"National" Julie Day

By the time I woke up a cold that had been threatening to take hold since late on Monday was making a definite bid for control of my sinuses. I felt grotty so when Alison got up promptly to go off and work at her conference I decided to stay in bed for a bit. Still, I couldn't have much of a lie-in if I didn't want to miss breakfast. Feh.

Over breakfast I got a call on my cellphone (yay! cellphones!). It was Julie, who greeted me with a friendly "Giles?". Ho ho. We made our arrangements for the evening, picking restaurants based on reviews they'd got (which is something I'd never done before).

I checked in quickly with Alison on my way out to see that everything was going okay, then headed off to the Empire State Building for my second trip to the top. I made a small side-trip on my way though. You might be able to guess where to. There was a certain hot-drink selling establishment opposite the ESB, and I bought a tea and a cookie to take up the ESB with me.

I don't think it was quite as impressive by day as it was by night. It was a lot easier to tell what you were looking at, but that's not quite the same thing. It did however result in some fantastic photos.

On return to ground level it was time to go and meet Alison for lunch. Well, after a fashion, at least. I arrived just after Alison had returned from lunch, so I ate lunch on my own (awwww!). We nattered a fair bit though, and she 'reviewed' my pics from the ESB, a sample of which you see above. One of the things that came out of our nattering was a greater awareness of the fact that New York was on High Alert(TM) and was bracing itself for a possible terrorist attack. Or, to summarise in simpler terms, "Duct Tape".

I tried to ignore this and started on my next quest of the week. I'd read about some comics shops in The Rough Guide To New York City and I was intent on hunting them out. Both were a little off the Beaten Track(TM), and so involved me going through some of the less touristy areas of Manhattan. I always get a little nervous in such places. I don't mind so much if I stand out as a tourist in a place where tourists are expected to be, but in other places it can not be such a good thing to be noticed. I wasn't sure if this was one of those places, but I was nervous in case it was.

The first shop I visited was St. Mark's Comics, so called because it's on St. Mark's Place. The room full of comics back issues in there was quite a sight to behold, and the only thing that made my awe go a little sour was that I was without a copy of my comics wanted list. However, I was asked a number of times by a cute redhead who worked there if I wanted any help. I told her that unless she could spirit my wanted list out of nowhere I didn't think there was much she could do. But she did do her best to be helpful, and when I suddenly remembered a Star Wars one-shot that I lacked she went and hunted for it for me since the Star Wars comics were out of the way and awkward for cold limeys in long bulky woolen coats to reach. Sadly, the comic wasn't there, but at least she tried. I am such a lech. But hey, how often do you get genuinely cute women working in comic shops? Particularly genuinely cute and helpful women?

The other comics shop I wanted to find was in Greenwich Village. It was within easy walking distance of St. Marks', but once again this walking was through bits of New York that I didn't feel altogether comfortable with, simply because the area seemed less familiar. But I did find a Starbucks, and have another tea. The comic shop didn't really measure up to St. Mark's, in either the back issue or cute helpful redhead department.

I then struck out in search of a subway station, and in doing so stumbled onto Washington Square. I'd had no idea it was there, so it was something of an oasisy find. It gave me an excellent opportunity to take more photos as well. Gotta love digital cameras.

After getting back to the hotel to freshen up, I headed over to the local Starbuck's (see previous entry) with my writing pad to attack what was left of the second chapter of Targeted. Once again, this Starbuck's had no tea. Left with an awkward choice, I once again plumped for having a Latte. Willpower huh? Three and a half years without coffee then two in as many days. Bah.

As it turns out, second coffee in three and a half years does not mix well with blossoming cold. I felt pretty shitty after that and swore that I wasn't going back on the coffee in a hurry. We'll have to see how that one turns out huh?

Then it was time for one of the big moments of the week for me that I'd been both looking forward to and incredibly apprehensive about. We met Julie and her fianc� John in an upmarket American Diner on 48th Street. It was a very cool evening. We talked a lot about what we all did, kinda, and about the area, what we'd seen and what we wanted to do. Obviously (to some people) we talked about Buffy also. And briefly, although I cringed at this point, we talked about the prospect of war and the prospect of terrorist attacks. I say I cringed because it has been established in the past that Julie and I have views that conflict a little, and I was dreading the conversation going anywhere it could get awkward. That being said, a lot of it was lighthearted and took amusing angles on what was going on. The discussion of what exactly an Orange Alert(TM) was being a particular case in point here.

Another worthy anecdote from the evening was when Alison got up just after desert saying "I've just seen someone I know". To Alison, this was her being very Sex In The City. However, Julie interpreted it as a new euphemism for going off to the ladies room. Alison really had seen someone she knew, from the conference she was working at who she'd also met at a previous conference (in Canada last May). Julie had apparently got a little concerned at how long Alison was taking before she realised that it hadn't been a euphemism at all. Okay, so maybe that paints everyone in a slightly disparaging light, but it makes a good anecdote all the same :-)

It was good to finally meet Julie. I've known her since September 12th 2001. Our friendship stemmed from an email conversation that started somewhat coldly around a faux pas I'd committed (also by email) concerning the 9-11 tragedy. We've become close if somewhat sporadic friends (email being what it is), and it's strange to think of something like that happening purely because of a tragedy. I don't want to over analyse it. It's just odd when I think about it sometimes.

The only bad thing about the evening was that by the end of it I was truly in the grip of a very yucky cold. Urgh.