I remain in the comforting embrace of the endless streets, signs, people, buildings and breath of this city.

Tuesday evening found Leah and I wandering for countless blocks as we played catch with “what do you want for dinner?” –> “I don’t know, what do you want for dinner”. When we finally caught a cab, we took it to The West Village. What a terrific little area. So many shops and window candy and brilliant, hip, colorful inhabitants. It’s energy wasn’t unlike Haight-Ashbury.

A garlic craving of mine ultimately landed us, along with my old friend Alex and I ate a wretched little Italian place. The conversation and wine were good, even if the food wasn’t. Of course I got a bonus thrill out of the subway beneath us causing the floor to shake.

It’s been around 8 years since I saw Alex, he’s doing well. He’s starting at gig at Sirius after recently relocating from Cali. It was good to see someone who knew me when…and lived to tell about it.

Thursday was work, work, work, and getting lost, getting lost, getting lost. I’ll tell you what, that could quite possibly be my favorite pastime. I spent hours on the streets of Manhattan without a clue as to where I was and I loved it.

A casual observation: that city is lousy with iPods. At one point I decided to count the white headphones and when I realized how pointless it was (on account of I can’t go that high), I surrendered.

Jack’s press briefing went exceptionally well, and before long we (Leah, her boss, Jack and I) were on our way to dinner at the Manhattan Ocean Club where we met Jack’s friend Shelly and one of her coworkers. Champagne, lots of laughs and great stories by Shelly about her husband the “ass-doc”. Leah and I went back to her place for a bit after dinner since we knew Indy was doing the pee-pee dance. An episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (I still don’t get it, sorry) I decided it was time to haul it back to the hotel. The walk from 71st and Columbus to 54th btwn 6th & 7th was a nice one — even at 11:00 at night. Plenty of people on the street, a walk past the Opera house and more kept my mind reeling. When I finally did arrive back at the hotel, I stayed only long enough to put on my tennies and walkin’ pants and head to Times Square a few short blocks from the hotel. Though it wasn’t everything I thought it might be, the walking around the perimeter and through it’s core kept me busy for over an hour.

All three major tourist spots I visited — Rockefeller, Empire and Times Square — were smaller than I thought they’d be. Not that it’s bad…just different.

It’s amazing where find you have expectations you were unaware of.

Just the same I had a beautiful time and was sorry to get up at 6:00am to catch the car back to the airport and come home. I believe I’ll find myself living in that mystical place one day in the not too distant future.