Christopher!

This morning at 4:50 AM I ushered Christopher out the door of my apartment to catch his Super Shuttle ride to JFK for his onward flight to Oklahoma. He is one of those great friends who you always feel comfortable with. He arrived at 249 before me on Friday evening and stood on my stoop in the rainy cold until I got there. As I dashed up the steps to greet him and let him in out of the cold, it was so natural and easy. Somehow like we had seen one another the week before, or like this was routine for us. We shared a bottle of wine, went to dinner and went dancing at my favorite place, which was seriously lame that night! In the end it was fine though, because Christopher was jet lagged and really needed to sleep. Saturday we spent taking in New York's cultural offerings, including the Museum of Modern Art (which was actually pretty cool and that's saying a lot from this modern art disliker)...

We decided that Christopher looked very similar to this statue!

...and La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Christopher's favorite soprano (Renee Fleming) was singing the role of Violetta and his friend was able to score standing room tickets to the sold out Saturday night performance for free. We dressed up and worked the red carpets on the staircases, sipping our house champagne and generally being fabulous. I think the experience was cooler than the opera, but I did enjoy that as well.

A favorite part of the opera house were these Lobmeyr chandeliers, made in Vienna. I want them!

Christopher spent the remainder of his trip seeing other friends in the city, but I did get my fix of him for now. He still does the same silly things that he used to do when we were teaching in Austria...the same dance moves, the same noises, the same sayings. It was so endearing to catch him doing something classically Christopher that I had "forgotten" about in the 18 months since I saw him last. Thank God for friends like the ones I have!