Back Home!

I got back from the East Coast yesterday. It was a short trip but very enjoayable. In West Milford, NJ, where my friend Walter lives, the leaves had not yet fallen from the hundreds of trees surrounding the lakeside property he shares with his new husband. We were engulfed in beautiful reds, oranges, yellows and greens in his pretty little cabin home.

My first night out East was spent in Harlem. There, one of Rafael's good friends is renting a space from these two ladies who live in this wonderful brownstone filled with cute antiques. His bathtub is amazing! Actually, Steve is leaving this place soon as he will now move to London to live near his biological daughters, who are very cute as I can see from pictures in his home. I was unfortunately scared of the Rottweiler dog named Garbo who lives with the two ladies. They have two other dogs but they are little and not scary at all. Garbo barks a lot, supposedly out of sadness when left alone. Meanwhile, we ate delicious soul food down the street from Steve's. Our waiter was named Winston and is from Jamaica. He said come back soon thinking we lived in New York but I said I would next time I am in from California.

We had met Steve in Time Square where he works and stopped by a bar called Therapy for a drink (I had Diet Coke) then we took the subway to Harlem. Our trip to the East Coast was okay but because of a layover in Las Vegas where I had an apparently ill-fated drink at an airport bar, I got sick once off the plane in Newark. I had a terrible headache and nausea. I had to lie down for a while and when I got up a few hours later, I showered and got dressed for our day in New York which had been shortened to a night. The next day in Harlem we got up with Steve who had to be at work and we left him and had breakfast at Stardust, a place of singing servers who are struggling Broadway actors. They sing as they pour your coffee which can be ackward. We walked around and decided to go to the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. When we were up there and getting into an elevator to go back down, I noticed a woman who I soon thought I recognized as Mary Alice Stephenson of "America's Most Smartest Model". She looked much thinner and of course I wondered at a celebrity doing something so touristy but I realized by listening to what she was saying to her companions that they were out-of-towners and her guests. She said something about "It's near my office" so I knew sure enough, she was a local so that made it more of a chance it was her. Also, she was very well dressed and carried an extravantly elegant designer purse. Finally someone called to her, "Mary Alice..." so I knew it was really her.

It was sad to leave New York, honestly, but we had to get back to Jersey. That night we checked into the hotel we'd stay in for the rest of the trip, the hotel where a lot of people attending Walter & Andy's wedding would also be staying in. We got to hang out with another old friend of Walter's from LA who although he's from our neck of the woods, we never see because we'd lost touch with him. Turns out he's really funny! I enjoyed my time with him though he's constantly out of control.

The location of the wedding, Perona Farms, was very nice and the food was incredible. The ceremony was short and touchingly sweet. I taped it for the mother-of-the-bride (haha).

All in all, though there were some disasters, the trip was memorable and I am glad I went.