Well … another trip to New York City has flown by and I am back here in the wilds of North Carolina. Do you want to know about the trip? Of course you do!

Thursday:
Arrived in the city as planned. Met up with Scott in Jersey City (where he works) and we took the water taxi over to South Street Seaport to get tickets for a show that night. Damn, damn, damn. “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” wasn’t up, so we got tickets for “Doubt.” We went back to Scott’s place and relaxed a bit. Then we headed off to get dinner and see the show. Wow, it was good. Eileen Atkins rocked the house as did the rest of the cast.

Friday:
Got up and met BJ for breakfast while Scott was away at work. I then went and kicked around for a bit … walking from the East Village up to Madison Park and back again. Stopped along the way at Stand Books (great bookstore) and various music stores too. Scott got in from work and we hung out and then headed off to get food and see the revival of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” IF you have a chance to see the show while it’s running, you really should. It’s one of the coolest pieces of theater I have ever seen. Afterwards, we hung out at the stage door to see the cast. I got to shake Michael Cerveris’ hand and tell him how great the show was. We then trekked down to Gym Bar for a drink with Brian and Eric. It was a good evening out of the town.

Saturday:
This was the day of the big cook-out and pool party in the ‘burbs on Long Island. It rained all day which meant the pool part of the party was a bust. We cruised the ‘burbs, went to the beach, met Scott’s Westies (cool dogs) and grilled out and had margaritas. We then took the rain back to the city for a much needed nap. That evening we grabbed food and went to “Double-Headed Disco” at Nowhere. Great DJ’s. Great music. Maybe a little too much to drink. It was a fun night hanging out with the homos and drinking and dancing. Scott needs to get over his fear and boogie on the dance floor. Great night even if we stayed up just a little too late.

Sunday:
Scott and I got up late-ish and motored over to the West Village for breakfast and the stake out a spot to watch the Pride parade. BJ and Eric joined with at the parade. My God, that parade went on forever. We watched it from 1:00 ’til about 5:30 and it was still going. Pretty cool to see all the celebration of gayness … not so cool all the corporate sponsor floats or the tons (and I mean tons) of religious groups/churches saying “We don’t hate you!” We ditched out and had dinner and then headed over to the West Side Piers for the big Pride Fair. Lots of folks were there … so many in fact that you couldn’t even get on one of the piers as they were full. We hung out on a side street and watched all the delicious bears going to and from the fair. That was pretty nice as there were some delicious fellas there. Later we watched “Deadwood” before getting some much needed sleep.

Monday:
Got up and started stressing about flying. Printed out my boarding pass only to have Scott (smart man!) discover that my 7:30 flight had been cancelled already. Damn. “Gonna miss another of work!” Cool! I now have an extra day in the city! Scott and I headed out for lunch and motored uptown. We checked out the new Apple Store on 5th Avenue. It’s got a cool entryway, but past that is just a big ‘ol Apple Store. I am not totally sure what I was expecting. We cruised FOA Schwartz and then walked over the see the new Hurst Tower on 8th Avenue. Pretty cool building even if we only got to see the lobby. We headed back down the the East Village and hung out and watched “Gay Sex in the 70’s.” Ugh. Not such a great documentary. Then we headed out and met BJ for cheap Happy Hour margaritas. Mmmmmmm!

Tuesday:
Got up and stressed out about flying … again. Went and had breakfast with BJ. Then it was off to the airport. Sometime between leaving Scott’s and getting to Newark, the 3:05 flight had been cancelled. Nice! Let me tell ya, there were a lot of unhappy people in that airport. Apparently flights were being cancelled left and right … something to do with that weather system that was flooding DC at the time. So, after waiting in a customer service line for two hours, I was booked to fly standby on the 7:30 that evening. Thankfully, that is what happened and I was back in my neck of the woods by midnight.

Alas, no video diary as I suggested earlier. I found it hard enough to keep up with one camera, let alone two. I’ll get more of the trip photos posted soon.