Saturday, January 22, 2011

It All May Be A Lesson For The Hasty Heart To Know

Well, it was a glorious full five weeks in South Carolina. It's where my home is, complete with family, dear friends, pets, and my future husband. Christmas, New Year's, and everything else that happened was fantastic. Packing up and leaving was not easy. But it happened.

So after a night in the sleeper car (best travel method EVER!) I arrived back in the Big Apple at around noon today. I had already made some plans in preparation for my arrival - catch up with Michelle in the afternoon and see Wyatt Cenac (of Daily Show fame) perform stand-up in the evening. Having immediate plans was the best thing for me, I stayed busy all day and managed to avoid being dragged into the homesick mopeys.

New York is mostly how I left it, with a few changes to the landscape.
I understand that snow isn't a big deal to people here, but I just want to gawk and marvel at it. Sidewalks are slippery, big piles of refrozen snow (so, ice) are in patches along the sides of the roads, and dirty slush occupies the most heavily trafficked areas.

I met Michelle at her place, and we went for coffee, walked around, wandered through a bookstore, wandered towards a grocery store, thought better of it, got bagels, and wandered back. It was great to catch up, and the few hours we spent really zoomed by for me.

Those playing the home game will have noticed that we did an awful lot of traveling in that time, and may be interested to know that the temperature we were walking around in was 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is the kind of cold that freaks me out and usually prevents me from leaving the house (maybe because I grew up in a place where those temperatures can shut down schools and government offices). But the sun was shining, and we kept moving, so it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Actually, it was pretty comfortable. Possibly because I was dressed like I was preparing to attend the cremation of Sam McGee. I'm not the only one taking tips from the Jack London fashion school. Apparently when the snooty yankees of the past scoffed at my claims to be cold with their "You haven't seen real winter"s, this was the winter they were referring to. And yes, it is colder. But at least there are the supplies to cope with it. Of course, it is supposed to get colder this week - the low tomorrow night is 5!

After I got all my things put away, it was time to meet Kim and cash in our free tickets to see Wyatt Cenac! We met a little early so that we could get some hot chocolate to sip while we stood in line - we got there around 8:15, and it was 9:00 before they let us in the building. Which was kind of a long wait in the cold, but I enjoyed catching up with Kim, and the time went by quickly. And the show was completely worth the chilly wait - Wyatt was hilarious! The show was being taped for Comedy Central, so if they pick the audience I was in (they filmed two), there's a chance we may be spottable when it airs on TV. We'd be good choices, since we did a lot of laughing. All in all, a great first day back.

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