Easter Weekend

Today was pretty fun. We decided to go to see the Easter Parade. We weren’t really sure what to expect from it except for that part of the song that says “In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it…” and a reference to Fifth Avenue. In days gone by everyone in New York showed up dressed in their Easter finery and paraded up an down Fifth Avenue. Today, people still show up and parade up and down, but most people are dressed in the same stuff they wear every day. But then there are the folks who really honor the tradition and do it up in style. Those are the fun ones to watch and all the photographers, just like in the song, are snapping photos of them, and we were no exception. It’s quite a sight to see New Yorkers actually strolling when the rest of the time they are rushing around like mad. It’s quite a nice tradition we thought and completely non-commercial which I loved, especially in this city. There were absolutely no logos or corporate sponsors. We weren’t even sure there was any news coverage until we saw it on the evening news.

After the parade, we got some half-price tickets for “The Glass Menagerie” starring Jessica Lange and Christian Slater at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, grabbed some lunch and piled into the intimate theater space to be totally engrossed by Tennessee Wiliams’s play for the next two and half hours.

Easter dinner consisted of a shared pizza, followed by a chocolate Easter bunny and jellybeans, washed down with a glass of Pinot Grigio in my brother’s apartment. Not your typical Easter dinner, but yummy and fun.

Yesterday, we did what so many New Yorkers do who live in the city and have relatives out on “The Island” (which is the way Long Island is referred to by the locals). We had to pick up some Euros and Euro Travelers Checks – the last little detail to take care of before we leave for Italy. We ran into a little snafu at the AAA office where we were expecting to be able to purchase the Travelers Checks without a hitch since we are AAA members. We learned that AAA is more like a franchise and they aren’t part of a big national family but each state is its own entity. They wouldn’t accept our check or American Express so we had to go and withdraw cash from our bank (Bank of America) to pay for the Travelers Checks. So, a bit more back and forth across the city – this time just a matter of blocks. All of this took longer than we expected, and so in order to catch the 12:06 train to LI we took a cab to Penn Station and made it without a moment to spare! The train ride from the city to Bellmore where my Uncle and cousins live is around an hour. These trains are pretty comfy so it’s not a bad ride at all. We had a lovely day with my family, lots of laughter and good conversation, not to mention the delicious turkey dinner Celeste and her family cooked for us. Thanks to everyone for a really wonderful day.

I also have a friend from grade school, Pat Farr, who lives in the city (her daughter, Diane Farr, is an actress who plays the female firefighter on the TV show “Rescue Me” with Dennis Leary). She has an apartment close to my brother’s and so I called her hoping we could get together before we had to leave for The Island. As it turned out she was out there too visiting and we planned to meet before the family dinner for coffee. The fun part (in addition to seeing her) was that she brought along another old friend of mine – Joey Santa Maria, the boy I went to my senior prom with! He and I were just good friends at the time and since I didn’t have a boyfriend to go with, he agreed to be my date. He was generous and gracious and we had a fun time. I hadn’t seen him since we were both teenagers so it was really terrific to see him again after all these years. We exchanged emails and promised to keep in touch.

Tomorrow we will leave the Big Apple and head out to The Island to stay with Bob’s cousin Ginnie. There are several friends and family members who live out there that we are planning to visit. It should be a whirlwind next few days.

Just 5 days to departure.
Rosemary & Bob