march forth: day 1ish

I am recently recovered from a whirlwind couple of weeks. Back to back business trips could easily be avoided by someone in my line of work. I usually make do with one conference every year, sometimes two. This year the two opportunities most aligned with my current work mode happened to fall within a week of each other, and both were impossible to resist because they were being held in the cities where my people dwell! My peeps! What was I supposed to do, not go? please.

First up on the March Forth death tour was the city that never sleeps, the big apple, en why see.

I arrived at 4:58 am and made a beeline for my favorite vantage point on the upper west side:

Good Morning, New York!

I love Mary Beth's apartment. It's just perfectly precise and appointed. There is a place for everything, and everything fits neatly into its place. MB is the best hostess, too. It's like she knows me. After graciously opening her door at the buttcrack of dawn, we hugged and I dumped my stuff and we climbed right into her bed. It was early, man. We were cognizant of the fact that Mar had to get up for work in a few hours but also full of stories and sister love and chatter. We indulged ourselves for a lovely little while then said good night/morning and chased some zzzzzzzz's. I was dimly aware of the movement that indicated an alarm and my sister getting up and out, I tried really hard to drag myself up to consciousness to say hello/goodbye/I love you, but next thing I knew it was 11:00 and time to get my own self moving.

Have I mentioned that I love my sister's apartment? It's more than just a living space. It's Mary Beth. I got up grinning from ear to ear just to be there and have such a grand adventure ahead of me.

But first, coffee:

I had been instructed to just press brew, and leave whatever was undrunk in the pot for eventual chilling into ice coffee.

I headed over to the living room with my cuppa and the literature (say that in ellie's brittish voice) that Mar had left for me on the kitchen counter

Helpful tidbits and transportation guides, walking maps and subway suggestions. A metro card, happy hour fliers, and wait.... what's that in the upper left corner?!

I die.

Mary Beth is a HedHead, ya know. 6 of those 7 Playbills are from Jane Street! None of them featured the original slip of a girly boy from communist east Berlin, his very self John Cameron Mitchell, but we were poised to remedy that imminently.

Moving back to the kitchen, I availed myself of some breakfast

Inside, I found stuffed grape leaves from the west side market. I know!

I gotta tell you people, it was shaping up to be a very good day. I prepared to set off into the wilderness with my trusty stead rolly bag by my side.

Not so fast, Kowalsky

What? I was tired. And I  had to wait for my phone to charge in MB's patented useful and culturally representative charging station

The flag of Lebanon provides a cooling breeze to the Korean maiden. Wait, where's Ireland? Mary Beth!

Eventually, I really had no choice but to leave. I emailed my family, telling them my plan to head out for a bite before traipsing down through the park to check in at my down-down-downtown hotel before the evening activities. I wasn't hungry, but that seemed like a minor obstacle.

My watch said 10am.

Ah, Artie's. I love that place, love those sidewalk tables, love that pile of rare meat on a roll. I can't pretend I'm a native new yorker with my $.75 kaiser roll in place of rye, but the giant rolly bag already gave me away

Then, the Park!

It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The snow melted in rivers that ran across my shoes and my rolly bag. One wheel broke. It felt sad for the snow?

I grabbed a cab in Columbus Circle and soon arrived at my 3-day home in the financial district

That bed!

My view!

I had just a few minutes to unpack and change before hopping into a cab toward SoHo

To meet these yahoos under the shade of the St. Patrick's Day tree

We thought we'd just have the one stop, but someone turned out to be a birthday boy in waiting, so what were we supposed to do? Not stay out til midnight?

I know entirely too much about this man and his sister.

This guy hated us so much, but we thought maybe it was an act so we kept trying to make him love us.

These two had some issues to discuss

But they're lovers, not fighters

We ended the night with some good old fashioned blurry thug selfies

MB might be a great hostess, but she's a terrible thug.

Next stop: China!