When I arrived at Eastgate Tower Hotel I was informed that I had been upgraded.

This was new to me.  I don’t usually get an upgrade – I get what I expect.  But if the good people of Eastgate Tower wanted to upgrade me, then who was I to complain?

They put me up on the 25th floor (a good sign as my birthday is on the 25th of Sept).  Thank the gods they had an elevator.  It would have been quite the workout to have to walk up and down all those stairs.

When I got to my new room I realized something – they hadn’t just upgraded me, they had UPGRADED me.  I mean, this wasn’t a single-person hotel room – this was a suite.  And it was bigger than my apartment in Halifax.

The kitchen gave me mixed feelings.  One the one hand, it was great to have a fridge and kettle; but on the other hand, I didn’t come to New York to cook for myself – I came to have others do the cooking for me.

The bedroom had 2 double beds and there was a pull-out couch in the living room.  Do the maths – that’s 6 people that could be accommodated comfortably.

I felt as though they had wasted this upgrade on me.  I was just one person.  If there had been others with me we would have been soaring, but I was alone.  I felt the need to run out and make as many friends and possible so that this room could get the use that it deserved.

Instead of that, however, I did something else.  I decided to pretend that I lived in New York and this was my apartment.  So, for 4 days I “lived” in NYC.

Those were 4 pretty darn good days.