New York: Day 2

It was our first full day in New York City.  I got out of bed and walked the 5 steps across our tiny hotel room to peek out the window.  On the roof of the building next to us was about 8 inches of fresh snow from the blizzard the night before.  We bundled up for a COLD day…I included sunglasses to protect my eyes, not from the sun, but from the frigid air. 

I’d found a popular breakfast place on the south border of Central park called Sarabeth’s on my New York App.  I’d told Jenn when we were planning the trip that we were not allowed to eat at any chain restaurants…only restaurants unique to New York City.  We took the subway to a station just a block away from Sarabeth’s, but it took us forever to find it!  Neither Jenn or myself are very good navigators, but I’ll tell you, New York City made us downright pitiful.  Normally, I can use a map if I can find my bearings…some kind of landmark to help me negotiate North, South, East, and West.  Well, when buildings are growing from the ground on every side of you like blades of giant grass, it’s pretty much impossible to do this.  

Fifth Avenue

So, after some failed attempts at navigating, we tried using the map app on my phone.  Well, apparently, SIRI is downright pitiful in NYC as well.  We stood on a sidewalk outside the Plaza hotel while searching for Sarabeth’s and the map app told us we were in the MIDDLE of the Plaza hotel.  Trust me, we were far too cold to be in the middle of the Plaza hotel.  After walking up and down the block, we finally found the place.  

It was a cute little place, with $8 glasses of orange juice and a view of central park.  It was pricey, but it was delicious! 

You can't see it, but Central Park was right over Jenn's shoulder.

The Italian guy behind me was
pacing and talking on his phone

We left from Sarabeth’s and went to FAO Swartz, the famous toy store.  It was a child’s dream.  They had every toy you could imagine.  My favorite was the dollhouse section.  They had miniatures of everything you could think of!  They’re really genius, in that they have adults wandering around the store demonstrating toys…kind of like Costco samples on Saturdays.  A young man showed us some beanbag/hackysack things and even got us tossing them around in the store.   More importantly, he got me to buy some for my nephews.  

What we went to FAO Swartz for, however, was the giant piano.  If you’ve ever seen the movie BIG, you know what I’m talking about.  I was prepared to do a full on rendition of chopsticks, but it didn’t work out because there were several other people jumping around at the same time as us and you couldn’t really make out the sounds the keys were making.  It didn’t live up to the hype, but it was fun nonetheless! 

         From FAO Swartz, we headed down 5^th avenue.  Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare through Manhattan, and has been called “The most expensive street in the world”.   We only walked along a fraction of it, but we saw evidence of how the street got its moniker.  Our first stop was Tiffany & Co…the jewelry store made famous by Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.  We went in and ogled the jewels (and got out of the cold) for a minute.  And can you believe it, no one offered to help me?  Apparently I don’t scream “big commission”!  It’s probably for the best, as I probably would have asked them to show me their sterling silver telephone dialers. 

         After drooling over the shiny stuff, we continued down Fifth avenue.  We passed Bergdorf Goodman, a department store famous for its opulent window displays, Harry Winston, whose windows were topped with giant rhinestones, The Trump Tower, and countless shops bearing the names of designers I’d only ever read in fashion magazines or seen celebrities refer to on the red carpet.  If one had money…and I mean A LOT of money…it would take a good, solid fortnight dedicated solely to shopping to get through all Fifth Avenue has to offer. 

         I was excited to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral, only to be disappointed to find that she was under construction and COVERED in scaffolding.  We were able to go inside, but there was scaffolding there as well.  I encountered this problem when I went to Europe as well…old buildings require attention from time to time if we are going to be able to continue to enjoy them.  I don’t like it, but I get it.  In spite of the scaffolding, it was still beautiful.  I’m not catholic, and I don’t understand the finery of Catholic cathedrals (My church is an old National Guard Armory), but I still enjoy the beauty and grandeur of them.  It was warm, candlelit, and quiet…a vast contrast to the street outside.  And it was beautifully decorated for Christmas (even the scaffolding was adorned with wreaths). 

I loved this quote on the Scaffolding of St. Pat's

         Across from St. Pat’s was 30 Rock….Rockefeller Plaza.  I never realized that Rockefeller plaza is a whole city block…a giant complex.  This is where NBC studios is and where many of their shows are filmed, like Saturday Night Live, (Now) The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and the Today Show.  We didn’t really want to get up early and stand in the cold, so we didn’t do the Today Show…but I did peek in the windows when we were there after they taped.  We wanted to go on a tour of the NBC studios, but they weren’t doing them because they were remodeling…I’m guessing they were remodeling a studio for Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show stage.  I would have loved to see that!  We saw the skating rink and the famous Christmas tree, but didn’t skate (yet).  

Atlas

After Rockefeller Plaza, we went to the New York Public Library.  It is a beautiful building…inside and out.  Marble everywhere.   We had to charge my cell phone (the navigation app, and searching for service while underground in the subway really suck the juice), so we sat in the Rose Main Reading room and rested while our phones charged.  I think if this were my library, I’d be too distracted by it to read!  It had a temporary museum exhibit on Children’s literature that was fantastic.   There were examples of children’s literature throughout history, including most of my favorites! 

 

The library is on the corner of these two famous streets

The two lions outside the library were named
 "Patience" and "Fortitude" during the Great Depression

The Library lobby

The Rose Main Reading Room

The actual stuffed animals that belonged to a boy named
Christopher Robin and inspired Winnie the Pooh

Goodnight Moon

Anne of Green Gables

After the Public Library, we kept trudging down the snowy sidewalks of Fifth Avenue to Grand Central Station.  You may have heard someone use the metaphor, “It’s Grand Central Station in here!”.   I got to see how that metaphor came about…people were zigzagging across the main terminal like ants to a picnic.  And it is a beautiful, classic train station.  The ceiling is a  turquoise-green color with constellations painted on it. More marble and half-round windows letting light criss cross into the terminal.  Except for digital train schedules, it’s been beautifully preserved.   Downstairs was a food court that we decided to have a late lunch in.  Being Grand Central Station, the restaurants were all unique to New York.  We had lunch at Junior’s, which wasn’t that great, but we had cupcakes for desert from Magnolia Bakery, which were tremendous.  I had the “Grand Central Station Cupcake”! 

We took the subway back to Times Square.  We saw several subway performers in New York, but my favorite was the group we saw on this day.  They played "My Favorite Things".  Once we were back in the chaos of Times Square, we ducked into a Starbuck's (the only chain place that I allowed) to get warm and charge my phone AGAIN.  Because it was so very cold, once it was dark, we didn’t want to be outside.  So, even though we had tickets to see Annie on our last day in town, we decided to buy tickets for another show on this night.  There’s a booth in Times Square where you can buy liquidated tickets on the day of the show for a fraction of the regular price.  If it weren't for my generous parents, brother and sister-in-law, grandparents, and aunt who gave me money for Christmas and my birthday, we wouldn't have been able to afford an extra show.  They made much of this trip possible, and I'm so grateful! (as is my credit card)

We went around 5:00 and got discounted tickets to see Cinderella at 7:00.  We went back to the hotel to rest and freshen up. The theater that Cinderella was playing at was about a block from our hotel, which was fortunate because it was 12 degrees.  We had great seats, and the show was amazing.  The costumes, the “magic”, and the original Rogers and Hammerstein songs…it was all amazing.  

The actor who played Prince Topher (Santino Fontana)
also played the voice of Hans in "Frozen"!

         After the show, we were hungry!  We took the subway to Serendipity, the restaurant made famous by the movie that was named after it.  We had to wait awhile, luckily, we were able to squeeze inside to wait.  The décor is colorful and kitschy!  They’re famous for they’re frozen hot chocolate, so Jenn got that.  We shared some nachos and I got apple pie a la mode.  It was such a fun place. 

The menus were giant!

         By the time we left Serendipity, it was around 12:30 am.  We should have taken a cab back to the hotel, but decided to take the subway, not realizing that the line we needed didn’t run after midnight.  We had to take an alternate route and wait in the station longer than normal.  It was about 1:00 by the time we got back to our room. 

It was a spectacular day.  

#32 Leave encouraging notes in my students' desks, one a day

I have this note that my friend Tiffany wrote me.  It probably didn’t take her long to write it.  It actually started as a thank you note, but she added a few extra lines to the end.  I’m sure she didn’t realize that it was just what I needed to hear, that I would cry for a half and hour after opening it, or that I would keep it in a drawer and pull it out to read so often. 

My note from Tiffany
Its really a note from God, via Tiffany...
but that's another blog entirely!

           Kind words can have this effect on people.  I wanted to give this kind of encouragement to my students, so I decided to write a nice note to a student every day and leave it in their desk.  As I thought about how to execute these “nice notes”, I had a better idea.  Instead of getting one nice note from me, my students would 25 nice notes….one from me, and one from each of their classmates.  Like most fourth grade classrooms, we have our share of unkind things said on the playground and spats between students.  I thought that if students had to write nice notes for everyone in their class, they would have to spend some time examining what they like about each other.  

           

         I introduced the idea to my class and they were excited.  Every morning, before we started class, I passed out 4x6 index cards to each student and we wrote something nice about the “person of the day” (we went in alphabetical order).  I wrote three sentence frames to put on the board to help them come up with nice things to say.  There were a few things we had to discuss as the days went on.  For example, if you say “This is hard” while trying to think of something nice to write about someone, it will probably hurt their feelings!  I had to make a rule that if you wrote “You are great”, you had to say WHY they are great.  And, I had to tell one student that if she wrote “You’re good at four square” on every single nice note, it lost its sincerity.

When it was a student’s turn to have nice notes written about them, I made them write one to themselves.  These ended up being my favorite ones to read (I read them all before binding them with ribbon and delivering them, just in case someone wrote a not-so-nice note…which, incidentally, never happened.  They always wrote nice things to each other….I was very proud of them).  One student wrote to herself “Good luck in your acting career!”, many wrote, “You’re good at  (insert sport here)”.  One little girl wrote, “You’re sort of a good artist”…I crossed out the “sort of”.  

I also loved reading what they wrote to each other.  I only required one sentence, but some students regularly wrote 2 or 3.  Some of them were pretty basic, like “You’re good at math” or “You’re funny”, but others were really thoughtful:

“I like that you never get down on yourself or give up”
“You’re good at making people feel good about themselves”
“You cheer people up when they are hurt”
“You always play fair at recess.”
“You’re nice to everyone, no matter what”
“I love you’re unique sense of style”

       

               Reading these nice notes myself was great.  So was delivering them to eager students and watching them pore over them, grinning from ear to ear.  But, my favorite parts of this whole experiment have been the times that I have watched students pull their nice notes out of their desk and reread them, days or weeks after receiving them.  Even when I had to tell students to put them away and pay attention to my lesson, I did it with a smile on my face.  Like my note from Tiffany, they can pull their notes out when they need to be built up.  When they’re feeling down about themselves, they can be reminded of all the wonderful qualities that others see in them, and be encouraged. 

P.S.  Do you know how many BFF’s a fourth grade girl has?  According to our nice notes, they’re pretty much “BFF’s” with every other girl in their class. Seriously, it was an epidemic.  I didn’t address this, though, because the sanctity of “best friendship” is a lesson more effectively taught by experience.