Shot #6

Today while receiving my Shingles vaccine I was offered a COVID booster. That makes six shots. Staff at CVS is using progressively smaller handwriting to squeeze in the details.

Within the past couple of weeks I have started hearing about more people with COVID, including one man about my age who was hospitalized with it. Though the CDC and other agencies have stopped reporting on it, and it is not impacting the death rate, COVID is still here and is still disrupting life.

As Don and I prepare to travel Down Under, I wanted to do my part to not have COVID (or Shingles for that matter) disrupt our plans.

Here's to hoping this works!

The Stranger Project

While in New York City last week Don and I stumbled upon the clear glass storefront from where The Strangers Project located within the World Trade Center complex. On that midday Saturday, the location was closed, but as you can see in the picture, the front window is covered with stories, all on 8 1/2 x 11" white paper with words and drawings in black ink. Peeking through the clear door, you can see seemingly hundreds of similar pages. Strangers stopped to read the words visible.

The website has a quick facts section that sums up the project better than I can do: 

Every story is collected in person—

Stories are not mailed in or submitted online

65,000+ Stories collected so far

The Strangers Project is based in NYC, but I also take the Strangers Project to as many cities as I can

Stories are shared from all ages and all walks of life

To sum up: over 65,000 people paused what they were doing on a random day to write something on a piece of paper and hand it to the stranger to do with as they pleased. When you think about it, that takes a lot of courage.

Glancing at the ones in the window, and on their website, they vary from optimistic and cheerful to cries for help. From humorous to extremely serious.

Many had line art sketches on them. It reminded me of Don's mom. Personally, I never think to include artwork when I journal (other than photographs when I journal online), but she would. Perhaps I should consider doing so.

My favorite was one written along the long side of the page saying (summarizing here as I didn't take notes): I wonder how they will hang this paper? It was hung as the others along the short side (i.e., portrait vs. landscape style).

What an amazing project -- encouraging people to share, or as they say on the flyer on their door, "What is it like being you?"

What would I say if I was asked on a random day? Would I share my plans for the day? Would I share something that is eating at my soul? Would I keep it light out of fear of sharing too much with strangers, or share what I wouldn't tell my closest friends because it is anonymous?

What would you share?

Back to the Future: Another Lottery Win

The sign as we walked into the Winter Garden Theater said: Back to the Future, Buy Your Tickets Yesterday. I chuckled as we went under the sign because we did buy our tickets yesterday.

Back up a little ... two weeks ago we bought Life With Pi tickets for July 8th to celebrate Don's half birthday, and to see the show that won a Tony for Best Lighting, Best Scenic Design of a Play, and Best Sound Design of a Play. It is also a play Don has been interested in seeing since he first heard about it earlier this year.

Going into New York is an all-day experience for us. It is at least an hour drive to the PATH station, a search for street parking, a thirty minute PATH ride (with trains coming on average every 20 minutes), and a walk from there to the theater. Easily 2 hours door to door, but allow at least two and a half if not three. That said, it is nice to do something else while in the City.

There are a lot of great shows currently on Broadway, many of which won Tony's this year. We were thinking we wanted to see another show, but couldn't decide which one. We left it up to fate and entered the lottery system.

We first learned about the digital lottery in 2016 when Hamilton was starting to gain excitement. Don and I both entered the lottery. He won. I lost. He gave Ashley and I the tickets and we had an incredible experience.

Over the next few years we tried again without much success. I tried to win Springsteen on Broadway tickets over and over and over and over again with only a "try again" message in reply. Since May 2022, though, we have had four lottery wins. A lottery win just means you have a limited opportunity to buy a ticket to the show. While Hamilton tickets are $10 (a Hamilton), Back to the Future winning lottery tickets are $45 (unlike the regular lottery, you only pay if you win). Most of the tickets I saw for that performance were over $100 each.

Each show has different rules. In this case, the lottery is run by Telecharge for performances taking place the next day. The day before the ticket, you register to say you want to apply for the lottery. They also have other shows you can choose from to try -- I selected Camelot, Some Like it Hot, and Parade, too. The one website approach is great. 

At 10 AM I received a message saying I won Back to the Future tickets and that I had until 3 PM to purchase my tickets. Don did not receive a message. I did not receive word about the other shows. This is a change from the past when we would receive the "try again" message (which is so easy to read as "you are a loser" in the heat of the moment). 

At 3 PM we heard we did not win the other shows. This was the biggest change from the past -- a second chance drawing using the unclaimed tickets from the 10 AM drawing. Our "try again" messages included a link for buying cheap seats to the shows we did not win, or when there were no cheap seats, there was no upselling. The cheap seats were about $15 more than the lottery ticket, still a bargain for the caliber of live theater.

With our win we abandoned our plan to go in extra early to stand in line for Rush tickets (last year we paid Line Dudes to stand in line for us to score Music Man tickets). Same theater. Different show.

This makes our fifth lottery win: Hamilton, Mrs. Doubtfire, Beetlejuice, and Plaza Suite being the other four. With the exception of Hamilton, the others are all after the COVID closure. At this rate, we'll keep trying.

Draft League All-Star Game

After much should-I-or shouldn't-I-go debate, I decided to go to the All-Star game being held at Trenton Thunder's stadium. Before I started blogging, I remember going the Eastern League All-Star game in Altoona, PA with Cousin Bruce. Each team sent their best players wearing their team uniforms and made a festival out of it. The day before included a Home Run derby. The stadium was packed and the energy level was high.

This was not that.

Instead of it being a game of east vs. west, it was Team Trembly vs. Team Manto. Named for the manager of each team.

Instead of wearing their own uniforms, they wore a blue or red tee-shirt (depending on the side), with their regular hats and uniform bottoms. 

The scorecard did not identify which team they usually play on.

Since each player is supposed to play (which makes sense), and there are 11 pitchers on the roster, a pitching change took place at least once an inning, adding to the delays.

The game started at 6:30 (instead of their usual 7 PM). By 9 PM the regulars were heading home. The seventh inning stretch hadn't even taken place yet. The game was slow, and painful. Runs seemed to be scored more on the errors caused by the other team than by the talents of the players (I'm sure this was not true in all cases). Play was sloppy.

There were a number of scouts in the stands as the next day was the draft deadline.

The consensus among the regulars is we miss having a team affiliated with the major league. We have a nice stadium, and passionate fans, but without a team to root for, it is hard to keep up our enthusiasm. 

Hopefully next year we'll have a new team.

Amazon Style

While in Columbus, Ohio celebrating the Fourth of July with extended family, Don stumbled upon an Amazon Style shop when he went to the LEGO store to ask them to put another stamp in his LEGO passport (yes, that is a thing). Have you heard about these? Amazon has two boutiques in the nation (the other is in Glendale, California) where you can try on clothes and shoes. In true Amazon fashion, though, it takes a traditional retail experience and ups it a technological notch or two.

The next day I asked Don to take me so I could check it out for myself. Let me preface this post by saying, I have only signed up for Prime for two trial periods -- the first to see the first three season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and currently to watch the last two seasons. I will be cancelling my current membership in a couple of weeks. 

When we first walked in a lovely woman clearly heading out to her break paused to welcome me and introduce me to the concept of the store. Though she must give the same spiel hundreds of times a day, she said it cheerfully and encouragingly. Having just purchased two pairs of jeans, a pair of pants, two tee-shirts, a long-sleeved tee, and pajama bottoms for $113 from the Eddie Bauer outlet in the warehouse district of Columbus, I was not in the market to actually buy anything. On the other hand, I was curious about their full shopping experience.

The store is set up like a higher-end boutique with a warehouse on its back end. Yes, a bit of an oxymoron.  

There is one of each item on display. Each item has a QR code on its hanger. You scan the item and it asks what size and (if applicable) what color you want. 

This is where the magic really begins. While you continue to shop, elves (okay, Amazon employees) find the items and deliver them to your dressing room through a secret passageway. You can continue to shop, and I suppose items will continue to be added to your room. The store did not feel busy, but this process did take longer than I had patience for. The initial message said it would take 5-9 minutes, then it shifted to (paraphrasing) "your order will be ready soon." Just as I left the store to find Don in the nearby LEGO Discovery Center, the message switched to my room was ready.

Using my Smartphone (yes, they assume all of their customers have a Smartphone) to unlock the room. I was greeted with this site: the dress I requested, plus a couple of more items they thought I might be interested in -- just like they do when we visit their website.

I did try on one of the other dresses, but the other two were complete misses. In hindsight, I wish their other options included shorts with pockets to go under the short dress. Perhaps then I would have purchased the dress and shorts.

From the monitor, you can ask for a different size, or additional items to be brought to the room. 

For people who hate playing the guessing game of will I really like the item, these stores have the potential of being a game change. As for the long delay, according to their website, you can shop at home and schedule a time to try on the clothes. Not having to deal with returns has a lot of potential.

As for me, I did not buy the cute dress. Looking at the picture, it is not as short as I thought it would be, but still short enough it needs shorts -- ones with pockets would be ideal because the dress does not have pockets. At $33.99, it is not a bargain.

One caveat to the one version of each item rule is in the kids' section -- in that area they have lots of different sizes and colors and you can grab, pay, and go. They just make the adults wait. Of course, with this being Amazon, you can just look at the item, order it, and have them deliver without trying it on first.