New York State of Mind

The marketing students from several high schools in St. Louis are headed to New York this morning. We have 22 going from Webster. Originally we needed to have Katie at the airport by 4:30 a.m., and then they had a layover in Chicago. With the weather forecast, Katie's teacher was concerned that they would end up not being able to get out of Chicago, so she found a later direct flight that had 30 seats available. (Hell-ooooo, why wasn't this flight first choice to begin with?) At any rate, the change meant that we didn't need to get to the airport until 6 a.m. You've never seen so many parents happy about 6:00 in the morning before! Though I have to say it didn't seem so great when the alarm went off at 5 this morning. I'm pretty spoiled as I usually don't get up until 6:30. We got her to the meeting place in the airport right on time. Probably half the kids were there by then. The plane doesn't leave until 8:40, so there was plenty of time left. I guess the teachers didn't want to take any chances. This trip is part of the DECA marketing program, so they will hit the ground running in New York. In addition to the usual touristy things they will tour Sports Illustrated, the CBS Early Show, United Nations, Madison Square Garden, Tommy Hilfiger with Betsy Hilfiger and the NBC Studio. At some point they'll see the Martha Stewart Show, too. They will keep the kids running from morning until late at night since they will see "The Lion King" and the New York Knicks as well. The itinerary looks great, so hopefully the kids will appreciate all that is being offered. They get back on Sunday, so they'll have Monday to regroup before second semester begins on Tuesday. In the meantime, Jim and I get a preview of being empty nesters. That certainly puts me in a New York State of Mind!