A friend invited me to be her guest at the NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship). Gala event last night. Knowing how important this event was to her, me, the people pleaser said yes without knowing much about the organization or what kind of event I was agreeing to attend. Dressed and ready to leave my apartment to catch the bus for the 45 minute ride to the venue, I decided to look at the actual invitation sent in the morning via email.

Cocktail Attire! Ari, Melber Host! Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who is not only a Grammy & Emmy Award-winning rapper with too many impressive accomplishments to mention, but who also launched his own G-Unity Foundation to support underserved aspiring young entrepreneurs! Plus many more impressive speakers and awards. Impressive, but the dress code, ugh!

   I quickly changed into my version of the “cocktail attire”, of someone who- rides- the- bus, headed to the bus stop just as the bus pulled up and arrived at the very elegant Gustavinos Event Center in time for the champagne reception.

 What a surprising and wonderful evening!  I had the opportunity to see exhibits highlighting businesses started and run by high school and college students all of whom are mentored by NFTE’s corporate executives volunteers, both active and retired . I had a long fascinating conversation with the CEO, CFO and Marketing Director of Ireland’s NFTE chapter. They were in NYC specifically for this event and returning home today. Ireland has one of the NFTI’s largest chapters with 600 employees and an army of volunteers. I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot about their work. When I asked them to tell me about one of their success stories, they shared the story of a 14-year-old student living in poverty invented a new use for a Kanga glove for soccer players which turned into an international sensation.

  What were my takeaways from that experience?  1). read the invitation before getting dressed and just about to walk out the door, 2) enjoy the MTA bus ride. It deposited me safely with no traffic fuss because busses stay in their own restricted lane and allows me to arrive at the other end of the world (far East side of NYC) for only $1.29 ) 3) keep an open mind, sometimes when you do magic happens!

     I was privileged to attend the fundraiser for Presidents Biden, Obama, and Clinton at Radio City Music Hall last Thursday night and would like to share some of the evening’s events and my thoughts with you.

   The weather that day was rainy and cold and the streets all around Radio City were blocked to traffic, including to pedestrians. My first challenge was to get there via subway and then try to find my friend in what was promised to be a crowd of “epic proportions” (which is pretty big by NYC standards). I had the virtual tickets, and due to security, we had to enter together, so we devised a plan to meet, and amazingly, it worked!

  The next challenge was that we had to show our tickets and photo ID just to get in line (or online, as NYers say), and again at what seemed like every three feet. The tickets, which weren’t printable, were stored in my Apple wallet, which kept disappearing, forcing me to frantically scroll through all my apps at each checkpoint in the pouring rain.  Thankfully, due to the inclement weather, the doors opened at 4:30 instead of 5:30 as originallly scheduled. Even after all the checkpoints, the lobby security was impressive. Not only did we have to walk through a thick no-nonsense-looking metal detector, (which made airport security look puny and, I’m sure, could detect the metal fillings in my mouth ), but we also had to empty our pockets and purses (dirty Kleenexes and all), get wanded, sniffed by bomb-sniffing dogs and then walk past an intimidating brigade of NY City’s Finest holding the leashes of very large, very scary looking, German Shepherds.

   Having arrived almost 3 hours early, my friend and I found a lovely velvet sofa in the mezzanine lobby where we could sit and watch the crowd. I remarked how strange it was that, other than outside and at the entrance, there didn’t appear to be much security, mainly just ushers and what seemed like possibly a few scattered Secret Service people (perhaps identifiable only to me, a passionate mystery & intrigue fan because they wore black suits and were not carrying dripping wet raincoats and umbrellas). I was so wrong, maybe not about them but definitely about the number of security at Radio City.

  Once we were seated inside the theater, we chatted with the people seated around us and watched the crowd slowly take their seats. Knowing this was to be a history-making event, the energy in the room was electric with excitement. 

  The curtain went up at approximately 8:15 and the evening began with a warm welcome address by Dr. Jill Biden surrounded by the entire Biden family. Then came star-studded performances by Lizzo (who knew she was such a talented flute player?), Queen Latifa, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Platt, and Lea Michelle who each brought the house down.

  I still get chills when I think about what happened next. The lights went out for a second, and then what looked like major fireworks displays went off around the perimeter of the stage as the announcer told us to get ready to welcome Presidents Biden, Obama, and Clinton. The audience erupted in cheers and applause, and we immediately jumped to our feet as the three Presidents began to appear on a riser from below the stage. The surreal excitement and drama of seeing Presidents Biden, Obama, and Clinton magically appear in front of my eyes took my breath away and is a scene I don’t think I will ever forget.

  The Presidents were then seated, and the host, Stephen Colbert, explained the format. He would ask questions and give each man five minutes to respond, warning in advance that “these men are all talkers, and even though they could see a timer (not visible to the audience), it might be difficult to hold them to the allotted five minutes’ response time” (and it was).

  You may have read about the event and thus know how remarkable it was. Presidents Obama and Clinton focused on all of President Biden’s accomplishments and stressed that we keep these in mind as we listen to the lies and false accusations “the presumptive Republican nominee” is spewing. In fact, Stephen Colbert quipped that it was the first time in the last few weeks that a president has been in NYC and it wasn’t for a court appearance!

   You also may have read that the event was periodically disrupted by Palestinian protestors strategically scattered throughout the audience. The protests that were signaled by a whistle, began almost as soon as the Presidents appeared.  At first, it sounded like someone whistling, as in cheering, but became concerning when the high-pitched sound didn’t change tone or stop. Next the yelling began.  Colbert and President Biden asked that the people shouting be given a few moments to yell out their grievances, and then each of the Presidents did their best to address the issues, but there was no stopping the protestors. After Security finally removed the first group, a second group from a different part of the theater began yelling. It was impossible to understand what they were shouting, but their intentions were clear and as soon as one group was removed, another group from a different part of the audience began.

   My stomach was churning, and I felt sickened by such disrespectful behavior. This is a free country, and in fact, a huge Palestinian protest rally was taking place right outside the doors of Radio City, but this act of uncivil disobedience in my city, besides being disrespectful and disruptive, was embarrassing. Security guards, who weren’t visible earlier, suddenly seemed to be everywhere removing the protestors almost as quickly as they popped up.

  In my opinion, the takeaway for protestors is don’t try this again when Barack is in the house! When he’d had enough of the yelling, President Obama stretched out one long arm, pointed in the direction of the latest eruption, and angrily said, “Stop! We hear you, but you can’t just talk, you have to listen too”. He got a standing ovation, and that was the last we heard from the disruptors.

 Despite the noise, nothing could mar the magic of that night and I hope you’ve all seen and read about the wonderful interchanges between the Presidents released by the DNC (no press or TV cameras were allowed).

  Although the disturbances deeply troubled me, I was very proud of the way it was all handled. There was no violence, and the three awesome stars on the stage showed respect to the protestors and their cause.  To me, this evening was all about Democracy, how it works, and how much is at stake in the upcoming November election.

I recently had to rebook a ticket through Chase Ultimate Travel. Rebooking this type of transaction requires calling Chase, it cannot be done online. The subsequent conversation I had with the customer service agent deserves a warning label.

“Was this flight for business or pleasure? And why did you have to cancel?”  “It was for a family event that was postponed until this coming weekend,” I replied. “Oh, a family event, hope it is for a happy occasion? ”, she asked “Yes” I answered, she then continued “I have to travel to see my family too because they also live all over the country”, she was surmising I had no family in NY. Next she added, “I have three children, all married, and six grandchildren, and they are all coming to visit for Easter.” “How nice,” I replied, wondering how long it would take to actually get around to me! “We haven’t all been together in five years, so I am busy cooking and organizing events for the four days they are here” (“here” is South Carolina, in case you wondered).

Ten minutes later, we finally got around to the reason for my call and fifteen minutes after that, with my ticket rebooked I wished her a happy Easter and hung up. Lovely as she was, my advice to everyone is the next time you have to call Chase Ultimate Travel and they ask you a question, even if it’s “How are you doing today?” Say you are using a prison pay phone and only have five minutes to complete your personal business. Works every time😉

The Empire State Bldg tower lights tonight. Think “Sleepless in Seattle” and watch to the end

In case you can’t read the bottom line it says “love, the person in front of you”. Who says NYers are snobs or in their own world?!

   Reading the headlines and watching the news you would think NYC has the market cornered on crime, especially in the subways . Granted some terrible things happen here, but terrible things can and do happen everywhere. Maybe its because bad news sells more papers and gets more media attention but luckily I’m not trying to sell papers or trying to promote any story on TV, instead I just want to share another reason why I love the Big Apple.

   I took the Uptown One train to 86th Street today for a 1:00 meeting. As I started walking up the steep flight of stairs to street level at 86th Street (since every subway is underground, every stop has a steep flight to climb), I saw an elderly woman pulling a large portable grocery cart behind her as she struggled up the steps (I know, I know, but she looked a lot older than me!). She was pretty far ahead of me but moving slowly, so I thought maybe I could reach her and offer to help. As she got to the first landing, however, a woman who was coming down the steps and saw her struggling, turned around and, although I couldn’t hear the conversation, by her body language I knew she offered to help. The older woman gratefully relinquished her cart to this good Samaritan who was pausing in her rush to catch her train.

 Such a nice story, but wait, there’s more! As the kind stranger reached the second landing a young (and very handsome) guy who had obviously witnessed everything stopped in his rapid descent, turned around, said something to both women, grabbed the handle and effortlessly whisked the cart the rest of the way up the steps. Rather than just leave it he waited patiently for the woman to reach him. The owner of the cart, the two good Samaritans and I, coming up behind everyone, met at the top. The Samaritans were all smiles as the cart owner profusely thanked and blessed them. Then they both quickly headed back down the two flights of steps to continue their journeys. Having witnessed it all, I was also all smiles, especially when the cart owner exclaimed, “look what just happened, who says NYers aren’t kind?”, and then blessed me as well. The entire incident couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes but it definitely colored my world today.