History Tour of New York

In January, Erin asked me, "do you want to go on a history tour of New York?" and I said "YES." 

The first day we spent downtown, on the Lower East Side and in the Village. 

Erin carried around this huge book with walking tours & interesting historical facts, and read aloud about all the places we went. This is right in front of Paul's Boutique, which is now a depressing wrap-themed restaurant.

We did the Shop Life tour at the Tenement Museum, one of my favorite places to go in New York, and then since Russ & Daughters is right there we really had no choice but to pop in for lunch.

We sat at the bar and it was perfect.

After that we walked over to The Strand - how have I never been there before?? I could have spent the rest of the trip in that place.

This man was a Union Square Park and we later discovered he has been dancing around in that unicorn swimsuit talking about shifting the planet to love consciousness for years and years.

Then we saw ALEC BALDWIN! It was a disconcerting moment when I recognized him as familiar before I realized why he was familiar. I forgot what it's like to see celebrities on the street.

We went in the Washington Mews on NYU's campus, a tiny peaceful street in the middle of the Village.

Then we sat in Washington Square Park people-watching for ages. The fashion scene in New York is by and large extremely unattractive right now. It's like the 80s, but everything is tighter and in more muted colors.

On our way to the next location we witnessed two girls come inches from getting hit by a car. I think Erin might have saved their lives by screaming. It was scary!

The site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is used as a campus building for NYU now.

We were trying to find the oyster bar inside Grand Central but ended up at Michael Jordan's steakhouse for drinks and popcorn instead. The kitchen was closed, which meant we got a great seat because not many people were around.

We talked at length with our server Raoul, who claims to "split his time between New York and Bangkok and Dubai" but also spends a lot of time in Raleigh. He has been an app developer and worked in HR, among other things, and is now trying to get some kind of clothing start-up off the ground. He appeared to be approximately 30 years old. He told us all sorts of stories about the celebrities who visit Michael Jordan's Steakhouse, including Scottie Pippin (horrorshow of a person), Hillary Clinton (SO rude - threw a fork!), Ivanka and Jared (extremely kind), and Tom Cruise, who got so drunk that Raoul had to help him to the car. It was at this point that I realized Raoul was definitely making all of this up. Tom Cruise has never been falling-down drunk in public in his life.

I went to the bathroom and observed Erin shaking Raoul's hand. They discussed a lot of aspects of working in HR. He gave us free drinks!

After this we were kind of drunk and needed food, so we walked to Koreatown and found a restaurant. It was excellent! They brought us these items when we sat down and Erin said, "what are all these things?" I don't know but they were all tasty.

The next morning we went uptown, taking the train to Columbia University in Harlem.

We walked through Morningside Park, which was quite nice...

...to St John the Divine Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, which I had nevereven  heard of before. !! It was so big it's hard to even see it all at once. We went inside briefly but didn't pay for the whole tour.

After this we walked to the City Museum of New York, which had special exhibits on the History of Protest in New York and on Post-Suffragette Feminist Activism. The end of the feminist exhibit was about Hillary Clinton's campaign, naturally, and there were all sorts of women our age wandering around with actual tears and talking to each other about the terrible America we live in right now. It was strangely empowering, and really gratifying to see that not just this place, but many museums (and libraries, and book stores) in New York are quite obviously fighting back against the notion that what's happening in the White House is normal and sustainable.

For dinner we went to a tiny place in Little Italy, and then to Ferrara Bakery for dessert. As this day went on the temperature dropped precipitously and it was pretty cold by dark, so we had to get some nice warm drinks.

The next day the weather was horrible. We'd planned to go to a museum in the morning but the whole rest of New York also apparently had this plan, so instead we went to an Irish pub for lunch and then shopping, and then it was time to go home. This trip was a great mix of brand-new places and NYC favorites!

Chemo Friends Meet-up in Mexico, Part Two

The first day in the hotel I ate a banana and a Mexican cereal bar I got at the tequila shop, but the second day Diane and I decided to try the breakfast buffet. It was INSANE. There was a whole table of desserts.

And tropical fruit.

And beans and meats, etc. So good.

Then Diane and I set out across the golf course to Katy's house. This was a beautiful walk along an easy path, but we never did figure out how to actually get to Katy's street without cutting through someone's yard. The people were outside one time when we were walking along their patio, but after initial confusion they were cool with it.

Katy had these dolls in her bathroom.

Our plan for the day was to spend the morning shopping in Ensenada, about 45 minutes down the coast. We stopped for a photo op along the sea.

Ensenada is the main stop for cruise ships leaving from Southern California, and is quite touristy in a not cute way. Lots of cheap trinket shops and pharmacies selling Viagra.

We managed to find some gems, though!

We did find one very nice store filled with Mexican artwork & crafts, Bazar Casa Ramirez. I could have spent a lot of money here if I'd had a way to get everything home.

We stopped at Hussong's Cantina for a margarita. There are lots of horrible tourist bars in Ensenada, but Hussong's has been around since 1892. Supposedly it's the oldest cantina in Mexico.

We also had some amazing street tacos (not pictured).

After this we went home to change and went horseback riding.

I have not ridden a horse since ... I don't know. Sometime when I was not a legal adult. Like maybe when I was 16. It seemed so dreamy, the idea of riding a horse on the beach in Mexico. Here is everyone getting saddled up.

They had a 1:2 ratio of helpers to riders, which seemed comforting, but most of these helpers were 13 year old boys. I guess they know what they're doing, I don't know.

The problem was, mainly, that my horse was BAD. He kept wanting to eat everything and wander off all the time. Everyone else's horses were so well-behaved!

It turned out that because there were so many of us, they had to get three additional horses from someone else to use on this ride: Mine, and Linda and Sharon's here. They were friends and didn't want to be around the other stranger horses, so we were always at the back of the pack. Fortunately Sharon is a very good rider and offered us tips.

  
I look so happy! But really, I wanted to murder this dumb horse. I was convinced he was going to kill me.

It really was beautiful, and is something I will never forget. But also, I don't think I need to ride horses anymore. Most of the way back, one of the 13 year old boys had to lead my horse by the halter because he wouldn't stop walking off the path into the bushes.

Anyway, we made it back, and fortunately at the end of the trail is this place to get amazing, cheap food and drinks.



We had a bunch more margaritas. I was so relieved to be alive I probably had more margaritas than I should have.

The food was fantastic, too! This was $4.

  
Then we went back to Katy's for more sitting and talking and drinking of wine. This is Jack, our unofficial mascot through chemo. I think everybody was as excited to meet Jack as we were to meet each other.

And this is what binds us: the traveling bracelet. We started during chemo - someone would add a charm and then send it along to someone else who especially needed support. It's been all over the world now, and has spent the last several months on the arm of Maryellen, the only one of our group who has been diagnosed with metastasis. Every three weeks, she goes for Herceptin treatments with the bracelet on her arm.

I was the only one in Mexico who had not yet added a charm, so I brought it home to add one and send it back to Maryellen.

This whole weekend was, strangely, filled with singing and dance parties, which is not usually my jam. We had the best time, though! This night got particularly crazy after all those margaritas.

The next morning I felt very terrible. But it was absolutely, completely worth it. Such a great day. Unfortunately, we had to get back in the conversion van and drive back to the United States. I took tiny sips of water and tiny bites of another Mexican nutri-grain bar.

The Mexican border is quite a sight. Trump is, I'm not sorry to say, a total idiot when he says their border security is better than ours. We were through to Mexico in 5 minutes but it took nearly three hours to cross back into the United States. There were people selling all sorts of stuff in the vast sea of cars waiting to get through. You have to think this fresh fruit is not the best.

Once we were through the border, San Diego was only a few minutes away. A few of us were staying one more night, so we got rooms at the Hotel Indigo near downtown. This place seemed like a magical fantasyland after sitting at the border in Tijuana.

When we arrived everyone took a few hours to chill by ourselves. I wandered around to find lunch, and couldn't get over how much quieter San Diego seemed than Mexico - and then I realized the real difference was that I'd been surrounded by a dozen jabbering people for three days, and was finally by myself. It was a little sad! What wasn't sad is this chicken shwarma sandwich.

Those of us in town met up for one last dinner and then hung out on the roof of our hotel for a while, talking and laughing.

This trip was one of the best weekends of my life. All the women in our group are so different from one another, but we all clicked instantly and just had the best time. The connection borne through shared trauma cannot be underestimated. When you've all been through the same sort of hell, differences in politics or lifestyles or economics are completely irrelevant.

Anyone who says there are positives that come from having had cancer is in denial or lying - but I'm pretty glad I signed up for those breastcancer.org message boards.