Friday with Lis

Friday was Lis's last day of work before moving to a new department, in another location. Since her computer was being moved, she decided to play hooky for most of the day and hang out with me.

So, we toodled around the city: we visited Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, and the East Village. We visited lots of little shops, buying a few things. In a surprising turn, I got to be the guide at lunch. We happened to be near Yaffa Cafe, so I suggested we go there. We had a delicious meal: a chicken and avacado wrap and a middle-eastern platter with pita, hummus, and baba ganoush. We had a nice chat over lunch. I told Lis about some of my crazy boy antics of late, and she talked about her relationship with Mike. I feel like I know both of them much better as a result.

In the afternoon, we got up to Union Square, and Lis took me to Filene's Basement, the perfect store to satisfy the inner label queen. It's kind of like Winners without the ick. Actually, it's much nicer stuff. I almost bought a really cute pair of Energie jeans at a third of the regular price, but I decided that I really have enough clubby jeans already. Crazy, huh?

Lis had to go home to take care of Lucy, and I continued on to visit Bryant Park and the main branch of the public library. It's beautiful and, like so many things in this city, quite overwhelming. There's this huge reading room, with PCs and empty tables in the middle, whose walls are lined with thousands of volumes of literature. I think you could easily get lost in it for the rest of your life.

Lis had set me up with a colleague, Rich, to show me around in the evening, and he took me to a couple of bars in the East Village: Starlight, which was quite nice, and the Phoenix, a bit more of a dive. It's Rich's favourite nightspot in the city, though, as it's very relaxed and attitude-free. Rich is a really nice guy: very outgoing and funny, and not a hint of pretense. Pity he doesn't like to go dancing, though. Many cocktails were consumed, and we met a bunch of people, some interesting, some not so much.

In all, a fun night. By the end of it, Jersey City seemed a long way away, so I crashed with Rich at his place.