About NY... it was great!! We spent the majority of our time in Brooklyn, where Julie lives. There's something to be said, in my opinion, for being able to walk out of your brownstone (Brooklyn lingo) and having a grocery store, bagel shop and an amazingly huge park all right there!!My trip out there was an adventure. Upon arriving at the airport in Little Rock, I was told that they had cancelled my flight. So, I waited for a significant amount of time in a loooooong line with many angry passengers while they attempted to re-book all of us. Lucky for me, where I was going had many flights headed there, and I was easily rescheduled onto another flight. I rushed to the new gate, with only 15 mins. until departure, and found that this flight had been delayed for over an hour. Which meant that I was going to miss my connecting flight...which I did. So, when I finally arrived in NY, I was famished. Thanks to Paula, I had a gentleman awaiting my arrival, complete with a hand-held sign with my name on it, to whisk me away to Brooklyn.
Oh, did I mention that Julie had picked up the ukulele since I last saw her? Amazing, this woman!! (Oh, she's single by-the-way, which is hard to believe considering her ukulele skills.)
We spent much of our time just walking around. Now, that may sound boring to some of you, but it's exactly what I enjoy doing on vacation. We took the subway to and from Manhattan and on the ride back, Julie and I met some really colorful older gentleman.The scene opens with a young man playing his guitar while his female friend sings as we ride from town. The tune? John Fogerty's Have you ever seen the Rain?. This was enough to move one of the passengers into joining the duo. He seemed so happy, beaming as he sang. He was close enough for me to notice his missing teeth and alcohol smell and for him to notice me noticing his missing teeth and alcohol smell. After the musicians finished their tune, the gentleman looked at me and asked something but I, for the life of me, couldn't understand him (Damn those British accents!! I can never understand them). I soon realized his question to me was regarding the title of the song, as he approached the musicians with this query. The musicians were, should I say, a little put off by him, and quickly left our car. I, feeling sorry for the guy, who was just wanting remember the name of the song he obviously loves so much, offered to write the song and artist on a piece of paper. He was so grateful, and guess who became instant BFFs?
You got it!! So, I now know everything there is to know about Bangor, Maine. Anything you want to know, just ask. I have also been educated as to the perils of New Yorkers as a people. So, I can help any of you with that, if need be.
In the meantime, Julie is conversing with a gentleman who had, so it appeared, recently been discharged from the hospital due to some kind of a foot ailment. After I gave my dude the yeah-I'm-done-talking-to-you hint, I decided to meander into their conversation. I'm glad I did because I came into him tearing off his hospital bracelet and him trying to give it to Julie. Julie was politely refusing, at which point he said, "I'm not trying to give it to you. I just want you to write to me." When Julie pointed out that his address wasn't on the bracelet, he began to spout off his address to her, whereupon she matter-of-factly reminded him that his stop was approaching. As he left the car, he pleaded with Julie to write to him, which she considered. When I asked her what she would say if she were to write to him, she replied, "Oh, something like, The sky is blue, the trees are green." That's good. He very well may not know those things.
So, I ate lots and lots of bagels, walked many miles and spent many hours just talking with my best friend about life, the Statue of Liberty and New Yorkers' pursuit of happiness (because, if you remember, I know all about this).
My flights home were better, as far as scheduling goes, but man, I almost puked on the last leg of my flight. How embarrassing is that? See, I was seated beside this really nice guy who obviously didn't know that a nice young lady with a book in her lap doesn't want to be bothered during the flight. Well, he might have known that etiquette says to leave a book reader alone, but the guy was just so eager to tell SOMEONE about his awesome daughter and all of her AWESOME accolades that he just couldn't contain himself. I, of course, listened with my usual intensity and, with him, marveled at his daughter's amazing abilities. Here's the thing: when you're seated beside someone who wants to talk about their daughter, who, ironically enough, is name "Amanda" (what is it with "Amanda's" always being so darn awesome?) you have to turn your head to look at them while they yammer on. And when someone who is prone to motion sickness does this, it messes with their periphery. And that means trouble. As he was talking, and as the mouth-watering began, signaling that puking my guts outs was imminent, I located the barf bag and I began to recite, in my head, appropriate ways to excuse myself to my row 11 correspondent. As luck would have it, I didn't barf. Not sure why because, as those of you who've puked before know, the mouth watering is pretty much the end all. So, I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to this guys tales about Amanda from take off to landing. Lucky me!I look back on my trip with great fondness. It was nice to have some time to myself and only have to worry about me. No fretting about balanced meals, snacks, bedtimes, poopy diapers. And as I lay at night thinking about how amazing this Amanda girl must be, I find myself wondering if she's ever seen the rain?, metaphorically speaking, of course.
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