I'm here!

A balmy spring day in New York City, the warmest it's supposed to be all week, but a wonderful welcome. I'm so excited about being here that I'm tingly and trembly and full of emotion. Tears rise to my eyes and I can't see. My hands shake and jar the camera. I'm hobbling around because it feels like I've got hot rocks in my shoe (this is my first time to have plantar fasciitis, and I don't recommend it). So I've taken crap pictures ever since I got here; this is the best of a bad bunch, but I have hopes that I'll do better starting tomorrow.

I'm here because a wonderfully generous friend with frequent flier miles gave me the trip. My old buddy Devorah knows of some cool places to stay, very cheap, and she met me at JFK airport and helped steer me into town where she had already checked us into a sweet room with a huge bathroom (larger than the room itself) just a block from Central Park. Tomorrow we're going to the International Center of Photography to see the Roman Vishniac and Seymour Chim exhibits.

But mostly I'm here to walk the streets, to see the life, to find out what New York is like now, to look at the places Vivian Maier photographed in the late 50s and early 60s and see how they've changed. I lived here in 1971, came here often when I was teaching at Smith in the late 80s-early 90s, but haven't been here since I flew up from Texas to celebrate my 60th birthday in 2005.

I love this city. Here I am in it, and I want to take pictures of everything I see. I love the way people dress, the way they walk, the aggressive way they talk. I love the kids on the subway busking for a trapped audience. I love the joggers in Central Park, the people walking their dogs, the moms picking up their kids from daycare. There's a thunder storm crashing around in the dark out there now, bringing in cold weather for the rest of the week. I love thunder storms. I hear the horns and sirens of the city. And no matter how bad my foot feels, I'm happy.

I'm in New York. Trembling with excitement. And really, really tired. But here I am. Can hardly believe it.