My Trip to New York

It takes a great deal to lock down a babysitter. The sitters are fickle, especially if they're teenagers.

So--when I found one--I wasn't going to cancel my New York City trip. Not for any reason. Noxious gas had filled the air, because of crazy apocalyptic wildfires in Canada? This was not a concern to me.

I wore my mask and wandered the streets of Manhattan, noting the chartreuse sky! The subway cars made me nervous--because, now, actual murders occur on the subway--but all I detected were some overstuffed bags of trash and a "poopy" smell. It was difficult to enter the Strand, since two buses had rammed into each other, and several blocks were taped off. But I found a way. The new trick at the Strand is for people who are too lazy to ask themselves, "What would I really like to read?" The table is called "Blind Date with a Book," and various Strand employees have packaged novels with wrapping paper, and with hasty, vague descriptions. "Sexy, like Bridgerton!" "Spooky Story with Ghosts!" I would rather submit to a root canal than select reading material in this way. But: To each his own.

This was not the calmest trip, because the sitter forgot (a) which time to arrive at, (b) which child drinks Lactaid, (c) when and where to meet the school bus. All of this information was easily available in writing--but I decided not to "revisit" this fact.

Later, I learned that various Broadway shows had canceled their PM outings--because performers were calling in sick. Those poor, fragile twentysomethings in Hamilton! I sent them my thoughts and my prayers.

Meanwhile, people on the West Coast complained that people on the East Coast were not being suitably stoic. And, paradoxically, I *also* found that the West Coast tweets were annoying.

A wonderful day in the Big Apple.

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