III, New York

My luggage’s fate has been written… all worked out as planned! Well, sort of. I got on the plane in Denver, the last leg, the three peaceful hours of sleep I was planning on having. When I got to my seat I found that it was a middle seat in a row that didn’t recline. Needless to say I didn’t get any sleep on the flight. I got to NY and prayed during baggage claim. They were one of the last ones to come out! When I got outside dawn had just hit. The sky was grey and heavy like the heavens were about to burst forth, but it was hot already and it was about 7:00am… I felt all sticky and gross. I got in a cab and we drove into Manhattan, I was silent most of the way, contemplating being in NY alone and how I have never done this before. Near the end of the ride the cabbie starts telling me about NY and how since Guiliani has been around it has been a lot safer here. He dropped me off right in front of Stefan’s apartment… I walked down the stairs to his door feeling the city intensely around me, and rang the bell… he found me at the front door looking quite bedraggled and whisked me in, showed me to the couch where I promptly dropped and fell into a heavy sleep for 5 hours. He has a few houseguests in town and apparently they have been raging it up all weekend long, celebrating John Barlow’s 60th birthday in style. When I woke up someone brought me a bagel… yum! They are so much better here! I spent all morning meeting some beautiful people from LA and Massachusets named Kaitlin, Jonathan, and Lorin and then Stefan took me on a walk all around Manhattan, showing me all sorts of things off the beaten tourist path. It was such a great experience and I am so thankful to have him here. The funniest thing I saw was this dog park that is enclosed with a fence, and all the dogs just go crazy with each other. There was a separate enclosure for little dogs! I know we have dog parks in Portland and dog beaches in Santa Cruz but this one was like no other… I guess the dogs here have to get it out all at once since they don’t normally have much room to run. Well now I am going to hop a cab with all my shite and head out to the Knitting Factory to meet the band for my first show with them…. I am looking forward to seeing them as well as Ariel, she happens to be in town on her way outta the country for 6 months, bound for world travel and a grand adventure of her own! It will be cool to boogie with her one last time…