Well, my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

[seanan_mcguire]

It's once again time to prepare to fly. My bags are packed (mostly); I'm ready to go (mostly); I don't have a taxi waiting down below, but since my ride to the airport is asleep in the room basically directly beneath me, I'm going to call it close enough for government work. (I like cars-of-friends better than I like taxis, anyway. They don't charge me as much when I suddenly demand we stop for soda.)

It's been a good trip. I didn't get to see nearly as many people as I hoped, on a social basis, but I got a lot of work done, and had a lot of business meetings, and it was good. A distressing number of these business meetings involved feeding me. I will now return to California and live on salad, peas, and carrot sticks for two weeks, while I wait for my body to issue a writ of forgiveness. But! I'm not sorry, because I have eaten cake-and-shake, frozen hot chocolate, some of the weirdest salads ever seen, pepper-encrusted Maine scallops, garlic fries (seriously, these were some high-class garlic fries), baked heirloom apples with homemade apple ice cream, and some of the best chicken and pea curry I've ever had. I have walked and I have wandered, I have pillaged and I've pondered, and I'm happy with the results.

New York is a fascinating place. I really do understand why some people view the concept of leaving as a sort of sacrilege, even as I understand that I'd go crazy and become a bridge troll in Central Park if I ever tried to live here. I like my yearly visits, and I enjoy the chance to see my publishers in their natural habitat, but I also like my world to be a bit greener. (Now, the Jersey Pine Barrens are another matter. I could totally live there. And then the Jersey Devil would eat me.)

It's been a good trip.

I am ready to be home.

Comments

[xanath.livejournal.com]

Don't tell anybody, but I'm planning to surprise a friend of mine next year with a visit to New York. :) I've never been there, and it's about time I got out of the house anyway.

The apple ice cream sounds so good right now.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Oh, fantastic! I hope you have a wonderful time. :)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

. . . I dunno, I think you could take the Jersey Devil.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Write him a song!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I may just have to do that.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D Cause really, it seems we have LOTS of songs about the Fey and Good neighbors of the Older World... but there don't seem to be that many about the Strange Folk of THIS side of the Atlantic... Alec's "Ichabod Crane" come to mind, but that's about it.
Or maybe I'm just not listening to the right folks! :D
Thank you.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It depends on how many claws he comes with, really.

[scholarinexile.livejournal.com]

My view of New York is similar to yours- awesome place to visit, not sure living there is advisable for those who need a bit of nature. Next time you're there, check out a little Japanese restaurant in Tribeca called Ninja New York. It's a ninja-themed Japanese place, very pricey but worth it for the ambiance; they lead you to your booth (which is enclosed behind a bamboo screen) through a secret passage, and stealthy ninjas ghost up to your table and take your order, and the food is incredible.

RE the Jersey Devil: I've got a cousin who works in the Pine Barrens as a park ranger. He's never seen the Devil, but he's heard something cry out in the night there that he says is certainly not any native wildlife conventionally recognized by zoology, and has dealt with enough firsthand accounts from terrified campers that he has no doubts as to its existence.

And damn, now I want scallops. My Seafood Beast hasn't been fed for awhile.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how happy the information about your cousin made me. Seriously. I squealed and clapped my hands. Thank you so much.

[scholarinexile.livejournal.com]

All too happy to oblige. He's offered to take me out there one of these summers, and I fully intend to take him up on it one day.

[ravenclawed.livejournal.com]

Now, the Jersey Pine Barrens are another matter. I could totally live there. And then the Jersey Devil would eat me.

I dunno, the Jersey Devil might think of you as a kindred spirit. :-)

Is cake-and-shake what it sounds like -- a milkshake with cake in it? If it's anything like Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream, I'd so eat it.

I'd go crazy and become a bridge troll in Central Park if I ever tried to live here.

That sounds like a plot bunny if I ever heard one.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

No, it was a slice of fluffy chocolate blackout cake with a fudge filling, served with a small vanilla milkshake made with real Madagascar vanilla.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

*DROOL...*

[ravenclawed.livejournal.com]

I second the drooling!

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I consider NYC a sort of amusement park- you can go there to see and do unusual and exciting things, and then you go home.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Totally.

[maison-du-chats.livejournal.com]

I think frozen hot chocolate at Serendipty 3 should be a reason to visit NYC all by itself.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I can get behind that. I'm so taking my mother there when I bring her to visit New York.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

NYC has amazing bookstores and shops and places to buy exotic foods. Its worth visiting, but to live there full time would be exhausting.

I would go for the Denizen position at the Met, the Troll jobs are really out in the weather and it makes books mold.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[hms42]

Safe travel home.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Done!

[vincentursus.livejournal.com]

Am I to take it that becoming a bridge troll in central park would be regarded as a negative outcome?

Have a good flight.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Only if you wanted me to finish the next book.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I missed you. Next time (given you actually want to meet me), beat Debra at DAW over the head. I work right upstairs from her.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Things were super-hectic this trip, but we should absolutely work something out the next time I'm there.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I don't think the Jersey Devil has actually *eaten* anyone. However, apparently descendants of Mrs. Leeds (I can't remember her first name right now) do still live in the area. I saw one guy on TV (possibly MonsterQuest--I still can't figure out why it's on the History Channel and not something like Discovery) who is a Leeds. He considers the JD a relative.

Most of us in areas of Jersey to the north consider the Pine Barrens rather like most of the country considers Appalachia.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

See, I didn't know what the Pine Barrens were until I made Sheila take me there (not the tourist activity she was expecting me to propose). So cool!!!!

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

I'm Jersey born and bred. I remember actually getting a little flyer on the Jersey Devil with our phone bill one year. Back when everything was Bell. I went camping there one year. Kinda boring except for the horseback riding--no Blair Witches in NJ!

[anne1204.livejournal.com]

I would be trilled to call myself a new yorker. The only thing that stops me from leaving the place i stay now is having no money to buy myself a new home there. I wouldn't want to pay the rent since i heard New York's rents are pretty high. Perhaps one day i will move anyway, without looking back. storage containers (http://www.qwesz.info/business/trust-u-pak-movers-when-moving-to-another-state.html)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It's a nice city.