of food and secret gardens

After a very bad six hour bus ride, I connected with Adam, Jon, Amanda, Jason and Neil (friends & New Orleans refugees) for a big dinner at Nha Trang on Centre Street. I was ordered to order, in the native tongue.

Saturday morning I met Kaly and David at Le Pain Quotidienne where the brioche is delish... OK, so it makes me think of those square cafeteria buns we got in our cold lunches in elementary school, but David agreed that there is something simply ephemeral about those buns. It's true.

Saturday, Nick was a great sport and wandered all over downtown Manhattan with me. Very cool walk, very good company, and very yummy snacks. Iced coffee on Houston. In search of secret gardens and park benches. Keith Haring swimming pool mural and fun rec center. New buildings. Tea and cupcakes at Podunk. Street art. Souvenir chalk (from Delavega).

After three failed restaurant choices for dinner, Peter, Kerstin, Kaly and I ended up at Blue Ribbon Bakery, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Since people were being nice to me all weekend, Eric treated our table to dessert. And I hadn't stepped into that place since I moved 18 months ago!

The next morning, Kurt slept in. This seemingly insignificant event threw me off course for the entire day, but in a good way. After a quick good morning to Les, Kurt, Michael and David, goodbye kisses around, I popped into Fairway Cafe for a croissant and coffee. I trekked over to meet Nick in Central Park and met a string of other nice people, James, Molly, Amy, Jane, Steve, Simon, Regina, Eloise and Cary. Sitting out on the blankets in the park is such a treat, and I gave up my intentions to visit the Cooper-Hewitt.

Off running again to meet Les, Kurt, Michael and David to do some shopping for the boys in Chelsea, then off running some more to meet Oren for dinner. A block after leaving them, I ran into Bruce, a buddy from the AIDS Rides, out walking his dog Aggie. They walked me to Union Square to meet Oren who walked me to meet Adam, Amanda, Dan and Rachel in the LES at a Japanese restaurant. I know. It doesn't really make sense. Oren and I left to go to the Dumpling Man for um...dumplings, then back to the west village (where he had a pretty large ice cream cone at Mary's Dairy on 4th).

Monday, Robert conned me into going to Brooklyn Heights. I wanted coffee. He obliged. I wanted pizza. I didn't get it. The nice streak was over. I was on a bus back to D.C.