New York travel notes

Traveled to Syracuse and then down to NYC this past weekend.  The Syracuse chapter of RWA invited me to visit this weekend for goal setting and voice workshops. A few travel notes:

The sky in Syracuse was surprisingly lovely. Vast, with clouds of high character, and trees waving bare into the grayness.  The man on the plane next to me was with UPS.  A beefy man with a cheery manner and an accent with full round vowels.  He gave me a pen he promised was full of magic (and it is a very, very good pen!).

My bag was lost in transition from Syracuse to NYC, but I suspect I made this so by wishing to not have to worry about the bag for the day. I rode into the city with one young woman who looked exactly like an anime figure, American style, all eyes and spindly limbs and stylishly choppy glossy black hair.

Travel tip: the SuperShuttle is supercheap–$15 each way–and they’ll drop you off and pick you up wherever you want. We ended up wandering around China Town for ages as a young woman pointed out a turn and another and another. The driver had mistaken one Water Street for another, but it all worked out, though I’m pretty sure the Wall Street guy was not equally relaxed about it. Still easier than the subway or bus.

Visited with eldest child for a day, who is living in what amounts to a student mansion, made quite pretty by his beloved. We wandered his routes so I can imagine him there, and had some cider, and later some Indian, and they politely walked me home via subway, only two stops, to the hotel I booked mainly for its proximity to said child.  It was in Chelsea, charming, inexpensive, and quiet. Ceilings fifteen feet tall, windows overlooking the gardens of the brownstones all around. I saw a demolished-looking marathoner sitting dully in a chair in the foyer.  A sleek couple I thought to be runners sang out a bon soir, and I decided they might be only french and chic.  I woke up to a blue jay haranguing a cat, and walked for ages around the neighborhood before my business meetings. The light was clear and dry and gold.  Mothers in knee high boots and good wool coats walked children to school. Young men hurried to work. Cabs flowed like a river down 8th Avenue.  A French woman with long dark hair and patterned lace stockings and a plain sweater sat with her mixed race daughter and drank coffee.  Everyone walked their dogs and I spied a doggie day care but didn’t go in.

Excellent meetings.

On the shuttle back to the airport, I talked with an intern hoping to land a residency in the city, and a young woman who had come to NYC to see her sister sing at Carnegie Hall, and ran into a local writer at the airport and checked email via cell phone and learned good news which I’m not yet allowed to share.

Next to Orlando to teach this weekend, and I’m back for many months.  It was good to get some feedback on the MIP and I can’t wait to get back to work.