New Year's Tidings

A very happy new year to you all! Again, I offer my sincere apologies for not being more regular about posting updates, and promise to try harder in 2010 (new year's resolution, anyone?). 

Life in NY continues to go by at dizzying speed. After spending a heavenly week in snowy WI, Kyle and I braved the 16 hour drive back to Manhattan just in time for New Year's Eve. And no, we didn't go to Times Square. After learning that one needs to arrive 10 hours ahead of time, our enthusiasm diminished considerably, and when it started sleeting, we decided to just stay in. As we don't have a working television, we couldn't even experience the famed ball drop vicariously...but then, I've never really understood the whole concept to begin with.

It was nice having a good chunk of time off to just enjoy the city without constantly having to run around it. We covered an amazing amount of ground in 5 days: from Brooklyn to the East Village to Battery Park City to Staten Island. Some highlights:

- Discovering that it is, wonder of wonders, possible to eat a good meal in Manhattan for under $10. And not just a good meal - a four course Indian feast for a mere $6.50! There's a block in the East Village that consists entirely of Indian restaurants, and it pretty neatly fits my picture of heaven. 

- Heading to the Brooklyn Passenger Terminal to visit the Queen Mary II, the biggest cruise ship that can come to any of the NY/NJ terminals (due to the low height of the surrounding bridges, the really enormous ships have to berth elsewhere). With 3000 passengers and 1200 crew, it's pretty much a floating city. The beauty of going to a cruise ship as a chaplain is that you get to see parts of the ship that most people don't even know exist - like the crew cafeteria which, while not quite comparable to the posh on-board restaurants, still serves a damn good buffet. 

- Going on a vertical tour of the Cathedral. For $15, you can climb into the triforium, the buttresses, and the roof. The views were absolutely mind-blowing. It was tantalizingly like being back in Europe.  

That's a long-winded way of saying that life is good and that, while no longer an exciting arena of unending discoveries, New York continues to keep me amused. Here's wishing you all a wonderful start to 2010!