Not This Year

I am overcome by the beauty of this photo.   And it will have to serve me well this holiday season.

Thanks to clumsiness and a resulting fractured knee cap, I won't be making my usual early December trip to New York this year.   Probably this is just as well.   With snow and ice, the last thing I need to be doing is messing up the bone healing that my body is so quickly achieving on its own.  I do not want to add writhing in pain to my already growing 2015 lowlight reel.

But, still, this is going to be a bitter pill to swallow.   This will be the first time since 1999 that I will miss the wonders of Christmas in the Big Frozen Apple. Indeed, these trips over the years have been like clockwork.   I almost work on a precise schedule.   This is the day in the trip where I see such-and-such for dinner.   This is the day in the trip where I see such-and-such for lunch.

And, as has always been the case, there's Broadway.   There would be at least one or two shows with my Great White Way denizen Lorraine.   I would always take my childhood pal Dolores out for another show with dinner before hand at the Palm or Sardi's.  I think about one of the last times she and I did this and, in the middle of a Saturday night snowstorm, we literally slid down 45th Street.  

And, of course, there was the December trip about four years ago.  Out with Lorraine, it was not snow, but rain and wind which were the elements at hand.   The kind of Manhattan cavern night where holding an umbrella was akin to walking across a tightrope with a Wallenda.   Crossing the pothole-laden street, I stepped into a divot and felt something in my left knee.  Hmmm.   That didn't feel so hot.   It would be weeks later that I would learn of a meniscus tear.

Yeah, I can't go that route this year.   But, still...

There's something about Broadway and the holidays.   A special treat.  Going back to the days when my mom would take me to the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall.   Back then, we went rain, snow, or shine.  We didn't care.

When I figured out that I was going to be New York-less this holiday season, I did what most Los Angelinos would do.   I hit the LA Times and the internet.  If I can't go to the theater there, I will do it here.   Gee, there's bound to be something on tour here.

Okay, If/Then with Idina Menzel at the Pantages.  Okay, maybe.   But, more likely in the category of meh.

The musical version of Bridges of Madison County at the Ahmanson.   Double meh.

A singalong to the White Christmas movie at Disney Hall.   Um, I want to hear Rosie Clooney sing not the slob from Pasadena next to me.

I will find something.   I remain undaunted.   Tis the season.   Even if it won't really be.

Dinner last night:   Leftover Chinese beef and vegetables.