After enjoying Harry Potter New York, Mom and I walked down to the Union Square Christmas Market. It was also a farmer’s market and had many wonderful things for sale.

A woman had a huge display of dried arrangements plus some splendid wreaths. I told her I’d love to buy one, but it’d have been tricky getting it on the plane.

If I’d really wanted to take it on the plane, I’m sure I could have. Many, many years ago, maybe…20 years ago? 30 years ago? I made a fruitcake while living where I was living at the time…Austin? LA? Too many years ago to remember. I carried it on the plane wrapped in plastic and hopefully also aluminum foil. I remember walking a great distance through tunnels of some airport, toting this delectable, rum-infused fruitcake. I have a vivid memory that it wasn’t in a tupperware container, but instead just wrapped in so much plastic wrap. Didn’t I own any tupperware back then? It will forever be a mystery. I know that I landed in St. Louis because I remember cutting a slice for my dearly departed relative Ivan who lived in St. Louis (he’s some kind of cousin and was a sweet, sweet man).

Even though of course things are way more strict on planes now, I bet I could get a fruitcake through security. Not that I ever make fruitcakes anymore, plus I don’t have to fly home because I’m already home.

Anyway, beautiful wreaths but I already have too many wreaths.

We met up with Bev’s daughter Erin and walked through the sort of overwhelming Christmas Market for a while. I bought a few things including a stocking cap that reads “cat dad” for Kevin and eventually we sat on a bench to relax and people-watch.

It had been a nice day but the wind picked up and we headed to a nearby convenience mart for some snacks and the chance to sit in the warmth.

It was great to see Erin, and also great that she led the way back to the subway. I’m pretty good at navigating the subways but I was content to follow along. She was also getting off at Grand Central Station.

I thought we’d have time to relax at the hotel before getting tickets for a play but looking online it said that the TKTS booth at Lincoln Center would be closing at six. Somewhere else it said that this booth was closing earlier but I decided to go with the one that said six. So we didn’t have much time to relax and hustled back down to the subway. I kept checking my watch as we emerged from the subway on the upper west side and hurried towards the booth.

And it was CLOSED for a private event in the building. Dang. I had to break the news to Mom, who at this point didn’t want to walk any more at all and we trudged back to the subway and rode it two stops to the Times Square Ticket booth. It wasn’t quite a crazy as it’d been the night before and once again Mom sat down somewhere while I got tickets for “The Play that Goes Wrong.” Kevin and I had seen something like this on TV not that long ago and it was incredibly funny so I thought this’d be a good choice.

It was Off-Broadway, not so far from Times Square, and we headed in the direction of the theater while looking for a nice restaurant. We arrived at the plaza where the theater was located and there was a cute little restaurant bedecked with many Christmas lights. It was called the Barking Dog and it was, indeed delicious. We both got steak.

Also big delicious desserts…

I thought it funny that there was a pay phone on the wall. I assume it didn’t work? Pay phone art.

Many images of dogs above the bar. It’d be a great place to take your pooch.

The restaurant is in the background and we entered the theater on the other side of the square. It looks like a very small building and i wondered how big the inside could be.

Turns out it was just like the Tardis, much bigger on the inside. Well, not exactly like the Tardis because the whole thing was underground. I think the usher told me there were five different theaters in the building, and it must have been underneath that entire square. We walked down many stairs to get to our theater.

The show was so funny. It started in London and eventually ran on Broadway, and it has toured and now it’s off-Broadway and so very very funny. The TV show that Kevin and I had seen is called “The Goes Wrong Show” and there are two seasons and they are all incredibly funny.

When we left the theater we took an escalator up to ground level and I didn’t remember seeing the escalator when we’d entered the building. We started walking towards the subway entrance which I’d seen on our way there, and kept assuring Mom that it wasn’t far.

But then things got weird and I was suddenly totally disoriented because I’d known where we’d come from but the direction we were going didn’t make sense. Finally I asked a passer-by, “Is this west?” and she had to think about it for a minute and then told us it was.

The problem was that the theater exit was on 49th Street and the entrance on 50th. There weren’t any signs about that anywhere, you just had to figure out that you were exiting the theater all the way across the plaza. So when we left the theater i was confidently striding in the exact opposite direction that I was supposed to be going. It was only about ten extra minutes of walking but at this point at night Mom wasn’t interested in one more minute. We finally made it onto the subway and back to the hotel. Whew.

A very busy day. It’s hard not to have busy days in New York, but I feel that if Mom and I go back I could make that happen. But it always seems like there are too many things to see no mater how many days I’m there.

Ok then,

Mrs. Happy New Year 2024 Hughes.