Hello, Seattle and beyond! It’s great to be home. We flew in last night and today is my first day back in action, scrambling desperately to catch up on email and blog posts and podcasts and errands and laundry and life. Oh, and doctor’s appointments. Yeah, I have to take out a chunk of my coveted First Day Back to go to the doc and get my knee examined.
Apparently, I partied HARD during my ten-year college reunion at Bryn Mawr, apparently. (In reality, I sang, danced, strolled, drank, sweated in 97+-degree weather, and walked a LOT, and I somehow woke up on Sunday with a sprained and swollen knee. Absolutely no recollection of any specific event that could have caused this.) Despite resulting in injuries, I had an amazing time at my college reunion, and an amazing (if accessibility-challenged) trip.
Philly was great, though I was mostly in the ‘burbs reuniting with my amazing classmates. But I did at least get to go to Capogiro for some amazing gelato (lime/starfruit and grapefruit/Campari sorbetti, in case you were wondering). That part of the trip was more about friends than exploring the city, though. Then, NYC was of course mind-blowing. I’d actually been there thrice before, but never for a short day with other peoples’ needs and tourism desires to take into consideration. So it’s just not the same thing. 🙂
We stayed with friends in Brooklyn and ventured into Manhattan most days, except Tuesday when we competed on that NPR quiz show. I’ll let you know when that airs, but suffice it to say, it was an AMAZING experience! Left is a shot of the venue as people were still trickling in before the show. It was a really cool pub!
Oh, and I did a bunch of business and get to write my trip off. Heck yeah! This is something new to me. I am now one of those annoying people who asks for a receipt with everything. I get it, People Who Have Proper Accountants. I’m finally one of you now. It was fantastic to have discussions about online dating even in a much different marketplace like New York.
And the ARCHITECTURE! I’d seen some pretty damn amazing architecture living in Europe, but still, the scale and grandeur of the New York stuff just boggles the mind. My very favorite building was the Bryant Park Hotel, this black and gold Art Deco thing that I failed to get a great shot of or actually set foot inside. But here it is anyway, on the right (click for a bigger pic). And I absolutely loved so many little decorative flourishes, across the city particularly at the library, like 
this sheep head on a lantern or the amazing ceiling medallions and chandeliers. Even small random cafés had fantastic original 1890s tin tile roofs, which inspired me to look into doing our own kitchen walls and ceiling in reproduction tiles. Blah blah blah I love everything in New York.
Anyway, I finally launched The Heartographer podcast, for which Grant recorded an intro and outro while sitting on a rock in Central Park. I finally went up the Empire State Building, which is totally worth it for the views and the eerie quiet even if it’s insanely expensive. I finally figured out that Brooklyn is a borough and not a neighborhood of Manhattan (shut up). And of course, we finally go to see Grant’s folks again in DC before finally coming home last night.
All in all, it was amazing! And you’ll be proud to know that the most touristy schticky stuff we bought were a Barcade shirt for Grant, and this New York Public Library mug and pen. (I adore that simple lion logo; such a triumph of graphic design even if lions have never lived in New York as we know it.) Off to go fill it with some good old Seattle coffee and start my day now! It’s good to be back. [icon-heart]