"The Hip Hooray and the Bally Hoo, The Lullaby of Broadway"

The party last night was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I overcame my usual party reluctance to attend. It was a fairly small group of people from my major gathering together on the rooftop deck at one person's apartment to drink wine and get to know each other better. So far I really like everyone in my group that I've met, and I feel optimistic about the potential to make good friends here.

Sort of an aside to any of my readers who may have been fans of the show Friends - remember the Ugly Naked Guy? It was a neighbor across from the characters' apartment who they could see from their window. I always assumed that was a ridiculous running gag, but this guy's place had a Fat Naked Guy. Just hanging out on the deck minding our business, enjoying the scenery, we see a guy in a deck area on the ground, hanging up laundry, and letting the night air blow across every visible part of him. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the very curious), his rather enormous stomach and the laundry kept us from having his nudity absolutely confirmed - so we can give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was wearing short shorts. The guy whose apartment we were at said FNG was out there all the time, and was never wearing clothes.

Today I slept in a bit, and then spent the first part of the afternoon doing laundry. After that was finished I decided to cross a couple of more items off my New York Bucket List (not an abstract thing - it's a slightly more than three page long document on my computer listing the restaurants, stores, and sites that are my highest priorities to see). I went to the Lower East Side to check out Bluestockings, "a radical bookstore." It was small, but with an interesting selection of feminist, Marxist, anti-establishment, and various other literatures. Then I went back to the other end of SoHo to try a truffle at Kee's Chocolate. It was very good, but not dazzling.

I got back to the apartment and realized there was still plenty of time left in the day, so I walked back to the East Side to to eat at Mud Coffee, which had been recommended to me. Unfortunately they were cash only, and I had given all me cash to laundry earlier. So I walked to Snice, which is a sandwich shop in the Meat Packing District I already knew I liked. They were also cash only, but at this point I was quite hungry and just paid the $2.00 service charge at the nearest atm. Then I walked back to the apartment. All told, today had 6.2 miles of walking.

So now I'm back at the apartment, and looking to get settled in for the evening. Maybe it's all the walking, but I get tired pretty early in New York City.