Gypsies, Liars, Beggers, and Thieves...DELTA and New Yorkers!!

Back from NY! Here's how it all went down, a little timeline for you...

3:30am - Wake up
6:30am - Fly to Memphis
7:45am - Land in Memphis
8:10am - Board flight to NY

Sit, sit, sit, maintenance, sit, fixed, back up, stop, pull back to gate, sit, maintenance, sit, sit, sit, maintenance needs a part that is two hours away...

10am - walk back into Memphis airport, receive six dollar "meal" voucher from Delta - purchased a muffin from Starbucks.

12pm - head back to gate, told we are boarding in 10 minutes, flight scheduled to leave at 12:30.
12:30pm - still sitting in terminal
1:00pm - still in terminal
1:10pm - I start to tear up because there's no way we're making the concert, begin plans for a night in Memphis.
1:30pm-pilots leave plane
2:00pm-pilots return to plane
2:30pm-board plane, sit on runway for 40 minutes due to weather in NY.
3:10ish-Get off the ground!!
6:30pm - Gates open (late because of weather) to concert as plane touches down in LaGuardia.

Then the planets aligned!! The van to the rental car is waiting out front, we're the only people on and I explain the situation to the driver, we'll call him Bruce. Bruce busts out his best NY driving skills and hauls ass to the rental car pick-up, completely bypassing all the other gates. He got a big tip (maybe not NY standard big, but Oklahoma big).

My husband lived on Long Island for eight years and it did not take long for him to remember the crazy aggressive driving skills that are necessary to maneuver around NY. We reach Central Park in record time and surprisingly unharmed, and then we spot it. The thick billowing, slate gray rain clouds parted, releasing a few beams of golden sun rays to the world below and what did that wondrous light caress? An open (and free) parking spot practically right in front of the Central Park entrance!

Five minutes later, Florence and all of her twirling glory appear on stage. Other than the morons holding a conversation the entire concert and the terrible sound system, Florence and the Machine were amazing. I hope to see her many more times. It's always so special when you see someone live and they sound exactly as they do in their studio recordings; that is very rare these days where even I could be a pop singer. I'd never see another concert in Central Park, not even if Frank Sinatra himself rose from the dead for one final performance, the yakking crowd and lack of speakers isn't worth the journey.