Pro-active is my middle name...

Yes, really. I have been a very busy bee today. In fact, I seem to have put together a week's worth of pro-activeness all into one day. But before I tell you about today, I've really got to share with you how truly fab Denzel Washington was yesterday. The only reason I got tickets to see 'Fences' was that my brother was meant to be with me. So I wasn't overly enthusiastic about going alone until I arranged for a friend to come with me. The buzz inside the theatre was amazing and when DW walked on stage the place erupted. All of the cast were wonderful (with only one weak link I felt) and it was a privilege to watch. I must say, Scarlett Johannson was good, but yesterday I really felt like I was watching a Hollywood superstar. Which, indeed, I was. I must say though, my brother Daniel would have hated it... ;-) What was even more special, was that they put on some extra 'theatre' in the interval with two women just sitting along from us having a blazing argument about one of them disturbing the other by opening their sweet wrappers too loudly. This was proper 'head waggling, finger shaking, Ricky Lake (remember her?) style' arguing. It went on and on and the whole auditorium turned and stared at the extra half-time spectacle. The usherette just stood by and watched. Now, if that had been at the Maybox, we would have been right in there. At least it made the 15 minute interval speed by.

The volcano ash story has finally become the top news story on the breakfast 'Today' show. I was rather amused to listen to an American 'Aviation Transportation Expert' (whatever he does) being interviewed. He final comment was, 'Dan, it's much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than being in the air wishing you were on the ground.' Well said, I thought. They then finished the segment with some video footage of the volcano and ash, with REM's 'It's the end of the world as we know it' playing in the background, which I did think was a tad extreme, but hey, what do I know? All I will say, is that I know Jane and Alex are wanting to come home but I would really they were not on any of the early 'guinea pig' flights!

After that I started to become pro-active and finally braved the Midtown Social Security office to try and apply for my social security number. I need one purely to be able to apply for my driving license and seeing as my car is being delivered on 1st June I really need to get going. I was slightly anxious as I had heard that if you say that is the reason you want one, then they send you away saying a driving license isn't a good enough reason. It didn't help that the first person I heard behind the counter was telling someone that wanting a driving license wasn't good enough. I sat and waited in the room with a rather unusual cross-section of Manhattan residents in all of their glory for an hour, getting myself more and more in a tizz. I shouldn't have worried as she looked at my passport, visa and marriage certificate and that was it. I didn't even have to explain why I needed it. Pro-active task number one ticked off.

Then I came home and finally completed pro-active task two and finally connected my new laptop to the internet, which really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be once I'd worked out which white cable to fiddle with. Straight away, Sara called me on Skype for a lovely chat and I've since spoken with m and d, my little bro and jane and al. I'm finally connected to the rest of the world and my plan is to try and get online during the day when Boy Wonder takes a nap. So do let me have your skype details for those of you that have them.

Today we have been here a month. Wow.I'm almost feeling a native New Yorker. But not yet. xx