Thrice-Told Tales of the Big Apple

Having sadly neglected my blogging duty, I again take keyboard in hand and proceed to tell this audience of today's events.

I was invited to the "Big Idea" program on CNBC recently. Today we boarded the plane at a pitiful seven AM to charge through the clouds at New York City. This is my fourth time in the Big Apple and I must admit, I hope to no offense, that I did not anticipate the plane journey with much happiness. Neither did I feel particularly reasured when we took off, leaving bloomingly bright Seattle-Tacoma Airport behind us.

It is currently, I believe, seventy something degrees in the humid weather, but no hot weather is pleasant with the sound of a suburb sprinkler replaced by honking horns, the smell of a summer's freshly cut grass forfeited for the exhaust of a limo. And, of course, overshadowing all of these petty complaints, no summer day, not even one bedecked in cookies and cream, silks and satins, could be as pleasant without my sister, and my dad alongside us.

Speaking of Adrianna, my older sister, I came up with this the other day (believe it was Monday)--

"The woodpecker is to tree as Adrianna is to me."

This quite accurately represents sibling rivalry, although how do you like this one:

"The woodpecker is to tree as Republicans are to democracy."

Okay, a little bit offensive, and probably not true (in some cases.) But what else rhymes with "tree"?

In any case, back to business. Speaking of which, we're in the business room in our "cosmopolitan and contemporary" NYC hotel, Flatotel. My mom pronounces it "Flotel". While it's seven nineteen PM right now, it's four nineteen in Seattle, I think.

More updates later.

ADORA

The Phantom of the Opera

I have already written about some details of my New York trip but here is something I forgot, unfortunately, to write about:

1. The Phantom of the Opera musical

• The Phantom of the Opera musical tickets cost $234.00 even after an enormous discount; the theater, however, was quite crowded, with people in bulky raincoats flooding in from all directions.
• The Phantom of the Opera was supposed to be scary but I thought it was more exciting than scary and more comical (in some parts at least) than exciting. Some of the parts I liked best included the fact that they actually threw fire on the stage, the elaborate costumes, and the fancy stage props.

2. The United Nations building

• The UN building was quite an interesting building but we had a not-so interesting tour. We paid a great deal of money for a cheesy, uninteresting tour; our tour guide would say very quietly what room we were in and a few small details before moving on. We listened jealously to the other group as their tour guide described in detail the origins of a statue, nuclear weapons, etc.
• One of the meetings we listened to was quite boring. Apparently the UN people seated listening to the speaker thought so too; some were picking their nose, others were chattering among themselves, and I thought I saw somebody pull a cell phone out of their pocket.