Honeymoon Diaries #2 – New York City
April 12 (Friday)
I have lots of thoughts on family dynamics during the long car ride from Fairfax to Jersey. Like all situations, it’s the adversary that brings out the true behavior of a person, that you know how much a person needs to “swallow air” and keep cool even with the smallest and pettiest of all arguments.
I’m easily classified as a hot headed person, if you think otherwise then you’re witnessing a journey that’s decades long in me being more prudent with my relationships with people. When I spend time with others, they become a mirror as to who I might still be, sending me a chilling reminder that, compared to children, adults are just way too sensitive in managing their differences in opinions and temper.
It’s important that we continue this tolerant, peaceful way of cohabiting with each other, and with society, whether its your close friends or acquaintances or even the neighborhood / city dwellers. We all want to find a way to have everyone happy in their own way, and so far the best way seems to be this nucleus family + handful of close friends model. We are told to be absolutely patient with your loved ones, and ignore / shun the parts of the society that disagrees with you.
But, is this really sustainable?
Why are there civil societies who rather reach out to others and impose their versions of truth and reality? Is God better? Is green better? Is education better? Is taxes good for us? Is my or your way of life better? People still reach out and say, nope, that’s a bad way to live your life, you should try mine. Or conversely, I’m discriminated here, maybe I should move there. When you’re committed into units of society like families, you don’t do that – you compromise and sacrifice your own idea of truths or believes and value the relationship more. But it’s hard to conform to a diverse society.
We had it easy in nanny island state. There’s almost one single way in living your life, that’s repeatedly reinforced on TV and confirmed by many peers. It’s easy to identify, what this Singaporish life is, and choose to blend in the way you like. But not so in big countries. Race, religion, upbringing, legal status (EB2 vs EB3 even! omg), neighborhood, employer, etc all come together to create diverse boundaries that make life very different from family to family that we visit. Some overcame obstacle with fortitude, some shirks at even the mention of other races or job type. Opposing thoughts are abundant and it plays out really hard when such opposing thoughts run in the family, in the inner circle of friends that made life meaningful.
In all its economic glory and liberal philosophies, there’s still much to do for Americans / Canadians and their immigrants / foreigners to mend the differences between one another, and that must start from home.
It must start from home, because the children are listening.
Oops sorry for the sidetrack – back to the trip!! Nice waterfront at Baltimore where I heard a great flugelhorn busker ringing the concrete walls around him with the blues, think it was “My Funny Valentines”, maybe not.
Some indecision made both wifeys starve for food while the two hubbies search in vain for Denny’s along highway 1. We ended up in IHOP after figuring out how to get to this Secaucus garden inn. NYC beckons.
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April 13 (Saturday)
I’ll remember this day as the day the kids froze – to no one’s fault really. New York City was cooler than the day we arrived almost a week ago, and with mostly outdoor stops, a wind-leaked (but Graco branded) pram, and residual jet lagging, we expended lots of energy in calming them, instead of enjoying the breeze and taking in the city.
The ferry to liberty island from Jersey State Park was closed, which was disappointing because we were kinda discouraged after that and did not complete the boat trip + hiking up the Lady. We couldn’t even get a good look of her from Manhattan.
Three street dancers outside the ferry terminal reminded me of what this country stood for, that everyone is just trying very hard to put money in their pockets, with some almost blatant “robbery” when they canvas for tips. You’re free – but you’re on your own – even more so when social security isn’t working for you. In contrast, NYSE stood like a forgotten relic since most trading has shifted electronically into a data centre in New Jersey.
One WTC was almost done, standing next to where its predecessor stood before the calamity that defined my university days. I told myself to be back when everything reopened again.
Knowing that we cannot enjoy Central Park in this kind of weather, we cheered ourselves with hot-dogs and an early retreat.
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April 14 (Sunday)
Changing plans, the Chees decided to head to Hershey’s while we found our way to Nick’s place. Now I can lay claim to have camped over at downtown Manhattan, directly overseeing Brooklyn Bridge!
Union Square was a new find, so was the BarCraft that we manage to catch up with Jie Siang, Dianne, Dahlia and Shaw Yean. Now I know why locals don’t hang around Times Square – because they have other squares that are so much more awesome. It was a Sunday and that place was really buzzing with activities from dancing girls to a rock duo, meditating ladies in sports attire on hundreds of stationary cycles, and that occasional squirrels (yes there are squirrels in this concrete jungle!) in a dilemma between shoveling to find that but he put away before Christmas, and scavenging human food.
A stroll after with JS and Dianne at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park can dispel and misconception outsiders have about Brooklyn. It is certainly not a homogeneous neighborhood that Americans in other cities claim, and other Asians believe. The architectures of old preserved its story for being an early choice for residential expansion from Manhattan, while the cosmopolitan people of new permeates modern American dreams and concerns.
We were sadden by the passing of Amos the cat, having suddenly fallen ill just three weeks before our arrival. I guess this was compensated by us seeing JS and Dianne settled into a new place with new possibilities and new projects to keep life going, and topped off with home cooked steam fish, vegetables, and wonderful peach crepe jam and sorbet dessert.
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April 15 (Monday)
I can’t believe it, 12 years later, through many coincidences and decisions and opportunities, I’m back at Majestic Theatre, this time with the love of my life, to relive such inspiration of musical at exactly the same theater (but different seat, heh).
Phantom also represented the company in asking the audience for charitable donation after the show, which I thought was not a good idea as it destroyed the character he built throughout the show. Christine felt like an understudy, good but not as powerful as Phantom, but dear liked her much. With a second experience, I think the polyphonic ideas in a musical isn’t a good idea after all, as no one can hear any lines clearly, not even a word sometimes for long stretches.
But falling chandeliers, large masquerade parties, and pyrotechnics are always crowd pleasers. Phantom’s entrance sequence until the end of Music of the Night is still my favorite segment – no wasted music, no wasted lyrics, everything’s just perfect.
Well I jumped ahead as that was our final activity for the day. We did spend all morning at New York’s Museum of Natural History – which is good as always (but they replaced the main hall’s T-Rex with a Brontosaurus). Dear initially wanted to see if she can match that to the film (Night at the museum or something), but came out satisfied with so many realistic animals mannequins, including an actual pair of humpback whale’s skeleton, on loan from New Zealand, where whales has significant tradition and a high rate of “beaching” (whales stranded on the beach).
Queuing at tkts is so much more pleasant nowadays, but ticket prices for broadway is still sky high. We spent our evenings around 42 street, walking as far as the UN headquarters and Grand Central before returning to the show.
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April 16 (Tuesday)
Chinatown reminded me that you can choose to ignore mainstream culture and live like you did prior to coming here, at potentially a lower quality of living. Some of them call this “positioning” themselves for growth, I call this “cut throat competition”.
But such competition also attracted the best and brightest. Nick and Hau Jia’s home office reminded me of the dreams and hopes of those I met in school in taking over the world, building what they believe can be the best of its class.
We bid everyone goodbye at Dim Sim Go Go (including Han Chun), as I left the Politiko card game to Nick’s keeping. Hopping over a few public transport, we arrived at Newark airport to pick up our first car rental.
Driving once again (with an expired but relevant qualification: 2003 Pennsylvania Driver’s License!) on the other side of the road brought back memories of evading traffic police in Ohio, speeding madly without care at 200km/h in the vast Arizonian dessert, and contesting parking tickets at the Seattle courthouse, not to mention tire burning smells in Stanford, idling for no less than 10 minutes as Bisons blocked out way back to Yellowstone campground, and driving out of the ferries into Vancouver Island to Victoria.
Driving meant everything to freedom in North America.
We took a quick stop at Dilon Music to check it out (dear never saw that many trombones hung up on the wall before), and rushed over the Princeton to meet Ren-yi, who’s forever so sunny in her outlook even though we were late by a good hour ++. The unexpected tour of Princeton campus, fresh fish for lunch and ice cream at Bent Spoon (Thanks Ren-yi once again!) reflected once again the slower paced life we witnessed in Fairfax vs NYC.
We drove into the Sunset to Pennsylvania to meet Najib, Maizy and their cutey pie Nadya, who’s recovering very well from the heart operation. “Wash your hands please,” insisted the father, “before touching her – she’s still sensitive to germs.” And washed we did 🙂 We ranked Najib’s family #1 in efficiency in childcare – seriously, when both parents are so full of determination, spirits were extremely high despite challenging circumstances.
That night, my body started feeling uneasy due to the dryness, which became something that persisted throughout the trip, no matter how much lotion I apply.
I dreamed of humidity on the skin and in the heart.
