NYC Nillyfest sounds like it was wonderful. I have my ticket to DC, whee! Well, technically, the internet has it. Still. Whee.

Emergency reading on the days when I need to ignore people.

Now that's some good planning, right there. Yes.

In re the Pulgas Water Temple - DC has a little temperance monument - at Pennsylvania and 7th? Similar to the Water Temple - it originally had a water fountain with drinkable water. It has a crane on top - quite attractive, but mostly ignored.

water temple

The one we went to was closed, too, but when you're with PUC staff giving an official tour? opens things up. It wasn't Pulgas we saw - it was south somewhere in the East Bay. Persimmon trees lined the road to it. Danged if I remember what/where it is.

WHEN will the day end?! (sorry for the natter)

Allyson looms tall in my mind. I can't imagine that I'm like 4-5" taller than her.

Herein lies the first installment of my adventures in New York. This installment has been edited to maximize Buffista content, as Friday was not Buffista-heavy. Saturday and Sunday, however, were almost exclusively Buffistacular, so they will be hella long. Just warning you.

Before I hit the story proper, I should mention that Friday was erstwhile Buffista OtherKate/Vandalisimo's birthday! And I met her, and we had pizza. She continues the trend of foaminess among us.

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In the Met, around 4, I made an illicit call to Jesse, the Buffista currently in possession of Nilly, who informed me that unfortunately, she already had to take Nilly to her place of stay for Sabbath. She let me talk to her on the phone, though. She sounded very pleasant, polite, and nice. And her English was flawless, with a small accent I presume I could call Israeli.

As we left the Met, Jesse called with a brilliant plan! We would take a train uptown to a station that had a connection to the E, the train they were about to board. They'd be on the first car.

Alanna (my friend and guide) and I headed towards the closest station and went uptown. Three or four E trains went by with no luck. "Nilly!" I called in some first cars. Finally, I saw them through the window as the train zipped by, and the two of them got out and waved, and I ran, waving both my arms in the air, yelling, "Nilly!" Cause her name is fun to say, yo.

We got in, and the train sped away. Jesse hadn't yet wrangled Nilly a first car before, so Nilly could now look out the front as the train curved through the tunnels. She thought it was way cool. But then again, it seemed Nilly thought everything was way cool. She gushed and gushed about the Staten Island ferry: "You must take it! It's gorgeous! You must, even if it costs money!" It's possible she was the most enthusiastic person I'd ever met.

Nilly and I had a spirited discussion on the difference between "understand" and "comprehend" in relation to the opening scene of "Objects in Space." She seemed to be arguing the opposite of what I was saying, and I thought I was saying what Joss was getting at. But it was so cool to be having this discussion, because it's so interesting when someone knows English so well, but doesn't understand the nuances behind some of our synonyms. It makes you question whether you even know how to use the language properly.

I had specifically worn a mathy shirt, which had on the back, "And God said..." followed by Maxwell's equations and then "...and there was light!" Apparently, Nilly had the pajamas.

Too soon, we were at Nilly's stop, and we parted ways. That is, we left Nilly to fend for herself and took a train back downtown. Jesse left us to clean her place for Kate P. "As dumb as that was," she said, "I'm glad we did it."

After dinner, Alanna tried to coordinate plans with her friends, who were going out drinking and dancing. I tried to coordinate plans with Trudy Booth and Kate P., who was coming into town that night. Both Trudy and Jesse were extremely tired, all Nillied out, but Kate had wanted to do something. I let Alanna go off with her friends, and I waited to hang out with Kate. Trudy suggested going to Peanut Butter and Co., an amusing little place I'd wanted to go to myself. She told me to pick her up a peanut butter cookie, because they were grand. When Alanna showed me where it was, a girl gave me a flyer for a stand-up comedy show that night, which looked fun.

As it turned out, though, Kate wasn't getting in till nearly eleven, which left me alone for about three hours. I walked around the East Village/Noho area a lot in that time. The Peanut Butter place closed at ten, so I got four peanut butter cookies (me, Kate, Alanna, Trudes). I also spent some time in Tower Records, where I was tempted by much but only ended up getting the new Rachael Sage CD (which I did not even know existed since it had come out three days ago, and was only eight dollars). In fact, I got a copy for Steph because how could she have it already? (As it turned out, she did in fact get it while I was gone, so I gave it to Melanie.)

At one point, Tom Scola called me and offered to hang out, but he didn't want to stay out too late, and his place was kind of far away from me, and I couldn't ditch Kate, so I thanked him for the offer but entertained myself at Tower (where a man said, "I like my earring!" (I had clipped my Met pin on my ear)) and Barnes and Noble (where I read Entertainment Weekly).

After a little confusion, I did meet up with Kate, who was wearing red pants and pigtails, just as she'd said. She kind of looked like Sandra Bernhardt, but pretty. My new plan was to find ice cream, and the first place was a Haagen-Dazs, which wasn't New Yorky enough, but it had to do. Because now, I was really tired.

Kate got butter pecan, and I finally settled on chocolate chocolate chip. We sat and talked about...I don't even remember. I was tired, and we had just met, and I couldn't be very entertaining. I gave her her peanut butter cookie.

Since Kate said she was really bad with subways, I tried to figure out how to get her back to Jesse's. I looked at the subway map for several seconds, trying to find us and seeing where places I'd been were in relation...and I literally turned my head to look at the map upside-down, and suddenly everything made sense. Uptown, downtown, east, west, it all came together. I sent Kate properly on her way, after making plans for Saturday.

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And it was one hell of a Saturday. But I am too tired to write about it tonight.

I have to confess, I think I actually "hosted" Kate all of ten hours, most of them sleeping, and all I gave her was a glass of water! But I'm glad she had fun.

I've been impressed this whole time with Nilly how many kosher restaurants there are around, and she confirmed that it's easier to find kosher food in New York than in Tel Aviv. Hee!

She is now on the train heading to DC.

t waves hanky at Nilly

I love reading people's posts about F2Fs. Especially when they are all about me!

She kind of looked like Sandra Bernhardt, but pretty.

Ha! That's one I've never gotten before.

I have to confess, I think I actually "hosted" Kate all of ten hours, most of them sleeping, and all I gave her was a glass of water! But I'm glad she had fun.

Here are several things that Jesse did that made her an excellent host:

1. She waited up for me on Friday night till I reached her place at 1am.
2. She took me to an awesome bagel place on Saturday morning, and we ate our breakfast together in the tiny park near her apartment (not to be confused with the two bigger parks also nearby).
3. She gave me the fan from her bedroom, and refrained from smoking inside while I was there.
4. Finally, I don't know how exactly, but she explained the New York subway system to me in a way that made perfect sense. Possibly there was divine intervention involved. (And major credit also goes to Polter-Cow for getting us all around the city on Saturday, and helping me get to Jesse's place on Friday night!)

Aw, shucks.

Seriously, I had a great time staying with you (and Homer!).