I am...I said

"New York City born and raised, but lately I've been lost between two shores. L.A.'s fine, but it ain't home, New York's home, but it ain't mine no more..."
                                                                      -Neil Diamond

Lately I've been thinking about what it would've been like if my family never left Queens, NYC for the suburbs of Long Island. What would I be like as a City kid? Sometimes I think that one day I'd like to go back. To live there and see what it's like. That's probably not going to happen, for several reasons:

1. I'd need a reeeeaaaaaallly, seriously well-paying job. Those are hard to come by even in the best economic times.
2. I'd have to live in a really tiny apartment. Probably in Queens or Brooklyn.
3. I'd have to depend largely on mass transport, and possibly give up my car.
3a. I'd have to get in better shape, and have the stamina to walk everywhere.
4....Well, those are enough aren't they?

I'd like to think that I could do it. That none of those obstacles would be absolute deal breakers. Maybe I would be lucky enough to get the job. And find a livable apartment. Could I manage the rest?

The thing is, my romanticized ideas are not based in reality. I imagine having season tickets to the Mets. Hopping on the 7 train from my job in Manhattan and spending summer evenings taking in the ballgames. I imagine having the money for nice clothes to wear to the office.

The reality is that we are from what was a becoming a bad neighborhood in Queens. I've no idea what the schools were like. Maybe I would never have made it to college. Probably, I'd have to still live at home. And my closet would be so small I wouldn't have room for many of those nice work clothes.

Mass transport in the city is great. Comparatively. But of course it also comes with mass frustrations. Late trains and buses. Rising fares. Overcrowding. And I just love my car too much. MINIs are great city cars. Parking is a snap, if a place can actually be found. But it's expensive. There's that opposite side of the street nonsense. A garage is a luxury, afforded only by the wealthy. I can just imagine hauling my groceries from the car to my 5th floor walkup. A run to Costco would require many trips up and down.

Now, I just back into my garage, right up to the door. Pop the trunk, and bring the bags right inside. One of many advantages of my little house here. My car is safely parked where no one can hit it, or steal it. I don't share any walls with my neighbors. And I have lots of room. More than I need really. Three bedrooms and 2 and a half baths.

Moving to a tiny New York apartment would seem like a step backwards. A necessary sacrifice, not at all easy for a soft, suburbanite like me.

Even so, I still think it would be great. To be at the center of everything; art and culture, and so much more, in what is still the greatest city in the world. Who could resist?

Generator

Last weekend, Hina, my best friend from high school came to visit me here in Vegas for the first time with her family. I'd been to visit her back home in New York a couple of times last year. It was really good to see her, and the kids, whom I love. I was glad to be able to show them around this place where I've lived for 6 years now. They found the scale of it overwhelming. Especially Thaiba and Thaha. It was fun to see their eyes light up at the huge canyon of light that is the Strip.

I met up with them Wednesday night and we went to get dinner at an Afghani restaurant they had found on the internet; they had already called in an order. Now that I know where it is, we can go there again next time they visit. Or maybe just Hina will visit.

After that we took a quick drive up the Strip to check out the general sights, and then it was back to their hotel to hang out for a while before calling it a night. I'd worked that day so I was getting knackered.

We met the next morning in the food court at New York, New York, or fake New York as I like to call it. We just has some donuts and Starbucks at the corner of "Greenwich Street." We took a picture of Thaiba knocking on the fake front door of number 22.

Our game plan for the day was to walk across to M&Ms World and then to the Coke Store in that little mall on the front of the MGM. We had the idea of trying to get tickets for some show. David Copperfield was on the wish list, but my Mom didn't have any discounts and his show is pretty expensive. We tried the half-price ticket kiosk, and then Saad and I walked to the Flamingo to see if we could get free tickets to Nathan Burton with this coupon they had found. The free tickets were out. So we gave up on the magic show idea. We met back up at Planet Hollywood for lunch at this Mexican Place called Cabo Wabo. It was mediocre, but Hina chose it because they didn't want to walk any further. She is still having a lot of trouble with her breathing and can't walk too far at any one time.

We walked a bit further on to the Paris, and Saad and Thaha went back to the hotel to re-charge the camera and get the car. Hina, Thaiba and I walked around the Paris for a bit and then intended to meet the guys at the front entrance in the car. They said they'd be a while. We decided instead just to grab the Monorail from the Paris back to MGM and cross the street back to the hotel and meet them.

I haven't been on the Monorail before, and didn't realize that it's actually very far from the entrance of the Paris. You have to walk all the way back through Paris and then through Bally's and by then Hina was so tired, we never made it.

We exited through the nearest door of Bally's which turned out to be the Valet entrance. We called Saad and Thaha to direct them to us, but there ended up being some confusion. It was almost an hour and several phone calls back and forth before they finally got to us. It was about 5:00pm by then and we decided to head to the house to see Mom. I drove us from Flamingo to Eastern and took the surface streets home. Traffic was terrible and it took forever. And my driving made Saad nervous. That was the last of my driving on that trip. We visited with Mom for a little bit. I took the kids up to see my room. Hina was too wiped to come up the stairs. And Miracle would not stop barking even for a minute. So that made it hard. And Dad was getting some sleep before work so we didn't get to see him. I don't know how he stayed asleep with all that barking, but he told me the next day he never heard any of it.

We headed back to the Strip, this time taking the freeway and getting there in no time. We parked at Bellagio so they could see the fountain show. I stayed with them for half and hour and then I walked back across to the Paris. I had a ticket for "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!" the NPR news quiz show. I was so excited they were coming to town, I didn't even realize the show was on the same weekend Hina was coming. But they had plenty to occupy them for the two hours I was at the show. They went from the Bellagio to the Venetian and checked out the Canal Shoppes. I met them back at the room just as the kids were going downstairs to see the Sponge Bob attraction in the arcade.

I talked with Hina for a little while and then decided to call it a night. We were leaving for the Grand Canyon the next morning. We had debated during the day if we should still make the trip, as it was a good 5 or 6 hour drive, and Hina was pretty tired. But we ended up going.

They came to pick me up at my house and we hit the road. It wasn't a bad drive actually. I played hangman in the back seat with Thaiba. Saad drove the whole way. I offered a few times to take over, but he and Hina both insisted it was fine. I was not used to driving that Chrysler minivan they had rented. It didn't ride as nicely as Dad's Hyundai. But I would have got the hang of it. I guess I just made them too nervous driving home the night before.

When we got to the Canyon it was my turn to be overwhelmed by the scale. My Dad joked that it was just a big whole in the ground. I found the enormity of it just awing though. We parked in a couple of places along the South Rim to have a look and take some pictures. Hina joined us at first but then she stayed in the car. She was having even more of a hard time breathing than usual.

We drove to another spot where there was a Geological museum and a big picture window looking out onto the Canyon. I drove Hina as close as possible to the entrance of the museum. I didn't want her to miss out on such a cool sight. She managed to come inside for a bit, but that was all. We attempted to catch a shuttle bus out further to see the sun set, but it was already too late. And Hina had had enough. We left the Canyon for Flagstaff where we would stay the night.

It was an uneventful drive aside from the fact that coming into Flagstaff there was a controlled burn going on in some of the woodland. The smell made things worse. Using the GPS, we made our way to the Red Lobster though and had dinner. We had the best waiter ever. Scotty. He waited on us with such speed and attention, we nominated him for best server in the world. We had fun laughing and stuffing our faces with biscuits and shrimp and took some more pictures.

After arriving at the hotel, an Embassy Suites, and getting ready for bed, we hooked up Saad's camera to the big screen TV and watched a slide show of all the pics from the trip so far. They had started out by visiting relatives and touring San Francisco, Yosemite and San Diego before coming to Vegas, so there were a lot of pictures. Thaha had still more pictures on his laptop and we looked at those too. We went to bed soon after.

Saad had this crazy idea that we would get up really early and drive back up to the Canyon for sunrise. I told him it was unlikely. And as it turned out, Hina had some more breathing problems and was up most of the night. Saad made a trip to the Pharmacy at around 1:30 a.m. The Pharmacist told him it was most likely the altitude that was exacerbating HIna's respiratory issues. He said the best thing to do would be just to leave town and get to a lower altitude. After breakfast we packed up the car and headed back to Vegas instead of making a second visit to the Canyon.

On the way back we stopped briefly at Hoover Dam, then continued on to Henderson. We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread at The District, then they dropped me home. They wanted to get right back on the road to L.A. They just missed Dad by about a minute. I literally waved goodbye, closed the garage, and then heard it open again as Dad pulled up. We were bummed he had missed them again.

They were due to fly out of L.A. the next morning, but Hina was having pain in her side. It turned out to be shingles; unrelated to the respiratory problems aside from the fact that the stress of the trip had probably precipitated it. She went to the UCLA hospital and got treated, but she still wasn't well enough to fly the next day. They ended up staying in L.A. until Thanksgiving Day. They got home last night.

She kept apologizing to me for not being able to do much on the trip, but she had already done so much! I just wanted her to take it easy and feel better. But not being able to walk long distances makes such a difference. As she said, you never think about your lungs until you can't use them. Still it was a great visit, I would have been happy if we could've just hung out at the house all weekend. If Miracle could behave herself that is.

Hopefully when winter is over, I can make another trip out to New York to visit with them again. They said we can drive up to Niagra Falls and into Canada as I've never been. But even if we just stay at home, it's good enough for me. I just love Hin so much, and those kids; they are all just like family to me now.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:W Pebble, Henderson,United States