A visitor from the wild, wild West

A great thing happened last week. I almost missed the opportunity, which makes the whole thing even sweeter! Last Monday my college friend Tony sent me an email asking if I had plans to meet up with our mutual friend Clayton while he was in the city on a layover between flights from Denver and to Africa. Now I haven't seen Clayton since we graduated in 2002, so I definitely don't know about his current travel plans. So I got Clayton's number from Tony and gave him a call. Sure enough, he was staying the night on Thursday in a HoJo out by JFK. His friends wanted to come into town, so we could! definitely meet up for dinner or drinks or whatever. Sweet!

We met up at 43rd and Times Square on Thursday night after some texting and calling. I saw him on the street and it was like old times, you know? I LOVE that about people! He even still smelled like he used to! (That may sound weird, but I spent sooooo much time in Tony and Clayton's dorm room my freshman and sophomore years of college that I would recognize that scent anywhere.) It was fun to reminisce with him about various goings on at Central, including the drunken nights and dance parties and dorm drama. I took him and his four friends to John's of Bleecker on 44th for New York stye pizza and Brooklyn Lagers. After dinner they wanted to see some of the city, so we walked across 42nd, past Bryant Park and the Library to Grand Central, where we caught the subway and headed south to the Brooklyn Bridge. We went halfway across the bridge to take in the view of Manhattan and of the Statue. I'd never been on the bridge at 1 AM before; it was a great view, although by then the Empire State Building had shut off its red and yellow lights. After that I sent them on their way back to the HoJo in cabs so they could get a good night's sleep before the flight the next morning.


Many thanks to Tony for making sure I knew about this little window of opportunity!