I Can Feel You Everywhere, Shining Like the Sun

Museum Hang with my Bud!

Most of my best friends are fellow introverts, so when we do get to spend time together, we appreciate the sacrifice of this coveted time.  The experience will fill our tanks in a way that is hard to explain but it's the most concentrated fuel, and essential to life.  When introverts need people, it becomes fairly dire and one tends to feel like a vampire, sucking the neck of its victim.

After-museum warm apple pie and carrot cake at Utopia Diner on Amsterdam. 

American Museum of Natural History - because you have to feed the child in you from time to time. 

The Upper West Side.  My favorite areas of Manhattan are the ones that look frozen in time.

Subway ghost

East Village ATM

Gorgeous views from the Museum

Speaking of being childish....My favorite part of the Elephant exhibit was this.

The animal exhibits are satisfying meditation windows. They're artistic.  They're gorgeous and put you in a moment of the animal's life.  I love them and they never get old to me. I might be the last generation to appreciate such a simple way to showcase wildlife.  The little kids seemed to breeze right past these incredible displays.

You have to work hard to stay away from political opinions even in something as simple as ancient exhibits but the corrections shown here are for the better.  If it's an incorrect portrayal of these folks, then it's helpful to let us know how it really was.  However, I do wonder why they didn't just update the exhibit instead of telling us how it's wrong.

Grey Dog pre-museum Breakfast Union Square - Bacon and Egg on Croissant with fries.

Swiss Cheese Omelet with home fries

The before-the-meal-arrives but after-you've-ordered moment of zen and happiness.  Time to chat and laugh and enjoy life!

I Nearly Lost You There, And It's Taken Us Somewhere

Serendipity 3 - An old school themed visit with the hopes of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

It was to be Lisa Loomis Day here in the city, the day one of my favorite people would come to be in my vicinity.  She and her mate chose New York City for their vacation destination.  August may not be the best  time to come, and during a major heat wave but the city needs the cash, and I was thrilled to see her.  We're recovering and morphing into the next phase of this town's insane history.  Coming from Los Angeles, she has seen her own share of absurdity.  But NYC is coming up to speed again, especially noticable this summer and businesses are working hard to hold on, trying new things.  

Papaya King 

People in your life tend to come and go.  But our time in San Francisco so many years ago was concentrated broth that was not easily forgotten.  We worked and lived together, partied and ate, had mutual friends and shared some milestone hardships as well as many remarkable days.  There are a handful of people that you can start where you left off as if no time had passed.  Those are very special humans and I am truly lucky to know any of them. 

Lisa is a fellow foodie.  She understands nuance in flavors.  She cares about what she orders and considers all options when scrolling the menus.  She's a girl you can talk about the quality of the fry on a potato.  My kind of gal.  So knowing I had an afternoon with her, I scrambled to find the right eat spots.  She stayed in Times Square, which I took as an old school theme.  She mentioned wanting to try Papaya King thinking it was in Brooklyn but the only one left is in Manhattan's Upper East Side.  Traditionally, I've not been a great host, I struggled to find a great old diner for the breakfast spot and then got lost walking through the village as I always do, so we ended up at the Chelsea instead of the University Grey Dog location, a spot that came recommended, and it was very good.  The coffee wasn't incredible.  My thinking is that if you're going to be a semi-pricey breakfast joint, you need that quality, super hot coffee, not the cheap diner warmish kind.  But the bacon and buttery croissant made up for it.  

Serendipity pecan pie and Hot apple pie ala-mode

I knew better than to trust Serendipity but I always remembered it as a place my friend's mother's older upper crusty buddy took us to after the theater.  It's been around for years and I love institutions and the art deco feel of it, the location and idea of an old fashioned ice-cream parlor.  It's pink and girlie inside and turned out, cold as hell.  The pie's weren't made in house and the cute boy waiter didn't really make anything sound too appealing, but we had hot dogs to eat and another 30 blocks to walk to get there, so we settled on pie and passed on the $25 dollar giant sundaes.  It must have been 100 degrees out with the humidity, but we still managed to walk and talk about all things life when our mouths weren't full of food. 

Lisa noticed all the little dogs in the city like they were old friends, so sweet!

Breakfast at the Grey Dog

This is the first time that I took no pictures of the city during a visit which is a testament to the quality of the conversations and also my inability to multitask.

Me looking like Ronnie James Dio (hashtag covid hair loss)  in the humidity but all smiles and good times had by all.