The Past Month In New York

I've been back for about a month now. What have I done? A list follows. (Note: To non-New Yorkers, if any of this stuff interests people take it as gentle encouragement to move here. Please!)

1.) I went to Vegetarian Paradise twice, once getting the fake duck, the other time getting the fake chicken.

2.) I saw Trouble the Water, an excellent documentary about Hurricane Katrina.

3.) I biked/walked around Summer Streets, a New York event where they shut down Park Avenue to cars so that people are allowed to walk where they please.

4.) I went to go see the revival of A Chorus Line, which has now closed. It was okay.

5.) I went to go see The Marriage of Bette and Boo, a play about a dysfunctional Catholic family, which was superb.

6.) I went to go see Hamlet, for free, up at the Cloisters. It was terrible. While there I also went into the Cloisters, which is a terrific museum.

7.) I went to the Met with my two brothers.

8.) I went to go see Starting With the Universe, an exhibit about Buckminster Fuller. It was quite fascinating. It was at the Whitney.

9.) I went to go see In the Heights with the incoming chemistry graduate students. It was good, but I did not like it as much as Richard wanted me to.

10.) I also walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with the above grad students, just after getting pizza and ice cream at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn.

11.) I also went out to the end of orientation dinner(for incoming grad students) at a terrific Italian restaurant. I wasn't supposed to go but I invited myself along and then, along with Carl who is one of them, went over the spending limit by a considerable amount. It was just the two of us at our table. We spent $117. Cait's table had five people and they spent $80 or so. It was great! Afterwards I went with Carl to the fat cat lounge and played shuffle board and ping pong.

12.) I spent labor day weekend visiting my sister and her family in Raleigh. We played tennis, picked apples and blueberries, made sushi, made pizza, and in general had a lot of fun. Although one of my nephews was very ill at the time.

13.) I went to go see Avenue Q. It was okay. It could have been funnier.

14.) I went to go see August: Osage County. This was another play about a dysfunctional family. It was too over the top. It was okay, but not as good as The Marriage of Bette and Boo.

15.) I went to go watch All the Presidents Men for free outside on a Pier near 70th street.

16.) I went on a killer bike ride through upstate New York on a bike that my brother gave me. We stopped for ice cream twice and rode within only a few miles of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

17.) I started learning French, an advantage of which is the percentage of gay guys who want to learn French. Most of them are a little young (it being an undergraduate class), but my French graduate TA is attractive. But yesterday in class he said he didn't know anything about this 700 billion dollar bailout. Maybe it could never be.

18.) I had lunch with Natalee from USF.

19.) I went to a welcome back for me/Indian indendance day party at Manasi's house.

20.) I had brunch with Melissa which was great and was graciously paid for by her and her boyfriend.