Honoring Willy (Even during a Tornado)

On the night of the "Tornado" - Nikki & I were attending Willy's retirement party being held at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows. He was Director of the Arts for the Board of Ed NYC. But with all the budget cuts, it was time to pack it in and enjoy life.

It was without a doubt - a crazy night for traveling and normally I would have been cozy and comfortable at home - blissfully unaware of the chaos going on around me. But no...I was out in the middle of it! After picking up Nikki in Forest Hills and seeing the destruction & traffic - I was worried about heading to the Grand Central Parkway. I tried calling Daniel to see if he could tell me what the conditions were like but he didn't answer his phone. Nikki & I decided to have sushi to let some time go by and hopefully for things to calm down.

The party was from 6-9pm. It was already past 7pm when we were done with eating. Daniel ended up calling me when we were just finishing up and said everything was fine there. Okay...I said we were on our way.

OMG...just getting onto the LIE to the GCP which should have taken all of minutes..took over half n'hour! All I wanted was to get onto the GCP since I only needed the first exit to get to the museum but when I finally got there...it was blocked off. Apparently trees had also fallen in the park.

I was able to gain access and not being familiar with Flushing Meadows...it was very dark and there was a lot of debris on the grounds - I ended up driving right next to the completely lit-up working fountain & Uni-sphere. I wish I had a video of me doing this. I don't think I was really allowed to be there as Nikki kept saying!

At 8:30, we found the museum and I just left my car anywhere nearby. We ran in and because the number 7 train suspended service, half of Willy's guests didn't make it. There was a ton of food which Nikki & I could only gape at being so stuffed with all our sushi. But a live band was playing and Willy was dancing and everyone was laughing - it was a fun time. I loved that Nikki and I were able to go see the Panorama of NYC and we had the whole exibit to ourselves! Very cool!


How Daniel greeted us upon our arrival


The Fabulous Willy dancing over to greet us


The Food & Mr. Tom Cahill..President & CEO of Studio in a School



Guess who?

Panaroma

Aftermath

Last night's storm and it's path of destruction makes it hard to believe it wasn't a tornado! I didn't get a chance to take my own photos so I went back the next day to see the effects upclose and personal. It was pretty incredible. Here are the thousand words:

Nikki took these photos right after the "storm" passed
Note that minutes before the sky was black!:



I was in that Queens Blvd. traffic to the right


Photos taken on my walk to Forest Hills:
By Nikki's old Junior High School, Russell Sage

In the front courtyard of the JHS which took forever
to renovate!


Along Yellowstone Blvd:





Queens Blvd's MacArthur Park



































Funny thing...Chess goes on despite the mess!


And people hanging out in the park:


The reporters descend:





To add insult to injury, a semi gets stuck making cars turn around going the wrong way on Queens Blvd's service road:



As I head back home, terrible results on side streets:

Shoes & Pizza

Armed with a $10 off coupon and a $10 rewards gift certificate, I met up with Winnie at DSW - Union Square for some serious shoe-shopping. After an hour of walking up and down the aisles trying on various pumps, boots and sandals, I settled on a blinged-out pair of flip flops that was so cushiony - it felt like I was walking on a cloud. Winnie got a beautiful pair of beige suede heels. We had worked up an appetite .

After a small discussion on where to go eat, I asked if we could try Pulino's on the Bowery. I had just seen a feature on them on one of the cooking shows and after watching Julia Robert eat her pizza, I had been craving pizza. The kind you would get in Italy. Winnie was game and we headed over there.



I ordered the Pizza Margherita and Winnie ordered the Salame Piccante. My pie, cut into squares was exactly what I wanted. Thin crust and perfect topping of cheese, tomato and basil. Winnie had pepperoni and olives which were tasty but a tad salty. We finished every last bite!


Pizza Margherita


Salame Piccante

Now I remembered what I really wanted from there that was showcased on the cooking show. Their Breakfast Pizza! Anyone want to join me?