And alas, that I didn't have the wherewithall to blog about this sooner. It's always a treat for me when Ampersand comes to town. I've known Barry since my INSIDE JOKE days, and one of the first times we met was when I was in my old job on Stuyvesant Street in the East Village, so I was happy with the agreed-upon choice of nearby Grand Sichuan on St. Mark's Place as the gathering point for a group dinner of Barry's friends and readers. We even forgave him, sort of, for picking a midweek date during one of New York City's most miserable heat waves.
Fortunately another of Barry's long-time friends, known on LiveJournal as Jake Squid, was kind enough to pick us up and drive us into Manhattan, the Place Wherein I Do Not Drive My Car. While getting in and out of the back seat of a 2-door is always tricky, we were grateful for both his kindness and his parking karma, which found us less than a block and a half away.
The food was terrific, as was the company. Let's see how much I still remember days later of people I'd only just met:
Here are the three folks already on my blogroll - Barry, of course; his coblogger Rachel Sullivan, who runs Rachel's Tavern; and Scott Lemieux, one of the contributors to the group blog Lawyers, Guns and Money. I'm psyched I met Rachel, as she lives not far from where I work so it'll be nice to have an actual friend nearby during my 40-hour weeks of coworkers-who-aren't-really-friends. And as Barry noted, Scott (who did indeed wear shorts) is one of the best bloggers around regarding abortion statutes; his knowledge of the subject is breathtaking.
Aaaiiieee, new people! This is the second picture I took swiveling from my right to my left, as you can see Barry's right arm just in the frame on the right. From left to right: the blogger known as Belle Dame who blogs at Fetch Me My Axe about all sorts of things social and sexual and spiritual; Tawana, who has a terrific smile and runs a dating blog but I didn't get the details; and, in back of the "Alas" sign, The Purple Girl (Rosemarie), who comments a lot on Barry's blog and seemed to be quite knowledgeable about Teh SF Fandom, about which I knew much more in a previous life.
Oh look, I did get a shot of Robin, kind of, barely! I love that polo shirt; I love all his new polo shirts. He's definitely a polo shirt kinda guy. Then there's Jake and, again, Belle Dame.
Not pictured are "latecomers" (really, only folks who arrived about 10 minutes later than us) Josh Jasper (who comments a lot on Alas) and Rose Fox, who writes for Treehugger and has the best real name of anyone at the table that night. I mean really, "Rose Fox," it sounds like the perfect superhero secret identity. Josh and Rose are regulars at Grand Sichuan, and were indispensable at guiding us through some of the dishes. The two in the foreground here are "soup dumplings," which means you had to poke a hole in the dumpling and sort of sip out the moisture before biting into it. The diners made, as you might expect, liberal use of the lazy susan; although we ordered individually and it was up to everyone's discretion whether or not to share their selection, most people did (Robin would have but he waited about 20 minutes longer than everyone else for his moo shu dish to arrive, and even then they never brought the wrappers), and Rob was amazed that there was only one duplication! The food was good, but for a restaurant that obviously serves lots of groups you'd think the service would be a tad faster and the language barrier a little less.
The other comparative latecomer was Richard Jeffrey Newman, who runs It's All Connected..., where a cursory glance shows he seems to blog a lot about sexual matters. As many readers may know, I think public discussion of sex is Teh Icky (that's only half sarky, I do tend to get uncomfortable discussing what I consider private matters in any sort of public venue), so I didn't join in on much of the cross-talk on that subject. Besides, I didn't feel the ambient noise was conducive to that much deep conversation on any topic; there was a particularly raucous group right next to us that had me straining to make out what folks in our party were saying much of the time. Sorry to have seemed so conversationally reticent, folks!
Robin took this photo of what remained of the group by 10 PM. I'd been checking the time for about an hour by then (we'd finished eating by about 8:45), but it seemed as though nobody had to get up for work early the following morning, so they stayed and stayed and stayed. We made it back home about 11 (thanks again, Jake!), and Barry was disappointed that we hadn't had more time to talk, but by that hour it's Daily Show and Colbert and then sleep for me. I got up a little earlier than usual the following morning so we chatted for about half an hour, he got to check email and such, and I transferred the above photos to his digicam, but I think in future the unwritten rule has to be "Elayne must leave Manhattan by 9 PM or turn into a squashed pumpkin for the rest of the week," which is pretty much the way I've felt. I'm only now morphing back into my usual golden carriage-ness. Nonetheless, it was fun, I always enjoy meeting new bloggers and other fascinating folks, and I look forward to more fun with Barry the next time he swings back east!
Fortunately another of Barry's long-time friends, known on LiveJournal as Jake Squid, was kind enough to pick us up and drive us into Manhattan, the Place Wherein I Do Not Drive My Car. While getting in and out of the back seat of a 2-door is always tricky, we were grateful for both his kindness and his parking karma, which found us less than a block and a half away.
The food was terrific, as was the company. Let's see how much I still remember days later of people I'd only just met:
Here are the three folks already on my blogroll - Barry, of course; his coblogger Rachel Sullivan, who runs Rachel's Tavern; and Scott Lemieux, one of the contributors to the group blog Lawyers, Guns and Money. I'm psyched I met Rachel, as she lives not far from where I work so it'll be nice to have an actual friend nearby during my 40-hour weeks of coworkers-who-aren't-really-friends. And as Barry noted, Scott (who did indeed wear shorts) is one of the best bloggers around regarding abortion statutes; his knowledge of the subject is breathtaking.
Aaaiiieee, new people! This is the second picture I took swiveling from my right to my left, as you can see Barry's right arm just in the frame on the right. From left to right: the blogger known as Belle Dame who blogs at Fetch Me My Axe about all sorts of things social and sexual and spiritual; Tawana, who has a terrific smile and runs a dating blog but I didn't get the details; and, in back of the "Alas" sign, The Purple Girl (Rosemarie), who comments a lot on Barry's blog and seemed to be quite knowledgeable about Teh SF Fandom, about which I knew much more in a previous life.
Oh look, I did get a shot of Robin, kind of, barely! I love that polo shirt; I love all his new polo shirts. He's definitely a polo shirt kinda guy. Then there's Jake and, again, Belle Dame.
Not pictured are "latecomers" (really, only folks who arrived about 10 minutes later than us) Josh Jasper (who comments a lot on Alas) and Rose Fox, who writes for Treehugger and has the best real name of anyone at the table that night. I mean really, "Rose Fox," it sounds like the perfect superhero secret identity. Josh and Rose are regulars at Grand Sichuan, and were indispensable at guiding us through some of the dishes. The two in the foreground here are "soup dumplings," which means you had to poke a hole in the dumpling and sort of sip out the moisture before biting into it. The diners made, as you might expect, liberal use of the lazy susan; although we ordered individually and it was up to everyone's discretion whether or not to share their selection, most people did (Robin would have but he waited about 20 minutes longer than everyone else for his moo shu dish to arrive, and even then they never brought the wrappers), and Rob was amazed that there was only one duplication! The food was good, but for a restaurant that obviously serves lots of groups you'd think the service would be a tad faster and the language barrier a little less.
The other comparative latecomer was Richard Jeffrey Newman, who runs It's All Connected..., where a cursory glance shows he seems to blog a lot about sexual matters. As many readers may know, I think public discussion of sex is Teh Icky (that's only half sarky, I do tend to get uncomfortable discussing what I consider private matters in any sort of public venue), so I didn't join in on much of the cross-talk on that subject. Besides, I didn't feel the ambient noise was conducive to that much deep conversation on any topic; there was a particularly raucous group right next to us that had me straining to make out what folks in our party were saying much of the time. Sorry to have seemed so conversationally reticent, folks!
Robin took this photo of what remained of the group by 10 PM. I'd been checking the time for about an hour by then (we'd finished eating by about 8:45), but it seemed as though nobody had to get up for work early the following morning, so they stayed and stayed and stayed. We made it back home about 11 (thanks again, Jake!), and Barry was disappointed that we hadn't had more time to talk, but by that hour it's Daily Show and Colbert and then sleep for me. I got up a little earlier than usual the following morning so we chatted for about half an hour, he got to check email and such, and I transferred the above photos to his digicam, but I think in future the unwritten rule has to be "Elayne must leave Manhattan by 9 PM or turn into a squashed pumpkin for the rest of the week," which is pretty much the way I've felt. I'm only now morphing back into my usual golden carriage-ness. Nonetheless, it was fun, I always enjoy meeting new bloggers and other fascinating folks, and I look forward to more fun with Barry the next time he swings back east!
0 comments:
Post a Comment