Illusive "Beastly"

Whoa, Friday again. I do so look forward to Fridays so I can
spend time with my kids, esp my older daughter. It's our night out!

Two weeks ago my older son was here for his Spring break. He came on
the Wednesday night and on Thurs night I had to go shopping at Waldbaums and
CVS. (In Dartmouth, the joke is "the world ends in CVS." CVS pharmacy is right
at the end of the short row of shops they have on campus and after it there's
only woods, woods and more woods. Haha!) The Spring rains have come and it was
raining quite hard that night and it's still cold. I told them one of them at
least has to escort me coz it was quite late. So, my older son had no choice but to get
dressed and go out with me, feeling like "the man of the house." But my older daughter
wanted to tag along, too. So, off we went quite well-wrapped up in water-proof
jackets but my daughter's had no hood so she took my son's umbrella along. Yeah, my older son
has a fold-able umbrella, always tucked in his backpack's side-pocket!! It was
quite a wild night because we all got wet and the wind blew the umbrella
inside-out, haha! My daughter said his umbrella is only good for Dartmouth, can't
stand a chance in the NY winds! But that was a good night out as we took
advantage of his muscle by buying more of the heavy stuff we need as the
walk is quite long and without a car, carrying goods home, let's face it, is
hard work.  I guess that was one crazy night out we three would remember, even long after.

The next day, Friday, we thought we could watch the movie "Beastly" or "Red Riding Hood" while the
younger ones (my younger son and younger daughter) were in school. But as usual the older boy is awake all
night and asleep all day so, nah, not gonna happen. Then we told the older boy that we should go
at night then. But he had a report to write; it was his only time left as
he was leaving the next day for CA to visit his gf!!!  Hmmmp, I thought now that we're in the US he
would spend more time with us but no, there's competition now.
So, that was the weekend for us. I walked him to the train station the next
day, and waited with him until his train came, just so I could spend more time
with him.
Oh well, I thought, when he starts working, which is going to be soon, the only
time he can visit us is probably Christmas, New Year and Thanksgiving – the
three major holidays here- and there would be competition still! Nah, I have to
come to terms with it, my son has left home.

At the train station going to Penn station to go to Newark airport.


















Last week we were thinking we could see "Beastly"  in a movie house that takes two bus rides,
but they had already stopped showing it. So, the older girl suggested we try going to the nearest Mall which is in College Point, because there's a movie house right next to it and "Beastly" is still showing there. I didn't like the idea of walking because here, in the map it doesn't look far, but it actually is far.
But there's no other movie house around here! The next option would be to go all the way to Manhattan but that takes a long time and the movies cost more there!  So, we took the bus, just the two
of us (since younger boy and girl didn't want to come along), and we did get there.
However, it turned out the theatre is like 2-3 blocks away, blocks that
included a football field and a tennis court, etc. It was a pretty Spring
evening and we saw the setting sun and the moon for the first time since we
came here!! (I just realized you hardly see the moon in winter here. The skies
are always overcast you can't see any moon or stars at night nor the setting
sun at dusk. You only get to see the sun rising once in a while. ) We also saw
many people playing in the fields and that was a first time, too. The snow had
disappeared and there's actually green grass on the fields. They were playing
soccer and I thought, if this is NZ they would be playing "touch" instead.
Soccer is definitely more popular here. After that long, tiring walk it was frustrating to find out that "Beastly" was showing later (at 9pm onwards) than the time they posted in their website. We
had the choice to watch "Red Riding Hood" instead but the movie tickets here
are so expensive, probably more expensive than in NZ.  So, we thought twice about
that, since RRH is not really the movie we wanted to see and we didn't want to
spend so much on a movie that we're not sure we would want to see. We didn't
want to wait for the 9pm show either because we're not even sure if we could
still get buses to go home after the show when it's so late. Besides, I didn't
want to go the same way we came, walking through isolated, dark places and we
would have to take two bus rides to go home if we take the other way, a way we
have never taken before, since it's our first time to come to this theatre. :( Oh well, we saw a bus
going to Flushing so we ended up eating Chinese dinner in Flushing Mall instead
– also our first time there. My daughter wanted to see Flushing Mall so much, thinking
it must be interesting, but we were disappointed since there was nothing much
there, just some Oriental food shops. She ate her favorite noodle soup but was
disgusted that it's served in a plastic bowl and it doesn't even taste as good
as the one I cook for her at home.

A picture of the setting sun, taken by my older daughter through the glass window of the speeding bus we were on.

Waaahaaa, there goes my daughter's New York bubble. She said
there's no Friday night-life here in Flushing, just like in Westgate.
Hmmmm.  She said New York is only really
great if you live in Manhattan itself and you have to have lots of money to
live there! Haha! So, today, it's Friday
again and I wonder if we'll get to see "Beastly" this time or end up doing
something else again. Whatever it is, at least it's still Friday night. I don't
have to set my alarm clock for tomorrow!