And So It's Goodbye, Miami...

So last Thursday I had a work related meltdown, when I realized an untrained, unsupervised staff member communicated with a client in a most unprofessional manner. Worse, it was a client referred to me by a senior partner in probably the biggest firm in the city. The whole mess left me in a foul mood, which unfortunately lingered on to the D2 farewell dinner. D1 picked Zuma, the crazy expensive but worth it place where she was a hostess during the beginning of her grad school years, and a minor infraction caused me to lose it. It was a moment of tensosity, to use the word coined by my friend Alan, but we all got over it, and toasted D2 happily, as we ate king crab, mushroom hot pot, cod, and other delicacies that Zuma does so well. Speaking of Alan -- he happened to be there with friends, as well as his new girlfriend. Alan is 67, and his new lady friend is 23 -- D2's age. When they came over, Wifey and the Ds thought she was his granddaughter. Hey -- different strokes... I stayed away from the office yesterday -- partly to avoid the dysfunction, and mostly to spend the last day in Miami with D2. We schlepped a box of clothes to UPS, to learn it was overweight, and we had to split up the contents into a separate container. Then we drove to CVS where our friend Norman's niece Rachel is the new head pharmacist -- and she gave us our yearly flu shots. We then met Wifey and D1 and went to our go-to local Italian place -- Di Napoli, for the second farewell dinner. After a stop at the nitrogen yogurt place -- we came home and snuggled with the three dogs, while D2 and Wifey finished packing. And then the morning came, as it always does, and I drove Wifey and D2 to MIA. I sent them a YouTube (tm) version of "Far From the Home I Love" from the Fiddler on the Roof movie. It's a song and scene that always gets me -- Tevye is dropping Hodel at a train stop in the desolate Russian hinterland, and she sings this as there are flashbacks to her as a little girl. The scene ends with Hodel boarding the train, saying "Poppa -- God knows when we shall see each other again." And Tevye replies, "Then we will leave it in HIS hands..." Maybe there's a father of a child who can watch the scene without tearing up, but I don't know, or really want to know, who he is. The video had the effect. As soon as we were on Ludlam Road, Wifey started balling. I reminded her she was going WITH D2, and would spend a terrific weekend with her and her boyfriend -- fine dining, maybe a Broadway play. But still -- her baby was moving away -- and not just for college or grad school. Luckily, New York City isn't exactly the Siberia where Hodel was going to meet her man, Perchik, and we already have tickets to have our first family T Day together there. Plus, the team of my childhool, the Mets, are still the team of my brother Barry -- even though he moved to S Florida when he was in junior high. The Mets are in first place, and appear headed for the playoffs. If they make it, Barry wants to fly up to the new Shea Stadium -- Citi Field -- and have his Maryland freshman boy Scott come up to watch the game. I told him I would certainly go along as well, so I may well be seeing D1 in less than a month. If we do, I want to take her and Jonathan to Sammy's Romanian, for Eastern European Ashkenazi soul food. Jonathan has promised to wait for me before he tries it out. So my baby girl is all grown up, and entering the corporate world. She's doing something I always wanted to do and never made time for: living in the world's greatest city. And New York really is. My mother used to say New York is the world, and she was right. Paris is more romantic, and other cities have parts of greatness, but it's all in one place on that small island with the Hudson on one side and the East River on the other. So I wish D2 Godspeed. May NYC be her oyster...