This is New York?

I don't think I've ever had a relaxing trip to New York. Usually, I start running the second my plane lands and don't stop until I'm crashed out on the couch back at home in San Francisco. So many meetings, sights to see, shopping to do ... But when I packed up for NYC last week to read at Seed Magazine's Literary Supplement event (my short story "Space Junk" was one of five pieces that appears in the current issue), I was determined to make as few plans as possible.

That was good, because I slept horribly on my red eye (I know, big surprise) and spent much of Friday sweatily napping in my hotel room at the Amsterdam Court. (Only when I was leaving did it dawn on me that instead of running the air conditioner, I had switched on the fan. Classic Northern Californian that I am, I've never learned how to run these cooling contraptions.) My lunch with Reuel, editor at PDN and friend for many years now, didn't help much. A 2-hour lunch of martinis, burgers, and true confessions is decadent in no small part because it sends you on the fast train to a long, decadent nap that feels more like a coma. Once I'd awoken and properly showered and refreshed myself, I took myself out to dinner and sat outside, reading and watching New York--in various states of undress--stream by on the hot, humid summer night.


The next morning, I rose early to catch a bus to Sullivan County, where my agent and friend Peter and his wife Amy operate a B&B called the Golden Guernsey. I'd never been "upstate" before, and while I've heard it was gorgeous, I was really stunned by the beauty of this rural landscape. Golden Guernsey itself is the name of the cow (pictured in this post) who lives across the street. I joined Peter, Amy, and her dad in some antique shopping and in the process came to understand, for the first time, Martha Stewart.

Now I've been a big fan of Martha for many years, especially the bitchy, crazy, crimial Martha. I love that Martha. But her aesthetic to me always seemed to derive more from outer space than any actual place. Nothing like it exists here in the West, where I've spent most of my 32.9 years. She says things like: Take an old window pane and ... I always thought, where on earth does one just happen upon a window pane? Well, now I know. Upstate there were attractively-yet-authentically aged window panes a'plenty, along with rambling gardens, barns, old books ... pretty much anything you've seen in the pages of that magazine you can find driving the back roads of upstate, where barns stocked haphazardly with old farm equipement and furniture dot the landscape.

Moving along ... that evening Peter built a bonfire and we enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert around it. Neighbors and friends stopped by to join in the festivities. The following day Amy and her neighbor/friend Julie invited me along to take Peanut (Amy & Peter's dog) for a long walk. Most of the pictures on my Flickr set from the trip are from that walk. Amy and Julie are part of a local grassroots movement to stop powerlines from being placed on this land. Walking around this beautiful countryside I felt myself getting worked up for this cause. Land this beautiful should be preserved! I hope they succeed.

I got back to NYC feeling completely chill and incredibly grateful to my friends for their incredible hospitality and the invitation to come again. (I will.) I headed up to Queens (another first for me) to crash on the couch of my friends Buzz and Jill. Buzz, whom I met in graduate school, is now an editor at Mark Batty. I wrote the introduction and an essay for a new book he edited on Green Design. (Coming soon!) Queens has a very different vibe from the rest of New York, though when I try to describe it, it sounds like the rest of New York--densely populated, ethnically diverse, always lively ... Word on the street is it's the new Brooklyn. So buy your property now.



Last day, Monday, was the day of the reading. I strolled around the Village and met my friend Heather Sparks and her half-sister, visiting for the first time from Ohio, for lunch. Seed put together a very nice event at Piano's in the Lower East Side. Perhaps it was the super chill weekend in the country or the two glasses of wine I drank before getting onstage, but I was completley un-nervous, even going first.

So yeah, New York can be relaxing, especially if you get out of Manhattan. There was just one thing I didn't get to do: drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which you'll know if you've had it is crack in disguise. Having this cup of coffee should not have been difficult, but everytime I wanted a cup of coffee, I couldn't find a Dunkin' Donuts and when I did find a Dunkin' Donuts, I didn't want coffee or had my hands full (as in the airport, where I managed to drop at least six things). I did manage to find a super old-school (heavy, ceramic with '70s font) Dunkin' Donuts mug at one of the antique stores I visited upstate. I bought it as a gift for Alan.

--JENN