It’s already 1:38. I’ve gotten very little done today except for a few critical, money-oriented errands. Sadly, none of that’s translated into actually making money. Hmm.
This week is going to be very busy: We have a visitor from California. It’s her first time in New York, so there’s a lot to do. Already the itinerary is completely insane. I think we’re booked solid, except for Thursday, which is her day in the city with her friend Jay. Sigh. And, although I’ve yet to book Sunday, I really don’t much feel like going down into the city on a weekend day, when there will be even more tourists than there usually on a summer day. Blech. Still. We’ll see what she wants to do.
At any rate, it occurred to me that I’ve not recounted any of the awesome stuff that’s happened in the past few weeks. We’ve had a few really awesome weekends, and, actually, a few firsts even for a seasoned New Yorker like me! Then again, part of the joy of living in New York was discovering new and different things every single day.
The weekend after we got back from Ironman, our friend Dave came to visit us. Although Chicago isn’t far from Indianapolis, where Dave lives, I had a notoriously had time getting down to see him. I’m really happy that Dave could extend his business trip to spend time with us over the weekend, although I’m sure we weren’t exactly the best company, being somewhat still jet-lagged from IM and more than a little confused.
We spent our first evening with Dave downtown with Peter and Alan. We ate at Arriba Arriba, which I have yet to review on Yelp because I can’t actually remember eating there: I had one margarita and it about knocked my sorry, weak ass to the ground. So here is a photo that I don’t remember taking of Alan and Peter
and one of Jim and Dave
I’d show you the one of me and Alan, but you can *see my bra* through my dress in it, so I think I will both never wear that dress with a light-colored bra again and also possibly chuck both the photo and the dress. So annoyed, and embarrassed.
Anyway. The next day Jim drove Dave and I to a place called Croton Gorge Park. It’s something like 10 miles from our house and took us something like two hours to get to, but that mostly has to do with faulty directions in Jim’s head. It was pretty frackin’ awesome. Here is the photographic evidence of the awesomeness:
The next week sort of flew by. There was some writing, some editing, a lot of panicking over life plans and other things. The following weekend we drove down to Long Beach Island to an old friend, Rich, and his wife Katie and their terrific dogs Lola and Piper. I’m pretty sure none of these photos turned out right, but here’s a couple.
We had fun catching up. It was just like being with family: you’ve sort of known each other long enough that all the damage has been done already. It was nice, really really nice.
I drove to New Jersey the following day to see an old friend. I have no photos of that because I spent most of the time stuck in traffic, but I got to spend the night, and spend a lot of time with my girl Anna. All good.
Last Thursday Peter had the brilliant idea of going to see a movie in Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was loads of fun. Both Kara and I got there in time to stake out a nice spot, and although it got crowded, our spot was large enough to fit me, Peter, Karen, and Kara. It was perfick, although I’d forgotten, as Peter pointed out, how old and leather-like Cary Grant looks in the movie we saw, To Catch a Thief. It’s not my favorite Hitchcock, but both the company and the scenery were spot-on, even if Mr. Grant looks like a turtle (props to Peter again). Here, you witness for yourself.
And then and then…I can’t remember what all else. Oh, right. On Friday I met Aileen in the city and we had a lovely lovely picnic lunch in the park after a failed visit to the Guggenheim museum. And then there was meandering around on Madison Avenue while I wondered how I was going to fit all of the crap I have to fit into Adriana’s repertoire of New York experiences, and also whether or not I’d find a pair of shoes that wouldn’t hurt me (I did, and thank goodness, too, as the ones I was wearing were literally wearing a hole in my toe), and then we went to a wine bar, where I had this experience, which pissed me off mightily.
But that’s OK, because I was with Aileen, and I had a nice dinner with Michelle at the lovely Kellari, and then I went to the birthday party of an acquaintance, and I saw this:
Yes. The Naked Cowboy showed up. He who is running for mayor. That’s right. Perfectly nice guy. Wish he wasn’t so raunchy all the time, though. Every photo I watched him taking was of him grabbing someone else’s rear, or of the someone else posing as grabbing his rear…Sigh. Seeing as how the guy’s platform is transparency (or, in his lingo, “Nakedness”), there’s not much more to be said.
I met his campaign manager. Both he and the cowboy are perfectly nice peeps, and I am curious to see what he has to say.
Lara moved to the country, by the way, to a lovely home with its own name and everything. She is incommunicado for awhile, and I am dying to find out how she’s doing. Sigh. It’s funny how acutely you can feel the absence of people you only usually see online.
I’m sure there will be some epic forthcoming rumination on this. But for now, off to finish the book I’m reading and maybe write a book review and [oh, God, please] some work on the novel. Argh!
