With a headache, sore throat, and deeply concerning blurred vision, the beginning of my family's 10+ hour trek to New York City was not starting off on the best of foots for yours truly.
I just plain didn't feel well. Determined to not let something as ludicrous as the common cold (or possibly the flu) keep me from enjoying only my second visit to The Big Apple, I said a little prayer to God that he not let whatever was causing this bodily turmoil effect my or my family's fun on this 1st annual Turkey Day Tussle with NYC's abundance of "wild life". Grammatically I realize that it should be "my family's or my..." but I prayed for me first and them second, which should be somewhat of an indication that this prayer was primarily selfish in nature.
However, this was not my ordinary prayer. There was more audacity in my words to the God I love than ever before. I prayed not only with 100% certainty that God COULD take this sickness away from me but also that He WOULD take it away. After driving for about an hour in Virginia, feeling the worst I've felt in a very long time, all the sudden my symptoms began fading away. I had been sweating from a fever I must have been running but all the sudden the headache and the fever evaporated like condensation off the windshield. The rest of the trip I would suffer from minor symptoms- congestion, occasional coughing, scratchy throat- but not ONCE did the way I felt physically interrupt our family's reunion in The City that Never Sleeps. It was a God thing. This trip was going to be great.
It was great. Except for (and this is the one and ONLY time I will mention it in this blog...the hurt still lingers) the Clemson football game Saturday night. The trip was made great by small, unexpected, even in some cases, embarrassing occurrences that infiltrated our plans each day we were there. It started about 15 minutes after we finally reached the city. Dad dropped mom and me off at the hotel with the luggage and then began the process of making four immediate left turns around the block to get to the parking deck directly behind the hotel on a one-way street.
Being the country folk that we are, some of the "rules of the road" in big metropolitan areas were foreign to us. This included, for my dad, driving while talking on the cell phone. Now forget for a moment that he DOES have a bluetooth headset, has driven in Washington D.C. where the rule also applies, and that he was simply calling my mother to tell her to go ahead and check in (which we were already doing), and just remember that NYC is chaotic and can be flustering at times. Enter NYPD's finest stage left. Dad's smooth salesmanship skills got him out of getting a double whammy ticket of both 1)no seat belt on and 2)driving while talking on the phone, but he was still hit with #2.
To make matters worse was the fact that when he rolled the window down to address the officer, the window took that opportune moment to malfunction and the glass almost completely sank into it's slot between the door paneling. After receiving his fineable offense documentation, dad had to park our car, which had a broken window, in a parking deck in NYC. Luckily he was able to manhandle the glass to get it back up to at least look fully functional only to leave it for us to worry about on the trip back home.
That started the trip off on a rough, yet somewhat comical rhythm that persistent until we got back to Tennessee. Intermittent to the comedy was the phenomenal cuisine we took in every day. We had great fish, great Italian, and a fantastic yet uncustomary Thanksgiving dinner. One of our servers was quick to point out that we must be from the south after I said something at the table. Taken back, since I believe I don't sound that southern at all, I questioned how she knew we were from God's country (that's right, I said it). Apparently I had said "y'all" and she got a kick out of that. It was odd to me, something so natural to say that it has become a staple of my everyday vernacular could be pinpointed and labeled so quickly by a stranger.
After visiting my brother at his place of work and seeing where he does...whatever it is that he does, I decided this was our first photo opp. I took pictures of him in his natural element- looking at six different computer screens all with different info on it and deciphering the data to make meaningful decisions that ultimately makes money for his company. I had to get in on that action...so we took pictures of me at the desk looking like I would if I had his job. Needless to say stupefied doesn't quite do justice to my look.
On the way down the elevator in this lovely place of New York professionalism, one person in our party created yet another hilarious moment. While I won't say his name to protect both his pride and his identity, I will say that this instance proves that the street smart intelligence I received was maternal (love you dad). Standing more than two feet from the wall of the downward moving elevator, this person must have thought the wall was literally right behind them and as if in slow motion began to gently rock back on his heels expected the sturdy wood paneling behind him to act as a casual lean-to during the brief 8-floor decent. Eventually gravity took hold and introduced this nameless person to the realization that the wall he expected to be directly behind him was a good two feet away, and when he hit, the elevator shook side to side violently enough to make a blind person believe an earthquake hit a 5 on the richter scale.
A cloud of dust that had been hibernating behind the wood paneling was released into the elevator's small space. After gathering ourselves from concern at first then harmonious laughter, the Smalling family exited the elevator whistling a peppy tune as to avoid any suspicion from the non-existent spectators of the building's lobby.
Mom and I got to see the Broadway Musical "Promises, Promises" which was great. Molly Shannon was a hit in the show and Sean Hayes must have been ad libbing something fierce because he obviously caught two of his co-stars completely by surprise with a few lines. The whole family went to see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular in Radio City Music Hall. It was very well done, but what took me by surprise was the reverence paid to Jesus Christ. After 45 minutes of a show that had plenty of well choreographed dancing and a Santa Claus popping off about the "magic of Christmas," the last thing I expected to hear or see was anything about the birth of our Savior. Yet there it was, the end of the show, and a 14-year old boy read the story of Jesus being born to his younger brother and sister which lead into a living nativity scene complete with live sheep and camels. (Admittedly I was waiting for one of those creatures to do their business on stage...but apparently they are very well trained).
At a show in NYC that was as secular a venue as you can get with what I am sure was an audience full of every religion, doctrine, and ideology you could think of, I was taken back at the reverence and sincerity the show gave to the real reason we celebrate Christmas. It was truly great, and I wonder to this day how many of those people on stage performing in those scenes really believed in what they were demonstrating. I also wondered about the hundreds of children in the audience, many of which may have grown in homes that never paid any attention to the story of Jesus, and how they were responding to what was being presented to them. I can only hope that the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular somehow was used to the glory of God that day.
Sunday got there quickly, and mom, dad, and I were trying to quickly scarf down the hotel's free breakfast and get on the road before the major "heading home" traffic hit the highways. That really, REALLY didn't work out for us. We hit the road by 8:00 am, but dad's GPS was being less than helpful and we ended up in downtown Newark, NJ. It took us at least 30 minutes to go 8 miles on a road that had more stop lights than NYC has Starbucks. None of which had sensors and we were stopped by pretty much EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT! We finally got back on the highway and off we went, for a while. We hit our first bit of traffic in Jersey, got through that, then hit traffic in Pennsylvania, got through that, then hit traffic in Virginia. Now when I say traffic, I'm talking stop for a couple of minutes- move 2 yards- stop for a few minutes again-type traffic. We didn't get back home until 11:30 that night. A nice little, 15+ hour trip.
Granted we stopped to eat and to find a store open on Sunday morning that had duck tape (remember the window problem). All in all it was an unforgettable experience with the 3 people I love most in the world. And since this may become an annual thing for us, I'm expecting many more stories to come. God help us if we ever decide to go overseas. :)
What I'm Into:
Movie- We saw "Love and Other Drugs" in NYC. It was very good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Be warned, it's got a lot of sex and nudity in it and I DO NOT recommend watching it with your parents. However the acting was great, the story is interesting, and it really hits home for anyone who has a family member or friend that has suffered from Parkinson's.
Song- "New York, New York"- Ryan Adams. For obvious reasons. Plus it's catchy and not as cliche as other songs about The Big Apple. Interesting note: the video for his song was shot Sept. 7, 2001 and the twin towers stand prominently in the background to open the video...only 4 days later until every American's (and so many other's) world changed forever.
Bible Verse- 1 John 3:21-22 "Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him."
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