I spent the first part of March in New York City meeting "the friend of a friend" whom I'd been emailing off and on for a few months. She and I had each ended a long term relationship at about the same time, and a mutual friend quickly suggested that we were similar people and should get in touch with one another. Our friendship was nothing more than very infrequent emails for many months, growing in regularity as time passed. Jamie is getting her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University Of St. Augustine in northern Florida, and with her spring break approaching I suggested that we meet each other somewhere not in Florida. We selected New York City, the reason for my visit to this metropolis.

As our mutual friend had suggested, we very much hit it off. Enough so that I've been very neglectful of other aspects of life, such as work and maintaining KernelTrap. Our three days in New York turned into a little over a week thanks to Jamie doing less than perfectly on a final that earned her an unrequested two month break from school. It was only the beginning of what's proved to be a whirlwind of fun and distraction, and ultimately a new relationship.

After Jamie returned to Florida, I stayed in the city a few more days to catch up with Micah, an old friend and fellow out-the-roader, and his girlfriend Sam. We all stayed up far too late each night talking, laughing, and seeing awful movies. All in all, it was an amazingly fun time.

Meeting For The First Time

Up until arriving in New York I wasn't in the least bit worried about meeting Jamie, looking forward to what would hopefully prove to be a good new friendship. But making the hour and a half ride in the subway from our hotel in New York out to the airport to pick her up and meet her for the first time, I suddenly found myself a nervous wreck. In this photo, my heart rate would rival a humming bird's. We're waiting in the airport for luggage that didn't actually arrive until the following day.

Vegan Supper

From left to right, Jamie, Sam, Micah and myself. We all went out for a scrumptious vegan meal, followed by a sinfully rich desert at a chocolate restaurant. The smiles on everyone's faces are legit as I accidentally handed the camera to our waiter in 10-second timer mode, it blinking and flashing and making for a confused waiter.

Lady Liberty

New York City proved to be an expensive place to hang out, but one fun thing that was completely free was riding the Stanton Island Ferry out to Stanton island and back past the Statue of Liberty.

Coney Island

On one of Jamie's last days in New York we road the subway all the way out to Coney Island in southern Brooklyn. The amusement park was closed for the winter season, but it was fun to walk around in the snow until we froze and had to return to the subway to warm up.

Pizza

On the way back from Coney Island we stopped at Di Fara's pizza in Brooklyn at the recommendation of one of Jamie's friends. The place more than lived up to his recommendation. Domenico DeMarco has been making the pies for over 40 years, winning countless awards and written up in dozens of newspapers as the best pizza in New York. We had to wait an hour for our tomato, basil and cheese pizza, but it was well worth the wait. Completely made from scratch, the basil is grown in window pots and the buffalo mozzarella is imported from Cicily.

Rent

We took in four shows while in the city, Wicked, Spamalot, The Producers, and our favorite, Rent. Rent offers a raffle before each show in which you sign your name to a card then hang out about thirty minutes waiting for a drawing. About 40 people are selected in the drawing and are able to buy front row tickets for only $20. We didn't win the drawing but managed to get a great deal anyway on amazing seats.

Subways

Our meeting in New York proved far more than we'd hoped for, and it was clear we'd be spending more time together in the future at our first opportunity. In this photo we're riding the Subway out to JFK for Jamie's return flight, already planning our next trip.

Feelin' Groovy

Micah and I kicked down the cobblestone, walking up to the 59'th street bridge of Simon & Grafunkel's Feelin' Groovy fame. We had intended to walk across the bridge on the quest for the cobblestone (which we never did find), but ended up instead taking a sky trolley next to the bridge. This was one of the few lampposts we found to say hello to.