NEW YORK, NEW YORK

All good things must come to an end, and eventually, so did the harp festival.  When I go to events like that, I just can't stand for them to end, although I was ready to quit lugging that heavy harp around.  It was a beautiful sounding Blevins harp, but I am spoiled by both the carbon fiber and my lovely Fisher harp.  

But if you have to give up and leave a harp convention, then it's nice to be coming to the most exciting city in the world.  Don't believe that?  Just ask any New Yorker.  

The cats were eager to see me when I arrived, and even more eager to wake me up at 5 a.m. this morning.  Martha had been home the day before, so they had some nice spoiling.  

Verna arrived this morning.  I tried to get her to take a nap, but she wasn't ready, even though she didn't sleep on the plane.  We decided we would just do one easy thing, which was to go to Katz's deli.  Verna likes a lot of chef shows on cable, so she has an interesting list of places for us to try.  

We took the crosstown bus over to the 6 and then changed to the J for one stop to go to Katz's, which is on the lower east side.  When we came out of the subway it was raining.  When we had walked half a block, it was pouring.  We stepped inside a store and waited it out for about a half hour, then walked down to Katz's.  Katz's is probably most famous for being the place where the line "I'll have what she's having" was uttered in the movie When Harry Met Sally.  It was very full today, but we got a seat and had not one, but two sandwiches, a pastrami and a corned beef.  We did save the second half for dinner.  Frankly, it was a full day's food.  

We could have shared, but I didn't want pastrami on white bread.  We met this typical Brooklyner in line who told us not to get those bright green pickles because they were just cucumbers, and to get the garlic ones, and I should push ahead because this skinny guy next to me would get in front of me if I didn't, and she didn't know why she even came in here, it's so busy, and didn't those guys have some nerve putting that tip cup right up there on the counter (overflowing with money, I might add -- you'd have to stuff the money into the cup like stuffing it into a stripper's g-string to make it stay) and the thing about this place is, now you gotta go to a different station to order your fries and drinks, but I think I'll just pretend I'm a tourist and maybe they'll take care of it right here.  You aren't a tourist, are you?

Well, yes, I'm a tourist, and not only that, I'm from California, and with that accent, I don't really think he's going to buy that you're a tourist, but I doubt that he cares.  Meanwhile she's pushing up to the counter between Verna and me and saying to the counter guy that she's with us, mostly so that skinny guy won't slip in and place an order ahead of her.  

Our trip back to the apartment was an adventure.  We were in a station waiting for an F train, when an A train stopped, probably due to some construction somewhere along the line, but we didn't get on it because we weren't prepared.  Then we waited another 15 minutes for an F train., only to have it be on a somewhat different schedule of stops than it was supposed to have.  So we transferred to the A only to discover that it was a Jamaica bound train, and we had to get off early and get on the C for one stop before we could get on the 1. 

Remember, Verna has some mobility problems, and oh, yes, she'd been up all night, and oh yes, it was hot and humid, particularly down in the stations, and two or three times I thought she was going to faint.  

We did make it home, stopped and had a coke -- well, she had two, but who's counting -- and sat in the AC at Europan until we cooled off and then came home.  In other words, we did what I have mastered at home -- spent all day having lunch.  Practice makes perfect.  

Tomorrow we're going to the 9-11 Memorial, then to a fancy chocolate place she's seen on TV, and then to Hampton Chutney for lunch.  I think I have arranged this as a day with minimal stairs, minimal walking and minimal transit changes.  

She's worried about not waking up in the morning.  She doesn't know about the Julia alarm clock.  

Here's Julia trying to drink water out of my glass.