[posted well after the event, but to keep the journal whole - I’ll post a briefing]

Well after a week in NYC - with still no social network to speak of I figured on a Friday night I would venture out a bit further to explore what else I might get to eat and see if maybe their was a bar/restaurant that was just waiting for me to come and meet all these great people. Such was not the case but I did enter a restaurant that appears Italian but was run by Brazilians and I didn’t take much time to figure it out as I didn’t much care. To be fair I was walking aimlessly and there appeared to be some younger attractive women and it looked like a nice restaurant/bar so I figured I’d try my luck.

After ordering a glass of bourbon on the rocks and a really nice pasta dish I was entertained by the cougars being picked up by the staff at the restaurant, observing that these ‘younger attractive woman’ were really old trying to look younger and attractive - not entirely successfully. At this point I accepted that the remaining part of the evening would be spent watching and would bear little fruit. The glass was filled to the brim and free poured, to which I thought hmmm.. that will make me not sober and will either be quite a deal or quite expensive - it was in the middle at $12 (there likely was 3-4 oz. in the glass).

I got up early the next morning (with a bit of a headache) and headed down to the Film Festival to listen to the panel discussion which was very good. It was made up of 4 people:

1. Harry Evans - author of They Made America
2. Rob Legato - technical advisor on the Aviator
3. Sylvia Naser - author of A Beautiful Mind
4. Pierre C. Hoenberg - Professor of Physics and Applied Physics

Harry was a really entertaining chair, Syliva was okay but seemingly short sighted, Rob was insightful and understood pop culture needs, and Pierre was the perfect mad scientist.

I figured I would walk back to the Upper East Side as it would take me through several interesting neighborhoods (Tribeca, SOHO, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Mid-town - Theatre and Garmet Districts and then through Central Park to the apt.) and give me a chance to see more of the city. My estimate is that it would take me about 2 and 1/2 hours to get home.

My feet were aching from the shoes I had on that appear to be made for looking at and short trips not hour long foot commutes. So with blisters on my heels and balls of my feet I did some shopping on Broadway on the way home. I managed to pick up a comfy pair of shoes, a couple cd’s and day pack that would work well for getting to and from places as well as for climbing.

On the way home as I walked through Chelsea I remebered that there was a good climbing wall at the Chelsea Piers sports club, so I sauntered on over and took a tour. It was really impressive - 150,000 sq. feet of athletic activities, with the best indoor climbing wall I have seen. Being friendless and not a lot of leads on my ‘Dating for Friends’ tour I figured I would join, get back into climbing shape and hopefully meet some like minded people that would be the start of my social network in NYC. Papers signed I headed home and took transit to see how efficient it would be to get there. The gym had zero muscle heads present, lots of room, apparently has 5,000 members and the climbers seemed quite friendly; did I mention there did not appear to be a muscle head crowd, but rather actually fit people.

I spent Saturday night watching a couple movies, learning a friend had won $2,000,000 in a lottery, and going to bed early.

Sunday was spent doing domestics, packing and getting ready for some more business travel.

An important piece to observe about Sunday’s…. I was not waken by cabs honking their horns at 6:30 am… in fact I slept till 10 as I didn’t set the alarm and figured as per each morning my friendly NYC cab drivers would let me know when it was time to get out of bed.

(boring post but it keeps the journal updated)

- I’ll post maps and some more fun/controversial stuff shortly