I'm a lucky woman. I have a wonderful son who actually got a summer job and cleans up real good when he wears his dress slacks, shirt and tie. Does a mom's heart proud.

I'm also lucky because I managed to acquire me some wonderful friends over the years, and all thanks to the internet and another slightly crazy fandom - The X-Files. We've been getting together for the last 5 or 6 years (maybe more...I'm getting old and the mind is a terrible thing to lose) for a long weekend in the summertime. In the past we've always met halfway between the east coasters' residences and then midwesterners' homes. Invariably it involved a loooong drive for the midwest contingent (because they were adventurous) and a shlep to the airport and plane ride for the east coasters (because we're old and our bums can't handle 8 - 10 hour car rides any longer. g)

This year was a little different though; I'd convinced the crew to come to my house, and they did. Unfortunately, one of our crew couldn't make it this year, as she lives down under in Australia. She'd actually flown in last year and spent some time with me before we'd all gone and gotten together in a lovely place called Hocking Hills, OH. (It really was nice! The electricity black out notwithstanding...but I digress.) So, hopefully some day we'll get her back here or perhaps we'll go and sleep on the Aussie's floor!

I acted like a complete tourist the last couple of days because we dragged around the Illinois contingent to see a few sights (not nearly as many as we wanted to see; our feet were ready to fall off by the time we'd gotten ourselves seated on the train at Grand Central Station!)

But, as X-Files fans and fans of David Duchovny, we went to visit Grace Church (which is where he and Tea Leoni were married and his mom was a principal of the school.) What a beautiful church! The stained glass windows are gorgeous; it was such a lovely and peaceful place. Just magnificent.

Then we headed over to the Jefferson Market Garden; this is the sight of the final scene in Duchovny's movie "House of D"... (I know, I know...you're waiting for the dvd... But it's a good movie. Really!! And I got to meet David Duchovny at one of its showings in Manhattan... This is the summer for me and meeting people I admire, lemme tell ya! I'm waiting for the pin prick and watching my bubble burst...but I digress.) Anyway, it's the site of where the Woman's House of Detention once stood, and a major factor in the movie. It was small, and pretty, and a perfect place to sit and enjoy a quiet respite.

We also made our way to Ground Zero. I'd not been there yet - one of our group actually worked across the street from the first tower. She was getting coffee in the coffee shop in the lobby and felt the first explosion - the ground shook. Someone came running in and yelled to evacuate. She took one look, saw the fire and started going in the other direction. She said people were standing around and gawking from across the street; all she wanted to do was get as far away as possible to safety.

We ended that day with a visit to Battery Park and a quick look at Lady Liberty from a distance. We traveled the subways and the train (all the while waiting for someone to check our bags for security reasons - no one did) and finally made it back to my place.

The next day, the IL delegation and I went to the Groton Sub Station; one of the women's son is stationed there. We toured the Nautilus submarine it's been turned into a museum and lemme tell you, you have to be some special type of a person to live on one of those things for any great length of time. Talk about tight quarters! The 6 sleeping bunks are in areas of no more than 5' by 6' -and they're right on top of one another. (Think Clay's bus - only they're shorter in length and closer together!)

After that we made a pilgrimage to my favorite Native American Resort (Foxwoods g) and made a small donation. Given that my friends are not gamblers, we didn't stay long enough to do any real damage (though the seaman actually was up 125 buckaroos when we left!)

Anyway, I dropped the two IL delegates off at the limo service so they could catch their flight back out of Newark International Airport. Poor things emailed me and told me they got their first real taste of what kind of insane drivers the northeast are capable of producing. But, they got there in one piece (barely) and only had to wait through an hour delay due to thunderstorms in the area.

And now, it's countdown to meeting Clay and seeing him perform on Friday... What a week. What a summer!

Like I said - I'm a lucky woman.