I think my clothes are half drenched in sweat. Part of it is the rain that’s gently falling here, which, according to the natives, has cooled things down tremendously. I’ll take their word for it.

This morning the rain wasn’t falling so gently. The radar showed a mass of red and PURPLE (for hail, the weatherman kept warning) was centered over New York City. I know this because our JetBlue flight, which left nearly an hour late from Denver at 1:40am, has TV, and I was flipping back and forth between the two local stations it carried.

Then I flipped to the map screen that shows where the airplane is in relation to the ground. We were flying in circles over New York and then continued to do so for some time. I thought, we can’t do this for long, and sure enough, the captain came on the intercom and said we were going to be landing in Atlantic City to refuel and wait until we could possibly land at JFK. Berck said he knew it was bad when an American Airlines jet was in a holding pattern directly below us. When they start stacking the planes, you know it’s going to take a while to land.

The captain managed to get us some bagels that the flight attendants handed out as we taxied. We finally arrived at JFK nearly 4 hours after we supposed to. Fortunately, we didn’t have to be anywhere anytime until the concert we’re attending tonight.

There was a loud, obnoxious Brit sitting behind Berck who was very upset, though, and he left everyone know it. “F***ing w***ers!” he shouted, then repeated it a few times for good measure. The captain interrupted his message on the intercom and asked if the gentleman had a question. “No! I have a comment. Sort it out!” As if anyone has control over the weather. When we got off the plane, the terminal was jammed with people waiting to take off, so I don’t think he missed his flight, because it was probably delayed too. As we threaded our way through the mass of people eager to board, Berck said, “Well, it could have been worse. We could have been stuck HERE.”

The JetBlue flight was not at all a bad place to be stuck, fortunately, since they didn’t have any gates open and wouldn’t let us off the plane. They give you plenty of legroom, 40 channels of TV, movies you can pay for, good snacks, and an overnight pack with earplugs, an eyeshade, and some little toiletries. Oh, and currently, a channel that only plays the Simpsons (only 4 episodes, unfortunately, before they repeat).

After finally getting off the plane, we followed the signs for the AirTrain through the maze that is JFK. We somehow figured out how to pay for it and buy some 7 day unlimited metro tickets. I love the freedom of being able to hop on the metro wherever I am, and even though we won’t be here a whole week, these passes make more sense economically than getting day-long passes. Then we navigated the metro system and got to Berck’s sister Sydney’s apartment, thanks to her excellent written directions.

Her roommate was fortunately there to let us in, having quit her waitressing job the day before. Sydney would have been there according to our original schedule, but she had long since gone to work. We found out Syd would be in a meeting until two, so we took a quick nap before heading to Lower Manhattan to met her for lunch.

One of our goals of this trip is to visit as many places recommended by Famous Fat Dave as possible, but he apparently isn’t crazy about Chinese. We tried to find a Chinese place I’d found a random recommendation for, but gave up when I couldn’t remember the correct cross street and settled for a place that looked promising. Indeed, we had fabulous fried dumplings, General Tso’s chicken, and Peaking duck. It made me want to never eat Chinese in Colorado Springs again. I don’t know if it was good Chinese food or mediocre Chinese food, but we found it absolutely delicious. Berck even devoured the broccoli surrounding the martial poultry, sopping up its savory sauce. And you know what else is weird? Chinese beer actually tastes really good with Chinese food.

By the end of our feast, Sydney was horribly late for work, so she ran out, and Berck and I wandered through Chinatown, into Little Italy, by NYU, then took a little rest in Washington Square Park until it started raining again. Then we took an A train back to Sydney’s house. Some of the subway cars are mercifully air conditioned, though approaching rush hour, they were pretty full. I stood at the very front of the train and watched us race down the track.

Wandering around a big city is great with a big, burly man at your side. People move out of the way.

Tonight a concert in a park in Brooklyn, then hopefully a very good night’s sleep. Maybe it won’t rain on us.