Steps

Last Thursday Drew said, "Let's go to New York!" And I said, "Let's."

So we did.

So at about 1:00 pm on Saturday, Drew and I rubbed our eyes and descended from our bus and before we could find Ralph and Jake I had already said to myself 3 times, "This. Is. So. Big." And I said it with a kind of weird combination of wonder and disdain.

We did the Times Square tourist thing for about an hour and went home to Westchester for the night and had a jolly good time in the calm of Autumn off Route 100, drinking green tea from the can and listening to stories about Ralph accidentally buying a dime bag of catnip down in the Big City during his college days.

I don't think I've ever spent a Sunday in the city before. I think they're the best days.

First we drove to Hunter College in the Upper East Side to hear Timothy Keller talk about Godly sorrow and repentance, and he said that Luther said that "All of life is repentance." And I liked that a lot. He said that repentance is the thing that ushers in God's love that is just waiting to break in like the water outside the dikes of Holland. The sermon was about the Prodigal Son. Outside the church we found Kurtis! and Ashley! and Steve! and the three brothers spent the next half an hour or so poking each other's muscles and smacking hands away and picking each other up like little lion cubs on the Discovery Channel. The next few hours were a blur of walking and laughing and dodging playful Indorf blows and rolling around in Central Park. It was beautiful.

And then. And then!

We went to the most magically uncomfortable and exciting place I have ever been. No. We went to the REAL New York City. We went to the New York from Fame! (the movie.)

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. IT ACTUALLY EXISTS.

There were dancers everywhere. In one room was Maegan with about 30 other ballerinas parading across the floor in formation. In the next room was a little girl of about 10 shaking her little behind like I could never imagine doing. In the last room there was an Asian girl with blond streaks in her hair wearing a shirt that said "I HEART MY MONEY" and baggy sweatpants. This is real, I thought. These people are Trying.

I don't like big cities. I really don't. But I can imagine, that if I really wanted to be Something, I would have to go to New York. Heck, I watched a girl basically pull her foot over the back of her head onto her chest. Anything's possible.