New York Blogging

Walking down the street in Brooklyn on a warm Halloween night with my very pregnant daughter; costumed characters of all sizes streaming by. One guy, bearded and garbed in something that could be a costume, but may also be his regular Tuesday night look, approaches us from the opposite direction. "Hey, he says, pointing at Dara's belly as he passes by, "THAT is very convincing."

We had landed in Newark earlier that day and negotiated a ride from the airport to Brooklyn with a guy whose name was beyond the grasp of both my Spanish and English tongues and who, we learned as we rode along keeping our eyes on the road - a skill that frequently eluded our driver - was a Sikh from Punjab, India. Alrighty then Toto, we've put Kansas in the rearview mirror. Sikhs, we learned as we sped along through Newark's thick traffic and thicker smog, represent only 2% of India's poppulation. (And of course I'm thinking two percent of India is what, the population of Europe?) We also learned that it is possible to drive with one hand on the wheel, one hand waving about for either emphasis or air stimulation and that an Indian's life story could be told by looking back at both his past and his passengers, life and traffic to the fore be damned. A thing, I might add, that by journey's end, had made me real close to Sikh as well.

Nevertheless Horatio, we are here! New York City, The Big Apple. The place where our daughter will either explode or give birth to a son in the very near future. Both seem like very real possibilities to me so I'm doing the smart thing and staying at her back. It's weird though, for a person who could blow at any moment, the kid looks great. Clear skin, bright eyes, shiny hair, lots of smiling. She isn't even impatient to have the whole thing over. In fact she acts as if being pumped up like a pair of Nike Airs is kind of fun. Weird I tell you, weird, but then women and their stuff are always mysteries so stay tuned and see how this one plays out. It will either be "It's a boy!" or "Thar she blows." Either way, it's gonna be messy.









Stay tuned as the