the end...............finally, i know!!!!!

after staying as long as we thought we could in Central Park, we dashed out and down the street, heading back to the subway, but also looking for a bite to eat. we stopped at Pizza Villagio Cafe. i grabbed a muffin, pastry and a hot chocolate to share (and a Jack-n-Jill cookie to go; don't know if i've had one of those since i worked at Apple Core Antiques in Orlando!) Karyn got a panini. (i have a hard time eating non-breakfast foods when i first eat in the day...) again, we stayed as long as we thought we could, which was pretty short. we had to get back to Andi's office by a certain time so she could drive us to up to La Guardia.......


we passed Carnegie Hall on our 'speed-walk' to the subway

once we were down below, we were a little unsure which train to take, but Karyn figured it out (or so we thought), and off we rode......well, about 15 minutes later, we realized that we were headed in the OPPOSITE direction and on the WRONG line...!! we were freaking out! we were already cutting it close to our meet time with Andy to head to the airport when we got on what we thought was the right track! we got off as soon as we could and went up to the street to call Andy; she was wondering where we were, of course. Karyn tried asking her where we should go from where we were, but she wasn't able to help us much, as we were in an unfamiliar area to her (if i remember right, we were on our way to the coast in south Brooklyn). we stopped in a shop to ask for directions; she was no help. we figured we should go back down and ask for help in the subway. we finally got it figured out, after asking a person or two, and we frantically ran to wait. and wait we did. it felt like what time we needed to get the airport was rapidly depleting and the time we were spending just standing there WAITING had slowed to super slo-mo. Aaaarrrrggh!!!! by that point, we were talking as little as possible. almost as if we were afraid that somehow our words would speed up time or slow us down even more. actually, i was frustrated with K (i had been depending on her to be in charge of our paths along the subway system) and i was frustrated with myself (i hadn't figured out the subway system better...and i was mainly the one who wanted to eat after Central Park; if we hadn't stopped, we would've had more time to be lost :)...etc.). and we were beyond stressed about making it to our plane; we both didn't have the money to get on another flight, and we had to go from south, south Brooklyn to north, north Queens. Aaaaaah!! as we continued to wait for the train, K saw across the tracks on a steel post the graffiti word, "PRAY"... how fitting. we'd already been praying in our minds, but we prayed even more and even harder. ...the train finally came, and it couldn't have gone slower (so it seemed to us) to get us where we needed to be. i can't remember now if we had to get on another line to get to Andy waiting for us; i think we did. once there, we threw ourselves into the car, and off she sped, like a NYC savvy driver does, but with even more craziness! :) don't know how much time we had to get to the airport, but i couldn't think about it. i focused on breathing and distracted myself by looking out the window at the last sites (from the ground) of the city. saw a humongous cemetery with most being buried above ground, probably because it was so close to the water. we said bye and thank you to Andi as she pulled up next to the curb at the airport, and we hopped out before she'd come to a complete stop (not really, but practically). we launched our bags out of her trunk and onto the curb to the guy ready to check them for us. he kinda laughed at us; he thought we had enough time. we got in the security line as quick as we could. again, could it have gone any SLOWER?? we shlomped on our shoes--i didn't even bother to tie my laces--and took off as fast as we could go with our not-so-in-shape bodies and our loot in tow. we turned more than a few heads, of that i'm sure. :) once we got to the gate, we saw the line was long enough that we could calm down some, and we took turns running to use the restroom. ...we had MADE IT...!!!! we said prayers of gratitude. we eventually regained our normal breathing patterns and heart rates. and then......in classic New York City fashion....we sat on the plane on the runway for 45 minutes (if i'm remembering correctly)...!!!!!!!! :-}

last view of the GREAT CITY that New York is...

even though i'm 'my age', i still love to sit by the window on the plane. love the view. couldn't resist taking a picture of this blanket of clouds...

love this photo; the clouds remind me of the ocean--can you see the wave coming onto the shore???

though i was ready to go home and sleep in my own bed and see my kids again, i wasn't ready to go home. hopefully by now (if you're not, there's somethign wrong with you--ha), you are fully aware of what an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND FABULOUSLY WONDERFUL time i had!!!!!!!!!!! i read and slept and listened to music most of the way back. watched a tiny bit of airplane TV. this time, we stopped in Atlanta. reminisced about my trips there back in the day. felt so close to my hometown Orlando. (probably because that's the closest i'd been to Orlando in 11 and a half years...duh!) got some Checkers (whoa, flashback!) for dinner. slept even more on the way to SLC. got really hot. (i usually do that when i'm tired and on a plane for a fair amount of time.) was practically a zombie when we landed in SLC. the cold felt good; reminded me of NYC. it was snowing and there was an inch or two on the ground at my house when K's mom dropped me off. i did as little as possible (but still probably a thing or two more than i needed to, 'cause that's how i roll) and crashed into my oh-so-comfy bed...