Everyone's your friend... in New York City...

...and evrerything is beautiful, when your young and pretty... the streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see... but the best thing about New York City is... you and meeeeeee... (ala They Might Be Giants)

(Um, it's actually the 27th, but I made most of this post on the 23rd... just Blogger and my Mac and uploading pictures was not behaving... so how here I am finishing up on my PC...)

Yesterday afternoon Russ dropped me off at Newark Penn Station and I caught the train to New York Penn Station and met up with my good friend, Viv. She and I both used to be swing dancers in the Connecticut scene, just not at the same time. We met when she came to study for a semester at the University of Hawaii. Now she lives in Hawaii, and I live just a short train ride away from her parents. :) BTW - that picture was taken from the top of their building, looking down on the avenue below.

We managed to pack a lot into my less-than-24-hour getaway: had a wonderful home-cooked Chinese meal, which, might I say, included the best salmon ever; went swing dancing for several hours and met lots of new people, not to mention at least two people I already was acquainted with who used to live in Hawaii; checked out the Museum of Modern Art; ate delicious food of Afghanistan at a little place on St. Mark's Way, and topped it off with wonderful Italian cheesecake from Veniero's Pasticceria & Cafe at 342 East 111th Street (www.VenierosPastry.com). Like the salmon the night before (well, it didn't taste like salmon), the cheesecake was the best ever!

Sorry I didn't take a picture of either the salmon or the cheesecake. But I did take a picture of a NYC bus. While we were walking to catch the subway to the dance, we spotted this bus:

You might be wondering who Rency is, and why the bus is asking people to call him (or her). Actually, I was being a silly tourist-type, trying to take a picture of a bus that had a sign alternating between "Emergency" and "Call Police". I don't think I could have timed it any better than I did - midway between the two!

And while I'm at it, a couple more random photos from my 24hrs in NYC...

Viv and me and some pointy skyscraper from the top of her parent's building.

These girls watched over us from across the street while we lunched at the Afghan restaurant. Did I mention the food there was really delicious? Shame on my for not taking pictures of that, either...