By now everyone probably knows about the first transit strike in 25 years – i have very mixed feelings about this strike, at first I was sympathetic but that was changed by the events of yesterday.

Monday – all day threats to strike waft over the internet and news shows – by midnight the president of the local union, TWU, has left the negotiating tables and returned to his union’s hq. no news

Tuesday morning – wake up to a strike. ugh. first reaction. second reaction – thank G$% I am NOT living in Park Slope, Brooklyn right now! check Metro North website – ok trains are supposed to be running with some slowness.

leave for work early – one scheduled train doesn’t come. 30 cold minutes later another train shows up – by the time we get to Grand Central it is standing room only. and then walk up Park Avenue to the office – in the freezing cold. not a happy camper!

reason went in early – have very hard to get tickets to SOLD OUT 6 pm performance of the NYC Ballet’s NUTCRACKER. This is my treat for my almost-four-year-old nephew and my sister (the ones who lost everything and their house in New Orleans due to Katrina). had tried to reserve a car with the firm’s car service the previous night and told to call back. called when i got in to work and reserved the car (first mistake). many calls to sister, ballet to assure that the performance will go on, etc. at 445 pm a call comes from sister that there is no car and no phone call about the car arrival. call the firm’s cab desk – forget about it, they say, start walking, hail a cab whatever.

Sister leaves her apt with her son and starts walking trying to find cab – lives near Grand Central so of course all cabs are heading there and full. later i learn that she went into a hotel lobby and told the concierge that she didn’t have time to go to her room and needed a cab to lincoln center – smart girl! still took him a half hour to get one

in the meantime…..

i leave my office and walk over to park avenue – my office is between fifth avenue and madison avenue which are BOTH CLOSED for emergency traffic – Park Avenue looks like a parking lot. start walking uptown to find an empty cab to go and pick up sister and then go over to Lincoln Center (not knowing about what she is doing) after a huge fight with a yellow cab driver who REFUSED to do this after dropping off his current passengers – i should have taken his medallion number – i am back on sidewalk and its 515 pm.

at this point, i lose it. start sobbing as i walk up Park Avenue and decide to cross the street to try to get a cab going uptown and then over to the west side to try to get to the theater – so there i am standing on the corner of 65th and Park Avenue, with tears flowing down my cheeks – thinking “All I wanted to do was give my sister and nephew a great evening and beautiful memory – of their first Nutcracker” This is a GOOD thing – and at that moment I was furious with the Transit Union and their leadership. Start praying to anyone to help me.

At that moment a black car (one of the private car service cars) pulls up and the driver asks if i need a ride – at that moment i would pay pretty much anything to get to the ballet – i figure, what the h#%$? and get in, still sobbing. The driver turns out to be a very nice man – who agreed to take me to Lincoln Center, was very concerned about my crying. We dropped off his passenger and then proceed over to the west side – and here’s the second miracle of the night – and I still don’t know how it happened – but from being at 72 and Park at 530 we got to Lincoln Center at 550 pm. Don’t ask me how … I really believe that time stood still.

So after taking the driver’s cell phone number – he wanted me to call to let him know if my sister made it – she was stuck in traffic at 6th Avenue and 57th street at 550 pm – i race into the theater and leave her tickets at the box office. find out that the curtain will be held a bit after 6 pm and go up to the seats – which are great seats.

sit down and emit a huge sigh and try not to cry again. the nice older woman sitting next to me looks over and i start talking to her and we exchange stories – she is down from connecticut with her two daughters, they came for the day before the ballet and spent it walking downtown and then came uptown for dinner. she was very sweet and listened to my tales and worries that my sister and nephew wouldn’t make it.

and then the THIRD miracle – the lights start to dim and here comes my sister and nephew down the aisle – just in time for the overture!!!!!

and of course, being the sentimental romantic that i am – i spent most of the first act (the story part of the ballet) crying as did my sister.

my nephew when asked at the intermission which part he liked the most of the first act – said “ALL of it!” and asked several times if we could come back to see it again. I told him we would come back next year and that this would be OUR special treat each christmas (this is a tradition i have been dying to start with, i had hoped my own children, but am glad to borrow my nephews; when my godchild, my other nephew is older, then he will join us too.

Of course, being an indulgent aunt, treated my nephew to a stuffed lion with a red NYCB tee shirt – whom he promptly named Sophie the lion. And a little set of toy binoculars. In the second act after seeing me use my binoculars during the first act, he asked if he could use them and so he would occasionally reach over and look thru them. I don’t know if he was seeing anything – but I was impressed at his interest! I must say that he was very well behaved – of course there is a lot of story going on in the first act and that kept him entertained. in the second act he waned a little at the beginning but he perked up with the dances of the chocolate and the candy canes and then was on the lookout for the return of the “boat” (a sled) that Marie and the Prince had come in on. I told him it would be back at the end with a surprise! And so when the sled with reindeer appeared at the end with Marie and the Prince in it, his eyes were as wide as they could be – and he talked about it for quite awhile afterwards.

It turned out to be an extremely well danced performance – i felt that the dancers were very relaxed and every one of them was in character. the soloists especially gave beautiful exquisitely shaped performances – I was slightly disappointed that one of my favorite dancers – Ashley Bouder – was replaced in the role of Dewdrop by Teresa Reichlen – but she was very lovely and quite delicate in the filigreed choreography. Wendy Whelan was a loving gracious fairy – with an incredibly brilliantly danced pas de deux with Nilas Martins. As the second act progresses, the choreography becomes more “elaborate and balletic” then the story telling dancing in the first act. By the Grand Pas de Deux of the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier, its very grand ballet indeed. Whelan and Martins danced with a passion and elegance that was quite breathtaking.

It was truly an evening to remember – and in the long run worth every penny and effort spent. including the pulled muscle I got when I tripped walking at some point during the evening’s adventures. Sore last night, its quite swollen today – so I am home with an elevated leg and lots of ice.

TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 20, AT 6:00 PM [Moredock]
Sugarplum: WHELAN
Cavalier: MARTINS
Dewdrop: REICHLEN
Drosselmeier: HENDRICKSON
Marzipan: EDGE
Hot Chocolate: RUTHERFORD, J. STAFFORD
Coffee: KROHN
Tea: CARMENA
Candy Cane: VILLALOBOS
Mother Ginger: RAMASAR
Demi-Flowers: KEENEN, GOLBIN
Columbine Doll: ZUNGRE
Harlequin Doll: PECK
Soldier: SUOZZI
Mouse King: TWORZYANSKI
Hostess: ABERGEL
Host: la COUR