Stairs, Stairs, and More Stairs

July 7, 2008

We have been hearing rumors all over town that Cooper and her mom enjoyed most of their time in NYC, but the dorm life was terrible.

Sources in the shower stall report that there was absolutely no room to even turn around, let alone bend over to wash your flip flop laden feet. And with no bath mats, the floor was constantly flooded. Do you know how much a person can drip on the floor just while trying to dry off from a shower? Windows had to be left open to let the steam out, and late night screams coming from dorm rooms verified that those windows also let in some rather unsavory mice! Thankfully, the drawer handles in room 4102 reported recently that no mice were to be found in that room. Good thing, as a certain mother would have no part of that activity in her room.

Metro card kiosks have reported that several purple shirt wearing girls were seen everyday for two weeks riding the subway back and forth to a prominent ballet school. However, that school was much different than the dancers expected. Up three flights of stairs, the benches in the lobby report a daily afternoon heat wave hit the dancers as they came out of classes for breaktime. Air conditioning is not as prevalent in NYC as here in Houston. This mom started meeting the dancers at the front door instead of enduring that heat! Yes, I am spoiled, and I intend to stay that way!

People on the streets of NYC tell us that Mom could be seen in the pharmacy buying individual cereal boxes every couple of days for breakfasts. You can only buy one sack of groceries at a time as that's all you can carry and survive the climb up four flights of 16 stairs to your fourth floor room each evening. If Mom has to walk up anymore stairs for a while, she is going on strike. Stairs and fractured feet don't mix well. Straps on the suitcases report that the trip up the stairs was definitely more trouble than the trip down at the end of two weeks.

Stair rails in two theaters report seeing Cooper and her mom attending Broadway shows. YES, more stairs! How did we always manage to have to sit in the top balcony? Audience members wrote in to tell us that Cooper was most impressed when Bert (of Mary Poppins fame) actually tap danced on the ceiling, and Mary Poppins flew out over the audience to leave the stage. It really was quite impressive. Later in the week, ticket agents have revealed that the twosome was seen scoping out Mario Lopez's dimples in Chorus Line, also on Broadway! Cooper was wishing she was standing in the kick line right beside him. (She has been in a Chorus Line competition dance this year.) Used ballet pointe shoes reported seeing this strange twosome at the Sleeping Beauty performance on two nights. It appears that autographed pointe shoes were a much desired souvenior, so they had to return on a second night to make the purchase. The shoes were not out for sale at the end of the show on the first evening. However, Mom's debit card informs us that the second night, the purchase was made, and now a shadow box will soon be hanging in a certain ballet dancers' bedroom. It seems the principal dancer, the purple fairy has much desired pointe shoes, although to me they just look dirty and worn out! As a side note, the Metropolitan Opera House is beautiful inside.

Cab drivers on Columbus circle report seeing this limping Mom enter a LDS Temple on the busy street corner. It seems she happened on the Manhattan Temple by chance while buying the tickets for the second night of Sleeping Beauty. Sitting just across the street from the Lincoln Center, it doesn't really look like a temple. The bottom floor is a meeting house, and the top floors are the temple. This mom, sources say, just barely made the 11 am session on the last Friday she was in town. What a joy it was to sit there and soak up that Spirit, while knowing outside was the bustling city of New York. The only problem was Dad wasn't there to wink at Mom during the session, and yes, I know that's corny! It's a tradition, and I like it!

Buckets of M & M's in Time Square tell us that Cooper and Mom were seen buying M & M's to match bedroom colors for Cooper and Cymbre. I know, talk about a luxury! This store is three floors high and has nothing but M & M stuff. However, the sales receipt informs us that some presents were bought for family members, and once Mom gets back from Nashville from the National Dance Competition, she hopes to get them in the mail before her foot surgery.

Cooper reports that dancing at the Joffrey Ballet school was fun, but there was so much enphasis on ballet that she really missed her tap. She did enjoy the character dance classes, and yoga caught her fancy as she worked on finding her inner chi! She says hers in hot pink, but I have my doubts. We have noticed improvement in her ballet technique, so I guess the whole trip was worth the money we spent to get her there.

Mom's sense of direction was put to the test while guiding the group around Time Square. Remember that Mom has NO Sense of direction, so for her to be the tour guide was somewhat ridiculous! However, since I was the only one who had been there before, I was elected by default. It is amazing to me how people can come up from the subway station and not pay attention to what is around them, so that they can find the right subway station when it's time to go home. There are about 7 different subway lines, and if you get on the wrong train, you have a BIG problem. And I have a question, why do they call it Times Square when in reality it is more of a triangle? Just curious. However, I did know that the Good Morning America studio was at the opposite end of the square from the subway station, so as long as I could see that studio, we did ok. Thankfully, the Broadway shows we went to without the group were just off 42nd street, and 45th street which are right there in Time Square.

Now rumor has it that Cooper and Cymbre are packing their bags for Nashville. Dance studio sources tell us that they won't get to dance all their dances because some of them will be on Sunday, but the two dancers are excited none the less. They get to dance Happy Feet, which is one they haven't been able to dance all season. Lost bobby pins have been requested to make their presence known so that hair styles can stay in place for one more performance. And where is that blasted bottle of spray gel? Last we saw, it was hanging out with the hairspray, but both of them are on the most wanted list at the current time! Who knew they could be such good friends as to go on vacation together. You would have thought they were competitors for the same job! Cooper is hoping the guy that calls her "Coop's in the house" will be there to teach the master tap classes. He seems to remember her whenever she attends his class(which is once every 2-3 years), and last time requested her to come up and dance on stage with him. Cymbre's tap shoes are just waiting for the chance to also go to a master tap class!

Luggage racks on the top of the van reveal that they are just hoping they can hold all the dance stuff that has to travel to Nashville. Seven hat boxes, and 10 costumes is a bit much to expect them to hold, but Mom feels that they are up to the job. There are also 7 suitcases, but some of them may have to be in the van. The back seat of the van is thankful that we have a folding flat clothes rack, as it wasn't looking forward to being poked by the other racks poles all the way to Nashville. And Dad will be grateful once we get everything in the van and still have enough room for the passengers!

Well, I must try to attempt to get some sleep. I'll try to add some pictures from NYC and Nashville next time.

All of you remember to go and do something nice for someone today....it takes your mind off your troubles.

Love you bunches.

Mom