Yesterday I met up with Antonio, a nice Brazilian forestry engineer I sat next to on my TO-NYC flight, and we walked through Central Park. It was an unbelievably summery day, especially given today's blustery weather, and I eventually stripped off all my layers (jacket, fleece poncho, sweater, long sleaved t-shirt) and ended up in my tank top. We even got to catch some of the famed gates that everyone's been talking about; I'm not sure I get all the hype, but at least I can say I got to go through them before they were taken down and recycled into the likes of pipes and carpet fluff (the "true story" according to the installment employee who overheard me quip to Antonio that maybe they could be used as curtains). Then we went to his Mom's place, where I got to do some stuff I needed to on Word and saw a first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (Antonio's step-dad is an English professor at Colombia).

[Aside: That book seems to be following me around since I first made reference to it as a vanity press book in the "Writing For Publications" module for the Foreign Affairs Canada contract - first on Holly's book shelf, and then there. Perhaps the world is trying to tell me something... Like maybe I should read it?]

After she got off work, Holly and I got some groceries, stuffed some salady pitas, and ran off to Trash, a bar in Brooklyn where her co-worker Eugene was doing a comedy performance with his troup. There was an open bar during the show, and after losing a couple games of post-show pool I somehow got into a lengthy conversation with a Republican comic of parents in the ministry from Oklahoma (?) at the bar, who was apparently on David Letterman last year and kept plying me with more alcohol and assuring me that he wasn't hitting on me (even though he most definitely was). Needless to say I ended up drinking more than intended. The trip home was a challenge, and I'm ever grateful to Holly for taking such good care of me...

Today, slow start notwithstanding, I think I may head down to NYU to meet up with Moriah, a friend of Tiffany's who specialises in microenterprise stuff. Yay networking!