Blogs from Queens, New York, New York, United States, North America - page 3

Now is the time to get on board at MYLAYOVER!!! All those questions, comments, text about where to go and what to do are now at your fingertips! Who needs yoga? Vegan food? A good mall or movie times in a city? Step right up and let me know what you need!... read more

Sitting in a restaurant in the slightly gross JFK airport, realizing how spoiled we are in Indiana with our brand-new facilities... A close friend reminded me today that 2 weeks from now would be 1 year since my last trip to Europe. It's amazing how much can happen to someone during an abroad experience and the aftermath. Last June I flew to Venice with my mother and her mother for a trip that was bound to be the ultimate bonding experience. At that point I was in a completely different mental state from the one I am in now. With a rocky ending to my relationship with my high school boyfriend, I was only beginning to remember what a strong woman I could be by myself. In contrast, I'm starting this trip with the knowledge that ... read more

We were meeting my cousin Joan and her daughter Jen in Long Island City, so we started out early and headed in that direction. First, the Isamu Noguchi Museum and Sculpture Garden is a block from the river. Noguchi was a sculptor, landscape architect, and theatrical set designer who lived and worked in LIC. He created the Red Cube in the Financial District, and the Sunken Fountain at Chase Plaza, among other public art. The Noguchi Table (1948), with its distinctive yin-yang design, is still in production today. He also designed stage sets for Martha Graham, George Ballanchine, and others. Noguchi opened his museum in LIC in 1985 as the culmination of his commitment to public art, using a 60-foot tree-of-heaven (ailanthus altissima) as a focal point. When the tree started to die, threatening to fall ... read more

Today Gracie took herself to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, as a die-hard Beatles fan, to Strawberry Fields. I stayed close to the apartment and rested my weary back. Gracie took all the shots you see on today’s blog entry. Captions and explanations are hers. There are a couple of laundromats nearby, so I tossed the clothes into a rolling bag and made my way there. While waiting for the process to finish, I waited outside on a chair and watched the neighborhood characters do their Astoria thang. A few families walked by. Stroller babies either ignored me as if they were my own teenagers, or smiled brightly, secure in the knowledge that they’d get attention—they can always spot a sucker. A large man across the street happily shouted greetings to delivery truck drivers as ... read more

Today was beautiful, warm but breezy, perfect for walking. Gracie and I started by taking the Broadway bus to the ell and the N train to the end at Ditmars. We had lunch at Mike's: a typical classic Greek diner with those 10-page menus. We had spanakopita and moussaka. Both were okay. The spanakopita filling was very good, the salad was excellent, but the phyllo dough was tough, probably reheated in a microwave or something. We traveled west to Immaculate Conception Church where a wedding was to begin shortly. I lit candles for Antoinette's mother and Noah's dad Joe, which is no fun at all any more because now they're electric, so you just hit a little switch to light it. No real fire, and no more containers of sand to plunge the match into. We ... read more