Lessons and New York City.

This week -- I am taking 8-year old Lilly to New York City.  I was 46 years old the first time I . 
went to NYC...

It was 1996, and  "Life Is Not A Dress Size" was about to be published.

It was on the Chilton Book Company 1996 Fall List.

I don't have a single picture from that trip.  But this is what I remember...

I'd spent an entire year writing Life Is Not A Dress Size.  My publisher put together a twelve-city marketing campaign.  UNHEARD OF!!  I was beyond excited.  But when they asked me to go to New York City to do a presentation about LINADS to a room full of "book reps", I was terrified. 

For one thing, I had never been to New York City...and I thought of it as a very scary, dangerous place.

For another thing, I didn't even know there was such a job as "book rep".

But, with my biggest EVER show of Bravado (Websters dictionary:  1: blustering swaggering conduct: a pretense of bravery. 2: the quality or state of being foolhardy.) I said I WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO GO TO NEW YORK CITY...

By the time I got into my room at the dismal (soon-to-be-demolished) Mayflower Hotel, I WAS SO GLAD to be behind a locked door.  I sat in a small, cramped, run-down hotel room all night -- and ate a tasteless, lukewarm hamburger from room service because I was afraid to go out alone.  I was sure I would be attacked, or mugged, or robbed...

But I couldn't sleep because I was nervous about doing the presentation, and also -- there had been some tornadoes back in Iowa, and I'd had many worried phone calls back and forth with my family...

Considering my audience was a room full of 300 MEN,  my morning presentation went pretty well -- but as soon as it was over, I went back to my room to take a nap.  I WAS EXHAUSTED...
 
But the maid was making my bed.   As she was working and I was trying not to fall asleep -- we had a conversation about our very different lives.  Her name was Consuelo, and 17 years ago, she came to NYC from Puerto Rico.  She and her three children lived in Harlem, and it was a 30 minute bus/subway ride for her to get to work.  She did her grocery shopping every day on her way home, and she had to carry the bags up four flight of stairs.  She'd never driven a car or mowed grass.  Consuelo had never been out of the State of New York.

When I told her I was from Iowa, she immediately said, "Iowa was on the news this morning -- they had those horrible tornadoes last night." 

me:  "Yes, they were in my area.  My sister's roof was blown off her house."

With real awe in her voice, Consuelo looked me right in the eye and said:  I will never understand why people would choose to live in such a scarry, dangerous place...

Clearly, Consuelo was just as clueless about Iowa as I was about New York City.


The next morning, I wrapped my purse strap around my neck (twice) and left the hotel room to walk around Central Park.  Then down 5th Avenue.

The very next year, I took my sisters to New York City.   In 2000, I took the subway down to the World Trade Center and saw Leanne Womack in concert on the Plaza, singing Why Don't You Dance. 

I've been to New York with my sisters, Ronda, Deena and Deb, my cousins Kim, Jackie and Linda, and my friends Eileen, Donna, Mary, Judy, Ginny, Marion, Luveta, Ann, Sandy, Carol, and Evelyn.   One of the highlights of my life was planning a NYC trip for 53 readers of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine.  

I am an unabashed lover of New York City, and I often say "if I wasn't so content living in the middle of my cornfield, I would live in New York City."

And I can't help but wonder who I would be if I'd seen New York City when I was eight years old...