"I am no mermaid, and I am no fisherman's slave"

[hermionesviolin]

Every time i go in to the city, i spend about $10 on transport alone. [Edit for clarity: Despite this being an entry about my trip to NYC, Botson will always be "the city" to my mind.] I get so much solid reading time in, though, that i begin to think it’s almost worth it. Too much reading on a bus apparently makes me sick, though. Or at least it did on Saturday. Blessedly we were only about twenty minutes from Port Authority.

I didn’t read the whole time, though. The movie they showed was Message in a Bottle which actually turned out to be a good movie -- a rarity for Peter Pan bus rides. The readings of the letters at the beginning made me cry. As did various sections of the movie, actually. Been a theme recently. A musesfool fic made me cry that morning -- second time in about a week i’d had that reaction to one of her fics. Plus the Samaria books kept making me cry. Yup, am big sap. [I really like the Sinead Lohan song “I Am No Mermaid,” also. Anyone happen to have it on mp3?]

I got to Kate’s parents’ loft no problem, and the heavens opened up just as i arrived (clearing up hours later in time for me to go out to dinner).

I had changed out of what i was wearing and into my “Everybody loves a cunning linguist” t-shirt and was grateful to be able to use the washer/dryer at the loft.

Kate's sister [QM] and other people i hadn’t previously met came over later, and we watched a couple episodes of Coupling (“Unflushed” -- 1.01 -- and “The Girl With Two Breasts” -- 1.05). I was a fan.

Sharon and i went to dinner at Klong, this little Asian place on St. Mark’s (between 2nd and 3rd). I brought my leftovers back to the loft to put ‘em in the fridge and changed back into what i had been wearing previously and then we headed out to the bar. I’d considered leaving my t-shirt on (And QM, who had previously commented positively on my shirt, was indeed sad that i had changed out of it.), but i felt more comfortable wearing something that people wouldn’t be constantly reading. Though it would have been a conversation piece, which probably would have lessened the amount of time i spent hanging around silently.

I was dismayed to discover that we only got discounts on draft beers (odd seeing everyone drinking beer on the heels of my conversation with Allie about how few people our age, women especially, really like beer) and 2 kinds of shots. But because it was actually my birthday, QM bought a round of Tutti Fruti shots for her, me, and Kate. The best part was that she then told me i could put whatever i ordered on her tab. I had a melon ball and ordered an orgasm but they didn’t have any fresh cream, so i got a white russian instead and learned that while the faux white russians i had with Nao&Liz were palatable, real white russians taste far too much like coffee for my taste. That was in the space of about two hours, and i was beginning to feel dizzy. QM had said something earlier about a goal of the night being to get me drunk, so i asked if dizzy was drunk enough, and she said yes.

Jill remembered me from the last time i’d visited NYC, which impressed me, and otherwise i’d previously met nobody else at the party, though a good few i had at least heard of.

Everyone seemed nice, and i remembered a good number of people’s names since i met them in stages and actually had conversation with a lot of them (or watched them having conversation with other people) so their differentiated identities stuck better. There were a few times i considered leaving, but i’m glad i stayed the whole time ‘cause smaller groups of people are so much more my style.

Loud bar music bugs me ‘cause it’s like, Conversation, what? Though lots of people turn into less than scintillating conversationalists when they’re drunk. Some of the songs that got played i’d heard a ton of times at bartender training, so i had this serious Pavlovian reaction to wanna get up and start mixing drinks behind the bar.

All the people going outside to smoke reminded me of being in high school and going out to Perks at night.

Boris [who is of the sort of people i have no tolerance for] quickly decided i was “one of those people” (i was being minimally responsive to him) which amused me.

Near the end of the evening, i mentioned to Miranda that i was surprised we hadn’t killed each other. Though admittedly there had hardly been any political conversations all evening. When she walked me home she said we had to friend each other on LJ, and i’m not sure how much of that was the drunkenness talking, but since i’d spent much of the night thinking, “I could totally like you, except dude, politics” it was nice to hear.

Kate’s parents have this terrific flat couch that’s long enough for me to comfortably lie down on. I was thrilled. (I am so easy to please when it comes to sleeping arrangements.)

QM and her boy came over the next morning and we ordered breakfast from a Polish diner and watched “Serenity” (the Firefly pilot). We talked about the two different pilots and i said something and QM said she felt like she needed to leave the room (i think she felt outgeeked or something). “Elizabeth’s a Whedonverse geek. Why do you think we’re friends?” Kate said. So true.

In the interest of not getting sick, i slept for most of the bus ride home. Though i did finish the Samaria books (see entry below). Now i get to start rereading the HP books. It goes without saying that even though i’m not deeply interested/invested in the ‘verse, if you spoil me for anything in Book6 i’ll kill you, right? I mean, who posts plot spoilers for anything outside cut-tags, right?

I came home to 3 happy birthday wishes via facebook, and my mom had made me a birthday cake.

Really need to go to the glasses place tomorrow and pick out new frames.