home again

So, I'm back home again after a ridiculously seamless and excellent NYC trip* which included, but was not limited to: seeing my favorite 7-year-old twins (who were not eager to see me go...their little teary eyes this morning almost made me want to change my flight); going to the Whitney Biennial (and randomly running into one of my fellow grad students there); meeting up with my friend Lisa (which was lovely) and her friend and eating the best vegetarian food I've had in a long time; having lunch with my friend T'ai.; going to Henrietta Hudson with Misa; going to see Anne Heaton (and having her ask me "have I met you before?" [which she had] when I asked her to sign my poster) at The Living Room, also with Misa; horseback riding in Central Park, on a horse named Nellie (whoa, Nellie!); shopping; eating Curried Duck Noodles and Black Sesame Ice Cream at Republic; and having my NYC direction sense suddenly improve by leaps and bounds.

That's it in a nutshell. Also, I finished a novel while I was away, which seems as much an accomplishment to me (since I haven't been reading fiction as much as I'd like) as the successful travel venture itself.

*The brilliance of my trip was only dampened a bit by three things: April couldn't join me this time because she had to work, Anna was out of town, and I almost died on the flight home. The latter was, obviously, the worst. I have travelled a lot in my life, and I can honestly say that I have never experienced worse turbulence in my life. About halfway through the flight, the plane lurched--really lurched, not just falling a bit in an air pocket, but jerking off to the side and tilting downward--so sharply that one of the flight attendants screamed (and you know it's bad if they react) and dropped a tray of cups and ice in the lap of several passengers. And then the approach into the airport was so rocky that I was convinced the pilot was going to say it was too windy to land and pull up, but he landed anyway, even though we hit the ground pretty hard and pretty wobbly. Not fun. But I'm alive. So. That's good, I guess.