I like New York in June - or December - how 'bout you?

10 years ago right about now I was walking through Midtown Manhattan.  It really is beautiful there at Christmas time!  We got to see the big ol' Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and watch people skating on the ice there.  Just walking around while the seemingly quarter-sized snowflakes were falling was cool in itself!  I'll never forget walking down the sidewalk with Jo Beth, when all of a sudden I looked next to me and there in a long black leather trench coat was Laurence Fishburne!  I couldn't believe it!  Apparently Jo Beth had also seen him earlier in the day, wearing a different trench coat.  I guess that was "his look" after the Matrix came out.  :-)

My family and I (minus Jen, who, unfortunately, couldn't go) were in New York City to help celebrate the wedding of my Aunt Phyllis.  She was diagnosed about a year or so prior to that with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, and wanted to marry her long-time best friend, Stephen Barbash.  We had a nice little get-together the night before, with just a few friends and a wonderful dinner of tenderloin medallions in some sort of sauce.  There were some other things, but I just remember the medallions - probably just about the best steak I've ever had in my life!

The next night we went to Carnegie Hall, where the wedding was held.  Phyllis was the Director of Education there, and wanted to also have the ceremony there.  I wish we had more footage of the evening - it just all went so quickly (as events like that usually do - I know our wedding day seems like it was over in about 3 minutes!).  We only ended up with these two pics of the whole weekend. (the first one is the family with Phyllis next to me on the left and Steven on the far right.  The second is myself, Ma, Katie, Jo Beth, and Erica with Phyllis' good friend, the late, great Isaac Stern)

Running around NYC with Katie, Bruce, Jo Beth and Erica!  We were on the way back to the hotel from the dinner party the night before, and Katie was sitting in the front seat of the cab.  Those of you who know Katie know how friendly and outgoing she is.  She struck up a conversation with the cabdriver, who's first language was not English.   They got on the subject of where Katie was from - which, at the time, was Dewey, OK (not too terribly far from where they are now).   He asked what Bruce did for a living, and she told him he was the city manager.  He didn't quite understand what that was, so she explained it as being kind of the same role as Rudy Giuliani's there in New York.  From then on he referred to her as "Giuliani's Wife".  She also got to repeatedly honk the horn, since she thought it was so cool to do that in the middle of Midtown traffic. 

I did a yellow streak with a little bit of black for those lovely New York City cabs!  I'd love to be able to bring Jenny up there to the Big Apple for Christmas and New Years!  It would be so much fun to see that big ol' ball drop!