Back from New York

View from the Sheraton, New York, NY Oct 2011, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

This last was a much more whirlwind-work focused trip to New York. I'm officially unhappy with traveling and working on weekends.

On the bright side, thanks to the magic of Facebook, I discovered that cousin Kamala was in New York that first weekend, too. After muscling my way up Fifth Avenue through the Hispanic Day throngs to get there, we had a spontaneous rendezvous in Central Park on Sunday afternoon. What a treat that was, to sit and chat and have a beer in the Indian summer warmth, watching the holiday weekend activity.

Sunday evening I met up with my usual New York date Cathleen. She arranged for Don to join us, someone else from our NYU days who I hadn't seen in ages. He's taken to bicycling and is coming off of a three-year long divorce. He was more intense than I'd remembered him and conversation turned to politics more than the personal. That was a refreshing change of pace, and really got me out of my head.

I did get out a bit during the week, slipping away from conference duties to do some venue research for our conference in February. That was a good change of pace too, and got me outside and walking.

As always, there were food adventures. The Sunday night squash ravioli was a highlight of my trip. I mashed thread-like frites into my gob while passing through the Madison Square food tents on Wednesday afternoon, and wished I'd had enough energy to go back for a real meal. M and I had a favorite Chinese restaurant near the apartment when we live in New York, and were disappointed to find it closed on visits back to the 'hood. I think I discovered where it relocated to this trip, and while I enjoyed having that takeout experience of yore, waiting smashed up against the counter watching the cooks crank out dish after sizzling dish, I was disappointed with my meal. The cold sesame noodles didn't taste right and the broccoli with garlic sauce was sour-ish. Thursday morning, knowing I was facing a long day filled with bad airport food, I nipped out to the corner independent Halal food truck and scarfed down some of the best rice and falafel (with just a little white and hot sauce) I've had in a very long time. The balls were fresh fried--I think it was earlier than most people normally consume it. It made me remember that I haven't had good falafel since I've been back to Califonia.

This month marks a year that dear Roxy dog has been with us. It's still competitive between the canines and the quantity of shed dog hair is surprising, but I do love her so.