An NYC highlight was meeting the lovely and charming Krissa, who took me from the gaudy trappings of midtown to the eclectic neighborhood of Alphabet City.  Bars and weird shops aren’t new to anyone who lives in the Bay Area, but there was a difference.  I think in San Francisco people are self-conscious about the urban planning; they put a lava lamp shop here and a bunch of beads there and then they jam to Phish for a while.  In Alphabet City, we walked past a shop that said “CAPPUCCINOS AND TATTOOS”; right across the street was a daycare center.  It struck me as unpretentious and effortless.  Drop off the kid, get your caffeine fix, slap on a snake coililng around a crucifix.  It’s obvious!

In barhopping we also came across a place advertising--and I’m almost sure I’m remembering this right--a Happy Hour from 1-9 pm. That’s not a happy hour; that’s happy day.  The only thing we were lacking was Fonzie.  And although we finished our drink at 9:15, the bartender offered to give us more at happy hour prices, which meant we were suddenly on Happy Hour Overtime.

We eventually settled in an outdoor cafe with an overhanging ceiling.  It had a painted mural in the background and green vegetation with actual grapes curling overhead.  Krissa added that the waitresses are sometimes scared of the mice that scurry across the floor, and this seemed very New York to me; lovely stuff to look at way up on high, but duck your head down and a rodent might nip you on the nose.

Krissa, a long-time “blog friend” turned cosmopolitan hostess and tour guide, was effortessly cool and conversational, and in fact is the kind of person you can immediately talk to on a very intense level.  Topics included love, death, family, sex, and getting a charley horse in one’s buttocks.  If you get to know her, maybe she’ll show you where the cool kids go too--but you didn’t hear it from me.  I intend to keep her my New York secret.