New York Weddings and Friends

My second eastward drive across the country had a final destination of Brooklyn, New York. I left on the 1st of October and arrived there on the 8th. The drive included a three night's stay in Columbus, which I could only manage by hauling relative ass on the first half of the journey. At this present moment in time, I have returned to the farm.  Whenever I managed, on my eastward journey, to get off main roads, I had a much better sense of the true landscape and scale of the states in which I was driving. Interstate travel is certainly most efficient, and I would argue that you can still get a pretty good sense of a basic sense of a landscape. You just don't have any real idea of how far it that landscape goes on either side of the interstate. In any case, I got to NYC in one piece.

L. and Fat T. had Jesus on their fire escape.

They are grown ups with jobs, so while they were fulfilling their grown up responsibilities, I hung out in their apartment with their cat...who loves me.

See all the love in her eyes? It is all directed at me.

So good to see this face.

Both of these faces.

The main reason I had a fairly set date for my NYC arrival was because I needed to attend a wedding. I've known T. since our freshmen year of high school and it was his turn to get hitched. So I tried to make myself look presentable, with a solid assist from L.

And then I went to their wedding.

I got to see S. and a number of others whom I have known from high school or through staying in touch with T. during the years he attended Vassar and I attended Bard, which was just up the road.

The high school contingent.

The bride going up the stairs.

The happy couple. It was very neat to be included in this happy day and evening. I really liked all the ways they really made the wedding "their's." This included mixed gender wedding parties (men and women on the groom's and bride's side), the bride wearing green, the couple walking themselves down the aisle to a Nirvana song, the cake cutting being done to the main theme music of Jurassic Park, etc.

And then after the wedding I stayed in NYC for a bit and just enjoyed the company of many people I rarely get to see. Right before I took this photo of Fat T. on their building's roof, he said, literally, "for a minute I thought I wasn't wearing pants." This amused me greatly.

Another evening we went to L. and Fat T.'s friend A.'s house and met up with him as well as E. and her husband K. A. made a delicious dinner of multiple chickens and baked leeks.

We had many wishbone competitions.

 I participated in two where this happened. So no wish for anyone.

L., on the other hand, got her wish.

E. and me? Not so much.

Out of order wedding photo.

Me playing with A.'s corgi.

A view from the fire escape.

On another evening R. came over to L. and Fat T.'s and joined us, and S., for a dinner I made. I think it was brined pork tenderloin with a variation on a chimmichurri. With maybe a kale salad and something else? R. and I grew up neighbors and it's always really great to see him. This is in part because he is a very funny and smart guy, and in part because we have many shared memories or takes on the people that populated our respective childhoods.

R.'s older sister believes that to make it clear that you are happy and having a good time in photographs, you should open your mouth as wide as possible. This was us giving that method a shot. I think we both look a little deranged...but we were having a good time, so maybe she's right?

I met up with R. the next day in Williamsburg to do further catch up, have some afternoon beers, and meet the very cool German Shepherd that he tends to.

Another night I had dinner with C. and K. and we had drinks afterwards. If you look carefully you can see them in the darkness of this photo.

And here you don't have to look as carefully to see all three of us.

Yet another night I met up with grad school comrades A. and L. I had seen L. last year when I came to NYC, but A. and I hadn't crossed paths since around 2007. A good meet up.

More time with Fatso.

Then I went to S. and C.'s house for dinner and to see Zul, my former cat who now resides with them. They call him Stampy.

I can't tell if he recognized me or cared at all. Any fantasy of him reacting to my arrival like the many videos of dogs losing their shit when they see their returning military owners....was quickly relegated to the fantasy trash can. Still. He is a good cat and I was glad to see that he seemed to generally be fitting into their lives.

Then we went out and met up with the recently married couple and a few more of their friends, and it was fun.