A Strong Will

Want to hear about a recent crazy NYC adventure? I posted a story over at Segullah. It's funny and thought-provoking too. Don't get scared away because it's kind of longer than your run-of-the mill blog post. I just couldn't leave out any of the juicy details.

A small side note involves how stinking exhausting it can be to try and get your kids to eat. You know, eat good food. Well here's a picture for you to enjoy and a shout out to Tim. He kept Cole and Stella while Matt and I sang at our stake Christmas concert the other night and he got Cole to eat an entire plate of rice and beans. "A triumph of the night," he said. "It took everything that I had." He took a picture to prove it. So glad he did.

Chili Cook-Off

The ward had its 2nd Annual Chili Cook-off and hoedown. I didn't win the $50 gift certificate for Dinosaur BBQ, booo! But many people enjoyed the Chicken Chili with Jalapeno Cheddar Hushpuppy Crust, so my cooking vanity was still well served. Plus Iris won, and she was about to have her new baby and is a fabulous person, so she deserved it! I love this activity. Professional square dance callers, cornbread, and chili . . .it's the perfect trio.

The Power of the Post

Apparently, my previous post regarding the snow drought in NYC fulfilled its mission. My post summoned the storm, and I walked out of my building this morning to a beautiful blanket of fluffy snow on everything in sight.

Below is a pictorial tribute to the wonder that is NYC under snow. Click on images for larger versions.

Enjoy.

SNOW DAY!!!

Not really...

I'm posting as a way of electronically "rain dancing" the snow to me, just as our Native American friends do in times of drought.

It's February, and I am in a snow drought.

I love snow. I love the way it muffles all sound in the morning - like you're in a padded room. I like the usual warmer weather that accompanies it. I like NOT driving in it (that's why it's so great here). I like the crunch of powder under my shoes as I try to re-enact the "Footprints" poem. (no joke, I've done it once, by myself - it's hard). And mostly, I like the way it covers this concrete jungle in a blanket of clean fluffiness. All the dirt, gum stains, oil spots, and dog/human feces disappear into the cold depths of pure, frozen, flakes of white water.


This is a picture of a stunning February morning in 2006. It was a perfect Sunday morning, as we trudged through two feet of snow to our church five blocks away. My sister's family was visiting us. We had 27" of new snow in a 12 hour period. The most in recorded weather history for NYC - about 300 yrs. Something big interrupted. Everyone slowed down a little in this crazy place, things were a little more quiet, and for about two days, the snow maintained it's whiteness from eventual destruction by a million pedestrian footsteps. It was magic! ....Until Mr. Hankey emerged, once again, and proclaimed ....

"Hidee Ho" ... "You're in New York, sucka!"

RAT!!!

In order to have 'options' for entry into the NYC Public School system, Margaret has to take tests, yes, as a 4 yr. old, to see if she can qualify for certain programs. It would take to long to explain....just believe me, finding the right school, even for kindergarten, in NYC is a ridiculously difficult process. It's usually a bad idea to just send your kid to the closest school to your house, and trust that it will be a safe and positive environment. You have to be selective and careful.

We received notice of her test date/time/location only two days before the test. And the location was in a very inconvenient part of the city to get to. I guess part of the test was to see how serious the parents are about getting their kid there on a Saturday morning.

Since mom just had a baby a fews day prior, I got to take her, just her and me. And boy, was it an adventure. We live on the most northern tip of Manhattan(Inwood). Her test was on the lower-east side in the heart of Chinatown. Not in the Canal Street - touristy part of Chinatown - but in the heart of no-English signs, we are the only white people around, Chinatown. After a bus, and three subway transfers, we arrived in the middle of another country.

The funny things is, this foreign land is only 5 miles from our house.

Thanks to Googlemaps, I was able to find the school quickly. What a beautiful school. I started to wish Margaret could come here. We were surprised to find Margaret's friends and their parents, from our neighborhood, also there for the test. Interestingly, we were the only group there. I guess they were really testing our resolve, and not just our kids' IQs.

After an hour-long test(don't get me started-she's only 4), Margaret emerged from her one-on-one, with the tester, full of smiles and confidence.

"That was so much fun, Daddy!", was her reaction to the experience. Well, I guess she is cut out for the rigors of the educational system in this city. Go Margaret.

Since it was a long trip, a long test, and would ultimately end up being a long day, I decided to really make it a real "day" for Margaret and me. Also, I could sense her feelings of displacement with the arrival of little Stella in the home. She needed some one-on-one time.

We found a great noodle-house dive - Great N.Y Noodletown, and ate the most delicious shrimp dumpling soup and chicken with bean sprouts.


Then we walked to a fruit market to get some exotic sweets for dinner that night.

Longan Fruit
(similar to Lychee)

Pomelo
(in grapefruit family)

All along the way we saw dancing dragons and New Yorkers celebrating the Chinese New Year. 2008 - The Year of the Rat!!!

I let Margaret pick out a pretty pink trinket from a local vendor. After first calling it her "Jewels of Terror"(I have no idea why), she changed it to her "Chinese Dream Catcher". She's been having scary dreams lately. Big imagination, you see....

After a fun cultural exploration of our Chinese neighbors, we reversed our complicated travails to our uptown 'hood, enriched, ready for a nap and a Pipers Kilt burger.

Thanks, New York City. My daughter loves you.

A little info. on NYC's Chinatown
New York City’s Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States—and the site of the largest concentration of Chinese in the western hemisphere—is located on the lower east side of Manhattan. Its two square miles are loosely bounded by Kenmore and Delancey streets on the north, East and Worth streets on the south, Allen street on the east, and Broadway on the west. With a population estimated between 70,000 and 150,000.