Hello, all! We had a (thankfully) uneventful flight home. I'm sorry to hear about bk's drama. I'm sure I was one of the people he talked to about La Guardia, and I will take 1/3 of the blame, although when bk asked me what airport I was flying from and I said LaGuardia, he said "Oh, I HATE LaGuardia!" I told him I liked it because it was so small and it seemed odd knowing how big NY is. Then he said "Oh. I was thinking of JFK."
So I'm glad you didn't end up at JFK, and made it to your flight!
I've had panic situations where I tell the driver one airport and then midway there start thinking I told him the wrong one and have to dig out my ticket and check. At least in Atlanta, there's only one airport!
We were fortunate to be able to make it back to the Plaza before leaving "the island Manhattan" and I sweet-talked my way into the high security at The Plaza so we could give Elmore, Ginny and Richard a goodbye hug!
I didn't get to hear Elmore's piece in rehearsal but I did hear a few Cole Porter tunes. I can relate to what Elmore was saying about the strings, because I was the orchestra manager for The Atlanta Pops for 10 years and I remember how strident the strings were when they used electronic pickups on the bridge for outdoor concerts and how it crushed the other intruments. It never sounded natural.
Leaving Manhattan, our driver drove around in circles and right past the Plaza even though we told her traffic around there was a zoo. It took us 1/2 hour to even get off of the island and I thought we were going to be late, but we actually arrived at the airport 1 & 1/2 hours before our flight, so all was good.
And we shared the car with a tv producer from a company in Toronto who produces for A&E. She does some show about the last 24 hours in the life of someone famous who has died. Right now they were just finishing up this season's premiere show about Anna Nicole Smith. (Yes, this show has been on for more than one season!) It's part documentary and part drama (probably re-enactment) and the idea sounds like it dumbs down both forms. We also had a nice conversation about lower 5ths, ID bugs, etc.
Her name was Amy, too.
As we flew over Manhattan, we could actually see The Plaza because it was brighter than anything else and had searchlights going. The flight wasn't crowded, it arrived early, and the only thing that could have made it better was if we had been able to see the fireworks from the air.
Here's a picture of Elmore, with his backup band:
