13 Sep 06

Time:

Missed the express out of home station 1035, caught the next one four minutes later.

Money:

$2, pretzel from a street vendor near Union Square.
$2, PT-recovery chocolate milk from Space Market.
$4, excellent pressed toast sandwich from... PressToast.
$4, a warm and revivifying mocha latte from the Broadway Starbucks.
$2, miniature cup of Dulce de Leche Haagen-Dazs from 88 Lex.
$20, mushroom pizza and tip.

More interesting things:

Ate the first soft pretzel since I've been here. It was perfect, really: the pretzel was warm, the air was cool, and that smoky smell from the vendors hung the way it only does in fall.

Caught up on some reading and waited for Anne on a bench in what appeared to be the "quiet study corner" of WSq Park. I don't think someone would have avoided parading into, say, the middle of the Plaza of the Americas just because people studying there would have been disturbed by a loud cell phone conversation, but that's exactly what I saw today. One person - I think homeless, but still - slept, several others conversed quietly, many ate lunch, and lots read and wrote. All of which took place mostly undisturbed, because the lady on the phone didn't go back to her bench until she was nearly done talking, and was carefully quiet even then. Impressive.

Answered my own phone - quietly! - when I saw it was Ben calling. He invited me to join him at a Barnes and Noble in Union Square to hear... a presentation by Art Spiegelmann! This is not exactly the kind of thing that just blows through my hometown on what you would call a regular basis, and even if it did, you would hardly expect it to be followed five days later by a visit from BILLY COLLINS! This I really cannot miss.

Appreciated the generosity of a dachshund mix's human, who shared her chair at a Macdougal Street lunch table with said dachshund mix. She - the person, I mean - scooted over the way anyone would who found that there wasn't a chair left for her best friend, only in this case the friend wouldn't be considered rude if he slurped right out of the bowl.