Today I had a doctor's appointment with my dermatologist. I shall refer to her as "Dr. Charisma". I wait in the waiting room where all you do is wait. Everyone who works for Dr. Charisma has been there for a number of years and is extremely courteous to the patients.
There are several medical rooms in Dr. Charisma's office. After numerous visits to her offices, I have come to the conclusion that the more serious condition you have, the more instruments are crammed into the room you are asked to seat in. So, if you are hoping to have a quick visit and nothing is being cut off any part of your body that you have been accustomed to, you want to be in a medical room that is mostly empty. Well, this is the room I was assigned to today.
I hear Dr. Charisma laughing out loud as she comes into my medical room. I love that about her. She always finds something to laugh about no matter how busy her day is or how bad it gets. I always tell her she should do comedy stand-ups in her spare time. However, she can be serious when she has to.
Dr. Charisma always starts her visit by asking how my family is. Mostly, she asks how my three rambunctious children are. We spend a few minutes talking and laughing. She then asks the reason I am there. I tell her I need some creams to cure the puffiness and circles under my eyes that make me look tired. She suggests I should take a Claritin for my allergies to reduce puffiness under my eyes (my allergist also advised me the puffiness was due to allergies). Dr. Charisma then makes a quick exit out of the room. She reappears five minutes later. I know she just ran to her "medical closet" which is full of the most amazing creams and lotions I have ever seen. She reappears with a large bottle of potent vitamins for my breaking hair follicles, a large jar of anti-wrinkle face cream and tiny little vials of more anti-wrinkle face creams. Dr. Charisma then instructs me to mix the last two creams together and gently pat them under my eyes twice a day. I then visualize her over a steaming cauldron mixing her magical potions much like a female Merlin. I try to stop myself from laughing and thanked her for all of her help.
Although I had no mole removed on this visit, I did on my last visit. Dr. Charisma had placed her plastic eye goggles on her head, and held a long instrument which was attached to something that resembles my barbecue gas tank. I got very nervous. A nurse assisted her. I smelled something burning. After about a minute, I realized it's the smell of my sizzling flesh. I held my breath and counted to ten. I let out a scream. Dr. Charisma turned to her nurse and says, "Did that hurt you, that didn't hurt me?" This is her running joke whenever she removes a mole. A few days later I received the call from pathology that it was negative. Now, it's only the medical field that views an outcome which is good as "negative" and not the other way around. In one Seinfeld episode (avid fan), George gets a similar test result back. He assumes negative means bad and yells to whomever is around "Why! Why me, God! Why did this have to happen to me?" He then pauses and exclaims "Oh, negative means good. Wow, what a relief. I'm going to live."
Today, I was happy. I had a bag full of new creams from Dr. Charisma's medical arsenal in my fight against wrinkles, and I felt like someone cared.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
A Fair Day In NYC
Jack (my twelve year-old) and I went to see a fall street fair in NYC today. I decided to leave behind Jasper (my five year-old) with my husband at home just because Jasper is too hyperactive to go to the places we want to go to.
We went to the Lexington Av fair in NYC. Wow. It looks like all other street fairs, but there were some market stands that were different than the usual.
The best market stand I saw was the spice market. Two young and very charming French gentlemen were managing it. The entire stall contained of a large table full of large beautiful bowls filled with all types of tea leaves and spices. One of the French men told me he was a Parisian chef and imported these spices and teas and then created the blends himself. Wow! How talented. I went to Tangier years ago while on a European Cruise and was amazed how this market stall smelled like the exotic spices of Morocco in the middle of the streets of NYC! The prices were also reasonable. I bought about half a dozen little plastic bags (5 ozs. each for $5.00) of spices and tea leaves. I brought home: chicken spices containing a type of curry and other spices, fish spices with amazing colors and textures, a salad spice including among others lavender and red berries, a Moroccan type of spice for lamb and/or couscous which I love making. Also bought tea leaves: a chamomile and almond tea, a chocolate dense black tea, and a sweet pina colada fruity tea. I asked these guys for their website but they said they didn't have any. They also told me they were trying to sell their spices in malls in NYC. I suggested they should contact the Food Channel Network. I can see Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray among others, wanting to try their amazing spices. The only contact I have with these spice men is the fact that I left my E-mail address and they would contact me whenever they would come again.
Also found a great jewelry market stall called "Just B Venice Art Inc" that makes jewelry out of Murano glass and other types of glass. I went to Venice a few years ago and fell in love with their Murano glass jewelry and trinkets. However, I was disappointed to find that this jewelry stall did not have a store, but were working on selling their jewelry on Internet in the future. I bought a beautiful pair of long dangling pair of earrings made out of light blue sea glass. I asked for a matching necklace but they had already sold it.
We then walked towards 60th and Third Avenue and went to check out the waiting time for Serendipity. This is a tiny restaurant that has amazing snacks and the best chocolate desserts I have ever had. Their signature dessert is the "hot frozen chocolate dessert" which is amazing. This restaurant and the dessert were featured in the movie "One Fine Day" with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. Well, we saw about twenty-five people standing on line outside waiting to get in, and even more people inside the tiny entrance hallway. The waiting line was an hour and a half. The trick is to put your go for an hour and a half to do something else. Since we were really hungry, Jack and I walked to the beginning of the block where CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) was. We had a delicious pizza and salad. We then went to the corner store, Dillon's famous candy store. We spent about half an hour there picking out bags of candy and various types of apparel with their logo. I bought Jasper a big orange pillow with "Reese's Peanut Butter" candy logo on it.
We then went back to Serendipity. The host actually called my name out to be seated as we entered the restaurant. We were seated at a tiny table in the corner at the back. We didn't have to look at the menu. We wanted a frozen hot chocolate dessert to share. However, the menu states there is a $8.50 minimum for each person. So we bought a piece of cake to take home and a soda. We slurped the dessert in five minutes. I have to say unless you have a plan like us, I can't understand why any savvy New Yorker would hang around for an hour and a half to wait for any restaurant. This is NYC.
Jack and I then took a cab back to Grand Central. I had the phone number of my favorite noodle soup restaurant near Grand Central and called them ahead of time to order my favorite roast pork udon noodle soup. I ordered four soups so we could have it for dinner. I picked them up and caught the metro north back home. It was a great day in the city. We had a great time and I took home some amazing bargains!
We went to the Lexington Av fair in NYC. Wow. It looks like all other street fairs, but there were some market stands that were different than the usual.
The best market stand I saw was the spice market. Two young and very charming French gentlemen were managing it. The entire stall contained of a large table full of large beautiful bowls filled with all types of tea leaves and spices. One of the French men told me he was a Parisian chef and imported these spices and teas and then created the blends himself. Wow! How talented. I went to Tangier years ago while on a European Cruise and was amazed how this market stall smelled like the exotic spices of Morocco in the middle of the streets of NYC! The prices were also reasonable. I bought about half a dozen little plastic bags (5 ozs. each for $5.00) of spices and tea leaves. I brought home: chicken spices containing a type of curry and other spices, fish spices with amazing colors and textures, a salad spice including among others lavender and red berries, a Moroccan type of spice for lamb and/or couscous which I love making. Also bought tea leaves: a chamomile and almond tea, a chocolate dense black tea, and a sweet pina colada fruity tea. I asked these guys for their website but they said they didn't have any. They also told me they were trying to sell their spices in malls in NYC. I suggested they should contact the Food Channel Network. I can see Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray among others, wanting to try their amazing spices. The only contact I have with these spice men is the fact that I left my E-mail address and they would contact me whenever they would come again.
Also found a great jewelry market stall called "Just B Venice Art Inc" that makes jewelry out of Murano glass and other types of glass. I went to Venice a few years ago and fell in love with their Murano glass jewelry and trinkets. However, I was disappointed to find that this jewelry stall did not have a store, but were working on selling their jewelry on Internet in the future. I bought a beautiful pair of long dangling pair of earrings made out of light blue sea glass. I asked for a matching necklace but they had already sold it.
We then walked towards 60th and Third Avenue and went to check out the waiting time for Serendipity. This is a tiny restaurant that has amazing snacks and the best chocolate desserts I have ever had. Their signature dessert is the "hot frozen chocolate dessert" which is amazing. This restaurant and the dessert were featured in the movie "One Fine Day" with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. Well, we saw about twenty-five people standing on line outside waiting to get in, and even more people inside the tiny entrance hallway. The waiting line was an hour and a half. The trick is to put your go for an hour and a half to do something else. Since we were really hungry, Jack and I walked to the beginning of the block where CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) was. We had a delicious pizza and salad. We then went to the corner store, Dillon's famous candy store. We spent about half an hour there picking out bags of candy and various types of apparel with their logo. I bought Jasper a big orange pillow with "Reese's Peanut Butter" candy logo on it.
We then went back to Serendipity. The host actually called my name out to be seated as we entered the restaurant. We were seated at a tiny table in the corner at the back. We didn't have to look at the menu. We wanted a frozen hot chocolate dessert to share. However, the menu states there is a $8.50 minimum for each person. So we bought a piece of cake to take home and a soda. We slurped the dessert in five minutes. I have to say unless you have a plan like us, I can't understand why any savvy New Yorker would hang around for an hour and a half to wait for any restaurant. This is NYC.
Jack and I then took a cab back to Grand Central. I had the phone number of my favorite noodle soup restaurant near Grand Central and called them ahead of time to order my favorite roast pork udon noodle soup. I ordered four soups so we could have it for dinner. I picked them up and caught the metro north back home. It was a great day in the city. We had a great time and I took home some amazing bargains!
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