Manhattan

Usually I have an idea floating around that sweeps me up around blogging time. Not today. I've been swept up though by a mini-vacation to "The City That Never Sleeps."

I visited my son who lives in Manhattan over a long weekend. Ostensibly I was there to help a friend who was starting a line of greeting cards and exhibiting at the stationery show in the Javits Center. While I helped her - see www.annasoltyk.com - I got to see my Alex who also works for a greeting card company, Patience Brewster Cards (www.patiencebrewster.com.)

There's a Skaneateles connection here: we all worked, lived, owned property, or went to school there and now this diverse crew found itself in the Javits Center. Small world, yes, but that's what New York is all about somehow.

When I lived in Seattle I'd go down to the market on Saturdays and always, always, run into someone I knew. When I returned to the Finger Lakes where I grew up I would go weeks without seeing someone from the old days. I couldn't understand this.

But after a few days in Manhattan I might have a clue. I think it's about being out there. We walked and walked - East Village, West Village, Union Square, west side, upper East side, walking and talking and eating out. I moved constantly, and with that movement there was the chance of meeting people.

I flew home and went to work today, driving to the village, parking and walking the two blocks from a free lot to the office. I saw a few houses on brokers' open, talked to some Realtors, but the opportunity to meet and greet hundreds, thousands of people as I had on the train or on the streets wasn't there. And that's okay - certainly less exhausting - but different.

To be continued.....