A fine day in Manhattan

New Year's Eve was a busy day. We sort of officially kicked things off when Team Amy (Amy, Andy and Wade) met up with Team Erin (Erin, Bryan, Clay, and LL) at our strategically chosen rendezvous point (the Dunkin' Donuts in the subway station beneath Rockefeller Center). We then proceeded on a speedwalking tour of Manhattan. The first place we stopped was at Amy's law firm (Venison and Elks...no that's not really what it is, but it sounds a lot like that).

This is Amy's super-swank office where she works every day. Here, I asked Erin and Amy to pretend to be working. They are both lawyers, meaning a real meeting might look sortof like this (minus the Red Sox cap...only Yankees caps are allowed in NY law firms), but Erin works in a different firm. So if this had been actual work, the photo you just observed would have been accompanied by several hundred pages of legal agreements intended to make sure Erin does not use Amy's copy machine.

The next place we went was the Museum of Modern Art (aka "the moma," pronounced MOE-mah). But unfortunately, we could only get three tickets. It was decided that Andy, Wade and I go, since we had never been. We tried not to laugh too much at the patrons who gazed searchingly at, say, a plain white canvas (yes, there were some). But there were a few things I liked. Here are some where my pictures didn't come out too badly.

I don't know what this is supposed to be, but it looked cool in person. Of course, had the Moma been vandalized the night before and half of the paintings graffitied, I would not have been able to tell.

This is just a wire-frame stick figure and its shadow.

This is also just a hanging "wind chime" kindof thing with its shadow below. I like it because it reminds me of recursion (in the dorked-out mathy sense), but the recursion breaks down quickly if you scrutinize it...I like that about it too (that it's not too patterned). I also think that you have to build something like this from the bottom up (make the lowest-hanging pieces first), otherwise you will never get the balance right.

This is one of those things that just looks cool. I don't really think you're supposed to read much into it. It makes me think of the Jetsons. Or of a martini. Depends on the day.

After the Moma, we headed over to FAO Schwarz. It's the huge toy store where Tom Hanks plays Chopsticks on the over sized piano in the movie Big. That piano is still there and a couple of pros were playing Chopsticks when we walked in. They're bound to hate that song by now.

There was a really big Harry Potter display. We didn't buy anything, but we did try on some hats.

LL is being sorted (I'm sure you reconize the Sorting Hat) and I'm just smiling like a dufus.

This picture is of the shadow of LL and I falling across the Strawberry Fields memorial for John Lennon in Central Park. The memorial is right across the street from the apartment where he was killed. But that's not why the area is famous...

...It's famous because it is where Erin and Bryan got engaged. Astoundingly, Wikipedia doesn't say anything about Erin and Bryan and pretty much focuses on the whole Lennon part. If I get a chance I'll edit the Wikipedia page to more fairly reflect the significance of this place. Here, E&B relive the moment, looking just as in love as they were at the age of 12.

Let's see...we saw a whole bunch of other stuff on this day too. We walked around the West Village and the East Village. We also visited Ground Zero. At the moment, it's just a gigantic construction site. One thing that's really amazing is the sheer size of the empty space left where the WTC buildings were.

Here I poked my camera through the fence and took a picture of the construction. These guys are working hard, even though it's New Years Eve.

After that, we walked through the oldest parts of the financial district. Here, LL and I pose in front of the NYSE on Wall Street. That's right...it's a One Way street. In fact, it's also narrow and crooked, not that I'm trying to overanalyze it or anything.