Leavin' on a jetplane... and a story from NYC!

Well, today is the big day - heading to the airport in a couple of hours with loooong flights ahead of me on the way to Sydney & Townsville, Australia, in the state of Queensland.

JP popped up at my parents in NJ this weekend and dragged me up to New York to go out and visit some old friends. She has an awesome apartment right on Central Park West at 107th St., but is giving it up to go work in LA next month. Something about working at the LA Philharmonic, sheesh. Very Cosmo!

So anyway, as many of you know, I read and was amazed and deeply touched by the book "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert. Bought several copies and gave them away, read it twice, and it's now in my top three books all time.

So we're all chatting while walking to the bars and it turns out, JP's friend KNOWS the author!!! Calls her Liz!!! So she whips out her cell phone and makes the call to get her to come out and meet us. I'm thinking that after years of hating famous person kiss-ups, I'm about to turn into one... But she gets the voicemail and has to leave a message. And we never hear back. Oh well. Probably better that way, I'm sure "Liz" would have been weirded out by the parallels in our stories - divorce, next relationship gone wrong, interest in yoga, and the fact that two of the three countries she visited (Italy & Indonesia,) are on my trek. I would never be able to convince her that this was all in place before I read her book, and she would think I'm some stalker.

Wound up having an excellent evening at Le Monde (across from the Seinfeld diner for you sitcom fans,) and some other bar or two I'm not very clear on. The ride home the next morning was a bit oogie.

Now two days of frantic prep and a long fight with the cell phone company later, I'm paying my last bills and about to hit the road.

Please stay in touch, I miss all of you and I cannot wait to hear from you.

Stay Wet, Happy & Safe -
Ciao,
Clement