The Lord and Fifth Avenue

Today I took a little stroll down to Fifth Avenue to see what I could see. For a girl whose first dream was to move to New York and write I was suitably impressed to be walking past publishing houses on the way. I headed towards Saks Fifth Avenue in a sort of shopping tribute to my mom. She would be so proud. I got the friendly advice from a native to "start at the top and work my down." I think I managed four floors out of nine because it was sooooo not my store. Cool, but not me. I did find a wonderful suede duster in lavender (my close friends know that I would dub it "Trazelle purple") that was $798 and 30% off. If I had money falling out of my pockets I probably would have considered it. I said to myself, though, that if I were going to drop upwards of $800 on a coat (ok, so it was $560 after discount) that I would have to donate an equal amount to ending world hunger or some other worthy cause. I ended up leaving Saks by a different door than I entered - and standing looking at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I skipped up the steps and was immediately invited to drop some money into a box to help the poor of the world. Entertaining. The irony of a church next to Saks didn't get past me. Neither did the irony that the church looked like it was even more expensive to build than Saks. I guess there were a lot of guilty shoppers dropping change in the donation box over the years. I have to say, though, that if I were God I would certainly spend a lot more time in St. Patrick's than Sak's. Unless they marked down that coat again...