A week later:

Here we go. I had a great time. New York City is even better than I remembered. I had a great time just wondering around the city. Not quite as good as dinner with friends, but almost. Friday night with Jo, that sound like the start of a Cole Porter song, was smashing.

I had met Jo in Oxford in the Creative Writing class and we have had a great time trying to build our poetry. The major difference is that she is doing a better job of it than I am. Jo is part of our Writer’s Blog that those of us from the class are using to keep our work alive.

It constantly amazes me to meet with someone here that I met over there, this hasn’t been the first time, but it always seems so whimsical. To a boy who grew up in the Arizona desert, the idea of meeting a person in the UK and then reconnecting with them in NYC seems so unlikely that it falls well into the realm of fantasy. But the chance to talk with someone with the same interest who is part of a shared experience that now includes mutual new friends is priceless.

Of course, there was Nevin. He demonstrates completely the case about meeting someone over there and then becoming friends over here. Nevin was stage-managing a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1993 when we first became acquainted. The strange part here is that he lived about two miles from me in Pasadena and had for years. We knew a lot of the same people and we had worked in some of the same places but had never met until that August. Not only has Nevin become one of my closest friends; his NY couch is very comfortable.

Beside the wonderful walks and meals with friends both new and old, there was the walking. Those of us who live with wheels attached to our legs below our knees tend to forget about out feet. Those who live in NYC probably walk more in a week than we do in several months. For those of us counting steps, the Big Apple is heaven. Everything is so close and the walks there are so interesting, that it easily becomes addictive. If I had to do that every day, and sometimes in the rain or snow, perhaps I would think differently.

The museums were awesome. The Metropolitan and the Modern were just as inspiring as you might expect, but it was the exhibit at the Guggenheim that I will carry with me for a long time. You will hear more about this in other post.

In fact, you will hear about a lot of other things that left an impression on me. Not the least of which was the whole experience at the site of the World Trade Center. That was hard.

Anyway, NYC has left me with lots to talk about and left me with much to think about. I’m sure I will get to a lot of it in the next few days.