I bet you are wondering why I went to New York…
Offspring #2 and The Lady have a friend, Ms. Mandy, they said that she plays right in New York City and they wanted to go visit her. That sounded fun. I like to play. When I asked The Lady where we were going to play – at Ms. Mandy’s apartment? a park? a pool? a beach? – she said it was not that kind of play. Ms. Many writes the kind of plays that you see on stage at the theater. She is a playwright; she doesn’t play right. Well, I bet she does play right, but that is not what was happening on this trip. We were going to see the play From A to Double D that she wrote and Ms. Mandy was also acting in her play. I like the theater so this plan was OK with me.
The title of Ms. Mandy’s play sounded like it was a story about the dictionary, but only a little bit of the dictionary, since it only talked about the the first three letters and part of the fourth. I thought about it and that makes sense. That is job security for Ms. Mandy. At this rate, she can write six sequels to her play before she gets all the way to the letters ZZ! I did think that it was a little strange that she stopped with “DD.” I had to go look at the dictionary and see what words even started with two d’s. All the words that I found were either abbreviations or acronyms. I didn’t really understand Ms. Mandy’s thinking on this one, but she is the professional playwright so I guess she knows what she is doing. When I asked The Lady about this, she explained that the play was not about the dictionary, it was about bras. Bras?? The Lady explained that little (boy) blue and orange furry monsters don’t need to know or think about bras. They are for grown-up ladies. She showed me hers. Boy was that a confusing contraption!! It was even more strange than my vest! Not only did it not have any sleeves, it didn’t have much of a front or back either. I can see why the grown-up ladies wear these weird things under their clothes. They are funny looking! The Lady said that grown-up ladies wear bras to keep their breasts in place. Breasts? Where is Mr. Guy when I need him? I needed a boy to explain all this girl stuff to me!
As it turned out, I learned a lot about bras and boobs breasts and girls while watching From A to Double D. I don’t think I understood everything, but I am pretty sure that I am glad that I only have to worry about my t-shirts and not trainers, underwires, and sports bras! There are definite advantages to be a little blue and orange furry boy monster!
I was happy to be at the play because The Lady, Offspring #2, and The Young Guy were very excited to be there. Offspring #2 has been friends with Ms. Mandy for a long time, since when she was kind of a little girl and not famous, maybe since after the trainer time and before the double D time.
And, Ms. Mandy was happy that they were there. We had breakfast with her the next day. She agreed to have her picture taken with me! Maybe some day we will both be really famous!
During the day before Ms. Mandy’s play, The Young Guy, Offspring #2, and I walked around New York City. Well…they all walked and The Lady carried me. Mr. Guy does a little better carrying me. The Lady didn’t do so well trying to hold me and her camera. She didn’t take very many pictures on this trip.
The first place that we walked was to the World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial. Offspring #2 and The Lady explained that sixteen years ago, two buildings called the twin towers, were hit by airplanes that had been taken over by people who did not like our country. Lots and lots of people died and lots were hurt. I was not born when this happened and Offspring #2 was only eight years old. The Lady remembered it very well. There is a memorial where these two towers stood. It is a fountain and a reflecting pool with the names of all those who lost their lives on that day.
There were so many names on the memorial. So many people died. This made me very sad.
A new building has been built in the area.
It is called Freedom Tower and is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.
It hurts my heart to think about that day in 2001. I wasn’t even alive back then and seeing this memorial sends chills down my furry spine. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for all the people who were right here in New York City or even those, like The Lady, Offspring #2, and Mr. Guy, who watched it all on television. The people who’s names I read on the memorial here and their families now have a place in my heart forever.
After we visited the 9/11 Memorial we walked some more and then decided to take the subway. I have ridden the trains in Dallas, where I live, but they are above the ground. In New York the trains go under the ground through tunnels. The Lady told be that that is why they are called subways, because sub means below. I should have figured that out by myself.
We bought our tickets and then walked through this gate that looked like we were going into a sideways jail.
The good thing was that the bars kept moving so it didn’t feel like we were in jail!
Once we were inside the not-jail, I saw the tracks and watched for the train we needed. Offspring #2 told me which one to look for.
We got on…rode for a few minutes in the dark…got off and walked up some stairs…and we were right where we wanted to be. It sort of felt like magic. I guess the same thing happens on the airplane, but since it is usually not dark in the sky when we fly, it doesn’t feel so much like magic.
I wish we had more pictures from our trip. I thought that Offspring #2 and The Lady might be taking lots of pictures with their phones because they were in their hands all the time. When I asked to see their pictures they said that there weren’t many. I was confused until they told me that they were using their phones so that we knew where to go. The phones had a map on them and gave them walking directions. I wondered how they always seemed to know where they were going!
We weren’t in New York very long. I wish we could have seen a little bit more of the city, but I was also glad to come home because I missed Mr. Guy. Hopefully Ms. Mandy will do another play right and we will get to go see her and one of her plays again!
