Andrew Went to Brooklyn (Long)

Last weekend, my son Andrew went to New York City as he usually does to see Dan on alternate weekends. This weekend he also visited Danielle (not our Danielle) in Brooklyn. She has a baby daughter, Amira, and is a social worker. Andrew introduced Danielle to her husband, Max, at the University of Maryland, College Park. In fact, Max and Danile's first kiss was in Andrew's apartment at UMD. They were on the balcony alone when everyone else was inside. Andrew takes credit for this match. The three were undergraduates there.

Max is from Africa but raised in America. His father is an ambassador from Mali. When the kids were in college, Max's father was in the United States. He was then transferred to Italy so he and his wife life in Rome now. Danielle goes to Italy at least two to three times a year and has even studied there for a semester. She has been to Tuscany often and has persuaded Andrew and Dan to go to Tuscany this October. She may ever accompany them.

I am haranguing Andrew about having a camera in Tuscany, opening a Flickr account and posting to Flickr daily. As young as he is, Andrew still is not facile with the web 2.0 applications!

This weekend in Brooklyn, they (Andrew, Danielle, Amira, and another friend) went to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Danielle had a digital camera and now I finally have recent photographs of my Andrew! As a new mother, Danielle is accustomed to taking photos and updating her family with them.


Andrew enjoyed the Japanese pond. The Koi (the huge goldfish) were kissing the turtle and the turtle didn't like it. The turtle took its "hand" and pushed the fish away from its face. Fish were also bothering the turtle by eating algae off of the turtle's back. Some fish jumped completely out of the water. After they left the Gardens, they had some very rich chocolate cake at a cafe. Dan met them there.

While in Brooklyn, Allison, Dan and Andrew went to dinner and then to a bar for cocktails. During the evening, Andrew ran into four people with whom he went to college. One person he had not spoken to since his freshman year. She came up to him and said, "You went to the University of Maryland! You were a piano major and you used to have long hair!" (Andrew was a double major: piano performance and psychology. He is now a psychologist.) This woman was in his freshman music theory class and was a piano major. However, she could not handle the pressure and soon switched majors. She is now a physician. Go figure.

The classmates that Andrew met this weekend are doctors, lawyers, and one (who also attended Tanglewood with Andrew) is a pianist. This pianist plays at the church across the street from Dan's apartment in Greenwich Village. Her church is Dan's view.

Andrew returned to Washington, DC on Monday morning on the bus. Everyone was asleep on the bus. There are a lot of people who live in NY and spend weekends in DC and vice versa. Three of the fifteen people at Andrew's office are in a NYC/DC commuting relationship. Andrew therefore sees a lot of the same people on the bus. There are a lot of couples kissing goodbye.

Andrew and Dan are coming here to Vermont in September for his birthday. All his sisters are also coming so we can celebrate his thirtieth birthday together. He is the youngest in the family so this will be a big occasion.

If you like, you can view all 18 of Danielle's photos in my Flickr set here.

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