Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
- Pancho Villa, last words

Since I didn’t sleep at all going into our final day of the Summit, it was a good thing it was a relatively slow morning. In fact, my only major duty was the final plenary with Brian Graden, president of entertainment for MTV Networks and president of Logo.

After taking my shower at 7am, I cracked open the OJ and champagne and handed a glass to Abercrombie as he woke up. If we didn’t get our mimosas the night before, we were going to drink them this morning, since we’d both be leaving by the end of the day.

Abercrombie was having difficulty figuring out how he was going to get back to the airport (he flew into Dulles instead of National - a $65 cab ride and he was running out of money) but we got it worked out as we packed up. We needed to check out of the hotel at noon even though our flights didn’t leave until later in the evening.

There was some morning stress getting to the final plenary… requests for a last minute PowerPoint slide and a new statement reiterating our support of a trans-inclusive ENDA, but after my conversation with my supervisor plus the lack of sleep, nothing was going to get to me anymore. Basically, I stopped caring about the little dramas and became very Zen about the whole thing.

Sadly, I think I missed the punch of Brian Graden’s speech. I was half-way alseep for much of it and when I wasn’t trying to nod off, I was running small errands. The audience seemed to love it, though. Brian gave a “behind-the-scenes” account of his career (from South Park to launching Logo) with numerous clips and clever jokes. I actually look forward to seeing in on our archival video to hear what I missed.

At the end of the plenary, we did the “passing of the wand” to next year’s co-chairs for the Summit in Austin, followed by a terrible skit to promote Austin. I’d seen a draft of this skit about a week earlier and I’d begged them to cut, cut, cut it down… but they didn’t listen to me and insisted that an audience who had already been sitting still for almost an hour and a half wouldn’t mind hearing about Austin’s bats. ::groan::

The plenary ended with all the staff, board, and co-chairs coming up on stage with the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington DC to sing an inspirational song none of us knew. It was embarrassing, but we did it last year and now it’s a “ritual.”

After the plenary, we just had a few loose ends to deal with. Once again, we found ourselves rushing to pack up the staff office. Not because our time in the room was up (like last year), but because anything we wanted shipped back to San Francisco had to be ready to go by 5pm.

There was a volunteer appreciation party, which I hung around for about an hour, before getting ready to leave. Since I had a car picking me up to take me to the airport, I found I had time for a last drink with some of the staff in the hotel bar (wow, I did a lot of drinking this year).

I shared the car to the airport with one of our contracted event planners and we had a great conversation about O&E, its future, and the expected staff turnover in the coming months. She’s in a multi-year contract with the organization, so I almost feel bad for her having to work with newbies next year.

The trip home was pretty uneventful. I slept almost the entire flight from DC to Dallas (since I hadn’t slept the night before). Did I mention that this was also Jennifer’s birthday? Apparently I’d left a drunken message on her phone the night before, but I kept trying to touch bases with her to make sure I could meet up when I got into town for the birthday bash.

There was a really awesome thunderstorm going on as we flew out of Dallas, but I soon fell asleep again. My plane landed a few minutes before midnight in San Francisco. Abercrombie’s flight was supposed to be landing about the same time and we’d talked about being BART buddies back into the city. I realized, however, that after waiting for luggage, we’d missed the last train and knowing he didn’t have cab money, I raced over to his terminal to find him. My phone was going dead, but I kept trying to reach him. Finally, at 12:45, I left him a message saying I’d waited long enough and was leaving to get to my friend’s birthday. Abercrombie’s flight had a layover in New York and I was guessing he’d missed his connecting flight (on accident or on purpose I didn’t know) since his boyfriend lives in the Big Apple. I finally did hear from him after 4 in the morning - I guessed right, he’d decided to stay overnight in NYC and catch a morning flight in.

Anyway, I got back to my apartment right around 1 pm, dropped off my shit and threw on some decent club clothes, then caught another cab to DNA lounge. Jennifer’s birthday celebration was still going on (it was nice of all those kids from the Love Parade to come out for her birthday) and our friends Zazoo and Santori were back in town. This time they brought Jojo and Jeanne (who I hadn’t met before). I showed up in time for one drink (dammit, I needed more alcohol) but stuck around for a few hours of after-hours party time.

Eventually, the night caught up with me and I excused myself to get some beauty sleep. After all, the Summit was over and I was home in time to see the Folsom Street Fair!

Posted: September 29th, 2007 under DC, work.
Comments: none

“Tact is just not saying true stuff. I’ll pass.”
- Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Friday morning started off with our third plenary, featuring some unknown singer with a bit of pitch problems as entertainment and former NBA player John Amaechi as the speaker. Although I did get to speak with him briefly, I spent most of the time at the front of the ballroom trying to figure out how to move around him gracefully (see photo). He’s a big, tall man. So my type. I wanted to flirt, but restrained myself. Y’all know I got a thing for the handsome guys with extra melatonin in their skin.

His speech was rather impressive and was probably my favorite keynote of the whole Summit. Recognizing that most of the people in the room already worked for companies that embraced diversity (”they’ve already figured out that happy cows make better cheese,” in his words), Amaechi focused more on pulling from his psychology background to remind people of the impact they have and the purpose of having a clear vision. He hardly offered anything new in terms of movement direction (last year, this slot was filled by the amazing Richard Florida, who left the crowd buzzing), he did manage to inspire and energize.

After the plenary, the rest of the day was more or less a runaway train headed toward the Gala Awards Dinner, where we present the annual Out & Equal Workplace Awards. The only major thing between the breakfast plenary and the gala for me was stopping by the Executive Reception to snap some photos. Otherwise, my day mostly consisted of tying up odds and ends related to the gala and watching for developments in ENDA. The Hate Crimes bill passed, so that was some good news to celebrate.

While Abercrombie and I were getting dressed for the evening’s formal events, room service showed up. I guess my ED felt that I’d been going above and beyond enough that I deserved a bottle of champagne, some chocolate covered strawberries and a hand-written thank you note. Of course, I hardly had time to stop and enjoy it at that moment, but Abercrombie suggested we pick up orange juice and have mimosas later… a plan that sounded alright by me.

What to say about the Gala? It was hellish. My job was to sit in the tech area and call cues on our awards show PowerPoint (And the nominees are [animation 1 go] Joe Blow from Company X, [animation 2 go] Susie Que from Company Y,… etc.). Because of that I didn’t get to eat with the rest of the staff, but I was really the only person who knew the show well enough to do it.

Unfortunately, that meant that I was also the only guy sitting in the tech area without a headset when the sound didn’t work in part of the ballroom, so I was target number 1 for angry, drunk professionals who couldn’t hear the show. When we took a break for dinner service, the crew did their best to fix the problem, but some people were still upset.

As soon as my responsibilities were over, I slipped away to the nearest bar and slammed 3 Captain & Diets in a row. Yeah, from then on I was doing a decent impression of sober, but not really. Which explains why I chose that moment to tell my immediate supervisor (who was super-busy with the silent auction) that I intended to find a new job within the month. Not my most tactful moment in history, but it was going to come out sooner or later, I’d already talked with our HR director about my frustrations and had told several coworkers that I was putting resumes on the market.

Anyway, so I obviously didn’t get any pictures of the gala show myself (we had our professional photographer on hand to take care of it), but here’s a shot of the whole happy family after the Gala…

With the evening winding down, I dashed over to the corner store for OJ and cigarettes, then got to work on the Daily Bulletin.

I found Abercrombie in the hotel bar, more than a little drunk already, and talking with some folks from one of our regional affiliate. They took this picture of us in our gala attire. Of all the pictures I’ve been in lately, this is my favorite shot. Why can’t all my photos turn out this nice?

Anyway, I headed back up to the room to put the last few touches on the Daily Bulletin. Abercrombie came in just as I was uploading it and I told him I was going to smoke a cigarette then we’d finish the night with the mimosas. Really, I just needed to talk with someone about my slip of the brain in conversation with my supervisor, but he fell asleep before I got back up to the room.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. It was 3pm when I finally turned off the lights, around 5:30 I realized I wasn’t going to sleep so I went for a walk around the neighborhood.

Posted: September 28th, 2007 under DC, work.
Comments: none

“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”
- William Shakespeare, from The Merchant of Venice (V, i, 83-85)

Thursday morning started way too early for someone who’d been up late the night before. Our opening plenary, with Chrissy Gephardt, was the first event where we had the whole ballroom open, and I arrived about an hour before we opened the doors.

After rushing the night before to put together our organization’s statement regarding ENDA, our ED showed up a few minutes before opening the doors and told me it was “too long” and a “downer” to start our conference with. This was the first of many clues that I’ve outgrown this organization. Where I see a chance for us to take a firm stance (which we did) and make a bold statment (which we did), she felt the whole mess interfered with her Pollyanna view of LGBT equality activism.

So, while she gave her happy “isn’t it great we’re all here” speech, I passed around my draft of the ENDA statement to our board–who held a emergency board meeting and voted to read the statement in the afternooon plenary.

Anyway, the best part of the opening plenary was the entertainment. As west coast attendees coped with being awake at the equivalent of 5 am with coffee and cantaloupe, the door at the back of the ballroom suddenly opened and theMajestic Marching Knights of Ballou High School paraded into the room.

The crowd loved them–a local success story of a troubled school with an outstanding arts program–and I heard a lot of people commenting on the band throughout the rest of the conference.

Chrissy Gephardt’s speech wasn’t bad, but I felt like it could have been given by almost any professional LGBT activist. Frankly, I could have given that speech–except for the parts about having a father who ran for President. I suppose I’m a bit more exposed to the “you should vote” and “you should support ENDA and Hate Crimes” speeches than most people, and for some folks in our audience it might have been genuinely needed advice, but I felt it lacked depth or originality.

Between our opening plenary and our afternoon plenary, my time was spent in walk-through meetings, using photos from Kodak to create the walk=in slideshow for our next plenary, and trying to touch bases with other LGBT organizations in the founding moments of the United ENDA movement.

Our afternoon plenary involved a musical presentation by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (founder of Sweet Honey on the Rock) and her daughter Toshi Reagon (lesbian singer/songwriter). Although the plenary was more concert than keynote speech, it was deeply moving and I enjoyed it a lot.

Durng the Q&A, someone asked Dr. Reagon about the gay community’s use of black civil rights anthems. She gave one of the most thoughtful responses I’ve ever heard. She admits that when a white artist gets paid more than a black artist for the same song (usually sung better by the black person), it’s wrong and it’s racist… but that’s a racist system. As an artist, however, she puts her music out there and it means different things to different people. If the gay community finds meaning in her songs, she welcomes the opportunity for us to learn from one another. The money quote, “It may be appropriation, but that does not mean it is not also appropriate.”

I would have liked to go to any of our 7 networking receptions in the late evening, but I got tied up with creating yet another powerpoint slide show, more ENDA drama, and printing out what may have been the 5th version of the same document for our ED.

The evening ended with our Thursday Night Entertainment. The Dakshina dance troupe was interesting, but I felt as though they went on too long. The Capitol Steps were every bit as hilarious as I was told to expect. Their Larry Craig number (involving a guy in a stall singing “Knock three times for love”) got the biggest audience reactions of the night. The show closed out with BETTY (of The L Word fame), which didn’t thrill me. I’m afraid that I’ll always be more of an Indigo Girls and Lilith Fair kinda honorary lesbian–the rock/punk/screamer grrrl bands just don’t do much for me.

I took lots of pictures, but in an act of stupidity (or drunkeness) I connected my camera to the computer, got distracted, disconnected, then erased all the images off my camera. I blame Abercrombie for distracting me, so instead I’ll end this post with a picture of him I’ve stolen from one of his online profiles…

Posted: September 27th, 2007 under DC, queer rights, work.
Comments: none

“Here’s to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”
- Homer Simpson

Day 2 kicked off the start of all the fun at 8:00 a.m. as people started arriving for the Pre-Summit Seminars. A few short speeches and light breakfast (bagels and pastries) before everyone broke off for the seminars. The first “snafu” of the week came when one of our presenters got sick, forcing us to relocate participants from 1 of the 4 public seminars into the other 3. It didn’t affect me much, though.

Instead, I met up with my roomie for the weekend, who we’ll call Abercrombie. Abercrombie was one of our summer interns at the office and I volunteered to let him stay in my room so he could come to the Summit. He’s a really nice guy who I haven’t had much chance to get to know before now, and he really helped keep me sane during the craziness of the Summit.

He’s not bad on the eyes, either, although even if there was a remote chance he was interested in me–there isn’t–I couldn’t deal with the drama that accompanies his life right now. Instead, he raises those over-protective big brother-y feelings in me. I really hope we get a chance to become better friends in the future.

Abercrombie also talks in his sleep, which I discovered when he fell asleep while I worked on my laptop putting together a slideshow for our opening plenary, making notes on updates we needed to announce, and making changes to the script for our awards gala. One minute we were talking (mostly about his red-eye flight to DC) and the next he was asleep. A few minutes later, he started talking again. At first I thought he was talking to me–I had my back to him as I worked on the computer–but he wasn’t making any sense. Then he started flirting in his sleep. “Yeah, we totally have a connection” and “I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t called me” and stuff like that. Must have been some dream.

So that kept me amused for a little while, until I went down to take pictures of the Pre-Summit Lunch and do some networking.

After lunch, I started hearing the buzz about things going on with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We got word that the Hate Crime bill was about to be voted on in the Senate, but I also heard that Barney Frank was considering pulling gender identity out of ENDA. This was (at the time) all rumor and embargoed information, so all I could do was meet with our management team and prepare.

Things really started picking up steam as we headed into the evening with our Welcome Reception poolside. Official welcomes from our ED, the mayor’s LGBT liaison, and a short sponsor speech. It was my best and favorite opportunity to network. Last year, I didn’t really know anyone. I rolled my eyes at the old-timers in our office who talked about that moment when they run into all the old friends, but when I started bumping into people I met a year ago (Lori, Stephanie) and those I’ve spoken with on the phone (Deidre, Riley, Samir), it really was like reconnecting with some old friends.

After the Welcome Reception, as I finished up the first Daily Bulletin, I got a call from our contact at the HRC. The ENDA story had broke, it was in the Washington Blade that the House leadership was moving two bills out of committee–one with sexual orientation and another separate bill (virtually already dead) for gender identity. Within an hour or two, I’d written a position statement for our organization (support of inclusion only) and sketched out a strategy for the week. None of this is really in my job description, mind you, but I often get the opportunity to go above and beyond.

Anyway, after writing the position statement and getting the bulletin online, I headed downstairs to have one last smoke before bed, but I ran into a couple of my coworkers, Abercrombie, and a long-time supporter of Out & Equal who I’ve met on the phone in the hotel bar. We sat and bullshitted one another for a while before heading to bed.

Back in the room, Abercrombie was going to head on out to another room where someone had double beds instead of a roll-away, but we got distracted drinking the bottle of complimentary wine the hotel left for the staff of O&E. Abercrombie was obsessed over figuring out the right wardrobe for every occasion during the Summit and modelled pretty much everything in his suitcase. Then, as we got to know each other better, he surprised me with a hidden talent. It turns out he writes his own songs, and he sang a couple to me before we finally turned out the lights after 3am. Ah, alcohol. This year’s Summit was, in some ways, much more enjoyable for the fact of good friends and plenty of booze. Next year (if, by some remote chance I’m around next year) I should add sex to the mix.

Posted: September 26th, 2007 under DC, queer rights, work.
Comments: 1

First full day in Washington and it’s all about the bags.

I must confess that I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it have handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution, and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?
- The Importance of Being Ernest

I started my day by heading down to my favorite DC location, Cosi, for breakfast. Okay, it may not actually be my favorite location, just the one I’ve spent most time in. This was one of two trips outside my hotel for the entire week.

What queer fella doesn’t know how important it is to choose the right bag for any outfit? Well, too bad, bitches, because we’re giving you a one-size-hits-all boring canvas tote. I hated these bags and I helped stuff and store 2,000 of them today.

The sponsor goodies were entertaining. Everything from mints to orange sunglasses, mini commemorative sport shoes to pedometers. Although one sponsor thought it was a good idea to give away bottled water. I’m sure it was good idea if you forget the fact that we’re piling 2,000 stuffed bags on top of each other in the coat check room - causing many to rupture and leak all over the papers inside.

Last year it was vaccuum-sealed bags of rice cakes. Under pressure, those things popped open like cheap silicon breasts implanted by the guy who lives next to the crack house downtown.

Anywho, it was rather hard work. Although we had a team of volunteers, it was staff who did the heavy lifting. I mean that literally. The volunteers would stuff the bags and toss them into large laundry bins. When the bins were full (70-80 bags), staff members like myself would push them across the exhibition hall, through a meeting room, into the staff service area, up an elevator, out of the staff service area, and around two corners to the registration area, where we could then unload them just in time to get back downstairs before the next bin was ready to go. Ah, the glamorous life of a nonprofit whore… no job too filthy, no project beneath us, no task to repetative…

After finishing the bag stuffing (but not before trying, once again, to get everything done for media that our ED wanted done), we had a staff dinner around the corner from the hotel. This was the second of my two trips outside the hotel for the week.

That was pretty much it for the day. I headed back to my room and got online to check email, prep our daily bulletins and figure out a few last projects.

Posted: September 25th, 2007 under DC, work.
Comments: none

I arrived in DC safe and sound. Short layover on St. Louis, which, thank Jebus, has a smoking lounge. My last several cross country trips have stopped over in Chicago, Orange County, and Vegas–none of which allow smoking anymore unless you go all the way outside, come back in, get another security screening, etc. For a two hour layover, it’s really difficult to call whether or not it’s worth it. But having the indoor smokers fishbowl cage makes a day-long flying trip much, much easier.

I arrived in time to watch the season premier of Heroes, which was all kinds of “Eh…” After loving this show a whole lot last year, I find that I’m not so much with the gushing praise this time around. I get why they saved the fate of Peter to the end reveal, but why no Nikki? No DL? And another person of color dead within the first episode?

Anyway, today was relatively cake. Tomorrow the hard work begins.

Posted: September 24th, 2007 under DC, television.
Comments: none

My buddy Daniel introduced me to this series a while ago. I still snicker when I think about it.

Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

I just finished reading God is Not Great by Chistopher Hitchens. I’ve read enough books on atheist thinking that the basic ideas aren’t as exciting any more. The first great book on atheism I read was Dawkin’s The God Delusion, followed by Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation. While all three make the same basic points - that religion is poisoning our world and culture - they have very different techniques. Dawkins drew upon science and scientific arguments to make his case, illustrating the strength of mathematical and scientific and common-sense of the atheist perspective. Harris focused specifically on the American cultural and social experience, not afraid to take a direct and combative tone with the theists of the United States.

Hitchens, no less combative, takes a much more global perspective on religious evils. While all three writers pointed to historical atrocities, Hitchens does the best job of putting them into perspective in a modern context. His years as a journalist, travelling the world, have given him a great wealth of personal experience and stories to draw from, as well as more hands-on understanding of various world religions (particularly those from the Middle East and western Asia) than most people. He also offers some unique arguments by examinging both the birth of some modern religions (his chapter on the beginning of Mormonism is the most honest and unapologetic account I’ve ever read), as well as the decline or death of others.

I did find myself uncomfortable with Hitchens’s scornful comments on multiculturalism. Yes, stupid and unthinking multiculturalism (here, he especially takes exception with the elevation of a minor Jewish holiday into a major one so that Jewish kids don’t feel left out in December) is not just pointless but is counterproductive to the evolution of society. On the other hand, thoughtful multiculturalism… the kind that involves critical thought, genuine inquiry into each other’s beliefs, and honest willingness to better understand… isn’t just a good thing, but a necessity if hope to survive in an ever-changing world. The biggest barrier to that isn’t a willingness by most people to respect one another, but a faulty training in critical thinking. Someone skilled at making honest inquiry with logical analysis of the results are not threatened by new ideas.

Has anyone else seen the Lunestra commercial with the glowing butterfly hovering over people while they sleep, but flying away when the sun comes up and the people wake? I was watching it a couple minutes ago and trying to figure out why it bothered me. Then it hit me, creepy butterfly things and people sleeping = China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station and some of the creepiest monsters I’ve ever read about. Well, I sure won’t be buying a sleep aid that reminds me evil predator psychic moths.

I leave for DC early tomorrow morning. It seems unlikely I’ll have a lot of time to blog during the Out & Equal Workplace Summit, but I’ll try and post pictures to my Flickr account when I can.

Posted: September 23rd, 2007 under DC, Funny, books.
Comments: none

Okay, so it’s time I did a rundown on my vacation, with tons of picspam, of course. I’ll break it into two parts for my own sanity if nothing else.

The flight from San Francisco to Washington DC (via Chicago) was okay, but a little rough. We encountered a lot of turbulence over the plains states, but it wasn’t too bad. I spent most of the flight doing crossword puzzles. Because we were trying to save money on this trip, I spent the first night on a rollaway in Dave’s room, which was uncomfortable but okay. After we had dinner at Cosi, a cute diner halfway between our hotel and DuPont Circle, I caught up on the last several episodes of Battlestar Gallactica on my iPod.

The first thing I noticed about my new room (which I shared with my coworked Zander) was the view. We had an amazing view of the city.

Wednesday morning, we met with a possible contractor to produce our new identifty video and PSA. It was a good meeting, and after it was done we had several hours of free time before the rest of the staff checked in, so I went out sightseeing. Beautiful weather. First stop, DuPont Circle…

The entrance to the DuPont Circle Metro Station gave me vertigo every time I rode it, so I kept trying to get pictures, but most of them turned out blurry…

I made my way down to the Capitol, since I didn’t quite make it there on my last trip to DC.

After that, I wandered around the general area and saw the Canadian Embassy. As an honorary Canuck (Jennifer said last week that I sound more Canadian than she does), I felt obliged to snap some pictures…

I wanted to explore the National Art Gallery, but it was after 5 by the time I got there and they were closed for the day.

The rest of the staff arrived at 8ish, so we got together for dinner…

After dinner, a few of us went to J.R.’s for drinks before calling it a night.

Thursday morning, we had a staff brunch…

After that, we took a tour of the hotel to see the different areas we’d be using for our Summit in September. It turns out that the “First Lady Luncheon” in the main ballroom was ending just as we were taking the tour, but we missed an encounter with Laura Bush. Zander, however, got sick to his stomache from the negative energy of all those Republicna women in hats.

Thursday Night was the Kickoff Reception (the purpose of the trip), featuring a performance by the DC Cowboys and comments from openly gay DC Councilmembers David Catania and Jim Graham. It was full of little dramas (like certain members of our staff thinking the Cowboys were to racy, and Councilmember Graham talking about his quest to get the adult bookstore reopened before our Summit), but overall it was fun. I also got a chance to talk with Kevin, leader of the DC Cowboys, whom I met (and interviewed) several years ago when the Cowboys came to Vegas for the Bighorn Rodeo.

On Friday, we had an all day (read ALL DAY) staff and board strategic planning meeting. I wasn’t thrilled with the meeting, but I guess it was okay. I had a very different feeling after this stategic planning session than during our last retreat in October ‘06, but I blame it on the stark encounter of differing values and objectives between the staff and board, really having those become obvious. Doesn’t matter, though, we all have good intentions, just different ideas about how things should be run.

After the meeting, we had one of those unbelievably long dinners with the staff and board (you know when you’re in a party of 25, it’s going to take almost two hours to get your entree). The dinner got a bit silly as we worked our way through more bottles of wine, and got a bit uncomfortable when an impromptu gave of “I never” broke out (this was after we started singing songs from Mary Poppins, yes, we were that group)…

On Saturday, I rode the train to New York City. It was in Union Station, getting ready for the trip, that I think I was first impressed by the weight of history in the area. It suddenly struck me how many people–including presidents and patriots, heroes and Republicans–have passed through that station. I’d splurged a bit on the Train ticket and upgraded to business class. I was glad I did. It was so comfortable and a lovely day to watch the sights. Why has no one ever said to me, “Jere, you simply have to ride along the East Coast by train some day!”? Also, having lived my life in West Coast states, it was a little strange to learn that nearly every time we stopped, we were in a different state. Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York. I’m used to reality where you can maybe cross two state lines in three hours (and that’s if you pass a “corner” area).

Because the train went underground between Newark and Manhattan, and I was sitting on the wrong side of the train during our approach, my first actual glimpse of New York City came as I dashed out of Penn Station to have a much needed cigarette. I came aboveground and saw Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building in the first moments.

To be continued…

Posted: May 15th, 2007 under DC, NYC, livejournal.
Comments: none

I am home. Hard to believe that this morning I was on the Empire State Building, strolling through Central Park, and watching my first actual Broadway show. I’ll write more, but right now it’s midnight on the left coast, and I woke up at 7:30 on the right coast, and couldn’t sleep on the plane. I also need to go buy new contact solution (more on that story later) and eat something before falling asleep.

Thanks to Rob and Amy for making me feel welcome in Manhattan. I’m such a moron, though, dragging my camera around all week, and completely forgetting to snap a group pic while we were hanging out.

Posted: May 14th, 2007 under DC, NYC, livejournal.
Comments: none

Gadzooks! Tomorrow is my 3rd Livejournal anniversary. How time flies when you’re having fun… and thinking up ways to use the word “gadzooks!”

Photos from DC - unedited, untitled and raw for the moment. I’ll (maybe) fix them when I’m back home.

I’ve got my NYC mix ready for the train ride. Yup, I’ll be listening to Old Blue Eyes croon that classic cliche song, “New York, New York.”

Posted: May 12th, 2007 under DC, NYC, livejournal.
Comments: none