my first 24 hours

I arrive in New York and settle spottily (since I am so used to the up-and-go with the suitcase now) in Williamsburg, head to Times Square for a Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers event... am delighted to find red carpets and all sorts of 'normal' people on them. Chairs are filling Broadway from 42nd to 47th Streets and giant screens and speakers are set up. The Opening Night of the Metropolitan Opera and Renee Fleming sings for one and all. The audience is rapt. The party is fun. The one person I meet there turns out to be working on my friend's play, the world gets smaller and smaller... then Indian food with said friend and my lovely cousin Katherine, ... and home to the burg. The next morning I join the Language of Trees team and it feels like everyone is batting 1000. So fun. Great to see friends and make new ones. That afternoon-- a surprise jaunt to Red Hook via Water Taxi (got on on Wall Street-- where a fire alarm, or maybe the stock market, sent everyone rushing from the Citibank building) ... I got to see the Waterfalls, a great Obama sign, a very cool converted warehouse apartment building, what views!!, and even go to Fairway. MMMmmm. And that was just the first 24 hours...