A couple of years ago for my birthday, I had been lamenting that my New York life had differed from my Iowa life in that back there, I`d had a couple "eras" of really good, close friends (high school friends, early college buddies, the group I lived/hung with post-college), while New York was more loner-like, with many many friends, but not folks I hang out with often.


Beth arranged a secret invite for many Iowans to fly in and surprise me in an East Village Bar, for what was one of the best birthday presents ever.


This year`s been pretty darned good... I`ve made new friends, spent more time with old ones, and some have recovered from personal problems and are once again ready to rumble. Work`s been great, and it`s much easier to bond over beers at 6pm than from our desks at midnight. Fotolog meetups once a month introduce me to even more people, and if there`s a silver lining to having my girlfriend on the other coast, it`s that I busy myself with baseball games, photography, and hanging out with friends.


In a good year, this was a particularly good weekend. Friends Jay and Kelly flew in from Iowa, and met Maggie (in town this weekend), Rudy, I, and others for a few nights on the town, including the above pictured stop at "Siberia".


Cameras with telephoto lenses and night-vision RULE.


see my fotolog for the full photo.