at the parade today!

Ingrid made two new friends at the parade, a little girl named Alicia and an older one named Pauline. They played What Animal am I, and pulled their hats down over their eyes and bumped into each other and just goofed off while we waited. After the parade, we headed for our last New York city adventure, to FAO Schwartz. Unfortunately every one else at the parade had the same idea and the place was packed. We were sweating just walking around and had to cut the visit short. I did finally get to eat my New York cheesecake at a place called Junior’s, reputed to have the best cheesecake in New York. I have to say, we were not disappointed. It really was an incredible cheesecake, with a wonderful flavor and incredible texture.

Walking back to the subway, Ingrid told us that if we decide we want to build a house, that we should do it in New York city. Andrew asked her what about building a house in Hawaii? And she said no, because there’s more to do here in New York, like Macy’s parades and Wicked and ice skating.

Yesterday we started Otto on Phenobarbital, for seizures. He’s been having an alarming amount of them since about a week ago. He does tend to have seizures most frequently at this time of the year, when the rains come. I read online that some dog’s seizures are triggered by mold, could this be Otto’s problem? Hard to say, he does still have seizures throughout the rest of the year but much much less frequently than in October and November, and he’ll go a couple of months in the summer without one. It’s very hard to figure out. I was journaling it for a while, but I couldn’t find any pattern. Coconut oil seems to help the severity of the seizures but does not altogether prevent them. Phenobarbital is harmful for the liver and obviously we don’t want this; neither do we want him to go through the terror each time, and suffer brain cell loss. There are many factors to consider: his quality of life, the many vet visits to check blood Phenobarbital level, the toll it takes on us (mostly me) when he has a seizure. Yesterday Otto helped us make the decision by having two seizures in one day. And in the days before, at least one seizure each day. I felt terrible giving him his first pill. Reading about the side effects didn’t help! However, I was encouraged that he didn’t have another seizure that day. Today he received his second and third doses; again no seizures. I feel so relieved. He’s sleeping more than usual but I know he’ll get used to it.

On to happier things. We are getting more and more used to riding the subways. Ingrid actually gets mad now when we have to drive somewhere. She loves walking the streets of Jersey City to get to the trans-Hudson subway. Then when we get to the city, there’s plenty more walking to do. But it’s fascinating, and fun. She complains about her feet getting sweaty but she’s always excited to go. I am loving jogging here, in a big city. I can’t tell how the dogs feel, I think they are constantly in hunting mode. They look very serious, no panting. I guess I don’t run fast enough to make them pant but I do wish they would relax a little. They’re very excited when I put on my sneakers. Maybe it’s the unfamiliar surroundings- they haven’t spent much time in cities. For me though, it’s a blast seeing the city up close. Everyday I explore a different route. There are tons of little niches, bridges, dirt paths, parking lots, even running alongside the subway is fun when you’ve been away from a city as long as I have! Sometimes it feels like I’m in a video game…

Yesterday we met up with Andrew’s old friend Janet. By coincidence, we decided to go to MOMA, the museum of modern art. She happens to work there, and she lives just a few blocks away! She met us there with her little guy Jonah, who’s 14 months I think. Ingrid and I loved him on first sight. I think I was more excited to hang out with a baby than I was to see the exhibits! (I know Ingrid was.) Anyway we breezed through the Tim Burton special exhibit. It was great, lots of fun, creative things to see there. We had to rush it because it was SO packed and not comfortable physically for Ingrid. The exhibit had just opened, and I’m sure there were more people than the fire department would have allowed; it was like a hundred degrees in there. Andrew and I took a quick stroll through the other floors while Ingrid played with Jonah and Janet in the atrium. It was pretty surreal to see some of the paintings I’d learned about in Art History, like the ones by Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Matisse. I was surprised they weren’t behind glass or anything, you could go right up to them. Afterward we walked to Janet’s. She happens to live right next to the studio where I was planning to take a dance class, home of the amazing Alvin Ailey dance company. I took a samba/afro-brazilian class, and fulfilled my dream of dancing in New York. The class didn’t meet my high expectations, but it was super fun and sweaty. The teacher was warm and obviously an accomplished dancer herself. And it’s hard to beat live drumming! It had been so long since I’d been in a samba class that I gave it my ALL, and I was nearly dead by the time I left there and walked to Janet’s. I had jogged earlier that day and done my strength training routine too! We were all beat but we had to pull it together for the hour ride/walk home. Coming home and seeing that Otto hadn’t had a seizure was a great ending to a wonderful day.

Speaking of the big apple, Ingrid and I are in love with New York apples. We cannot get enough of them. They are like candy to us. Today at lunch Ingrid ate one and you would think she was eating ice cream the way she kept going on and on about how yummy it was. Tomorrow, we are going to break the program for the first time, and cheat on a non-cheating day. The reason is that I MUST have New York cheesecake while I am in New York. Possibly also red velvet cake, carrot cake, cannoli, and one of those cupcakes from a store that is all cupcakes. And then I’ll leave New York happy :)

On Sunday, we spent the day at the Statue of Liberty. We took a ferry over, skipping Ellis island. When you have a young child, you have to really prioritize and be able to let things go. I wasn’t sure how it would go with Ingrid. Could potentially be super boring. I hoped at least she would enjoy the ferry ride. When the statue came into view, I came out onto the deck where Andrew was taking pictures and just stood looking at her. I started thinking about those five million immigrants and how they must have felt seeing her for the first time… pretty soon there were tears streaming down my face. What she stands for resonates very very deeply in me. I struggled a bit to hold it together amongst all the other tourists who were just staring in a blank kind of a way.

After going through two security check points, including one that x-ray’d us and blew gusts of air around our bodies (Andrew thinks it was for bomb material sniffing), we arrived at the museum under the statue. I approached my first sign and Ingrid asked me to read it to her. I did, and surprisingly, she stood by me while I read each and every exhibit there to her. I could see other people watching us… it seems not as child friendly here than in other places we’ve been. They probably thought it was a waste of time but Ingrid kept looking at the exhibits and asking me questions and I was only too happy to turn this into a learning opportunity. We found out how the statue was made, why, and got to see some life size examples of it, that we could touch. I learned about the broken shackles on the feet, the seven rays sending liberty to the seven seas and continents of the world. I thought it was fascinating that the sculptor and creator did not wish to make her a fighter for liberty, but rather a peaceful beacon of enlightenment. Also that she is made of copper that is only as thick as two pennies! She is walking rather than just standing, and she looks very similar to the sculptor’s mother. She’s not very tall, only about 100 feet, plus a 200 foot pedestal.

We had to walk to the top of the pedestal because the elevator is out of service indefinitely. They warned us it would be 168 steps but it really wasn’t bad at all. Ingrid got a free ride in daddy’s arms. We didn’t plan far enough in advance to get tickets to the crown, but we liked our visit so much that we’re planning to do it another time, and go all the way to the top.

Ingrid is nuts about ice skating… we can’t keep up!

Well we finally made it out of Port Crane! Our last couple of days were spent packing and cleaning and re-organizing. We made some good changes which will make our lives easier on the road. I felt sad moving out of Eric’s but the moving out was so many days in the works that when the final moment came to say goodbye, I wasn’t a mess. We have such good chemistry with Eric, and Andrew and Eric had so much in common that being there just felt comfortable and easy. I know he’s family, but he really was a stranger to Ingrid and I until this trip, and now I feel like we could spend all kinds of time together. Ingrid did cry over leaving Eric and Maggie but she was consoled by the new Maggie on her lap. Uncle Eric told Ingrid he loves her so much and I Andrew and I discussed trip routes that might bring us up this way again. We want pretty badly to see Maine and Nova Scotia so I feel confident we will be back soon. All this made our going away less painful than it otherwise would have been.

Ingrid and I made a giant chocolate chip cookie for Eric on our last day:

Now we’re in Jersey City, just on the other side of the Hudson River, just 1-2 miles from Manhattan. Liberty Harbor RV park is strange. It’s a parking lot, and very small, and I don’t see the staff around. In most RV parks, they’re everywhere, watching and working. Not here! At nights it’s super (almost eerily) quite. Even though there’s not a blade of grass or a tree, there’s the breathtaking NY skyline at night, all lit up. In the other direction, the backside of the Statue of Liberty. It’s such a weird little spot to be, out of the way of the bustle but so close! I’ve been enjoying some morning runs along the scenic harbor, with the dogs. Just a few minutes away there’s Liberty Park, which is very run down. But still lots of locals are there with their strollers and dogs.

Last night we ventured into the city for the first time. We bravely drove our Vanagon in, because we wanted to experience the tunnel. The traffic was pretty bad, but thankfully it did not stop in the tunnel. It hadn’t occurred to me that we would be in a tunnel under the water, and that this tunnel was a mile or two long, and once we got into it I began to feel my claustrophobia creeping in. Once we arrived we had to circle around a while to find a spot. We came just two blocks from the theater and restaurant, and stopped to check out the metered parking situation. As luck would have it, we showed up precisely at the time that the meters change over to allow public parking and so were able to secure a spot. We ate at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, then walked the short distance to the theater. Along the way we got a sneak peak of Times Square and all the fabulous lights. I felt pretty exhilarated to be in New York City!

As for Wicked, it was amazing!!! I had read the book already but I still really enjoyed the way they changed the story slightly, it made it even better to me. The Galinda character was very funny, and the singing was out of this world. The costumes were extravagant and the sets colorful. Ingrid was very quiet the entire performance and it was hard for me to tell what she was feeling. I sat next to her and explained what was going on at every song and every scene. I wondered if she was getting annoyed but she never said anything. She did start to look like she was getting tired in the middle of the second half but she hung in there. As we were walking out, she said: mommy, that was the best play I’ve ever seen! What a relief!

This is right after the show. It’s almost 11pm!

When I say packed, I mean PACKED!

Since today is our last day with Maggie, I let her come inside the RV to be with Ingrid. Everyday, Maggie lays on our doormat waiting for Ingrid to come out. She sits with her ears perked and watches, and wags her tail when she sees Ingrid. I had to banish Ginger from the RV during Maggie’s visit, because they don’t get along. Right now Maggie is happy as pie, while Ingrid reads One Fish Two Fish aloud.