I went into NYC today with Paul to visit Adira and Rebecca. We parked in a permit-only lot that my mother informed me was not really permit-only and took the train in. Since Adira and Rebecca both live near Union Square, we set out in that direction, more or less. As we walked down 42nd street we saw an endless series of parked NYPD cruisers (Chevy Impalas), all with lightbars blinking silently, with policemen to match. They took over two whole avenue blocks, both sides of the street, angle-parked. After we saw the first 50 or so Paul asked a policeman what was going on. He replied that it was “a drill”, as if this were the most unremarkable thing in the world. As we approached Times Square thirty of the cars drove past us, sirens blaring. Mysterious.
The weather was consistently miserable, like a bad day in Seattle. We spent the day in and out of restaurants, record stores, and dorm rooms, and wandering the streets of Lower Manhattan, usually lost. We were visitors, not tourists. As Paul put it, it matters a lot more who we were with than what we were doing.