Happy Birthday Shellster!

A few years back I stayed with Shirley Scott and marveled at how absolutely special she was able to make any birthday. The birthday that I witnessed taking place was for her friend Nico from Argentina. Now Nico was very sweet, grateful, and slightly overzealous when it came to his enthusiasm for the World Cup. For his birthday Shirley was able to arrange for him to travel to New York City and basically had him create a Wish List that Shirley ensured that he completed.

I sort of didn't bring my birthday to her attention until a few days prior to the actual day, but I must admit that this really didn't deter dear Shirley. She was able to make a few phone calls, look up some information, and squeeze me into this NYC light, window display, and movie tour.

I must say that my birthday was very special. I remember that the day started with a morning appointment at the Apple store. There, I was looking to upgrade my Ipad so that is could actually be function as an E-reader for The Economist that I had just purchased the previous day.

Well thankfully, the technicians were able to reformat my Ipad, but they expressed that it was indeed a dinosaur in the whole scheme of things. Oh well, part of life in New York City is learning how to live extremely frugally, thus I was not able to justify spending $359.00 on a new Ipad.

Anyways later on that day I went to Physical Therapy and was very excited when my trainer actually wished me a happy birthday, then at the end of the session when I went back out in the waiting room to get my stuff Shirley and her friend Julia were there to pick me up and wish me a happy birthday.

After a few hours we were all set to take our bus tour which was absolutely magical. They ended up including information about movies, provided little trivia gems about different buildings, and simply created an atmosphere of holiday merriment. Here's a picture of all three of us having a magnificent time on the bus.

Well, we were certainly having a good time but I don't believe that the woman behind us was exceptionally happy! Anyways the bus tour was definitely the best way to spend my birthday and I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful friend who literally dropped everything in order to make my day special.

One of the major components of this tour was getting outside and enjoying the holiday storefront windows. This picture was taken at "Bloomingdales" but as part of the tour, we ended up going to three different locations: (1) "Bergdorf Goodman's" (2) "Bloomingdales, and (3) "Macy's."

I found the window displays to be truly magical, a little over the top, but that's what this city is truly about. Either "Go big or go home" is the mentality here. I'll never forget once I was taking a dance class at the Broadway Dance Center in Midtown and one of the teachers said something that I will never forget, "If you mess up, do it big!" So whenever I do anything I make sure to do it big, because at least from my failure there will be evidence that I tried.

After the bus tour we made sure to walk Julia (a flight attendant friend of Shirley's) down to the bus stop near the New York Public Library. She had to work on a flight that was to fly out of Newark, the following day.

So, after making sure that Julia was on her bus and headed in the right direction we went to Chipotle for a birthday dinner and then after that I couldn't help but spot a beautiful sparkle dress in Zara's window. I absolutely adore sparkles and when I taught I had a sign in my classroom that said "Keep Calm and Sparkle." Now it's hanging in my room and reminds me that even without a fancy sparkly outfit, I have the chance to sparkle on a daily basis!

A few days later marked a long weekend that I spent in Connecticut. Just prior to that epic weekend I spent my days running errands and bien sûr (of course) taking the subway. Now riding the subway is not necessarily a glamorous way to travel, therefore, I have noticed that I do not have any pictures that document this event, so one day while having to wait lengthy periods of time in between subway stops, I found that I naturally struck up a conversation with the fellow sitting beside me. I told him a little bit about myself and mentioned that I was a writer and therefore did not miss an opportunity to pass out a business card. I also told him that I was a faithful blogger and I asked him if he could take a picture of me riding the train.

Now, it's important to note that subway and train are used interchangeably. The word train is always used to describe a journey taken on the LIRR or MTA, however "train" is a word that you sort of get the feel for, sort of like "good" and "well," you just intuitively know when it's appropriate to use either one.

Here's a picture of me riding the subway

Onto my weekend in Connecticut. Initially I was planning on there to see the Macy's Parade, but that was definitely a no-go. Of course waking up and finding the motivation to make the trek to Grand Central, to New Canaan, to my aunt and uncle's house does require a lot of motivation, and trying to complete that whole charade prior to 9:00 in the morning, was just impossible.

So when I got to the house of course my Aunt Liza and Uncle Lenny were there, because they actually live in New Canaan. Then my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Gene came down from Newtown and then my cousin JR came with his two kids Jack and Maggie.

Here's me with Jack and Maggie. They truly are the sweetest kids, and even though I am much older than them, I find myself still being lumped in with "the kids." Jack is a YouTuber extraordinaire and I thought that this opportunity could provide me with my chance to learn from the best, but alas I am afraid to say that the actual content of our film was unfocused and resulted in a truly chaotic movie. It started out with the simple plot of me arriving at the train station and then I'm afraid that Jack added multiple explosions. Oh well, there's always Easter to try again!

I must say that this is not the most flattering picture for the majority of the crowd, however, it does capture how much love and joy is present in the room. My Aunt Marilyn even went so far as to buy me a special German Chocolate Cake for my Birthday. My birthday did not happen to fall on Thanksgiving this year but next year my mom already informed me that it does, so watch out! Wherever I am, there will be some candles in a turkey! I must say that's become kind of a tradition!

That's an oldie but goodie featuring the epic haircut with bangs that did not last, because they were much too high maintenance. And yes, that's Helene Showalter who would never miss a good photo opp!

After celebrating, it was back to life in the city. Even though life here is exciting, it doesn't mean that it's void of problems. Whenever I find myself feeling down, stressed, or overwhelmed I look up and think to myself that "this is exactly what I have wanted for all of these years" and sometimes the best thing to do is simply marvel at the endless possibilities that surround you in the city of dreams.

This is the view that I'm greeted with every time I exit the subway and with it I can't help but think that I'm the luckiest girl in the world!