Sleepless in New York

There is something particularly special about the smell of New York when the weather is warm. The garbage left out on the street leaves a patina that some try to wash away with a hose but to little effect. Instead the smell is diminished and altered slightly, but enough lingers to lodge in your sense memory.
Or at least it did in mine.
Add to that the smell of fresh fruit in the corner market bins and the general smells of morning (and fish if you’re lucky enough to be on th Lower East side) and you have a pantheon of smells unlike anything anywhere else.

Which is what I had this morning.
Perhaps it was unwise to schedule my first major book signing event on the day before the ten year anniversary of the 9/11attacks. Perhaps not. Either way, I didn’t sleep much. Why? Two things. First, my sister found on Craig’s List an apartment with a room you could rent. Awesome, right? And really reasonable. And downtown, amidst the police protecting all of us.
Lots and lots of police.

Second, knowing my bus would have to leave through the tunnel tomorrow. On 9/11 I scrupulously avoided all bridges and tunnels (rather sanely, I thought) and now, new terrorist threats announced, here I am, about to do the stupid…or at least the cautiosly tense.
Regardless, there wasn’t much sleep.
But now in the drift morning light, I sit at La Pain Quotidien

with a fabulously snarky New York waiter, about to eat gluten-free oatmeal and drink a pot of Earl Grey–I already had awesome coffee on the walk up.

My coffee place.

And then? Then I go to the SoHo Gallery of Digital Art, meet up with Ehren Ziegler of ChopBardChopBard podcast and set up for our day of bookish fun!