Picking up from my last entry, Piper and I had a nice dinner at Print, the restaurant on the ground floor of the Ink 48 hotel, where I had my 10th birthday party in July. We had a lovely charcuterie plate and entrees, and after dinner took a quick ride up to the roof to view the night sky, although the chill wind was a bit much, even for me.
I took 11/21 off and hung out with Kacey at her place, working on my Free Love Letters project while she organized some files. I brought my redundant iHome music box to play my iPod and left it there, since she doesn't have a stereo. When Becker returned from work we went out for soup dumplings and headed over to Storm's event entitled "The Conversation," an interdisciplinary think tank meets artist's salon of performances and idea generation. I didn't really interact with anyone besides Kacey, Becker and Storm, but it was a pleasure to meet Milah, a young actress who played Storm's daughter in a film, and Storm gave me a surprise invitation to speak for a minute at the end of the night about polyamory and safe space.
On Saturday Kristina came over to pick up an air mattress I lent her for some houseguests and we went out to Gotham West Market to have dinner at Ivan Ramen. It's a really cool place, like a food court but fancier. There's even a photo booth where we took some silly photos together.
We came back to TSMC and kept the ramen theme going by watching Tampopo before it was time for me to leave for Lytle's birthday party at Dream Baby, a bar near Tompkins Square Park. The bar was super-crowded, hot, and loud when I got there, and more people kept pouring in. I gave Lytle a quick hug and a small present, and then stepped outside for a breath of air. Liz joined me for a bit until we got too cold and went back in. Liz's friend Nancy also came, as well as Victoria.
Eventually I couldn't stay inside and went to the bar next door, Boxcar, where it was completely empty except for the bartender, Josh. When I walked in, Josh got off the phone and started to turn the music up, but I told him since I was the only person in the bar, I preferred the music down. I sat at the bar and we talked about Scotch, a topic which he had some knowledge about. He served me my first Scotch, a 12-year Macallen single malt. Eventually Liz, Nancy and Victoria joined me and we had our own little side party for the remainder of the evening.
On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I took the day off and met up with Kacey and Becker at the Upper West Side Shake Shack for a quick bite and then to watch Interstellar at the Lincoln Center IMAX theater. It was very powerful and emotional, although not gratuitously so. It was more thought-provoking than emotion-provoking.
Early Thursday I started out for Harrisburg and returned 36 hours later, which involves a subway, train, cab and car ride, then the reverse coming back. Chris' mom warmly welcomed me to her home. She made a point to genuinely thank me for being a wonderful friend to Chris, to which I replied no more than she has been to me. Chris and Bruce's new home is lovely and spacious with a comfortable guest room and a massive home theater, where we played MarioKart 8 and watched Silver Linings Playbook until it was time for bed.
Friday I attended Katie M's Friendsgiving dinner, where everyone brought tons of leftovers and I got to see Katie and Amy's apartment on the Upper East Side. The rest of the holiday weekend was filled with laundry, cooking and basketball games. I made my first soup by boiling leftover turkey bones, plus a bourbon bread pudding. Sunday evening Natalia came over to watch the first half of Red Cliff, and we finished that up last night.
