New York on Sunday...big city taking a nap.

So much for worrying about congestion on NYC Marathon day. We walked up 6th to Rockefeller Center and it was deserted.

Maybe now would be a good time to confirm that these entries are indeed all over the place and out of time. The opportunities to write haven't been that plentiful so far. But now we're on the train down to Washington so I have a minute to catch up.

First of all, the trip started on a downright chilling note. Our flight took off at 9:20am. This was exactly the time that a gunman entered Terminal 3 and threw the entire airport into panic and horror. We didn't find out what had happened until we got to Newark. So yes, we made it out of LAX just in time. Our hearts are heavy for the victims and we have yet another reminder that we are indeed transients in the world.

We were welcomed to the East by incredible fall colors. As we were landing, you could actually see the color penetrating the clouds. Even now, as I write on the train, we are submerged in a corridor of color.

And then the train into New York and the experience of coming up out of Penn and hot damn! New York! It's gasp-worthy, never fails. I always feel that a part of me will always be in New York. The smell, the visual chaos. Crossing the street in New York! It's like bungi jumping. We feel the need to walk up 7th to Time Square and the TKTS booth just to get re-acclimated to the mess, even though there are far more efficient ways of getting from any point A to any point B anywhere on Earth.

We agree with many others, however, that the city is an exciting place to visit but we wouldn't want to live there. The whole of Manhattan seems to go against nature. It's a constant survival test. is it possible to ever relax here? Peace is non-existent. I can't get away from the feeling that humanity was not intended to live like this. It must take a brave and peculiar mindset.

But I say again--hot damn! New York City! What a rush. Your heartbeat actually feels different here.

So much for purple prose about the Big Apple. Writers and poets have expressed it far better than I, but I can only communicate how it feels personally.

After picking up our Glass Menagerie tickets, the rest of the day is one long anticipation. We head for Central Park and I'm wrong. Peace does exist in New York. Even with the set-up activity for the Marathon the next day. The course starts on Staten Island, proceeds across to Brooklyn and Queens, up through the Bronx and finally down into Manhattan for a run though the Park before finishing just north of Columbus Circle.

The "autumnalness" here is overwhelming. We're walking up to Belvedere Castle and the Delacort. Again, the iconicness is like a big burst of wind right in your face. The sun is setting and the light is coming through the leaves and is reflected on the buildings around the Park.

The Delacort, of course, is locked up tight but we stop anyway. God is everywhere and certainly here in the sense of the theatrical magic and presence of what has happened here. Ghosts on my shoulder.

As a person who believes there is no heaven and no hell ( both exist here on Earth rather than some place in the distant future), I do believe wholeheartedly in ghosts. Everyone that has come before us is still among us. And your spirit remains wherever you have visited in life on Earth. New York thrives with ghosts.

Back to the story. It seems the best bet timewise to take the subway back to 45th St and the Booth. The Booth is my favorite Broadway theatre. Memory: in 1984, I saw Sunday in The Park with George here. Afterwards, I stood on the sidewalk with Gary and Lynda Krinke, Lisa Dyson and Cathy Cavadini with tears standing in our eyes. How do we conclude this evening? What will be a worthy nightcap? Gary (reverentially): Let's go to Sardi's. We actually link arms walking through Shubert Alley. Walk into Sardi's. And Stephen Sondheim is standing in the lobby.

There is NO WAY I'm equipped to talk to him. I'm still blubbering from his show. Looking back now, maybe I should have spoken up. He would have maybe appreciated seeing the effect his show had upon one 24-year-old girl. I can hear me now: Mmmmmister So-hahah-dheim, I just saw...(blubber/blubber/blubber/sniff and then deep breath:) SundayintheParkwithGeorge! And it was wa-wa-wa-wa WONDERFUL!!! And could I have restrained myself from throwing myself into his arms and sobbing into his tweed jacket? We'll never know. Maybe I'll have the chance to meet up with him again and tell him this story.

More on The Glass Menagerie later. Coming into Philadelphia and feeling the need to just place my head on my sweertheart's shoulder for a while.

There are LOTS of sinewy people in town...

When we come to New York, we have a habit of staying in Newark by the airport. That way, we take the hotel shuttle to EWR, take the AirTrain to NJ Transit and then on to NY Penn. It doesn't take that long and it save major bucks over staying in the city.

On Saturday, our first day here--we must confess. We're old and we slept in. Yes, we preferred snoozing in a Wyndham next to the Newark airport over going to New York City. 

It's NY Marathon weekend, a fact we were not aware of when we booked the trip. As if to reprimand us for our sloth, we are in the company of a myriad of ridiculously in-shape people and their families and friends all wearing various hand-made shirts supporting their runner with signs rolled up under their arms.

We still made it to TKTS in time to score the 8pm The Glass Menagerie. LOTS of availability on TKTS. Orlando Bloom doing Shakespeare is no match for Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in Pinter, which just opened and is sold out.

By the way, I'm blogging from the NBC cafe overlooking Rockefeller Plaza. Very nice.

We're getting up now and walking over to the Cort for Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in Waiting for Godot. We shall cross the street so as not to pass too close to the Fox News studio. Top news on the ticker--an alligator was found under an escalator at O'Hare. Oh, and Healthcare.gov is down for maintainance. More signs of the debacle that is universal health care! The site will be down until...9am tomorrow.

They actually checked!

There was this guy trying to get on the plane with this gargantuan garment bag and he got stopped by American Airlines staff and told that he had to check it. Loved the look on his face. Seriously though. You could have stowed a small child in that thing.

We've often wondered about the size of some of the so-called carry-ons that passengers bring aboard and watch them take up all the space in the overhead stuffing it them in there.

M always boards w just his backpack and I take my carry-on case and my small backpack along with my CPAP, which they allow on board as a 3rd carry-on because it is medical equipment. I've never been questioned about it (maybe because of the great big giant red medical symbol I put on it) but M always carries it himself anyway just in case. It's kinda a stupid thing--being proud of actually following rules.

We board in 10 minutes. Weather looks like it is clearing across the Midwest after last night's storms, but New York is still squally (Weather Channel word). Could be a bumpy ride. Goody.