quality time
For a long time, my 11-year-old second cousin was the only child in the next generation of McDimple kids. Since the population boom in my family, she's been relegated to the sidelines so I thought it would be nice to have some one-on-one time with her in NYC this weekend. She's got two younger sisters who hog the spotlight and totally mess up her shit so she jumped at the chance to be away from them for two whole days.
Because I can't plan my way out of a paper bag, my idea to get tickets to Wicked went belly up. We walked into the box office about an hour before curtain to discover that the show is sold out through the end of the year. Last minute Hairspray tickets were equally elusive. There was a time that I was so plugged into the Broadway scene that if Stephen Sondheim farted, I not only knew about it in advance, but I also had tickets complete with pre- and post-event drink plans with a gaggle of fabulous gay boys. Not anymore.
So we bagged the matinee idea and headed over to that den of schlock otherwise known as Ellen's Stardust Diner. One mediocre grilled cheese and an insufferable rendition of "Back on the Chain Gang" later, I found myself schlepping around the Toys 'R Us in Times Square. If you ever need to exact revenge on me, just force me to go into this store again on a Saturday afternoon. If you want to really break my spirit, make me stand on line to buy something. Shopping at this place is only slightly less traumatic than a pelvic. Fortunately, the kid has a short attention span and a hypersensitivity to temperatures so she quickly grew bored and hot in the store and we left shortly after she saw the mighty T-Rex roar a few times. Yee haw.
Next up on the agenda was a trip to Dylan's Candy Bar where the cousin loaded up on baseball-sized Jawbreakers, something called Pucker Powder and various chocolate bars to distribute on the school bus tomorrow. I also bought myself some chocolate thinking it would be the chocolate bar to end all chocolate bars. Sadly, it wasn't. It was surprisingly bland and tasteless. I don't recommend.
Because the Broadway show idea was a bust, I needed to find something to do with the kid that didn't involve feeding our faces and getting hopped up on overpriced candy. So I hailed a cab and up we went up to the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History. We saw SonicVision which is like a big screensaver projected onto a domed ceiling accompanied by a bunch of songs mixed by Moby. I looked over at the cousin during the show and her eyes were THIS WIDE and she had a big ass smile on her face. I know she had a lot of fun during the day but this made the trip officially cool. I -- and the baseball-sized Jawbreakers -- will no doubt be the talk of the school bus tomorrow.
What I really like about my little cousin is that in one instant she's a little girl absolutely giddy over Fun Dip and the next, she's giving dirty looks to a woman waddling up Fifth Avenue in a pair of ill-fitting black acid-wash jeans. The look of disgust on her young face was priceless. Between that and her identification of a Kate Spade knock-off, I was positively beaming with pride. I want my 4-year-old niece to stay young forever but I'm sort of looking forward to the day when we too can be all judgmental and spot fake designer bags together. I mean, isn't that what being an aunt is about after all?
Because I can't plan my way out of a paper bag, my idea to get tickets to Wicked went belly up. We walked into the box office about an hour before curtain to discover that the show is sold out through the end of the year. Last minute Hairspray tickets were equally elusive. There was a time that I was so plugged into the Broadway scene that if Stephen Sondheim farted, I not only knew about it in advance, but I also had tickets complete with pre- and post-event drink plans with a gaggle of fabulous gay boys. Not anymore.
So we bagged the matinee idea and headed over to that den of schlock otherwise known as Ellen's Stardust Diner. One mediocre grilled cheese and an insufferable rendition of "Back on the Chain Gang" later, I found myself schlepping around the Toys 'R Us in Times Square. If you ever need to exact revenge on me, just force me to go into this store again on a Saturday afternoon. If you want to really break my spirit, make me stand on line to buy something. Shopping at this place is only slightly less traumatic than a pelvic. Fortunately, the kid has a short attention span and a hypersensitivity to temperatures so she quickly grew bored and hot in the store and we left shortly after she saw the mighty T-Rex roar a few times. Yee haw.
Next up on the agenda was a trip to Dylan's Candy Bar where the cousin loaded up on baseball-sized Jawbreakers, something called Pucker Powder and various chocolate bars to distribute on the school bus tomorrow. I also bought myself some chocolate thinking it would be the chocolate bar to end all chocolate bars. Sadly, it wasn't. It was surprisingly bland and tasteless. I don't recommend.
Because the Broadway show idea was a bust, I needed to find something to do with the kid that didn't involve feeding our faces and getting hopped up on overpriced candy. So I hailed a cab and up we went up to the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History. We saw SonicVision which is like a big screensaver projected onto a domed ceiling accompanied by a bunch of songs mixed by Moby. I looked over at the cousin during the show and her eyes were THIS WIDE and she had a big ass smile on her face. I know she had a lot of fun during the day but this made the trip officially cool. I -- and the baseball-sized Jawbreakers -- will no doubt be the talk of the school bus tomorrow.
What I really like about my little cousin is that in one instant she's a little girl absolutely giddy over Fun Dip and the next, she's giving dirty looks to a woman waddling up Fifth Avenue in a pair of ill-fitting black acid-wash jeans. The look of disgust on her young face was priceless. Between that and her identification of a Kate Spade knock-off, I was positively beaming with pride. I want my 4-year-old niece to stay young forever but I'm sort of looking forward to the day when we too can be all judgmental and spot fake designer bags together. I mean, isn't that what being an aunt is about after all?
posted by curly mcdimple @ 11:39 PM :: permalink :: ::
