New York City

I have shared a glass of red wine with Harlan, crackers, hummus, smoked almonds too - with a view of the city. My flight out of Austin has been the first step of a trek overseas to Italy, Croatia and perhaps a sliver of Slovenia. And today I have come to the conclusion that it is worth fighting in life for financial distinction just so you don't have to fly coach. Holy Crap! What a flying nightmare....

And so - here I am back at Harlan's house - a 17th floor pad that looks down 8th Avenue as far as you can see. The apartment across the street, one floor down, is for sale for twenty million. Buddy, the new Jack Russell Terrier, is sniffing my pants. I am casually relaxed. As soon as I walked in this place, I took off my pants and dawned my CTMC scrubs - only to discover that I'd left all of my travel pants in the dryer back home. And so I will hike down the street in a bit to the Banana Republic and buy a couple of pairs of pants.

Paula gets in from LA after midnight - and thank goodness we will be flying tomorrow in the nose of a 747 in a seat that folds out into a bed. Probably have some sort of crazy dinner ahead of time too. I'll be wearing Banana Republic.

It is too early for me to say, but it seems we hit the ground running when we arrive. We are staying in a nice hotel, have a couple of events to attend and photograph - including a dinner at the Finish Embassy - for which I have had to drag along my black suit. Although I look good in a suit, I hate wearing them.

I have returned from my shopping endeavor down eighth and then across to seventh with one pair of pants in tow. I am trusting that the shorts I brought will carry me through most of my journey. A neighbor - somewhere behind me is playing the piano. And it seems that a lot more people here talk to themselves than do back home in San Marcos. I would look curiously to see if they were wearing any sort of blue tooth communicator. Nope - not even a cell phone, and it sure seemed as though they were carrying on a complete conversation. Who knows ?

Anyhow, Harlan and I tracked Paula's flight over from LA on the computer. She arrived without incident at about 2am. This morning, it is windy and raining. A car comes to get us at 1:30pm to take us over the New Jersey and to our flight. The empire state building is just barely visible now through the clouds.