Category Archives: New York

September 2, 2009 · 9:00 pm

kovics, renkas and povas, oh my!

tennis-ball

Where are all the American women in tennis?! (sans Williams squared, of course).

What, you say? Could Amy actually be writing about tennis? From the basement, no less?

Listen folks, I may not play tennis but I am surely surrounded by it. My husband and dearest friends play. A good chunk of my disposable income goes to all things tennis-related in order to keep Gary from jumping off the 59th Street Bridge, and it’s the first week in September in NY, so not paying attention to the US Open is like living under a rock.

We were discussing the women of the Open over dessert tonight (ok, so it was not just Gary and I, my in-laws and a neighbor were here) and it came to my attention that American women do not play tennis.

What?!! In my zip code I am looked at like I have 3 heads because I don’t swing a racquet. I guess they meant professionally.

I took a little spin over to the US Open official website and what I found was, nestled around the Williams sisters in the top 5 seeded positions were: Safina, Barrois, Czink, Rybarikova, Dementieva, Oudin, Jankovic and Shvedova.

That is way too many consonants for this Jew to pronounce. And the rest of the list was equally non-American.

So tell me, tennis women of America (or at least Jo), if there are so many women playing recreational tennis here, why do we not have women playing professionally.

Just asking.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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Filed under conversations, current events, New York, New York City, places of interest, sports, women

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July 27, 2009 · 9:26 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Funny the way it is

late-show-theater

Indulge me one more Dave Matthews related post as tonight I had the thrill of seeing him live at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Yep, Gary and I not only went to the Late Show taping, thanks to a very special old friend, but got in for rehearsal and watched the band practice up close and personal.

Two Daves! What could be better?

Funny the way it is that one day someone is your assistant and you have them doing all sorts of ridiculous things like filling hundreds of little boxes with chocolate and tying ribbons on them, yelling at fed ex and making sure that the messenger has the right address; and then one day 12 years later they get you into the Late Show the night that Dave Matthews is on.

(or even funnier that I could think that last run on sentence was grammatically correct)

I am so proud of how far she has come in her career. And how effortless she makes her job look. She is one of the most entertaining people I have ever known, with a sense of humor that still takes me by surprise. You never quite know what will come out of that crazy mind. She was only a year or two older than my daughter is now when she came to work for us, and was surely the most over-qualified person to ever fill that position. It was a real joy to work with her.

People drift in and out of your life all the time. And if your lucky, they drift right back in and surprise you with how much you truly missed them.

Thanks SB, for a great time and a real thrill. I am so happy to have you back again.

Oh, and I am pretty sure Dave Matthews wanted to meet me, tell him I am sorry we had to rush out.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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Filed under friendship, music, New York, New York City, places of interest

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July 12, 2009 · 8:06 pm

World’s Smallest Dog Bowl

world's-smallest-dog-bowl

I came across this woman giving her dog a drink at the Brooklyn Flea today.

I have tortured all that travel with me and shot hundreds of pictures this weekend but for some reason this one stood out.  If you know me, I am not a fan of small dogs (they are more like high maintenance cats in my book) but the way this woman was using the cap of her water bottle to give her little yap yap yorkie a drink was a perfect moment in time.

The tattoo, the nail polish and the way the woman’s hair blended with the dog’s struck me as being so sweet.

Ok, so maybe I had a little heat stroke and felt compassion for the little yapper. I am not totally heartless.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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Filed under carry a camera, nail polish, New York, photography, places of interest

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June 8, 2009 · 10:09 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday: Priceless

There are a handful of moments in advertising history that have touched the souls of those who see them. One of the more famous examples is the Mastercard Priceless campaign. This past week, one of my mommy idols could have starred in one of these commercials.

The scenario: The Dave Matthews Band was playing on the Plaza in the Today Show Toyota Summer Concert Series. Both my friend and her 10th grade daughter are huge fans of the band. In fact, they are a full DMB family of fans. This particular friend has found herself to be an unlucky member of the Sandwich Generation. Many of us are in the midst of raising children at the same time we are dealing with aging parents with health problems. Being an only child of a widowed mom, she is the healthcare concierge extraordinaire. Last week was a particularly harrowing one on that front.

Enter the opportunity to go into the city at some ungodly hour (3:30 AM) to stand in line for the concert. She was all set to take her daughter and a friend until the weather turned nasty and she began to rethink the event. At this point her college-aged son pulled her aside in a sage-like manner and told her that she would never forgive herself if she missed this opportunity of a lifetime that her daughter would never forget. (please note: said son aspires to be a documentary film-maker).

Funny how our kids spout back at us what we have taught them.

So, without hesitation, sporting rain gear of all kinds, off they went on the 3:30 train into the city. I received an early text telling me she was there. Within an hour I texted back that I had not only seen her daughter dancing on camera, but had DVRd it. Her daughter could not be happier. Until… (yes this keeps getting better)

…she screamed out, ‘Dave, I love you” during a lull in the performance and he turned around and smiled at her. Kind of like a young girl’s dream come true. Wait, it gets even better.

During the show they gave out foam guitars to the audience. The daughter’s friend was holding one. After the show, Dave came around and signed the guitar! And the friend? He decided that since he would not have been able to go to the show with out her, gave the guitar to this very lucky girl.

I know, Time to Cry all the way around. I love this story. Not only because the main character is one of my main women, but because every step of the way it was about what I like to call ‘the good stuff’. Truly a priceless experience.

Here is a picture of the two happy teens on the train ride home. The inset shows the Dave Matthews sig.

After-the-show

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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Filed under aging parents, family, friendship, moms, music, New York, New York City, parenting, relationships, rock 'n roll, teenagers, Time to Cry Tuesdays, women

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May 10, 2009 · 8:02 pm

Will you marry me? (Jordan Feil proposes to Heather Goodman in the NYT!)

Jordan-Feil-proposes-Heather-Goodman

Here is something you may not know about me. I am a rabid reader of the Sunday Styles section in the NYT. It is kind of funny for a woman who cares little about fashion and certainly does not fall into the category of a traditionalist.

But the Vows column always gets me. I love to read the stories of the featured wedding. And of course the other couplings always entertain me. ‘The bride is completing her second PhD. in clinical canine psychotherapy (the first being in neonatal brain patterning) while training for a marathon and chairing this year’s most prestigious charity event. Her husband is a hedge fund manager, brain surgeon, olympic medalist who makes jewelry in his spare time and created her engagement ring. All four of their parents are Nobel Prize winners!”

Seriously, don’t any waitresses marry any auto mechanics in New York?

Today, as I finished reading this section I came across the proposal above in the bottom right corner of the page. Yes, ladies and gents, it would appear that Jordan Feil has popped the question to Heather Goodman in the NYT today! I am on pins and needles for her reply. I googled them and so far nothing. How will I find out if she says yes? Heather, please, I beg of you, throw me a comment here.

In case you are wondering, no I have no idea who these people are. But I am a hopeless romantic and I love the whole idea of this. That is if she says yes, of course. If it is a no good old Jordan will be needing a drinking buddy.

This particular proposal gets me all misty-eyed as it falls on the eve of my wedding anniversary. Yes, ladies and gents, May 11th is the magical date that Gary agreed to put up with this crazy bee-otch, in sickness and health, till death do us part. (hoping there is no meat cleaver hiding under the bed, I have been unusually cranky lately with headaches and a sore throat – a terrible patient)

Happy Anniversary Gary! To the man who is always up for any adventure, may you never lose your love of life and spontaneous nature. You are always a good sport and ready to jump into whatever antics I ask you to partake in. Thanks for always being there (especially when there is a dead mouse in the dog food) but mostly for loving me…

no matter what.

More than life itself, baby!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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March 13, 2009 · 7:46 pm

Satan Calling

666-6666

Yeh, that title should get me some interesting traffic.

Speaking of traffic (I know, pathetic segue), while sitting in it today I was behind this car. 666-6666. That is quite a potent number. Of course I had to do a little research on this devilish number.

Here are a few interesting facts:

On May 23rd, 2006 the mobile number 666-6666 was auctioned for charity in Qatar. It sold for 10m Qatari riyals or $2,746,045.59. According to the article in The Register here are some other interesting little factoids in the 666 arena:

On a techy note, the first Apple Computer sold for $666.66, the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is w – so www. shows how evil the internet is. And finally, Viagra has a molecular weight of 666.7g/mol.

So all you internet porn addicts on apple computers…

looks like you are going straight to hell!

On further exploration I decided to check out the local area codes for this number.

516 – no such number.

631 – I got this interesting message, ” The voice mailbox of Hello There is full, please try again later”. Friendly little devil out there in Suffolk County.

718 – very foriegn voices that sounded kind of like a terrorist cell and creeped me out that maybe they had caller ID and I was screwed.

And 212? Apparently that was the one that was advertised on this bumper, Carmel car and limo service! I wonder if they had to pay through the wazoo to get that number.

Or perhaps they just had to sell their souls.

Alright, cheap jokes tonight. But at least I got us out of the bathroom.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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Filed under absurdities, carry a camera, companies, humor, marketing, New York, New York City

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September 5, 2008 · 5:46 pm

Hair. 40 years later.

I will be shamelessly self-promoting my new photo blog, leaving the zip code, here from now on. You won’t be disappointed, I promise. Let’s see if some of you will take the ‘submit’ challenge.

Last night, thanks to Dr. Jimmy the quintessential NY connection man, I was fortunate to see a performance of Hair in Central Park. (I love that they call it “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical”)

A truly magical New York moment. The weather was perfect, the crowd was thrilled to be there and the performers were spectacular. We appreciated it all the more as we had been rained out a few weeks ago. Kind of like getting a cool hair(re)do.

40 years later we are struggling with many of the same issues:

• A senseless war (thank goodness without a draft)

• Generational misunderstandings (if I read one more friggin’ blog post where parents complain about their teenagers I will scream. Get a grip out there for G-d sakes. You sound worse than you thought your parents did.)

• Dissatisfaction with ‘the man’ (whoever he/she is at the moment)

• Young people trying to find themselves. (baby boomers, hippies, punkers, gen x, y and z – no joke, they had to stop naming them because they hit the end of the alphabet. how about gen AA – like theatre seats)

Now here are some interesting observations that ran through my very noisy head during the show:

1. Hippies begat capitalists

2. Better yet, hippies BECAME capitalists!

3. Clothing: for young women – almost the same! Walk into Urban Outfitters, you can see my entire 9th grade wardrobe. Moms, fyi, if you wore it the first time around chances are you should leave it on the racks for your daughters. Go classic, much more becoming.

4. I am pretty sure I must have owned the soundtrack to this show because somehow I knew the words to almost every song, even the obscure ones! (…I met a boy named Frank Mills, on September the 12th right here, in front of the Waverly, but unfortunately, I lost his address…)

5. And last, but not least, I rekindled my undying love for the City of New York, where you can walk into Central Park on a Thursday night at the tail end of the summer and be reminded about how good it is to be alive. (ok, so maybe I drank the NY Cool-aid last night, give me a break. I had a hard week).

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Filed under current events, fashion, New York, theatre, trends

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