Yesterday Today: Honoring Willy (Even during a Tornado)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Honoring Willy (Even during a Tornado)

On the night of the "Tornado" - Nikki & I were attending Willy's retirement party being held at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows. He was Director of the Arts for the Board of Ed NYC. But with all the budget cuts, it was time to pack it in and enjoy life.

It was without a doubt - a crazy night for traveling and normally I would have been cozy and comfortable at home - blissfully unaware of the chaos going on around me. But no...I was out in the middle of it! After picking up Nikki in Forest Hills and seeing the destruction & traffic - I was worried about heading to the Grand Central Parkway. I tried calling Daniel to see if he could tell me what the conditions were like but he didn't answer his phone. Nikki & I decided to have sushi to let some time go by and hopefully for things to calm down.

The party was from 6-9pm. It was already past 7pm when we were done with eating. Daniel ended up calling me when we were just finishing up and said everything was fine there. Okay...I said we were on our way.

OMG...just getting onto the LIE to the GCP which should have taken all of minutes..took over half n'hour! All I wanted was to get onto the GCP since I only needed the first exit to get to the museum but when I finally got there...it was blocked off. Apparently trees had also fallen in the park.

I was able to gain access and not being familiar with Flushing Meadows...it was very dark and there was a lot of debris on the grounds - I ended up driving right next to the completely lit-up working fountain & Uni-sphere. I wish I had a video of me doing this. I don't think I was really allowed to be there as Nikki kept saying!

At 8:30, we found the museum and I just left my car anywhere nearby. We ran in and because the number 7 train suspended service, half of Willy's guests didn't make it. There was a ton of food which Nikki & I could only gape at being so stuffed with all our sushi. But a live band was playing and Willy was dancing and everyone was laughing - it was a fun time. I loved that Nikki and I were able to go see the Panorama of NYC and we had the whole exibit to ourselves! Very cool!