Oh, of course. NoiseDesign's post is what made me think it was a possibility, which, in a gorgoeus coincidence, happened just before I shut the computer down for sleep IIRC. Tim's post made it a sure thing. It made it affordable.

Just wanted to say it was wonderful hanging out with the Buffistas on Sunday (even if the other table did hog the Nilly).

I do lurk now and then, though with work and 5 (yes, count em, 5) cats, actually writing anything generally takes up more energy than I have.

Friday in New York

I woke up early Saturday morning and finally got a hold of Jessica. I was staying with her that night, and I wanted to drop my stuff off at her place before playing in the city. She lived at the other end of Brooklyn, and since there was no direct train, I would have to triangulate, going into Manhattan and then back out, which would take a while. Hence my wanting to be on top of things.

Kate called, and we confirmed our plans to meet at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square at noon. It was nearly eleven, so I was pretty sure I would be late. Alanna walked me to the station, where I bought a DayPass, giving me unlimited rides that day.

Jessica's instructions were flawless; she really did live right by the stop. I rang the buzzer, and She of the Blue Hair let me in. Unfortunately, she was wearing a hairkerchief, so I could not see the blue in all its glory. In the apartment, I met Ethan and drank water. I could not dilly dally very long, as I was already late. Jessica helpfully outlined the quickest way to Times Square.

On the way, there was a point where the train hit daylight and gave me cell phone signal, so I used the small window to call Trudes and see what her plans were. She was on train duty: billytea and Bec were coming in at 1:50, and Kristin was coming in at 4:50 or so. The night plans were still undecided, as both Jessica and msbelle had offered their abodes.

At one stop, the train driver made an announcement of which I only caught the word "convention," and then he mentioned "the uptown D," and then he waited for the uptown D to come in across the divide. A man to my left talked of taking the D, it would "zip [them] right there." Quickly, I checked the subway map to figure out what the hell was going on, and I discovered the D was the express, and it did stop near Times Square.

I grabbed my backpack and ran across to the train. The doors were closing. I literally scraped through, the doors pressing against my shoulders. I felt so damn cool.

Times Square is really as ridiculously gaudy as you think it is. Lots of flashy lights and gigantic billboards, and tons of people, a man dressed up as Spider-Man, and someone every two feet yelling that Jesus was the way, JESUS! saves, everything will be solved by Jesus!

I didn't realize the Times Square area was so big; I couldn't easily see the Virgin Megastore. I kept walking along Broadway, as Jessica thought that's the street it was on. Just as I was about to call Kate, I saw it up ahead.

She had told me to look for Jesse and her on the floor below, so I looked around and found them before they saw me. I nonchalantly walked up to them and began looking at the CDs. "Well, fancy seeing you here!" I said.

We scoured the Clearance racks, which had the Gary Jules CD as an import for the ridiculously low price of eight bucks. I was wary since the only song I knew of his was a cover. Kate had found a Senegalese CD. Jesse enjoyed the existence of a compilation of songs for gay bike riders. I managed not to buy anything.

It was now close to two, and I was hungry, not having eaten anything all day. Jesse left us after recommending that we try to find food somewhere other than Times Square. Looking at a map, I had found that the Strand (Kate's desired destination) and the Staten Island ferry (mine, on Nilly's recommendation) were conveniently linear. I suggested we go down to Union Square and walk down towards the Strand, looking for a place to eat.

I saw a giant Jennifer Garner, though, so I had to go take a picture for Melanie, a big Jennifer Garner fan. Conveniently enough, again, the station was right there. Off we went to Union Square.

The Farmer's Market was in full force. We looked for a good place to eat. Any place with the word "Grill" in it would be too expensive. A recently opened sandwich place looked all right, but I could tell Kate didn't think it was New Yorky enough. She said she'd heard about a really good Mexican restaurant in the area. As we walked, we saw a little place called The Enchilada off University and 12th (note: I thought we were on Broadway).

We checked it out, and the prices were right up our alley, and behind the counter were authentic Mexicans presumably preparing authentic Mexican food, so it was a go. I got a burrito and enchilada and a Coke, since I hadn't had one in a long time (the bad fountain Coke I had at the airport didn't count). The food was very good. Kate watched me put too much habanero on my food and not die due to my Indian-born taste buds of steel.

So I don't remember when exactly Kate and I had our Deep Meaningful Conversations. I now remember our talk over ice cream was about India, and where I was from. I said Gujarat; she heard Madras. In any case, she told me about her adventures in Africa, how she'd spent half a year there and fallen in love with the place. She wanted to go back.

I had passed the Strand last night walking down Broadway, and now I couldn't find Broadway. I had no idea where University Place was in relation to anything, besides being close to NYU. I promptly got us a bit lost, making us walk too much, but in the process we saw the building where Emma Lazarus, who had written the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, lived.

We found the Strand on Broadway and 12th. The Strand, the largest used bookstore in the world. Eight miles of books, they said. There were so many, and the shelves were so high you needed ladders to see the books on the top. And there were all kinds. And they were all for sale. Thank goodness I wasn't in a book-buying mood.

While I was downstairs, Jessica called me, wanting to know if anything had been decided for tonight. I relayed to her Jesse's brilliant plan (Jesse was all about the brilliant plans this weekend) to have people hang at Jessica's early in the evening, and then go to msbelle's afterward to hang with Nilly post-Sabbath. I made up an approximate arrival time of seven. Planning being done, we conversed about used books and the principle of books becoming either cheaper or more expensive as they become older. Apparently there's a whole market for old FORTRAN manuals.

There was no public restroom, so I ran five blocks downtown to the Barnes and Noble. On the way, I passed the woman I'd sat next to on the train. Seriously. There she was again. It was in the same area of the city, so some of the weirdness was tempered, but this was fucking New York! That's not supposed to happen.

The Strand was so big, I had to call Kate to find her, although she wasn't answering her phone, so luckily I ran into her myself. I had spied a used record store across the street she might be interested in. She fingered a copy of The Namesake but rationalized that if she bought a book, she couldn't buy any CDs.

On the way to Secondhand Records, Trudes gave me the horrific update on the train folk. Billytea had only just arrived (over three hours late), and Kristin wasn't coming till 7:40. Bloody trains! And poor Trudes had been sitting in Penn Station for hours. She was still living in the nineties, without a cell phone. I told her the plans for the night.

Secondhand Records netted me Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing (which many had recommended over the years, and was just calling to me with its seven-dollar price tag), Drain STH's Horror Wrestling (which I didn't even know existed, for five dollars), Collective Soul's eponymous (with all the classics like "The World I Know" and "Gel," for five bucks), and Moist's Silver (for Lindsay, who loved Moist but had no CDs, free with purchase of the previous two). Kate looked but didn't get anything.

Because Tower Records was so cool, I had to let Kate see the crazy deals. The thing about Virgin and Tower is their regular prices are insane, but their deals rule. She flitted up to the world music section for a while, and I waited, not wanting to look at anything since I'd spent enough time looking last night and hadn't bought anything but the Rachael Sage. I'd already bought CDs today! I couldn't buy more. Kate didn't end up getting anything there either. I felt like taking her back to the Strand so she could buy her book, since her rationalization had been rendered null, but we were running fairly late as it was.

Let's pretend it was about this time where I discovered she was only a year or two older than I was. My mental perception of her age had been pumped up by all her talk of travels to Africa and India.

The map said to take a yellow train downtown to the ferry, so we hopped on the N. After a while, we crossed a bridge, which poked something in my head. It was only when we stopped at Fulton, a street I knew was in Brooklyn, that my FUCK! Meter went off. I ran to the map and saw that while the W goes to the ferry, the N breaks off and goes to Brooklyn. Go me! I fucking rule.

We got off at the next stop, and I checked a map. It looked like taking a 4 or 5 would take us right where we needed to be. We went upstairs and downstairs and however many other stairs it took to get to our transfer. Some of these stations are horrendous.

When we got there, I took another look at the map to make sure we were on the right side of the tracks. Returning to Kate, I found her talking to someone. His name was Sylvan. She had run into one of her classmates during her semester in Africa. Whom she hadn't seen in almost two years. All because I was a moron. This was fucking weird.

He joined us on the 5 as they caught up on the lives of their other friends. It was fun explaining to him how we knew each other. "From the Internet." And we'd only just met last night. A messageboard. About Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He clearly was not experienced in the ways of meeting people online. I'd done it numerous times, so it was nothing to me, but he was all, "Ooookay." He did note that it seemed Buffy was a very strong bond for people, stronger than most other common interests.

Let's pretend it was around here, even though it was most likely earlier and maybe later, that Kate and I talked about music. She had picked up a lot of her music from her travels (hence the predilection for world music). But she'd also had a folk phase back in the day, and she knew Rose Polenzani! Well, not knew knew, but she'd actually been to her shows. She did, however, know know the Nields, as she'd worked for them after having gone to see pretty much every show she could. I tried to trace the evolution of my music tastes, from pop to rock to folk and everything in between.

We got off at the ferry stop, but we had no idea how to get to the ferry. There had to be signs, right? It was the ferry! And, in fact, there were. Also a helpful man who pointed us in the right direction. There were gobs of people waiting to get on the ferry. It was no longer sunny; it was grey. I told Kate my brilliant plan was to see the sunset from the ferry.

Seeing New York from the ferry, I could see why Nilly loved it so. Because suddenly, you see it all. You see all the buildings and bridges, made to bend in the wind. To withstand the world, that's what it takes. And man had done this, all that steel and stone, formed into these gargantuan structures that make up a city. It's really quite wondrous if you think about it. And look! There was the Statue of Liberty! Standing in the water, standing guard over the city, the country.

I heard the T-Mobile jingle. I had messages. Kristin! I'll let Kristin herself tell the story:

hi sunil! i am finally en route to penn station after a hell of a day. trains all screwed up and cell phone broke so had to buy a new one last minute, w

hich made me miss said train. Now on different train and trying to figure out new phone. ack! I get into penn @ 740 and [trudes] is meeting me. then to jes

sicas? call if you want [number] Cant wait to meet you!

I later learned that "cell phone broke" meant her antenna just fell off. Right off. On the way to the station. Fun times for Kristin!

I wanted to take a "Kiki Takes Manhattan" picture, somehow skewing the perspective so it looked as if my teddy bear were causing mass destruction. I posed Kiki to eat the Statue of Liberty on our way back, but I don't think it'll come out, since the light was so low. But because the light was so low, the city was all lit up and pretty.

Jessica had given us crazy new directions on how to get to her place from the ferry, and I didn't fully understand them since the reception wasn't great out on the water, but it all made sense eventually. As we waited for the F, I called the apartment, and Ethan ordered the pizzas.

The F finally came, and we made it to Jessica's, where a fun time was to be had by all.

So DCistas, it took me until today to find the address for the DCistas yahoogroup and mail it to Beej so she could email it and see if she could get herself on it. Though I set it up, I handed off ownership to Lyra Jane and meara. Clearly, from the posts in the past few day, she wanted to help with organizing and get to meet Nilly; the first a generous thing to offer and the second completely understandable! Now I see that she has absented herself. I am hoping that someone from DC got in touch with her and/or added her to the list and that she is there dining with you tonight.

Wanna know a nifty spousal relations thing I learned after last Monday's event, Matt?

Sure!

I read it as, "well, she was kind weirded out by most of the crowd, but Matt, she liked you."

Oh, no no. I meant the plural "you". She's even lurked here once or twice since I've met her but, as I said in the FAQ, she wants this to be my "private" place.

Well darn. There goes my sense of superiority and unrivalled coolness!

As to how people relate to Buffistas en masse ... at the DC F2F we had people poking their heads in and asking wistfully if they could join. We were having fun ... the church groups? NSM.

If he'd asked, I'd have been happy to escort in the hot Ron Livingston-looking church group guy that I scoped out in the Union Station bookstore before seeing him with his wife and toddler at the hotel.

I have met Nilly!

We had dinner Tuesday night - spent close to two hours laughing, talking, taking many many pictures. And it wasn't until after that I realized the perfect Nillytude of the evening - there were SEVENTEEN of us at the table!

How eager were people to meet Nilly last night?

The reservations were for 7:30. Hubs and I got there about 7:35. And we were just about the last to show up.

Hubs says the pictures turned out well, and he'll get them up tonight or tomorrow night.

Well darn. There goes my sense of superiority and unrivalled coolness!

Come on Matt, everyone agrees that you have the best voice!