Toys R Us Times Square

Clown Families Riding the Subway to Brooklyn

I spent most of the day in Manhattan with my kid because there is no school this week and it was a good day to have a midtown lunch date with The Daddy-Husband who works at Rockefeller Center. We ate noodles at the Sapporo Japanese restaurant on 49th Street (We used to eat at Sapporo East all the time when The Kid took Japanese language classes at the 14th Street Y in the East Village. Then there were virtually inevitable side trips to Toys R Us Times Square (www.toysrustimessquare.com) and FAO Schwarz® on 5th Avenue. My Kid did an art project, bought some bedding for her doll and added “Cookie Monster” to her menagerie because last night we watched the “Cake Boss” episode where they made a replica of the Sesame Street set out of cake and fondant.

So after I, being a cultural Catholic, “got my ashes” at Saint Patrick Cathedral and My reluctant Kid got a blessing, we had dinner at The Brooklyn Diner (ironic right?!)

On the C train riding home we found ourselves in the same car as Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley and their kids, in town for the New York Goofs classes and on their way to the hosting home of yet another New York Clown Family.

“Hello.”

“Do you like my hat?”

Actually that is not how we greeted each other– that’s some Dr. Seuss text…

So anyway…

It was fun to run into another clown family out and about in New York City.

We’re everywhere.

You’d be surprised!

Getting a little stir crazy

My kid is happy as a clam to watch Sponge Bob and eat Halloween candy on this day off from school due to Election Day. Before I found out there was no school, I thought I would work off my Obama waitin’ nerves walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan checking out the lines at various polling places. This morning I saw an event happening in Times Square and I thought My Kid and I might go there (My Kid does love Toys R Us Times Square and in fact when she was little she thought Toys R Us WAS Times Square)

But,

We’re still in the apartment.

And

I’m getting a little stir crazy.

Hello world!

I spent yesterday in and around Times Square. I enjoy getting off the subway and walking past Birdland to the Producer’s Club for a few hours of studio time with some clowns. It makes me feel as if I am part of it all no matter how low the level at which I do my work. I am still doing it. In the diner afterwards we talked and I was reminded of the book Art and Fear and the object is just to keep doing the work. If you produce a lot of work then it follows that some of it will be very good. Conversly if you produce little or nothing the chances of proucing good work must be slim to none.

Waiting to meet the husband and kid at Toys R Us Times Square (when my kid was a toddler she thought Toys R Us WAS Times Sqare– and if you asked her what part of New York she liked best she could be counted on to say Times Square) I saw the toys for the new Pixar movie. I’m in love with WallE and Eve. I know I’m going to start crying from the opening credits and cry through the whole movie. But, I digress.

Took the Kid to New Victory to see IJK physical perfomers from France. A tight show. Gotta love the geometry and juggling. I aspire to a tight show that can play the New Vic and the international children’s festivals like the one in Seattle. It seems realistic now. An old friend (actually the director of the show my husband and I were working on when we met) is now among other things the Producing Director for the Seattle International Children’s Festival.

We ran into Pre-K classmates from our PS 3 days at the theatre. That family is now at the Neighborhood School in the East Village.