avrelia

Yesterday was a special day. I haven't done so much running around since... a very long time. I had adventures enough for a movie – or a miniseries – only to make a power of attorney.
So, I needed a power of attorney that will be used in Russia. I had the following options:
1) Go to Russia and make it. Too impractical and expensive to seriously.
2) Go to the Russian Consulate in NYC
3) Go to the notary public in NJ, then get an apostille
4) Go to the notary public in NY, then get an apostille.

Going to the Consulate is probably the most straightforward option, but I wanted to avoid it for two reasons: first, it is too uncertain. No idea how much time will it take, whether I'll need to come twice and so on. Second, and very meaningful in winter – Russian Consulate in NYC is in a mansion on the Upper East side. Nice looking, but with no area to keep the visitors. So one has to wait for hours outside on the street. And while NYC winters are rather mild, standing for two hours outside is something I'd rather avoid if I can.

Going to the public notary anywhere means I have to find a public notary that speaks and reads Russian, as they are not allowed to notarize anything they couldn't read. Makes total sense, but makes my options even more limited – all Russian speaking notaries are somewhere far away.
Still, I would look for a notary in NJ, if I didn't need the document as fast as possible. For some reasons, adding an apostille to a document takes two weeks in NJ – or insane amount of money.
That's why I decided to go to NYC, and try to get everything done in one day. My friend offered help of the Russian notary who works with her in Brooklyn, and I agreed to come – having figured that I would have to go to Brooklyn anyway, as it has the biggest cluster of Russian services around here.
So I dropped my son at school, left my husband home to pick him from school, and boarded the train.
Eventually I got to Brooklyn, not quite Brighton Beach, but close enough. Met with the notary, signed my power of attorney, and off to see the county clerk in downtown Brooklyn according to my plan, as she says, “by the way, I am registered in Richmond county”. Which is Staten Island. See, in order to get an apostille, the notary seal must be authenticated by a county clerk where the notary is registered... So I am off to Staten Island. The subway station I get of course, doesn't have Manhatten-bound service, so my train goes to Cony Island instead, where I change lines and eventually find myself at the South Ferry. Ferry goes every 30 min, and I have 15 minutes till the next one. I grab some food, and desperately try to calculate time and distances.
Ferry, then ran to the county clerk's offices, then back to the ferry. Managed to get the 2-30 one. Now I need one last stop to make – the department of state that should add the apostille to my papers. The problem is, they only do it until 3-30. The ferry docks in 2-55, and I literally sprint up to the William street where the Department of State is. Arrive, panting and sweating there at 2-10. No lines. Five more minutes, and I am all done!
Slowly make my way to the nearest subway and go the Penn station...

We started watching Fringe after we moved to New Jersey, during our Internet-less week and after. We are pretty slow: we have just now watched The Ability (1 - 14).

The thing is, as we watched it, we realised that we saw the actor who played the book store guy there almost ever day while we lived on Manhattan. Yep, he was our neighbour, our doors a meter apart. Heh.

Could've asked for an autograph, or, you know, just gazed adoringly. ;)

Instead of saying hello at the elevator every other day.

Real in the sense I actually recognized him when I saw him on the street. We were walking to the library with D, and I saw a paper stuck to the wall, that a 30 Rock episode is filming right over there right this moment so please don't park your cars. Naturally, we went there to pass through - it wasn't really out of the way, and saw Alec Baldwin on his lunch break. Such excitement! such a profound Manhattan experience! ;)

Funnily enough, I probably passed by many celebrities in my life before - in Moscow, Vancouver, Toronto, New York. I just rarely recognize anyone. I rarely recognize my own husband on the street when I don't expect to see him. I am more likely to pay attention to a piece of paper on the wall...


that reminds me. Once I was walking with D in the Central Park, and saw a man with a certain interesting flair about him. I stared, and he stared back with the expression of someone being used to being stared at, you know? maybe I should have recognized him as well? Who knows now?

That's what I saw walking through farmers' market at the Union Square the last week. There was "meats" written on the banner, of course, but that's not what first came to my mind. And what comes to yours?

I bought the juiciest carrots and black radish, and I saw actual golden turnips - first time in North America. D and I had some delicious oatmeal cookies with hot cider, I wasted a lot of money on silly gifts and a cute hat, and then he ran around a surprisingly awesome playground. I think I like Union Square a lot, but I like Bryant Part more - it's closer and has a carousel.

anyways, gourmet (...)ats. I saw one locally grown gourmet rat lying dead and cold on our playground today. I am not afraid of rats, but on the playground they freak me out 0 dead or alive. On the other hand, I think New-York kids get inoculated with rats, them being everywhere. But we moved away to Central park where there were only squirrels and sparrows.

Then we had a lunch at the Chinese restaurant, feeling that it is an appropriate way to celebrate Christmas in New York when we don't really celebrate it. :)

We survived our first US Thanksgiving. To turkeys were harmed during the celebration. Of sorts. In our quest to use the year we live on Manhattan to the fullest, we decided to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Except not really waking up before 6 am, and hanging in the 3-million crowd in order to freeze for several hours. No, D and I went to see the giant balloons laying on the ground around the Natural history museum on Wednesday evening. And the next morning slept till 10.30 am, which made the day for me a resounding success from the very beginning. We watched some parade on TV, then we walked a bit on an empty playground, then it was evening already...
the highlight of the evening was our first ever watching of Miyazaki movie – Ponyo. D was very happy and understood all the important parts. He reached the age when magical transformations are totally normal – why, he turns into a moose every day now! Or in a fox! - so fish-turned girl- made a perfect sense to him.
And today we visited the real puppet theatre! Cuz huge crowds and crazy sales are not my kind of fun (not that I don't like discounts and low prices, but the frenzy scares me).

I haven't watched "Pangs", but I don't have to - it was on a constant rerun in my head lately ;)

Praying mantis in the Central Park. It is really scary huge.

Last Saturday at the small Czech festival in NY. A puppeteer tells a folk tale about a mean woman and a devil.

What was I planning to write about? Do you know? I don't.

It's been six months since we moved out of Canada and into New York, and only six months left to explore Manhattan, since we will be looking for a cheaper place that still makes Manhattan accessible. But I also know we won't be walking to the Metropolitan Museum that much.
Canada seems further and further away with every day. Even though it stays and we are not moving. I miss it, but I hardly ever make an effort to look up the Canadian news. There might be elections there, and I wouldn't know. Well, I checked just now, in case you are wondering.
Weirdly enough, I miss shopping there. I know, it's wrong: living on Manhattan and dreaming about Loblaws, when there are so many cool shiny things there, that are not available in Canada. But I miss things that are familiar and loved, you know? For D's birthday I ran around looking for a cake. One might think it shouldn't be a problem when there is a bakery on every second corner, right? Wrong. Most of the cakes are cupcakes, or covered in thick frosting (it is supposed to be tasty, I know, but it looks like sugar with chemicals – yack) or chocolate... I found more or less what I was looking for, but I knew that Loblaws has exactly the cakes we like. And then there is the Future Bakery...
and I miss Joe's Fresh Style for kids' clothes, La Vie en Rose as my underpants' source, Winners, Dollarama, BMV, HMV stores and others that I haven't yet figured out as Canadian. We are so used for the having mostly the same stuff across the border (shopping wise) that we are lost when bumped into the difference. There are a lot of Canadian-only stores and brands! And they are awesome!
Funnily, I can easily find Russian stores in New york, but the stores that sell all things Canadian? Hardly. Maybe I should look for them, of course. :)
I miss the healthcare, especially when I hear a horror story from USA or (different type of horror) from Russia. I mean, we all know it is not perfect, but it is safe. You won't be left without help, not after you lived in Canada for three months, anyway.
I miss small things. Things I was used to, or things I did there. These days I keep replaying in my head our walks in the park, and travels to the various D's activities. The travels very mostly bothersome (two buses and long walks), but now I remember the pretty autumn, the light, the air, the leaves, the fox crossing Dundas Street. I don't remember the boredom, but I remember picking up raspberries in the park five minutes from home, duck watching, our friends that we won't see much now. I don't know what I want. It was hard in Mississauga, socially, but over the time the connections started to grow. And now,anyway, I have to do all that work again, and it is just as hard in Manhattan as in Mississauga. Besides, knowing that we will move again soon isn't helping. Everything feels so transient...
Now, to the good things. Maybe I don't connect to people that much or that fast, and maybe it is all my own fault, but I am trying to get as much of Manhattan as I can. It doesn't necessarily involve visiting all the museums (though I should go more often, but I have to consider how D will behave there), but lots of walking in different parts and neighborhoods, lots of people watching, and general staring around.
One of the best experiences was to stand on our patio deck in the dark, after the gym, and watch the sky above New York (blurry, full of planes with hardly a dozen of starts visible) and the city beneath me (it's on the 33rd floor).
I traverse Central Park every week. I don't get lost in the subway anymore. I've been to many places. I now recognize places in the movies – though it doesn't add to a movie one way or another.
There are also too many places I haven't been to yet – and I have six months to see them all. Wish me luck. :)

D and I visited the Metropolitan Museum yesterday. D - for the first time. He behaved relatively well - for a toddler in an art museum. I, of course, had to run after him to prevent possible damages and couldn't linger as I love.

He was impressed by:
1) knights on horses
2) Greek vases - huge!