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July 10, 2001

NY Trip Retroblog: Monday July 2nd

NY Trip Retroblog: Monday July 2nd

Touchdown USA

A twelve-hour flight finds our hero arriving at JFK airport. I made the point of asking for an exit-row seat at check-in, and it paid off. I'm only 5ft 10in, so I'm sure others have more need of the extra legroom than I do but hey - I'm not going to apologise for being wily.

They only had Japanese-language I-94W visa waiver forms on the plane, so I needed to pick one up before hitting immigration. There was an official yelling instructions to the flow of passengers - "US citizens! Along the wall to your right! Other passports! Straight ahead!" so I thought she'd be the person to ask.

Me: "Excuse me..."
Yelling Lady: "You cannot stand here! Sir! You have to move along!"
Me: (brightly) "Thank you!"

Bitch. Located a counter of forms myself, but it served as a handy reminder of the US immigration official mindset. As I filled in the form I wondered how many would-be suicide bombers they catch out each year with the "Are you intending to enter the United States to engage in terrorist activity?" question.

The taxi ride in was ace. I just sat, soaking up the sights, thrilled to be in an English-speaking environment again. The key to your mortgage is here! Total Security Protection Services! Bail bonds, free checking, no turn, left turn, stop, go, Long Island, House of Waffles, for all your funeral needs.

The tips of the Manhattan skyline came into view over the rise of the highway, and suddenly the road dropped away to reveal the full verticocity of the island's skyscrapers. They put me in mind of geometric lava formations, or a very neatly ordered concrete bamboo grove. Similes were never my strong point, I guess.

I dumped my stuff at Swerd's place and we headed out to Mooza, sitting on their garden terrace and sipping a Merlot. Excellent to see Jon again; I'd lost weight, apparently, but he was much the same as I remember - just more stressed, juggling clients and building up his legal practice.

His brain was fried from overwork, I'd been up for 45 hours straight (unless you count a couple of fitful naps on the plane, which I don't) so we mainly just sat and grinned at each other. It had been, what, five years? Good to see you again, pal.

We hit 7A for dinner and I was practically assaulted by the largest chicken salad I've ever seen. It won so we bagged it up, took it home and put it in the fridge for later. That showed it.

Drinks at Tribe, Jon's regular haunt. What a nice bar - dark, not too loud, strong drinks and friendly bar staff. Michael makes a mean Long Island iced tea, yo.

I got to meet Ethan, and then Kevin and Dakota turned up too. I didn't get a chance to chat to K&D much (er, at all, really) but Ethan and I had a laugh. We discussed a collaborative weblog that we've been threatening to set up for a while. We've got the technology, a name, contributors, but none of this little thing called "content". We decided that "content" sounded promising and that we should investigate further. I think it's like Bluetooth or something. Maybe we can buy shares, corner the market.

Ethan's new job is going to be as chief systems guy on an ocean-going research vessel sailing from Greece at the end of the month - wow. He gets to custom-build computer systems for disparate groups of scientists as they book floating lab time on the ship, which he was understandably very excited about. Attaboy and yo-ho-ho.

And so ended Monday: slumped in a happy heap on a floor in the East Village, dozing off to the sound of Underworld on mental loop: "Mmm, skyscraper; I love you..."

Posted by chris at July 10, 2001 06:08 PM | Permalink

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