A Day with Murphy

Murphy’s Law. This law was created to make my life that is already challenging- because of slow thought processes- a lot more difficult. I do not like this Murphy who created this useless and unnecessary law, but I live with it. And if I must say, I do come out smiling in the end or something that kind of looks like one if you squint an eye or two. Saturday was that kind of day for us. It started off with the best of intentions to be on top of my game, but because of circumstances it all fell flat.

Kevin is a great friend. He plans all these really wonderful things for us to do like shooting expeditions, camping trips and all sorts of interesting and crazy adventures that I would never even consider. So a couple of months ago Kevin found this amazing Groupon for Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, the Broadway musical. An experience of New York City will never be complete without a turn to see a play on Broadway to refine your cultural sophistication. And according to Kate, plays and such things add a few more brain cells to my brain cell deprived brain. This was definitely a must. The day approached, the excitement was intense. Our show was in the afternoon, but I had work for a couple hours in the morning. With some careful, thoughtful planning we worked out a schedule that would ensure no leeway, but we would get there in time. Now I want to say before I go on that I cannot wake anyone up. It’s a trait I do not have, and one I do not want to acquire either. And it was my job to ensure that Kevin and Kate woke up on time. That’s the first time Murphy’s Law came into play. We left the house like a little late (about half an hour), but things were still going well. Excitement had fallen a few notches by now, replaced by a couple frazzled nerves.

Now there are a couple different ways to get into New York City from New Jersey. You can take a cab and be expected to take out a small college fund to pay for this ride, the advantages are that you can disregard going to college and find another plan for your future. The trains are also another way in, but in the city that never sleeps being expected to go home at 12:30am on the last train really puts a damper on things, I swear this scheduled was created by parents to impose strict curfews on teenagers. But the best options is catching the path train that runs 24 hours a day and leaves every 10 minutes, this fitted more into our lifestyle, it did not leave us on the edge of bankruptcy or deprive us of a great time. So we arrived at Hoboken, paid an arm and two fingers for parking and walked over to the station that was… closed!  Oh boy, Murphy again. Fortunately for us, there was another station very close by, unfortunately for us there was traffic and road works and terrible New Jersey drivers.

So to cut this endless tirade of examples of how Murphy seemed to be throwing these giant obstacles in our path, we made it to New York City, sprinting down ten blocks to reach the theatre and only missed one scene. Not too bad, we earned a free workout and got to experience Broadway Street at another speed.

Spiderman is an amazing play for its special effects and props. Spiderman took my breath away when he flew above my head on ropes that were too thin to hold life and limb together. The Green Goblin costume was magnificent with its bold colour and how life like it was. The props on stage were on a whole new level, displaying the scenes on a three dimensional element and actually making you feel as if you’re sitting there viewing the streets and scenes of New York City amidst the hustle and bustle. Yet, I must say that I did expect more from this highly raved about play, the acting although good was not phenomenal. I walked away somehow feeling as if I had missed something, or was still waiting for the dramatic climax. But the play was an experience I really did enjoy.

With the play done, and Kevin still being an extraordinary person, he had booked this extravagant cooking class for us. So with some time to kill we waded our way through a swamp of overly Christmas dosed tourists to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Kate, Kevin and I all managed to get lost at least once each, so counting this as too much of an invasion of personal bubble space we headed downtown to our cooking lesson. Our stomachs having a conversation amongst themselves, we arrived there eager to create our own meal and put the first morsel of food into our bellies for the day. And then Murphy peeked his nasty head in again. Our cooking class should had been more aptly defined as a preparation class, there was no cooking occurring at this location. Our bellies were now loudly declaring their displeasure at this, so managing to rebook we went for a walk to find a place to eat.

“Lasagna,” in Chelsea is the best Italian restaurant. We ordered three different meals wanting to sample a wide variety of their wares and were amazed at the mouthwatering exquisiteness of the food. The pumpkin ravioli was like taking a bite of thanksgiving, and the four cheese lasagna was just right without being too cheesy. And to round off a superb meal we had the most delicious white wine. The staff was really friendly making us feel as if we were sitting at home with a group of friends, very easy going and great atmosphere.

Our next stop was at a local pub called, “The Malting Pot.” It had just recently opened and already was packed. I was scraping shoulders with the person next to me and using the guy behind me as a leaning post. The drinks available were not the typical beverages supplied, but they allowed you to try out your adventurous side for a night. I was not that adventurous, but I really enjoyed meeting Nick and Holly there and catching up.

So in the early hours of Sunday morning deciding it was time to go home, we walked to a path train. And that terrible Murphy person made his presence known yet again. All the paths trains were closed, because of Hurricane Sandy, a few weeks had gone by and she was still making her presence known.  Just our luck. So there went our college fund and the chance to a bright and knowledgeable future as we had to take a cab back to New Jersey. We did make a new friend that night though; the taxi driver was a really interesting person.

So Murphy turned out in full force that night, but we managed to stumble along and have a very memorable night with great friends and wonderful experiences and learning how to be a little more schedule orientated next time.

Safe travels!