By popular demand� (okay, only one person requested, but I was going to do it anyways!)

NEW YORK

�Spotted� two males canoodling on the subway��

I had a fabulous time in New York. It was so much fun seeing my boy again after three months apart. This long distance thing is getting harder and harder every day, and spending time with him in NYC made me remember how much I love him and why. (blush)

Here�s the highlights, I guess�

My first night there we had sex THREE times! And we didn�t get to his apartment until 10 PM! And we still had time to eat, go to a bar, and chat with his roommate!! I think we defied some law of physics. Perhaps having lots of sex increases the earth�s gravitational pull on you, thereby slowing time and allowing you to have more of it while the rest of the world flies by. Hmm.

On Saturday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was so much fun because I love huge museums. We spent most of our time looking at Greek and Roman pottery. I have a talent which allows me to enter a huge room and pick out the pottery that features the dirtiest, bawdiest paintings in a matter of milliseconds. Little Greek soldiers with erections�tee hee!

Saturday was also the night that we went to see my favorite play of all time, Medea, featuring the best actress to ever grace the stage, Fiona Shaw, directed by one of the most edgy talents of our time, Deborah Warner. I saw this same production twice when I was living in London, and I was ecstatic to hear that the same production had mounted in the States. The play was as good as I remembered it, although you could tell that Fiona has been doing this play for more than two years now. She wasn�t as vibrant as she had been in London, and she was losing her voice from all of the screaming that the part demands. Still fascinating, however, and I�m so glad that my boy bought me tickets! He really liked it too.

On Sunday we checked in to our hotel, which I will heretofore refer to as Le Chateau Sketch, because you have never seen a seedier place. It was supposed to be artsy and interesting, but it was really dirty and unkempt. The floors, ceilings, bathrooms, and walls looked like they hadn�t been cleaned in twenty years. The only clean thing in the room (thankfully) was the bed linen! Our first night in the hotel was terrible because we had ABSOLUTELY no heat, so I woke up every fifteen minutes shivering. The next night we asked to be moved to a new room, which was blessedly warm, but warm soon turned to hot, and when I fiddled with the archaic controls on the register I unwittingly initiated a cycle of shrieking steam that lasted about fifteen minutes, stopped for two, then started again. It was impossible to sleep through the noise. Around 3 AM I kicked the damn thing a bunch of times and that did the trick.

On Sunday we also saw �The Hours,� which was SO good and which rekindled my love for Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway! Go see it, you�ll thank me. It has Oscar-bait written all over it.

Sunday was also the day that I saw Heather, a beautiful friend from my high school days. It was great to see her, catch up with her, and experience the force of energy that emanates from her. I accidentally told her to meet us at the wrong restaurant, and she had to trek all over New York in the middle of a blizzard to meet up with me. We later went to an intimate little diner/coffeeshop where we received, as Heather assured me, the Best Table in the House. We ate lots of chocolate like little piggies. Yay! Heather went to the anti-war rally on Saturday and told us all about her adventures in Midtown Manhattan. The cops were mean to her! How can you beat up on people advocating peace? Grr, NYPD�

On Monday we went to MoMA�s temporary quarters in Queens (simply called �MoMA Queens�) to view the Matisse/Picasso exhibit, which was very interesting and totally worth the hour commute to get there. I told my boy that we were the original �MoMA Queens,� which he got a kick out of. He later declared it my best joke of the trip, and I might have to agree.

Those are really the highlights�there�s lots of stuff that happened in between, but they are mostly memories that are only special to me and wouldn�t be worth repeating here. The verdict of the trip is that I am totally in love with my long-distance boyfriend. The thought of dating anybody else right now is so repulsive to me, which is good because I think I needed that reminder. I know that distance can skew one�s vision, but I also think it helps one to put things in perspective. I was fortunate enough to find a person who I love, who loves me, who can make me laugh, who I can just relax with, and who makes me feel great overall.

Why mess with that?