New York - Day 5

Another day of conference, that while good, did not entirely meet the needs I had professionally. It was good, intense, and valuable information, but it never quite addressed what I was seeking.

I did, however, have my first experience at presenting at a national conference as part of our team. That moment of glory and recognition died a pitiful death that evening while I was waiting in line for a cabaret show my friend J. had suggested and was attending with some of his partners. One of them mentioned a presentation she attended that morning and commented on how valuable she found the information. I casually interjected that I was the presenter and she adamantly replied that no, it was not my presentation, "Don't take offense, but they guy who presented was taller and was wearing a dark suit."

The easiest way out of an awkward situation is through humor, so I replied that I had changed clothes in the intervening fourteen hours and removed my leg extensions. At that point she ceded that I was indeed the presenter. Maybe it was the dry wit that convinced her because I'm not sure she bought the leg-extension argument.

Earlier, to begin the evening, I met Eric, his bf, and Lunar Gemini for drinks at Barrage during happy hour. As always an evening with them was filled with humor and political vitriol - just a good time. They alone are reason enough to visit New York.

Upon leaving them, I went to see the off-Broadway production of the new musical, Frankenstein. I give the performers tons of credit for the quality turns they presented with material that was decidedly lacking, from a source that clearly exceeded the skill of the team who put it together.

And that led to the instance of my ego being cut off at the knees, so to speak, at Don't Tell Mama. I'm quick to forgive and even more quick to get over my ego (no comment from the peanut gallery), so I took most of the group a few doors down to The Ritz (no website found), a bar and dance club. So me of New York's prettiest boys were there and we danced until 2:30 a.m.

Actually, that was technically day six, so maybe it should be on the next post....

New York - Day 4

Today the conference was in full swing - starting with a regional group breakfast at 7:30 a.m. (which is 6:30 a.m. back home), so I was at it bright and early. The news promised lessening rain, but as I set out on my trek to the conference hotel with a planned stop at the coffee supplier, it was raining harder than at any point since I'd been in the city.

My small umbrella was not doing the trick at all, so I took the route I could find with the most overhead scaffolding and managed to reach the conference only a bit damp and ahead of the chickens who took a cab.

The sessions I attended were good, but didn't really address needs I had. I tried to pick carefully, but found in many of these sessions, my organization is far ahead of these doing the presenting. I should be doing more than one presentation at this conference. Actually, so far, I could have presented the entire conference.

After the conference I went to meet up with Southern Boy, his bf, and a good friend of his for dinner at S'mac. He's written about going there several times and as much as I don't like mac and cheese, I just had to try a restaurant where that is the only thing served. I had the Brie with roasted figs and shitake mushrooms. It brought an entirely new horizon to my idea of mac and cheese and completely removed the image of the blue box from association forever. The friend and the bf were both generous and gave me bites of theirs to eat. Each was unique and good in its own way.

After the experience with the PB & J French Toast of a couple weeks ago, I'm definitely going to have to experiment with the mac and cheese theme next.

Grilled cheese wont' be far behind.

After dinner we wandered around East Village for a while and went to Porto Rico Importing Company and bought coffee in bulk - which means I'm going to have to leave something in New York since my suitcases were already over-stuffed coming here. I bought two half-pounds of beans. Can't wait to get home and pull out the grinder.

We then headed over to Veniero's Pastry Shop for coffee and dessert. The incredibly creamy cheesecake weighed down any chance of the coffee keeping me up tonight.

I would definitely go back to the East Village for food again. And now I'm back at the hotel at 10:00 to review the powerpoint for tomorrow.

New York - Day 3

The third day in New York began the start of work. The conference registration and first sessions began, and as expected with this conference, everything went smoothly and the first two sessions were not bad even though the big guns of the conference were yet to come.

My friend Jim and I did go to see Spring Awakening and there is really not much I can say about it beyond what has already been written. It is the second Tony Award winning show I've seen this week and it was as challenging emotionally as Avenue Q was entertaining. After working 17 years with teenagers, the show moved me and left me thinking throughout the night. I have no doubts but that I will continue thinking about it over the months to come as I listen to the cast recording.

New York - Day 2

Day two in New York turned out to be much more subdued than day one, which is fine - this is vacation after all.

I slept late - well, late for me and then relaxed around the hotel room until about 11:00. Since I'm just off Columbus Circle, I decided to walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Central Park. I was amazed at how used the park could be in the middle of a workday. Families, children from schools, joggers, and tourists were everywhere. The park was a bastion of relative quiet in the city, even with all the people there.

If I thought the park was busy, that idea was shattered by the busyness of the Met. The steps were filled with people and the galleries were teaming. The Age of Rembrandt exhibition is definitely worth seeing if you are in New York before the first week of January. The Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works and the Depth of Field exhibits were also outstanding.

The Met was my main goal of this trip, so I'm glad I spent several hours there. The time truly melted away as I gazed upon the masterworks. Still, it was surprisingly tiring. I'm going to have to make another trip to see galleries that I didn't even begin to approach. I could probably do that for the rest of my life and still not see everything there.

For dinner I met up with some friends and we went to Whym on 9th Ave. It was worth trying if you are in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't make a trip there for it.

After dinner I went to Therapy for drinks and the lip sync show put on by Sweetie. Sweetie was anything but to drunk and obnoxious women patrons or guys who thought they could lip sync, but couldn't. Other than the show, it was a rather typical bar; however, the do make their drinks fairly strong which is a good thing.

New York - Day 1

I am so excited about being in New York for vacation for a few days. I booked a really early flight out of Austin just so I could have some time today to get oriented to the city and all worked out well. I was even able to get tickets to one of the shows I've wanted to see for years.

The flight this morning went amazingly well considering we were having rain and thunderstorms in Austin as I was leaving.

I arrive in New York to a heatwave. Thank goodness for Febreze or the fact that I packed three changes of clothing each day would not have been enough.

Hey! It's New York and I 'm from Texas. I have to look and smell good to prove we are not all from the sticks.

One of the first stops I made after checking into the hotel was the TKTS booth to see what shows I could get. Quite happily, I was able to get a 4th row seat to Avenue Q. I have adored the music to it since it first debuted and have tried to imagine just what it would be like to have live people interacting with puppets. Amazingly, the puppets were just as much characters as the people and I actually found myself watching the puppets rather than the actors manipulating them.

I can see why Ave. Q won the Tony for best musical, but I still like Wicked better.

On the walk back to the hotel I decided to make it a nice stroll. I sauntered along at a nicely relaxed pace.

I kept PASSING all the New Yorkers. I thought everyone here was at such a fast pace. Those are the stories I've heard and what I've experienced from all my past visits. It was obvious enough that I noticed it. I must admit, I walk fast for a Texan, but was not expecting to be in the same league as Manhattanites. Maybe I should consider the Olympic speed-walking competition if my stroll in New York surpasses daily New York.