9/10/07
Airplane at JFK airport 4:10 pm
Well, in about 20 minutes I’ll take off for Istanbul. I had a really great visit in New York City for the last few days. It was so good to be with loved ones there. The weekend went by so fast! Saturday, Liz and I went to Zabars for croissants, o.j. (fresh squeezed) and coffee for breakfast and then walked to the park and caught up on life. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed watching the designer dogs and families enjoying the park. We played cards and wandered, then went to Central Park to meet up with Alexa, Alex and Aisha for a picnic. It was great to meet Alex, Liz’s partner and relax in the park. Later, Alexa and I took a long walk around Central Park to catch up and have some 1 on 1 time. My favorite part of the walk was an area called the New York ecosystem- a more natural part of the park with wildflowers and birds and turtles sunning themselves on rocks. We saw Red Eared Sliders, reminding me I wasn’t in Minnesota anymore. We found a patch of jewel weed and entertained ourselves by popping the fruits.

After the park, we wandered Madison Ave. and Park Ave. looking for a bouigie café, gave up, and took the train to the East Village where we planned to meet with Alex and Liz for dinner. We sat first at a sidewalk café and cooled off with cocktails. Very European of us. After dinner, by 8 pm, I was exhausted from the day and was happy to relax at Alex’s apartment with a movie and ice cream.

Sunday morning I met Aisha on the upper west side for a delicious breakfast at Manhattan Diner. Yum! It was great to chat and catch up with her—the pace of hanging out with her is very California- slow and chill. We went to the museum of natural history on a whim, and mostly looked at the older parts of the museum- dioramas and offensively anthropological “peoples” sections. I was told we missed some of the best parts of the museum- the mythical beasts and evolution section, but se la vi; I enjoyed simply wandering the museum and seeing whatever we happened upon. Of course, my favorite part was the dinosaurs.

Later that night, I met with Liz, Alexa and her partner Kate fro dinner at Channai Gardens- a south Indian veggie place, which was very yummy, then I rushed off to meet my old friend Tom, from Oberlin. It took forever to get across town, but after a harrowing journey through the lower east side and a brief taxi ride, I made it to Sweet- a cute little gay bar, and met Tom for the first time in 5 years! It was great to see him, and it felt like we’d seen each other yesterday.