everyone has a bucket list i suppose..and if they don’t then they should ..during my life i used to keep a list of “things i want to do before i die” way before they put a title on it..when i was young i would write things in my notebook like..kiss a boy for the first time..learn to drive a car..travel to a different state….then as i got older the list became a bit more serious..get married..have kids…buy a house..you know what i mean ..the regular everyday things that a little girl dreams of having..
as the bucket went from empty to half empty when i was in my growing up years it became half full to full to overspilling..
i grew up to get many kisses..along with the few beatings i took in life..sure i got married..got divorced …more than once..got a home that got to become a more of hugh container for all the stuff accumulated over the years…mine..my kids ..my husbands..its time for a downsizing..thats for sure..
now my bucket list has become a barrel to fill..all my girlhood “dreams” has become my golden years “wishes”…ive become a wife ..mother ..grandmother..and finally a retiree..the bucket filled to its limits for “life number one”..its time to move on to living my life in what i call my “second life”…..the one where i can make wishes happen..
months ago i did a blog about starting from the top and working my way down..and its not a bad thing..what i did was make it my goal to see all of new york city from the top of the island to the very bottom …and so my new “bucket list” is to see as much of my own city as i possibly can before i die…it all started with a trip to the cloisters..where you can look over the hudson river ..breathtakingly beautiful..from then on its been an adventure..
being retired allows me to do the things that you can’t possibly do while working and raising a family..in the past 2 days i found things to do that kept me entertained for hours on end..and being a new yorker its easy to find those things for as little cost as possibly and even for free..
so armed with the cost of a 29dollar one week metro card ..this is my way of learning all about this great city..
get on a bus…listen to peoples conversations..join in ..and before you know it you learn about their lives..and a treasure stash of things to do and places to see in manhattan..on the M5 bus riding uptown to 135th street and broadway i had the privilege of meeting a wonderful mother and daughter that had lived in the city all their lives..the mother was 91 years old…not only did she give me a guided tour along the way up from 18th street to 135th she added in places to see down in battery park..
after leaving them off and taking the M5 bus back downtown stopping off to visit grants tomb..i walked around central park and discovered so much more of the city exists than just the touristy spots..there were tons of nannies out with their charges..there were dog walkers ..and bicyclists..and joggers..students from colombia..and people that were taking in the sunshine on the benches while reading or just relaxing..this is life in the big city..
the next day after meeting the impromptu historian i took her advice and trekked on over to the southern tip of the island..down to battery park..there is a jewish museum there that on wednesday afternoons at 4pm to 8pm the admission is free..also there are connector buses that will take you all along the bottom of the city to south street seaport where you can see the city streets in air-conditioned comfort..getting on and off as often as you like..if you are open to options you can stroll along the streets and find so many things that are offered for free..yesterday i found FREE art classes being given down by the hudson river..the materials are completely free..i got to join in for 2 hours sketching a live model along with at least another 50 other enthusiastic students..some had been taking advantage of this for a while and others were as new as i was..you get to keep whatever you draw..
ok so i spent 5 bucks on a pair of sunglasses because they were funky but that doesn’t count if you’re trying to do things for free…but after talking to the vendor and just sharing the fact that we were fellow new yorkers he gave me a free key chain..
when my cousins from Kentucky visited the city last week they asked me to give them ideas on what to see in the city..its so hard to plan so all i said was to just start out by walking and looking around and before you know it we were watching a pre taping of a show for fox news that we got to see later that week and see ourselves on tv…boy was that a treat for them..then there was the train ride we all took which my cousin told me the kids said was the highlight of the trip to ny…to 7 and 5 year olds it seemed like a play land ride..see what i mean about looking at your own city through the eyes of a child..
everything i post here is what I’ve seen in the city for the past couple of days..a church that was turned into a boutique..an armless man breakdancing for tips..flowers growing along the parks..and people that you meet along the way…enjoy ….
