Ok, I am so utterly busy and have a mountain of things to accomplish but here goes:

I was sitting alone at the local airport and waiting since my flight was delayed. I hear an announcement for a flight to the same airport I am flying into. I get this idea that I am sitting in the wrong gate so I go to the other gate for the other flight and innocently say, "am I supposed to be down here?" The attendant says, "well no but I can get you on this flight instead" She clicks on the keyboard makes a call and suddenly I am leaving on time. What luck!

We fly over Manhattan and I see the hue buildings all lit up, magnificent! I see the statue of liberty glowing her coppery green from the plane. I am instantly in love with the sprawling mass below me despite myself.

I get Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in my head. The plane lands and my friend is missing. I have a slight bit of panic as I call her and she has not left home yet. She calls a cab and soon is there to guide the novice on the complicated bus and subway system that gets us to her apartment. Now it is late and I crash on her pull-out couch.

I get up way too early for New Yorkers so I lay in bed daydreaming as long as I can stand it. We get ready and head out for the Red Dot Art Fair. We catch a snack for breakfast (the yummy rice crispy treat) and go art for a bit.

The hotel rooms are full of artwork, even in the bathrooms! The people are generally nice and fun as we walk around and chat with gallery directors and other viewers. The work is ok, later I realize I will like it a bit more then the Armory show but I was not paying as close attention as I should have been since I was expectant for the Armory show. Still I did see a few things that I really enjoyed. It was a great bit of diversity of work and some real gems were about.

Then we caught the Armory show shuttle (free a boon to getting to the Piers) and had to wait in a line of people. These people generally wore black and looked good. Dressed to look like they always wear these clothes really but they obviously really don't.

Once in it was a zoo. There were so many people milling about in this hypnotic state staring at the walls in a mix of wonder and well, confusion. The work was all over the place, literally and figuratively but I will go into that later. (stay tuned for this weeks installments)

I saw Chuck Close and he saw that I saw him and smiled at me. I smiled back (I smiled at Chuck Close...I am such a goofy dork, but anyway) and was just secretly thrilled. We were starving so we stopped in the cafe for some soup. Our conversation (she has put up with my insanity for over 17 years so it was a good long talk) was so important and significant in a way one can be with an old friend who you have not had a chance to share with in a long time.

We looked more and eventually gave in hours later after hunger decided to strike and soup just did not sound good so we left. We took another shuttle to a show we did not go to and ate dinner at a small place. It was delicious.

We then decided to subway it to Volta another show that closed at 9PM instead of 8. It was by and far the best of all of them. I loved the work and it picked both of us up from the disappointment of the Armory show. It was just great. The artists were around and they threw confetti and blew smoke all over. It was a good time.

We then went out for a drink at a place near Houston (How-ston to the New Yorker baby) and had another conversation that was just so helpful. Good friends are really so important to have. I sipped a rasberry martini (yum) and we had an extremely handsome waiter, the atmosphere was perfect for revelations.

Then home to crash after a perfect day!