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Picking up on last night, we headed over to Hirschfield Theater for Moulin Rouge! We stopped off at Smith’s Bar (around the corner for the theater) and had drinks and light food.

We got there, and the wheelchair caused a panic. Apparently, the website I bought the tickets had not covered the 40+ manual stairs to our seats. I had ordered them as I thought they were easy to get to. Nope.

We had all the Vax cards ready. No admittance to anything anywhere anyhow in NYC without a Vax card (not even the hotel lobby). Masks are required unless eating or drinking in your seat. There is a nice bar in the Hirshfield and drinks may be carried with you to your seat.

We had to walk Susie up three flights of stairs. And then, after a bit more panic, they put two chairs in the aisle, and we were okay. Mariah went to the original seats as only two of us could be in the aisle.

The show was explosive with glitter and scantily clad gals and men in top hats. The Diamond did descend by a swing onto the stage (twice). The songs and music had hints back to the movie, but the sound was updated to a collage of recent tunes. Lady Gaga, Lord, and Katy Perry were covered, as were other songs in part or whole of contemporary make. Some old favs are still there but pop in without much warning.

The singing, dancing, staging, and the sets coming apart and moving off and on the stage were fantastic. The leads hit every note and danced and moved the slightly revised story with speed. You believed they were real and that in some way you were in the Moulin Rouge! I was worried that the second act would be dark, like the movie, but instead, the first song is the best dance and singing of most of the cast. It got cheers from the audience.

Despite the crying at the intense ending, Susie actually whimpered, and the sad last song of the story, the audience was cheering as they brought all the dancers and leads back on to sing more and performed even more. Much like Mama Mia!, the show steals a happy close with the whole cast returning to bring down the house and everyone, including the audience, dancing and singing together. The show finally closing with an explosion of glitter and streamers.

The staff helped Susie and us get her down the stairs and then held the shop open for us to buy some coffee cups and a sparkling shirt for Susie.

Broadway is back, and this show won ten Tony’s last week. It was packed.

We got back to our room and fell asleep almost as our heads hit the pillow. The alarm at 6 was going to be hard.

And Friday started out too early in this different time zone. We managed to get to the breakfast supplied too early and opened it. They recheck Vax cards. We had ours.

Breakfast was over, and Mariah was still missing. The timezone change got her. We managed to meet her and then met in the lobby after Mariah was ready.

We walked 3.2 miles according to various sources to the Met-Art in Central Park. It was about a 75-minute walk with Mariah pushed Susie’s wheelchair. I lifted the wheelchair over high curbs. It was good that we belted Susie into the chair!

The walk was busy, and we got to see the cement canyons of NYC to reuse an old description of Gotham. We then reached Central Park and had to cross about 1/2 of its length. A long walk! We used Apple maps to keep on track.

Central Park is always hard to describe. It is just heaven in NYC with squirrels and baby carts. We saw a pair of kids playing with Tonka Truck toys under a tree (the toys are in a bin under the strollers. Everyone, on a Friday morning, was enjoying the park.

We then reached the Metropolitan Art Museum; I was shocked by how huge. We spent five hours standing a looking. We did take a break at The Eatery in the basement for an early lunch.

It is hard to describe how overwhelming the place is. There is a room for just Picasso. Monet had multiple rooms! A small Egyptian temple was rescued from the floods and brought to the Met and reconstructed. Ancient pottery and sculptures are everywhere.

The Book of the Dead. We did not read it aloud.

We looked for, and after getting help, found Toulouse-Lautrec. He is a character in Moulin Rouge! and so we wanted to see his works. They remind you of the staging and looks of the show.

At 3ish, we said goodbye to the Met. The facility is not fantastic for wheelchairs as you have to return to the ground floor to avoid stairs by using the ramps on the first level to get to a lift to take you to the other side of the stairs. We saw this a bit a few years ago in Amsterdam, but they had a particular map for us for that (I remember they only had one in German, but we could make it work). The Met needs to do better.

It was clear you had to plan your day. So, we did Egypt, modern, and European (impressionists), and Mariah did China without us (stairs issues). We started at ancient Roman Sculptures as that was the entrance with prepurchased tickets. Also, we saw that just showing up puts you in a long and slow line to buy access for the day.

We called an Uber for the trip back, $45, to get back to our hotel. The Friday traffic headed into the Lincoln Tunnel block our driver, he was frustrated, for twenty minutes.

Mariah headed out again after cleaning up a bit. Susie took a nap, and I fell asleep. I awoke and called Mariah. She was in a roof bar, the AC roof bar on the 21st floor, and I joined her there and had a Gotham Manhattan. The view was stunning.

Our waiter was from Chicago and only had been in NYC for a year (what a year to pick). She knew only of Portland from the TV show. She even quoted it to us. We showed PDX politeness.

We then tried to connect with a Jazz place–Birdhouse, but they did not have an open slot until 8:30. So we went to a Celtic place. More stairs, my legs are not interested in stairs anymore. We got to the second floor (the roof was apparently full), and we had dinner (steak for me and salad for Mariah). More drinks, Irish Mule for me, and Blueberry Mule for Mariah.

I got chicken fingers for Susie to go and picked her up a Diet Coke on the way back.

Susie had dinner in the room. Mariah texted me she was hanging with the band.

We made arrangements for Saturday. It will be complex, but that story is for tomorrow!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a travel day with all the stress and boredom that comes with a travel day. We left for NYC at 11PM after a day of getting packed, buying things to pack, and getting to PDX, and then wait for our flight.

I was up about 7ish as I had things to get done. As usual, I made myself a light breakfast (my meds require food) and did all the dishes. I could not sleep any longer as I realized I had no bag for the wheelchair parts, and I would, I thought at that time, and I would need to check two bags for Susie. So I got up and figured that all out. I have a spare Nike red bag that matches the color of the wheelchair (something I would call “hot red”), and everything fits perfectly in the bag.

I then got all our boarding passes done and paid for all the bags. Susie’s second bag was $45! Which is a lot for a $216 air flight (round trip). However, there was no choice, and thus I paid another $150 for all our bags (it is cheaper to do it online).

After Susie was going, I got her breakfast of yogurt and cereal; I got a late lunch/dinner at the Teriyaki place nearby in our local strip mall. Susie had her fav, Chicken Bowl, and I had the Bento. We ate early as we would be headed to the airport, and with Covid-19 restrictions and the hiring problems, there is little food in PDX to be had.

We got through the process at PDX, leaving about 7:50ish, and managed check-in with the help of a United agent. He saw that we had too many baggage tags and refunded the $45 one. So we would take our wheelchair to the plane and carry on the bits in the Nike red bag. It is a carry-on–I did not know.

We had a set of drinks at a bar next to the gate and then headed over just in time to be loaded nearly first on the plane. Susie made the plodding walk to the back of the plane (near the restrooms, but not too close). A kind stewardess walked Susie in her hands all the way to her seat. The other passengers behind us were supportive and told us to take our time. The same stewardess got us a wheelchair delivered in the plane to get Susie out; she would be too tired to repeat her Marathon walk after the flight.

My bag was missing after we managed to get to our baggage. Not all elevators work for you, and I had to try different ones to finally get to baggage claim with Susie. After a short adventure, somehow, the bag just appeared in the pile of missing tag bags. The baggage claim person was not happy to have to help me as she could clearly see all the bags, they have little bar code stickers on them, had reached baggage claim.

I was happy to have everything. We then had breakfast standing near a Dunkin Donuts by Baggage Claim 2. Yes, there was a line of folks getting their coffee and food items. Yes, I am back in the Eastern USA, where Dunkin Donuts rules!

Refreshed and refueled, we went for the next $100 plus adventure. A taxi to Times Square. As we had luggage for three and a wheelchair plus carry-ons, an Uber would require an SUV. I saw the taxi line was full of SUVs and decided that would work for me. So it was a boring 90 minute trip to Times Square. Our driver used some backroads to cut the time using some apps. There in New Jersey, I saw this rather old-school hotel sign.

Yes, back in the east, where mirror rooms are (were?) a thing.

I forgot how much I dislike bumper-to-bumper traffic in a tunnel. I used to do that in the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore. The Lincoln tunnel air was good, and there was no water running down the walls like in the old Baltimore tunnels (yikes!).

We arrived suddenly, popping out of the Lincoln Tunnel into NYC, and were at the hotel. We thanked and tipped out the driver, who was polite (and not insane as many in the area).

The Times Square Fairfield By Marriott is wedged into the small streets and tall buildings of the area. I have a view of the bus station, and the New York Times building is just up a block. A very efficient desk gal got us into our room early (yes!), and we all crashed for a bit.

Mariah and I then went on three quests after resting for about 90 mins. First, we needed a sandwich and to bring one back to Susie. Second, we needed to locate the theater we are headed to tonight for the Broadway event I have planned, Moulon Rouge. Lastly, we wanted to see the local area and get more familiar with it.

I always forget how massive everything is and how well done everything is. Nobody wants a crappy sandwich here, and while the town can be rough, everyone is busy doing what needs to get done. Usually, people are helpful even if they growl a bit–the growl is like Portland’s passive-aggressive politeness. It is just a thing.

Susie rested some more, and we will start getting ready some more. Mariah is in Central Park with her camera. Last I heard, she was being pedaled around Central Park to be back in time to be ready for the show.

I will stop there and take a short break. I will write about the show in tomorrow’s blog.

I managed a bit more sleep last night, and I was feeling much better. The dizziness and exhaustion were gone. I slept into 9ish and managed to read some emails and news. I made a bagel and took my meds more early (again worried that the timing of the meds might have been the problem on Monday).

I called Texas Randall County Clerk’s Office and found how to get Leta Guild, Susie’s mom, a replacement copy of her wedding license. Apparently, to get RealID a woman must prove the name change with a wedding license. Even having lived in Michigan for most of her life, voting, and having a driving license Leta cannot get a RealID with her name. For $13 two copies are on their way to Leta. She cannot prove her name change.

The folks in Texas at the Clerk’s office walked me through the website to pay for the document and read me the document number of the phone to type in. It was a very friendly process.

Aside: There is no means to convince me that RealID is not a scam to suppress women and minorities. I had to bring a bank statement, a birth certificate (certified), and pay $70 to get mine. I had to read the website with care to learn that I needed a bank statement for proof of address! I imagine if I change address I will have to pay $70 again.

Returning to the story, I did the dishes and started back on the laundry. Nothing more fun than that! I also loaded up Air Volvo for a cargo mission. The old bike and books, fan, and a few odd ends were ready to find their next adventure. So I delivered them to Goodwill.

As I was still feeling good and got Susie her breakfast, I loaded up the old coffee table and a few more items. The coffee table I bought from my dad’s store in 1990, Wild’s Furniture and Appliances. It was hard to let it go. With Susie using a walker, we needed to remove the coffee table in the living room. I have moved it so many times it is an old friend. I am happy that someone new can get dad’s indestructible table (it still looks new). Dad said, “I sell them to folks with kids.”

The enormous pots for rice for the old India Night cooking were included in this load–they have been used only once in five years for a church dinner Corwin, and I put on. I hope that Goodwill will send them on to some starting chef that needs them. They are perfect for cooking rice and braising for 100 people.

After that, I headed to lunch and discovered that a fav Thai place was gone, so I drove over to the other side of Beaverton. Finally, I saw the Thai place and pulled into the parking lot. There I found a jacked-up pickup truck blocking traffic trying to park. It tried three times to finally get mainly between the lines. I was wondering how it was possible and then saw where the truck was parking, Cannabis Depot. Hate to say that it was a stereotype, but it was.

Another car pulled alongside the truck with a lurch. Then a Tesla was then headed for Air Volvo somehow in a head-on collision driving on the wrong side of the parking lane (again, all at parking lot slow speeds) after pulling out of the same Cannabis Depot parking. I was able to avoid any scratched paint; I was laughing the whole time. I circled around and parked Air Volvo away from the Cannabis Depot parking!

I had the Massaman Curry with beef, as I love the stew-like taste of potatoes and carrots in Thai food. The whole uncooked peanuts surprised me; usually, the peanuts are cooked into the curry. The curry was a bit bitter and less finished in flavor. I still enjoyed it, but I have had better.

I was reading the Internet and looked up, and the lights were off, and they said they were closing. So I left and headed home.

It has been raining for three days, and we had only two days without rain in the week. The grass is green again. As usual, I passed by many places with their sprinklers on. Only in Oregon have I seen the sprinklers running in the pouring rain.

I reached home only to discover that my headphones were gone. I have not needed them for a year. I then headed back to the mall and bought earbuds with proper connectors for iPhones; I don’t know where I put my converter). I also bought reasonably priced noise-reducing headphones that cover the ear as that works better for me.

I have charged them and have learned the usual mysteries of pushing buttons to make BlueTooth do its thing. I usually play music on my phone to the headphones while flying. I am also happy that they have wired access, and thus I can use them if I want to watch something on the plane.

I made a salad with meat and cheese for myself for dinner and made Susie cheese and crackers. We both had late lunch. I got Susie a Happy Meal (with Apples) on my way back with the headphones.

I think we are getting ready. I washed all the towels and had laundry to put away. I will do a few items and check into our flights in the morning. I will be up early, I think, on Wednesday.

I hope you enjoyed my story for today. More was happening today.

I slept into 8:20ish and then remembered that Susie has Zerida at 9! So up we went; I made coffee and remembered what one does on a Monday when not logging into work. I managed to get the coffee to Susie and a few cookies. I need to make some scones (according to Susie) and have them ready for Monday with Zerida.

Once Susie was successful at dressing and being ready for her driver (I forgot her mask, but her driver had one for her), I had a bagel and coffee. Corwin left a mess in the kitchen, so I cleaned up. He usually does not leave a mess like this. Later, I learned that his eyes are all puffed-out, an allergic reaction likely to the dog at a friend’s house.

I was coughing and fighting the nice weather too. I felt tired and weak. My sleep, filled with dreams, was not restful.

Mariah and I met for lunch; she had the day off. I picked the same Mexican place I usually eat with Evan. We talked about many things, but we also set the final details of our trip to NYC coming up. Mariah is coming with Susie and me to NYC.

I will see Mariah next Wednesday at 7:30 when we head to the airport for our red-eye to New Jersey.

I am reading a newly signed book I bought at the H.P. Lovecraft Festival, The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill: Gothic Tales of Boston by Adam Bolivar. I am really enjoying the mixing of pre-Christian Britain tales and the Mythos. The poems and the legend-like stories are a new way to write about the Mythos. The stories are page-turners, and I find it hard to put down this new book.

I did do all the dishes, picked-up a few items for the trip to NYC coming up, and washed laundry to be ready for the trip. So I am getting there.

Tomorrow I plan to find the headphones (where did they go?) and start packing.

Dinner was from Happy Panda today. I was still a bit slowed to do cooking today. I felt much better after eating.

I spent the day thinking about writing and stories and writing adventures. My head felt like exploding with all the things I can do now. But instead of starting down those paths, I did the chores and rested.

I will start on more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Sorry, this is just a short story. I rested much of the day.

I managed to sleep in a bit on Sunday morning. I was up and doing dishes and cleaning a bit at 8:30. I was going slow and decided not to return to watching movies at the film fest in Portland. I instead purchased the original The Mummy movie and watched that while doing the dishes and making myself and Susie breakfast. I thought I had seen it before, but this was a surprise to me.

The movie story was sexist, shows the East in a poor light, and was badly put together even for 1932. Still, I did see hints of greatness in the character of the mummy played with chilling looks by Boris Karloff and the laying of the story for the recent Brandon Frazer version (1999) that I liked. In addition, I was surprised to see how scanty the lead women’s outfits were. Also, like in the Dracula of the same time period, the ending is abrupt and without much more than a few seconds of the film before the credits start.

After doing some reading, I learned that this movie was made before the censors came into power. Soon after making this movie, the scanty clothing and the powerful bad guy would be removed from Hollywood films. Boris Karloff would not return to this role again. So the sequels have no connection to this first movie. It is unique.

After finishing the old movie on my Apple, I took Susie to lunch at The Olive Garden. I wanted to get her out of the house, and I also wanted a good salad. So we enjoyed a hefty lunch, and the day was sunny and even warm.

I then took a nap and was ready for Dungeons and Dragons tonight at Cory’s house. We are playing a campaign based on the D&D 5E version of hell. We were traveling all over hell today as we sought to free the good people of a city that had fallen to hell.

So just a quiet day with a bit of gaming and learning about movies today.