Tokyo is For Lovers: Suzanne, The City, and Tosca.

My sister-in-law Suzanne lives the kind of life that girls dream about. She's young. She lives in NYC in a cozy loft neighboring central park with her two loyal and protective dogs. She has a fabulous collection of footwear, including a pair of candy red cowboy boots. She practices jujitsu. And she is a professional writer. Yea, I know, wasn't that all of our plans when we were imagining life as a young adult. I really like Suzanne. She's strong, opinionated, and elegant, but mostly just a lot of fun. It had been my plan to go visit her for a while now, and the perfect opportunity presented itself when Charlotte and her mom invited me to an opera, Tosca, at the Metropolitan Opera as an early birthday present.

On Friday afternoon I jumped on a bus to NYC to meet up with Suzanne. I only mention this mundane detail because on the bus I sat next to one of the most interesting people I have ever encountered. He was an elderly man in his 70's or so, but with a much younger countenance. He had penetrating eyes and was dressed much like an old school Ivy Leaguer, in his sweater over a collared shirt and a pair of khakis. We started chatting and I found out he had a PhD from the Divinity School at Yale and after years and years had decided that he was a Zen Buddhist. This Divinity School grad, turned investment banker, turned Buddhist who now lives in Greenwich Village chatted with me for nearly all of the 5 hour trip. As the story of his life so far unfolded during our conversation, I came to realize that life is long.

So I arrived in NYC and met up with Suz and a handsome friend of hers. We went for dinner, Ukranian, and then Suz and I went back to her place and talked through the night about life, love, and rock'n roll. The next morning she made me some of the most delicious muffins I have ever eaten, lemon blueberry (I are three for breakfast), and then she took me an a walk through central park. Do you know how huge central park is? I had no idea. If you walk its perimeter its more than 6 miles around. It's like a nature reserve in the middle of the concrete dessert of NYC. I loved it.

I met up with Char, Dolores and Sister Carrington (a lady from my hometown who is 85 and made it a goal to see an opera at the Met before she kicks the bucket) for lunch and then to the Opera. It was nice to hang out with Charlotte without her kids. Let's be honest, kids and husbands are great, wonderful even, but they can get in the way. The few hours I spent with Charlotte sans husbands and kids was like the good old days.

Tosca was a wonderful Opera. The singers' voices were beautiful, not too warbley. The staging was stark but realistic. The story was dramatic and sad. And of course, as in all tragedies, all the characters die in the end. Tosca's death was the most traumatic as she jumped to her death for the top of a watch tower. Just as you saw her throw her body out of the window of the tower the theater went pitch black and the curtain fell. The audience gasped in unison at her death, but as the lights come back on and the curtain raised for our heroine to take her bow the audience erupted into applause. It was really exhilarating. What a wonderful birthday present..