Live from New York! It's....

Me! After almost 7 hours in the car, I made it down to Manhattan. Overall, the trip was really good, although coming out of New Haven and then right before the Geo Wash Bridge were tied up badly (added an hour to the trip.) Amazingly, though, traffic downtown wasn't anything like I thought it would be. It seems as though I inherited a bit of the city driver blood from my folks--either that or it really is true that "you can take the girl out of the city, but...". Normally, I'm a pretty cautious driver and like to give people a wide berth. There's no room for that in midtown Manhattan, though, and I held my own. Currently, I'm about one block from Times Square, where I stood not even 10 minutes after I got my car into a parking garage to get on the TKTS booth line. All I can say is God Bless this place--50% off Broadway show tickets for the same-night performance. Of course, it's still a pretty penny for a show (at least compared to Maine!), but after waiting a little less than a 1/2 hour, I scored a seat for "Movin' Out", which is only about 2 1/2 blocks from my hotel door! I do wish that Jon was here so we could share this together, but I'm still admittedly excited. Tomorrow morning, I get to hail my first cab in order to get to my writing conf. I guess if I can drive down here, I can hail a cab, right? Also, as I drove down the Henry Hudson Parkway toward W 46th street, I discovered that it's FLEET WEEK! here in NYC--aka a big party for those shipmen/women who are serving us so well. Fleet Week is well known down here and it's usually quite rowdy. I counted dozens of seamen as I made my way to the hotel...Buckle in NY, it should be a fun week. Talk about timing! Ok, more later. I haven't eaten since this morning and the head is throbbing a bit. I'll post again in a bit!