NY Frame of Mind

Talk about the whirlwind. I left Wednesday morning at 5.08 AM, got back Thursday evening at 9.30 PM, and spent almost 36 glorious hours in New York City. We stayed at Flatotel, which my friend Wing Chun informed me, was where they filmed the first season of America's Next Top Model. The room was amazing. The hotel was right in midtown Manhattan within walking distance of Times Square, and how amazing is it just to drive past the East River on the FDR (is that right?) with the sun shining, with the windows of the yellow cab rolled down, with the sights of the traffic floating in and out of the lanes like sea gulls on Lake Ontario, and with the idea that for just a moment, walking with the group of people from the NY office, that people might mistake me for a native New Yorker.

We spent most of Wednesday in meetings, and then raced in a cab downtown to buy tickets from the half-price ticket booth for a Broadway show, which may seem utterly tourist of us, but hell, it's the Great White Way people? We ended up seeing Twyla Tharp's Movin' Out, which unlike Momma Mia, is all dance; no cheesy dialogue and no corny storylines made to fit into the music. Instead, Billy Joel's music seems to fit seemlessly because the choreography is so good. I was really hesitant to see it, but was absolutely amazed it was so moving.

I spent the first years of my life dancing, and did it all through high school; and when I see it there in such a perfect form (the musical is a magical blend of modern, jazz, ballet and Broadway dance) that it makes my heart ache just a little bit for sore toes and knees and thighs and hard work and sweat and all kinds of other good stuff.

After the show, we went to Jamba Juice, and then to sleep at the hotel. The next day I managed to squeeze in some shopping at J Crew (yee-haa!). And then bam! we're back on a plane and back in Toronto. And the weather was ten degrees cooler, which made me miss NYC even more.