New York City 2005

See, it is so late in the year that adding 2005 is reasonable since it was my first and last trip to New York for the whole year. I'm definitely not going back to NYC before Jan 1st. Huzzah!

Moving on.

Ryan and I took the Fung Wah bus from Boston to New York last Wednesday Dec 7th. We arrived early in the afternoon, just enough time to find Brendan's apartment and start getting ready to go see Depeche Mode at Maddison Square Garden. We shopped, ate falafel and got ready in time for Carlos to arrive downstairs with a car to take us to the show. Carlos's brother Ricardo met us there and he started off his birthday evening well with a nice Depeche Mode show.

Before the lights went down I was looking into the audience and somehow managed to see my friend Leah aka "Neen" or "Neener". I had no idea she was going to be at this show but there she was! It was a nice surprise and a nice treat to meet her lovely boyfriend during the after party. Kristin and Garry (look I spelled it right!) were sitting a few sections away and we had a quick chat before the show. I had not seen Garry for almost five years (exciter tour) and Kristin and I hung out only a few weeks ago at the LA show.

The seats were far stage left (it was my first time on this side) so we got to see a lot of Dave coming out on to the walkway and Andy shaking his bootie. It was a great show as usual but the crowd was not entirely inspiring (not such loud singing this time). Dave had to encourage them a bit and even then I think the people in Los Angeles still did it better.

After the show, Carlos, Ricardo, Ryan and I took a cab downtown to the meat-packing district where we went to a bar or "night" called sway. I can't remember the actual name of the bar, but I guess on Wednesday nights its called sway. Carlos's friend was the DJ and he set us up with a fantastic spread of vodka and various accoutrements. Other friends, Paul and Jason joined us part of the way through and we ended up going to yet another bar for some pool before last call, which is in fact... at 4am. So I was toast by the time it was all over, and still we went over to Jason's pad for a quick sit on the couch as everyone awaited more beer and watched Liquid Sky for a while.

It was a great night, and hopefully an excellent way for Ricardo to spend his birthday with his big brother and some new friends. Yay!

Next night, we did it all over again, but with different people! I called my friend Ramona to invite her to the show and she zipped over to MSG (only a few songs in to their set). Ramona and I are old high school friends, and although we don't see each other too often, or even keep in touch all the time I always love seeing her. Its nice to have such spontaneous casual "always good" hangout time with her. Brendan showed up after coming in from JFK where he flew in from the Dominican Republic for photo assisting on a Victoria's Secret catalog shoot. Brendan has a rough life! Well, he sure does travel a lot and I definitely envy that, he also works his ass off and was kind enough to let us crash at his place while in town. Thanks Brendan!

After the show, this time we all went over to a bar near the hotel DM were staying at (their local haunt) and just hung out for awhile. It was a nice night, not too late either thank god. I was kind of pooped from the night before. It was really good to finally have a bit of a chat with Andy and Martin, they have been in their usual tour mode... busy, lots of people, distractions etc. It was a more mellow place and I'm now very much looking forward to meeting up with them in Europe especially now that Andy has pledged to "take better care of me" while we're there. Apparently it is easier in Europe. I guess that means perhaps he'll give me a tour? I dunno, but it sounds good. Perhaps I'll start in Spain.

The rest of the weekend was spent with friends, Ryan's friends met us for dinner friday at Cafe Charbon. I got to have my steak and fries. Aimee and Bryan took us all out to a karaoke bar where Aimee and I sang Bohemian Rhapsody for everyone.

Santacon was Saturday and I will be posting photos soon from that. We met up with Oscar and he joined us for dinner with Jonah and Cristina. Afterwhich I nearly passed out from being so tired from all the walking and that martini.

Later we went to Brooklyn for a few beers with Lisa and Todd, and finally on Sunday afternoon we took the bus home. Ryan has a wicked case of Poison Ivy and has since spread it to me in a few small places. Yikes. Now we're home, working on design stuff, cooking fancy meals and enjoying the winter so far. I miss my family back in Santa Barbara, and I miss seeing Miles's little face in particular. I will be home from Dec 27 - Jan 3. So if you're in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles and you want to see me... let me know. I'm getting a crowd of people together for New years somewhere in Santa Barbara. So far, Robert, Lara, Alex, Tina, Terry and I are set to hang out... anyone else want to get in on it?