My thinking train

My wondering mind sometimes amazes me. Sometimes, while thinking about something, I hop on my thinking train and end up somewhere that's not even close to where I was when I started thinking. For example:
This morning I saw on the news that the temperature in New York was going to be in the vicinity of 90 degrees. I don't know why, but I immediately thought of my friend who lives in New York and how she told me she walked to work every day. I wondered if on days like this (or hotter days), she arrived all sweaty at work. Then I went on to remembering the last time I was in New York, for my friend Norma's wedding in 1998.
It was the first time I had visited a friend's place overseas, and it was a shocker to me when we went to sleep. The temperature was around 65 and she didn't turn the AC on. I am used to always turning my AC on (hot or cold) and I told her about it, but she said she was determined to show me the life of a true New Yorker and so I would live for the next 2 weeks like she did.
It is a little embarrassing for me to say this, but aside for the time I spent in Quebec studying French, I had always traveled (and still do, even more embarrassing) with my parents, so I was used (and still am) to the perks that come with that.
The last time I had taken a subway was a horrifying experience (it was way back when the authorities hadn't sanitized the system and the trains were filled with graffiti and scary looking people). Plus, I was used to taking taxis all the time (if my parents didn't rent a car, which they always do). Norma, bless her heart, made me walk all over New York City. ALL OVER.
-"How far is that place?" "Oh, it's just 40 blocks, we can walk..."
-"I'm a little tired" "OK. Let's take the subway then..."
(This blog is written by someone who hops in her car to go to her sister's, who lives across the street)...
Let me ask you New Yorkers something: do you really understand what they are saying over the PA on the subway? I tried, I really tried, but had it not been for the signs, I'm sure I would've ended up in Seattle a couple of times...
One morning Norma woke up all excited. "Your first experience as a New Yorker is going to be crossing the Brooklyn Bridge from one end to the other"...
5th. Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Broadway, Wall Street, Lexington Avenue, I WALKED THEM ALL!!!!!!
Poor Norma, she had to bear with my tourist instincts as well. I dragged her to all the tourist attractions (if she had made me walk, she most certainly had to take me sightseeing as well!). South Street Seaport, Fulton Fish Market (it stinks like fish!), New York Public Library, New York Stock Exchange (all those cute brokers smoking their ciggies outside on their breaks), Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Statue of Liberty and Battery Park, The World Trade Center (I had some pictures taken at the top and I bumped into one of them the other day), The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Madison Square Garden (it's not on Madison, it's not square and it's not a garden! So many lies in one name!)... and yet I had to walk to all of them!
Of course, a couple of weeks later and after Norma's wedding (I ended up being her Maid of Honor, thank God the dress I had taken with me resembled the other bridesmaids' dresses), my parents and my aunt arrived and I moved with them to their hotel and went through all the sightseeing all over again (no matter how many times we've been to New York or any place in the world, we love to go sightseeing).
I made them take the subway once (and we didn't get lost!), but they refused to do the walking bit, so we hopped on one of those double decker bus tours that are found all over the world for the remainder of our stay in the city, before heading out to Europe for the rest of our vacation.

See where my wandering mind took me again???? I started talking about the weather!!!