This world is big and so-awake/ I stayed up late to hear your voice

Our flight home from Toronto was canceled (way to go, American Airlines!) so we arrived on a much later flight. I felt bad that Em had to drive all the way back to her place three hours away, but she needed to be at work the next day.

And so did I! I worked three days of summer school library over at FRHS. It was good because two senior English teachers brought their classes to do the song project for senior theme. It helped that I'm familiar with the project. Anyway, that was an extra $500 or so to go toward my summer adventures.

The next trip was bipedal. First Becky and I flew to New York where we met up with Lydia. As always, New York was fascinating. We had great weather, not too terribly hot this time, and only a few rain showers which didn't interfere with much at all. Quick run-down: Bronx Zoo, Metropolitan Museum of Art (where the Superhero: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit was very interesting to me) and lots and lots of good food.

One day we walked down Broadway; I wanted to browse in the ABC Carpet store and was hoping to have lunch at TeaNY. When we got there it was too crowded (such a tiny place) so we went next door to Bruschetterria for lunch. That was delicious! Then we were able to get a table at TeaNY for dessert, so that worked out perfectly.

Of course the "purpose" of the New York trip was the R.E.M. concert at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night (June 19). Since fan club tickets could only be bought in pairs, Lydia and Becky were sitting on the opposite side of the venue from me. I had bought two tickets, thinking surely I could find someone to go with me, and sure enough, a former KHS student was available and interested. It was cool to be able to share his excitement and his comments. It was neat that he couldn't tell which were old songs and which were from the new album.

I had one band sighting while in the city. We went into a teeny tiny shop (Crumpler) so Lydia could buy a camera bag. There were several people there and boxes on the floor so it was really stuffed. I looked up and saw that Bill Rieflin (drummer for R.E.M.) had come in with another guy who had a bagless camera. I was hoping they would shop for a while but I guess the conditions deterred them, as they left right after I spotted them. Drat.

One of the best parts of the trip was the opportunity to visit with former student John. Our first night in town, we dined at the restaurant where he's working. We were enjoying sitting outside until a thunderstorm popped up and forced us indoors. And let me just say, don't try a pineapple mojito. Not good. Regular mojito much nicer. We spent more time with John and his bf Wednesday. We took the subway to his neighborhood (upper east side) and got food at an adorable cafe, Champignon. Then we dined out on the terrace of his apartment building. It was so fun to meet his second dog, Chloe the Papillon, and to again cuddle Parker the Yorkie.

One evening was spent at the theatre seeing Morgan Freeman, Peter Gallagher and Frances McDorman in The Country Girl. It was an excellent production, and no, seeing Mr Freeman in his boxers was NOT the highlight of the experience for me.

Our time in NY was over too soon, as always, and on Friday we flew off to Atlanta.