From the Mango to the Apple

Tomorrow, if I can remember where my suitcase is, I will get on a flight to Vienna where I will get a much needed night's sleep in a hotel across from the airport. Then on Friday I will fly to JFK where some friends will collect me to deposit me on my daughter's doorstep for a couple of weeks in the Big Apple. I haven't been in the US for over a year so two weeks away from the Big Mango will be a change.

Not all of the trip will be vacation, however. I have a daughter at Columbia who wants some administrative help, bank account management and the like. I want to see some friends in Massachusetts if the transport can be arranged. And finally I have to travel to Toronto to go through some things that were put in storage in 1988 when we moved to Egypt "for two years". My husband was always saying that he'd ship the stuff over here, but somehow it never got done and now I doubt that I will bother to ship most of it. I mean, really, do I need 48 wine glasses, even if I do have 18 dogs? Or maybe it's especially since I have 18 dogs. And there is an entire box of decanters that were given to us as wedding presents and they have never had anything decanted into them. I guess this is where I find out about eBay or something like that.

There are things that I'm really looking forward to, like dinner at La Taqueria, a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant on Amsterdam Ave in the upper westside that serves brilliant Mexican food and Oso Negro beer. Bookstores are always lovely, and fresh bagels. But one of the things that my daughter wants help with is figuring out how to make plastic fruits and vegetables taste real. Don't know if I'll be much help there. Still, as my mom used to say, a change is as good as a rest.