Until I met Kat and moved to New Jersey to be with her, I had never been to New York City. I’ve been several times now, most often to see a show, but occasionally for other reasons. This past weekend was the first time I’ve gone and stayed overnight in the city, and the occasion was to enjoy a visit with my dad and his ladyfriend, Sandra, who were in town to visit with some of her friends and family.
The high point of the visit was dinner with those friends and family. We enjoyed the company of everyone there, but we were seated close to Sandra’s son and meeting him for the first time. I’d heard about him being a friendly, fun sort of guy, but didn’t really appreciate the impression he makes until I got to see it firsthand. He’s one of those people who has a knack for making pleasant conversation with anyone, and he has a fun sense of humor to go along with it. At dinner, he offered his 15 year-old cousin a hundred bucks if he’d go to the table next to us where three women were seated, and ask them for a piece of bread. When the cousin declined, he went over and did it himself. He’s the kind of charming guy who’s the life of the party after a couple of drinks, except he was completely sober the whole time. My impression was that he’s the sort of guy who makes you feel like you’re at a fun party, even when there’s no party.
After dinner, Kat and I took a walk up Fifth Avenue and got our first look at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, which has a really cool glass cube exterior. (You walk in to the cube and down stairs to the actual store beneath.) Our first-grader niece recently sent us Flat Stanley to show around the East Coast, so we brought him along and got some pictures of him at the Apple store, the FAO Schwartz store next door (where Tom Hanks danced in “Big”), and in front of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza.
It worked out well that we took our Fifth Avenue stroll on Friday night, because on Saturday, it was pretty jammed up with Al Sharpton and several thousand of his closest friends. We stuck around on Saturday long enough to enjoy lunch with daD and Sandra and a bit of last-minute holiday shopping, and then it was back to home. I’ve enjoyed most of my several trips to Manhattan, but I think it’s the poster city for the old saying, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”
