Live From New York…

Each year my family makes an annual pilgrimage to New York to visit my in-laws. I say \”my family\” because this includes travelling with our dogs, Luna and Solei.

I dread this trip each year, not because of the in-laws, because of travelling with the dogs. Luna and Solei do not travel well. Since they are small dogs they can travel with us in the airplane cabin, in a carrier, under the seat in front of us. Like most dogs, they do not like to be confined. Solei doesn\’t tolerate it well, she gets antsy and moves around a lot, and has been known to cry loudly. This is nothing compared to Luna who we believe was not treated very well for the first 8 weeks of her life at the puppy mill. Luna has managed to escape 3 separate times from her carrier. One of those times she actually ate her way around the lock on carrier and hopped out. Last year we worked with our vet to find a drug cocktail that would \”take the edge off\” for the trip. On the flight out we didn\’t give them quite enough. On the flight back we had a lovely 4 hour delay on the ground in LaGuardia. So the drowsy effects wore off long before we boarded the plane. This year we were more successful with only a one hour delay (on the plane no less) at MSP, and a half-hour of circling JFK. Solei slept most of the way and Luna was… well, Luna. But a better behaved version who only bit me once (which is not a normal part of her personality).

But I digress. Coming to New York for the holidays is always an experience larger than life. The personalities, the packed schedule, the food, the drink. During my first 4 days here we had chinese food from the venerable King House, dinner and drinks in Greenwich Villiage, lunch in Princeton (New Jersey), interactive murder mystery dinner theatre in Philadelphia, a fantastic Italian seafood dinner in northern New Jersey, and a family first birthday party.

These first few days consisted of 300 miles of driving, more than 50 bucks in tolls, trips on the LIRR and New York Subway, about 35,000 calories, hearing \”fuck\” 476 times, hating the Jersey Turnpike, hating the traffic in Philly on a Friday night (2 hours to go 30 miles), kicking the keg at a first birthday party, many Dunkin Donuts, and proof that my iron constitution is finally getting some rust on it.

And we haven\’t even hit Thanksgiving yet!

Thanksgiving will consist of equal amounts of human and dogs in the house (seven of each). But expect a full report on that after the weekend.

With that being said, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and give thanks for the wonderful things in your life.