Autumn in New York

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010

I planned my route to New York to maximize the distance as a part of the plan to renew my elite status for another year in the Star Alliance. Therefore, I flew from San Antonio to Denver and then Denver to La Guardia. The day started fine. I was up early and ready early. I had already checked in, and it only took a moment to check my bag at the United counter. No one was ahead of me at security, so I was at the gate within 30 minutes after leaving home. I was upgraded to First Class, so that was also good. Even the breakfast was good compared to what I have gotten on United lately--scrambled eggs, two sausages, cheese-crusted potatoes, croissant, jam, wheat cereal, milk, and cookies. However, we were put in a holding pattern for 20 minutes outside of Denver. When we finally got approval to land, it was only 15 minutes before my connecting flight was due to depart. We were coming in so low that I could see details on the farms below us. Suddenly, the pilot pulled the nose of the plane up, roared the engines and banked steeply to the right. He announced that we had been too close to the plane in front of us and that he had been given the command to make a loop and approach for a landing again. We arrived at my gate just at the time that my previous flight had been scheduled to depart.

I rushed to try to find a board so I could check to see if it might have been delayed. However, I couldn't find one. Later, I discovered that all the time boards at the Denver airport are facing the walkway at the mid-points of the moving walkways so that they cannot be seen if you take the moving sidewalks!! What a crazy plan. It would be better to have them between the beginning and end of each of the moving walkways. Anyway, my flight was not on the board when I finally checked for it. I picked up a United courtesy phone which put me directly through to reservations in India. I had been rescheduled on the next flight two hours later. I was told to go to the gate to get a new boarding pass.

On my original flight, there was a good chance I would have been upgraded to first class again, since I had been on the waiting list for so long. However, I lost that opportunity on the next flight. Not only that, I had to agree to a center seat, something I really hate. Beyond that was the worry that I would miss my appointment for getting the key to my apartment in New York.

Fortunately, the Denver airport has free wifi. Unfortunately, it didn't work well at my gate which was at the end of the concourse. I had to grab everything and go back toward the center of the concourse to find a plug and a place where I could get online. I was able to do so and immediately wrote an e-mail to let the woman know that I would be two hours later getting to the apartment. Then I had problems with the connection again. I started gathering up my things to move back to the gate when I noticed my book I was reading on the flight was not with me. I had left it at the gate! I rushed back thinking it was likely that someone had picked it up believing it had been abandoned by a reader who was finished with it. When I got back to the gate, however, it was there. It was in a different seat, but I guess someone had seen my bookmark and figured I might return. Or maybe the lady who had given me my boarding pass had told whoever found it that I had been sitting there and would be returning for the flight. Either way, it was a relief to find the book since it is one that I have borrowed and must return.

The flight wasn't too bad from Denver to New York. I was between two thin passengers who ignored me for the most part. I was able to make the trip without needing to go to the toilet more than once, and I did that while my aisle neighbor was up to do the same. We arrived on time, and the rain that had been forecast had not come yet. My bag was on the flight. And I had no problems finding the bus station and buying a weekly pass. There was then an 18-minute wait for the bus I needed. However, when I got to the metro station where I had to change to the train, it came within a minute. I actually made it to the apartment 15 minutes earlier than I had expected. However, no one was there.

Fortunately, Uli, the owner, had given me the door code for getting inside. After ringing the buzzer several times with no response, I entered the code, went into the lobby, and pulled out my book to read. I had to hope that Lydia, who was meeting me since Uli is out of the country, had gotten my e-mail and would show up. It helped that at the Denver airport I had found a reply from her to an e-mail I sent in the morning giving her my flight numbers. That made me think she had probably found the later e-mail, too, and had just gone out somewhere with plans to come back and meet me. What I didn't know was that she had sent a phone number asking her to call me when I arrived. Therefore, it was 45 minutes before she showed up at the building to find me waiting.

The apartment is an old warehouse that has been converted. The floors are old wood that has wide cracks between the planks due to years of drying and shrinking. It has pressed tin ceilings. But everything inside is new. It even has a central air conditioning unit, although it isn't being used this time of the year. Lydia gave me a tour showing me where the light switches were, explaining about putting out the garbage, explaining about the gate key and elevator key, etc. She gave me an information page that Uli had left that gave further guidelines and included the password for the wifi. I was too tired to go back out, so I just relaxed after she left and spent some time on the computer before sleeping.

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010

The forecast for most of the time I will be here is great. Today is the one day with a bad forecast--100% chance of rain. However, it called for temperatures in the 70s. And sure enough, it was raining when I got up around 9:00. However, by the time I read the newspapers on the computer and cleaned up, the rain had stopped. It was cloudy, so I knew it could return at any time. I decided it was a good day for planning indoor activities.

The bus to Costco in Harlem goes right in front of the apartment, so I went out and caught it. The store is in Spanish Harlem, right on the East River with a view of Queens a cross the way. It is in a new complex that also has Target, Best Buy, Marshall's, and other stores. It was already noon by the time I was there, so I went directly to the food service area and got a hot dog--a Costco New York hot dog!! It was a bit different from the ones at home. There was no choice of a polish; only the hot dog was offered. The bun was bigger (deeper) than the one at home. The deli mustard seemed to be spicier. The price was the same--$1.50 for the hot dog and the drink. However, the drink cup was smaller than the one in Texas. It did include a refill, though.

I wandered through the store to see how it was different from the one at home. Essentially, it is the same, but there are differences. First, the men's department had nice Italian winter slacks (flannel or wool) for sale ($79). I would love to have those at home, since I like wearing winter slacks. They also had blazers in the men's department which they haven't been selling at home. There is no wine & beer department. The Christmas goodies department had 2-3 sweet items for sale that are not available in Texas--chocolate coated jelly rings, creme brulee cookies, etc. The housewares department had a tajine pot for sale which has not been in the stores in Texas. The bakery had some bread items and some sweet rolls that are not available at home. The food court had a carne asada roll, whereas the one in Texas has a chicken roll. After checking the store out and sampling most of what they were giving away--rice chips, caramel corn, cinnamon rolls, pretzel M&Ms, cheeses, etc.--I used the toilets and headed outside to check the weather again.

Since it was still not raining, I walked to the top of Central Park and made my way all the way through the park from north to south. Even with the cloudy, damp air, it was beautiful. The trees are still about half green with the other half changing colors. There are bright ones that are yellow or orange or red. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera. But that meant I could really enjoy just looking rather than thinking about what would make the best photos. I passed through parts of the park where I had never been before. I found a wonderful round garden with many blooming flowers and a fountain in a lake in the center. I found other sculptures and fountains I had not seen before. I went through the Rambles going north to south which I had not done before. (I had only gone east to west.)

As I made my way through the park, it began sprinkling again. I decided to head toward the Paris theater beside the Plaza Hotel in hopes that I would get there before the rain began in earnest and in hopes that it would be time for a feature. Luckily, I made it, and the film would be starting within 30 minutes. The Paris has been showing foreign and independent films as long as I have been going to New York, but I had never been there before today. I saw Maria's Will, a Mexican film that had a good review in TIME a couple of weeks ago. The cinema building was wonderful inside--clean, plush, and attractive. The film was very good. And there was a surprise element to seeing it here. The storyline is about an orthodox Jewish woman who has died. She has been divorced from her husband for 20 years and he is no longer religious. Many scenes were built around Jewish traditions and his trying to upset it all with his lack of reverence. Many in the audience were Jews, so they were laughing at the things that occurred. It was a good film, so I would recommend it.

The rain was coming down when I exited the theater. I walked around the corner and caught the metro to the New York University area. I figured I needed one more indoor activity, and they were having a play this evening. I arrived there about 5:45 p.m. and asked if they had any more tickets available for the play they were doing. I was assured that there would be tickets and told that the box office would open at 6:00 p.m. I waited and got one of only two unreserved tickets. It was a free production, but tickets were required.

The play was The Time of the Cuckoo. It is set in Venice in a pension where Americans stay. It was done by the graduate students in acting. There was an interesting casting aspect--actors changed rolls 2-3 times--not to fill out the need for many actors, but to show versatility playing different rolls. A man would be an American tourist at one point while another man would be an Italian gondola driver. Then later, they would have switched the rolls they were playing. It did help point out who were the better performers. And in a couple of cases, it also showed how important casting is as performers were better in one of their rolls than in another one. Since these are all aspiring actors (and since they have a bulletin board in their theater department showing the playbills of professional plays that include former students in rolls), I will say that the mostly to "make it" from this group would be Benjamin Mehl and Casey Killoran. Rafi Silver might make it, too, although it was not so good in one of his rolls. So anyone with a good memory who is reading this should let me know if you recognize any of these days among successful performers sometime in the future!!

It was 10:00 p.m. by the time the show was over. Shops were closing. I didn't find a place to eat along the route I was following back to the room, so I had a granola bar from my suitcase and called it a night.