Chronic Adventures: New York City for Part 1 of Spring Break

One of the perks of having to travel for medical stuff is getting to travel! I spent spring break in New York City and Washington DC having a wonderful time with family.
First stop was NYC where I met my parents who had flown in from Cali. Unfortunately I had hurt my back right before I left so I spent more time in the chair than I wanted for non-POTSie reasons. I also continued with my near constant ataxia and shaky time so I walked like a zombie when I did walk. Slightly frusterating, but I was in NYC so I put up with it. :0)
The hotel we stayed in was really nice with a good breakfast and a FANTASTIC view! Thanks last minute travel deals!

Our view looking out at Central Park

I took my extra neuron my friend gave me everywhere for good luck.

Fancy breakfast!

The first day was packed as we did our best to do everything before we finally had to sleep. We headed out to Times Square right away to snoop out some Broadway ticket deals. There was some...erm discussion about what show we would see as I wanted to see Mama Mia (yes, again!) and my Mom was not into that at all. We decided on seeing Once because that was the other show in our price range. I wasn't all that enthusiastic because though the movie had excellent music, the whole package was rather boring. But as the time for the show grew closer, I got more and more excited because it was a Broadway musical after all. Also want to note that NYC is very into letting my people cut in line. So we were first one to the window when the half-priced tickets went on sale. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but my parents were very happy. It was absolutely flipping freezing and escaping to some of the warmer shops was much nicer than waiting in line for an hour.

Aaawwweee!

Before the show we met some family for an amazing lunch at an amazing deli. Like a real deli. Like a real New York City deli. I thought the highlight would be when they brought out pickles and coleslaw as a pre-meal thing instead of bread. But then they brought the food and oh my god it was heaven! The latkes were humungo! I barely finished a half of one. And then I couldn't even try to eat more than a few nibbles of the knish because I'm pretty sure it was bigger than my (already full) stomach and heavy enough to use as weight lifting device. I also had a hot dog just for good measure. Catching up with family we hardly ever get to see was also fantastic!

Perfect POTSie appetizer!

The Mother of Knishes!

Then there was the show! By the time we entered the theater (we got to cut in line again) I no longer had any reservations about the show. There is just something about a live performance that is extra exciting in addition to any other positive qualities like good acting or an interesting plot. And man was it amazing. If you are familiar with the Once soundtrack, you will know that Falling Slowly is a great song. Now magnify that by 100 and that is the beautiful and goose bump eliciting experience of seeing it performed live. Plus the dialoge was heartbreaking and hilarious and the story was compelling. So that's my review of Once. Now everyone go see it because it is amazing!

After the show, we met up with the awesome Brimmer family who I am related to in some way that I think involves them being my Dad's cousins. But I just call them my cousins because I can't be bothered to figure it all out. The whole family braved the frigid weather in order to have a superb Italian dinner. I was pretty worn out by then and spent part of my time curled up on the booth seat like a toddler and part of my time catching up with my awesome family.
In one of those moments when I realize the world really is small, Jessica (my cousin) was telling a story about how one of the parents of one of the kids she teaches has a movie coming out based on a book she wrote. I don't know how I knew, but I strongly suspected that somehow this student she was talking about was the same student who gave an outstanding performance during the ship's talent show, who's mom was a professor on the ship and wrote a book that had a movie coming out based on said book. I tried to be cool. I really did as I asked Jessica if this family happened to have traveled on the Spring 2012 Voyage of Semester at Sea, but I was bouncing in excitement on the edge of my booth seat even before she confirmed the connection. I still can't believe that my cousins taught one of the kids who was on my voyage at their tiny private school. Crazy.

The morning of the next day was spent in Central Park which will have it's own upcoming post for various reasons that may or may not include me obsessively finding all of the Doctor Who filming locations. I guess we'll just have to see.

After I got my fangirling out of the way, we ended up at the holy shrine for the Block Family, Zabars. Now if you have been to Zabars you know what I'm talking about and if you haven't been to Zabars, there is no way to adequately explain it. It's a specialized grocery store, but better. It has the best streudal in the world and knishes that could make a grown man weep with joy. Angel laugher is a key ingreedient in any item produced by this magnificent place and I have a suspcission at least some of their products are sprinkled with the sensation of snuggling with puppies. Seriously, it's that good. Wait no, it's better.

After we spent far too much money on delicious food, we headed to the nearby Museam of Natural History. My drooling over the dinosaur exhibit was interupted with a quite horrendous headache and dizzy spell, but I perservered because, well, you know, dinosaurs.

And Teddy.

Somehow it was already time for another meal so we met up with my Dad's awesome Aunt and my awesome...I'm just going to go with cousin. Thanks to some lovely meddies I was feeling much better than I had been and made it through the whole extended dinner without looking too much like a baby in need of a nap. Once again, it was great to catch up with family I hardly ever get to see. One thing I noticed was how I recognized little similarities here and there in mannerisms, quirks, and values. It was like seeing little bits of myself and realizing where they came from.