I'm Practically Famous Now

So, I went to NYC this last weekend with a group of friends. We had a fabulous kid-free time, except Amy, who brought her nursing baby. But I think even Amy felt like she got a good break. Anyway, I have pictures to post, but I wanted to post some fun anecdotes before I forgot them. Here are my favorites from the trip:

#1
Our friend, Seleta, lived in NYC for a while and so she navigated while Mrs. Finkle drove into the city and to the parking garage we'd rented. Seleta had very specific instructions for Anna while we weaved our way through NYC traffic. My favorites were:

"Those pedestrians are crossing against the light, don't slow down, they don't matter."

When a little old lady crossed against the light and gave us a little wave, Seleta said, "Okay, slow down for her."

Many times a street was cut down to one lane because a car was double parked. Seleta's instructions were to never hesitate when going around these cars. This is basically a very scary game of "Chicken" with experienced NYC taxi drivers. When Anna got stopped because she couldn't get around a car because of oncoming traffic, Seleta said, "See, you hesitated."

#2
This story explains the title of this post. While walking from the apartment we rented to the subway we were passing an upscale apartment building when, at that very moment, none other than this stud walked out.

I don't want to brag, but we had a moment. There was eye contact and, I believe, a brief smile. So, in my calculation Matt Dillon possibly thought about me for 1/1, 000,000th of a second. I'm practically famous now.

#3
This last one happened on our way home. We were somewhere in central NY and we came to an exit that said, "Scott, 1 Mile".

Me: Look, Scott is in one mile!!
Joanna: We should stop and get a picture.
Me: No, we're already running late.

Then we came to the sign that said "Scott" with an arrow pointing to the exit.

Joanna: Are you sure you don't want to get off on Scott.
(pregnant pause followed by raucous laughter)
Joanna: That's not what I meant!

Sure Joanna, sure. Filthy, just filthy.

House For Sale. Cheap.

So, a home I saw recently is apparently selling; in a rather non-traditional way. If someone could please explain why someone would sell their house this way, I'd like to know. The houses in our neighborhood generally sell in a matter of days, if not hours. Plus, the starting price is way (way) below what it would sell for if they sold it the traditional way.

You can dial the toll-free number to hear information about the property and the "rules for bidding which are...interesting. One of the strangest is that you cannot bid on the house if you don't attend the open house on Saturday or Sunday. You have to make an offer at the open house and then, on Sunday night, they start "round-robin bidding". This is where they call the people who made bids (the first person to make a bid Saturday or Sunday gets the first call) and tell them what the current highest bid is and allow them to up it. All the people are called this way until they have a "highest bid" due to everyone else backing out. So, it's basically a telephone auction. Am I missing something, or is this just plain weird?

"Ducks. Boats."

That is what Adam says to us almost every night. He still talks about going to feed the ducks. We were finally able to find a place without huge signs discouraging "feeding of the waterfowl". There were little signs, but they were much easier to disregard. Plus, everyone else was doing it.

Anyway, Adam loves to feed the ducks. He doesn't quite understand that they are afraid of him and will walk toward them and get frustrated when they jump back in the water.



After we fed the ducks we walked along the Erie Canal.


Adam stopped to feed the ducks a little more. This spot isn't nearly as safe and made both Scott and me a little nervous.


And the icing on the cake was that a "boat" came down the canal. Adam couldn't have been more pleased.