New York for Crohn’s and Colitis Day 1 “But First Some Fun”

Patrice and I flew into the Big Apple today on our way to act as “Stakeholders” for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. On Tuesday we will meet with a lot of people much smarter than us to help decide what research projects will be funded by the Foundation this year. They might be smarter but they don’t have any more passion than we do for finding the cure to these awful diseases. As you probably know, two of our three wonderful children have suffered from Crohn’s Disease since they were only 11 years old. Watching them suffer was a torture I do not wish on any parent and of course no other children. Patrice and I know we have been very fortunate. Both David and Erica are doing great. We have seen many others not so fortunate. The medications that keep our kids feeling healthy were not available when David was diagnosed That is why “Team Reiss” walks each June to raise money. And the success of Team Reiss has given us the opportunity to help decide which researchers will be funded.

The meeting isn’t until Tuesday but we came early to have some fun. As my followers know we were in Boston recently so the 52 degrees that greeted us at JFK seemed balmy compared to the sub 40 temperatures we had in Boston. Actually we felt very much at home because the 14 mile trip from JFK to the hotel took us 1 hour and 20 minutes.

About a year ago a friend of mine, John, told me about his trip to NYC and seeing “Springsteen on Broadway”. He could not have been more enthusiastic about it. I remembered seeing “The Boss” when Patrice and I first started dating and the thought of seeing him again after 36 years of marriage seemed very exciting. I looked online to see the cost of the tickets and my excitement waned. Recently I saw another friend, Mike, who had just returned from New York. He said, “I saw Springsteen and it was amazing”. This made me crazy again. I told John about my hesitancy and he said that he got his tickets online the day of the show when people would reduce their prices. So today on the plane I looked for tickets and they were still crazy expensive. Then at the hotel very close to show time I checked one more time and YES, I found some excellent seats at a “reasonable” price. Yes, it is much more than I ever thought I would spend to see a concert but damn, I am 69 years old and as my friend Allen says, “Who wants to be the richest person in the cemetery”. So we are going to see “The Boss” tonight. Got to run to the show now. We can talk about Bruce tomorrow.