I like all the answers, but this one especially. You have to stay strong, while forcing your parents to deal with you as an adult. That means when Christmas is being planned, you make it clear to your folks that you will attend their holiday festivities if and when they invite your guy. If they won't, then you don't attend. If other family members invite you to events, you and the boyfriend attend, and don't let them tell you he can't come. If they're rude to him, call them on it. Then if they won't leave, you leave.

Over time, they will (hopefully, slowly) accept your relationship on your terms. But you have to be ready to walk away if they don't.

At the same time, love them and show them how their love showed you how to love.

Exactly what I was thinking, from my days in the apartments behind the old Deano's on Madison.

I assumed it was 50%, as in half the fee up front, half on delivery.

No, it was definitely a PowerBar, in a light blue/aqua wrapper. You get major points for finding that, though. What possessed these people, to make this?

You're welcome - have a great time. PS Mr. Lucky says the good thrift neighborhood is 4th Avenue.

And the more time has gone by, distorting your memory and making you forget all of the help you had on the way.

Tracy's advice covers it. I would only add that I've heard that bereavement fare policies often only apply to full-fare tickets. You can often get a better price by buying an odd-time (red-eye or early morning) mid-week ticket.

So sorry for your loss.

This is such an excellent answer. I would only add that if you want to sound like you know what you're doing, order that glass of water as a 'water back'. And have a standard drink in mind for those places that don't have a drinks menu.

So, faced with no drinks menu, you might ask 'may I have a rye manhattan with a water back?'

And don't get me started on Crush. Worst service in the city, from maitre' d to bartender to servers to Wilson himself.

We finally tried Le Gourmand recently and were sooooo very disappointed. They lost our reservation, my dinner was undercooked and the service was dismissive and blah. On the upside, we had talked about going there for years, and now we're over that.