2003-10-06 - 12:43 p.m.

When I take a trip, by default hope is that the experience will at the very least justify the time spent on busses.

It did and moreso. That trip to NYC seems shorter each time. I�m starting to learn the landmarks and Connecticut mini-cities, which only I would love to visit one by one, as well as White Plains.

When we got into the city we got right into it--a couple of drinks at a bar by Mulberry and Spring, and then on to the Alice James 30th Anniversary reading at the Bowery Poetry Club. There was food there, and coffee, and Pabsts after, and plenty of good readers. After the readings, I purchased Ghost Letters by Richard McCann (for Christmas, for the Roommate) and had the author sign it for her. Unfortunately, I couldn�t keep my own secret for more than five minutes, and I gave the book to her.

I talked to a really nice older lady at the bar for awhile too--we made friends. She had a thick German accent and made great conversation, and it was obvious that she was very amused by my antics. She blushed when I guessed that she was a college professor.

I don�t remember the name of the bar we went to afterwards, but the Sox were on and my old friend Gonzo was there. I paid more attention to the Sox than anything else--there was a small pocket of Boston fans clustered by the TV. The game hadn�t been won when the four of us left, and I left behind my group of cheering ex-pats.

Our (cheap) hostel was a beautiful building by Central Park West in the West 100th Streets, and the Roommate and her friend and S. and I retired there with more beer than we needed and some smokes. S. and I played hero and snagged an authentic NYC pizza. It was made, purchased, and consumed in NYC--the fact that it was from Dominos is irrelevant. We watched the SNL season opener and drank beer and smokes cigarettes.

I had to get up early again the next morning, but it paid off. So early, in fact, that the local Duane Reade wasn�t yet open, so S. and I got our take-out coffee and bottled water and returned to watch some early-morning NY news. My shower alternated between scalding and freezing, and reminded me of my glory days quasi-bumming around Europe. If I could do it then, I could do it now, and I felt much better when I dried myself off with my bedsheet, which had just been used for the same task by the Roommate.

So early that after we had emerged from a tour of Central Park, the clock barely read noon.

We walked and walked and walked. We saw a Polish pride parade down 5th Avenue, a woman so gaudily dressed that her hideousness turned more heads than any pretty girl I saw that day, Howie and the boys taping their NFL segments outside of the CBS building, and ducked into the lobby of the Empire State Building. S. is not a big fan of playing tourguide, and I�ve never asked him to. It was very nice of him to treat the Roommate and her friend J. and I like the gawking yokels we were.

We had some beers at a bar by St. Marks place with an outside patio in back. There were christmas lights and a small single-engine plane back there. Beers and daylight mingled, and we had a good time talking as the Roommate and I kept running into the bar for beers and baseball scores.

I watched Ortiz double home Ramirez and Garciaparra outside of Life, where the crowd inside and out was utterly indifferent to the game, but not to the odd red-head jumping up and down in a manner most undignified.

After a couple more in a very strange bar in Chinatown, the bus ride was pretty painless. I actually read the signs right and got us on an earlier bus, despite the demand and the time written on out tickets. Once on, I pitied my way into a seat next to the Roommate--I can use drama when I need it, and the just give me one last kiss before the bus starts moving, honey really clinched it. The added benefit was that the dude I was going to have to sit next to was very, very smelly.

Our apartment was still there, and warm too, when returned.

It was an excellent trip, excellent and I had the greatest time. I�m getting on a bus to go back to work in five minutes.