New York Nights

7/15/02

I meet up with a friend and a friend of a friend for a drink in a bar in a park that is open-air -- only open in the summer. They want to talk to me about my recent adventures in the East and elsewhere. I show them some photos (on request) and we chat and laugh about Bangkok and how hot it can be there at this time of year. It's almost as hot in New York City today.

They leave and I'm on my way home, but I'm hungry because it's late and I still haven't had any sort of dinner -- not any food since around noon or 1 pm at least. I stop in a noodle place, remembering my recent trip, and sit at the counter. I meet a young writer named Marc and we discuss fiction and poetry and what we're currently reading. He's taking a writing class at NYU this summer; I recommend Gotham Writer's Workshop as a good outlet for creative writing and support.

It's getting late for a Monday, and I have to go home and go to bed so that I can get up for work tomorrow. I walk towards the subway. On the way over there, my cell phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Yes?"

"Hello? Who is this?"

"I'm looking for Jesus."

"Who?"

"Um.."

"Yeah, ok. I think you have the wrong number."

"Sorry."

Click.

A moment later, the pay phone next to me rings. I answer it. I hear some breathing and noise in the background that sounds like a party. I hang up the receiver, and keep walking.

I'm almost to the subway when a guy trying to get into an office building stops me.

"Are you going in here?"

"No, I'm going home to Brooklyn."

He's simultaneously talking to me and someone on a cell phone. "Yeah, I'm trying to get into the office to get onto this conference call to Australia." This piques my interest. What kind of business is he doing?

It turns out to be a sports marketing company. Conference calls at 10 pm. I bid him farewell and good luck, and I turn towards the subway.