NEW YORK
JUNE 21-22, 2003
SATURDAY

Here she is!

It's been a long time since the last visit to New York, and I was in severe Josie withdrawal. We left Providence at 7:00 AM on Saturday, running in a fog across the street to the station. The train was a bit late, so I began to compose another letter to one of my favorite correspondents, David Gunn, CEO of Amtrak. We cabbed down to the East Village. Josie was in her glory. As soon as you enter, she begins the show, running through her entire gamut of tricks. She shows you all her toys and tells you stories of the latest exciting thing to happen. She has a new passion--drawing. She tells you, "Draw something." You say, "How about a dog?" She says, "That's good." You draw a dog. Then, she pushes you out of the way and scrawls all over your drawing with crayon. She gets the colors all right, but has yet to master the form.

Drawing..Outside

Marjorie was planning to host a bridal shower for a friend that afternoon, so Carol, Jonathan, Josie and I cleared out. We walked across town to the Knickerbocker Steakhouse, one of our favorites. It was (for me) a long walk, but worth it. We passed on the humungous porterhouse steak and had instead a skirt steak with chimichurri sauce and creamed spinach (no potato, Dr. Atkins), chopped steak salad, and pan-seared salmon. The wine was a Ravenswood Amador Zinfandel, unexceptional. Josie entertained the entire restaurant.

Josie feeds Bobie

Where's Josie?..Here she is!
Where's Josie?                                                                        Here she is!!

It started to pour, and poor Jonathan, piglet in pocket finally was able to hail a cab.

Jonathan hailing cab

We went up to the Museum of Natural History. Josie slept through the Einstein exhibit. It was meant to explain Einstein's theories to the layman. I didn't understand a word of it. It said that Einstein could imagine himself riding on a beam of light. I can do that. There I am, straddling a beam of light, going through space. So what? E=mc2. So? And did they have the menu from the reception at Einstein's Bar Mitzvah? They did not.

Josie woke up in time for he dinosaurs. "She gaped, "Dinos! So big! So excited! Little scary." And the same for the whales.

Jonathan, Josie and dino..Josie and Jonathan

We stayed at the museum until closing, and left in the pouring rain. There was no chance of getting a cab. So, we took the subway. There was a dangerous milling throng at two unmanned turnstiles, a long wait for a train. We got off at 14th Street to change lines. We got on a train, and there was an announcement that we would have to get off at 4th Street to get a train to First Street and Houston. Down two more flights of stairs with the stroller and Josie. We saw a wonderful jazz flutist and his besotted wife playing and dancing in the subway.

Flutist and wife

At the end of the day, I was soaked, my feet were killing me, I could barely move my legs. Josie had much more patience than I and was a joy to be with all day. I forgot to mention that she can now climb up and down the spiral staircase, although, like me, she still needs supervision.

Josie descending staircase

She still loves to read, and now Jonathan has bought her a computer program, which she also loves.
Andy & Josie reading..josie.computer.jpeg

Neal and Andy came over, and we ordered Chinese food--too much Chinese food. Neal and Andy headed out for a movie, and we cabbed up to the hovel to sleep.

On To Sunday

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