Return of the not-at-all-native

I leave Manhattan tomorrow to return to New City for the last two weeks of my break, and I'm ready for it--I miss my own space and my own things. But being back here has been good for my soul, as has been seeing so many of the people I care about. It's been especially nice to have spent these past 10 days house-sitting (rather than crashing on someone's couch or spare bed); having a space to myself has enabled me to feel not like a guest or a visitor, but almost as though I never left.

George Washington Boyfriend was here with me over New Year's and we party-hopped from a dinner way the hell downtown at Lulu and Mr. Lulu's--where hipsters in skinny black suits and dirty hair noshed on crab cakes with surgeons--to way the hell uptown to my old neighborhood, where Bert's friend was throwing a party; as the new year turned, chihuahuas named after luxury-goods conglomerates vied with Perrier Jouet for our attention. (And as proof of how totally not old we are: we didn't get home until after 3 a.m. Who's turning 32 next month, I ask you?)

Some sixteen hours later we were recovered enough to rejoin Lulu and Bert for dinner and drinks at my favorite cocktail joint, and then the next day we met up with Tiruncula at the Cooper-Hewitt museum to check out the design triennial and get some lunch.

After GWB left, my days grew more irregular--I'd wake up late, fuck around on the internet, work for a few hours in a bagel shop, and then go out most evenings. I lunched with my editors at the publishing house I worked for most recently; had coffee and an excellent blogger meet-up with Ianqui (who's got a sly sense of humor that I very much enjoyed); grabbed drinks with Lorraine, my friend who works for the Yankees; and spent far too many nights with Bert at the gay bar where he is, apparently, Norm. I also had a lovely dinner with Jonesy, followed by Theatre for a New Audience's terrific production of Merchant of Venice (which I think merits its own post, and is likely to get it).

So all in all, a lovely time. . . and the work end of things wasn't so bad, either.