Friday night, for the second time in a week, I ventured to the Upper West Side. For those of you who know me, you realize that this is somewhat of a big deal -- I'm one of those annoying people who rarely goes out above 14th Street, and would sooner haul out to Brooklyn than uptown for whatever reason. Earlier this week I had dinner with two law school friends whom I hadn't seen (at least together) in ages. Last night, I had dinner with my friend Eric. Eric and I were walking down the street and lo and behold I bump into one of the aforementioned friends and his girlfriend. Jon was stunned that I was on the UWS twice in a week, and Eric commented that virtually every time he's with me, we run into someone I know. It's true -- I run into people I know all the time. I don't know if it's because I just know a lot of people or because I've been here for over a decade. [A brief digression -- Jon volunteered to organize a trip up to the Blue Hill at Stone Barns, since he has a car -- just wanted to memorialize that in writing . . .]

As the evening progressed, I kept running into more and more people. Some of it was planned -- after dinner I headed to the Magician on the Lower East Side to meet a friend for a drink. He was there with another blogger I had met earlier in the week. Some of it was less planned -- on my way to the bar, I ran into my neighbor, whose band was playing at Luna Lounge -- so I had to run over and see the set. When I returned to the bar, I bumped into one of the Speed Sisters, who had tapped my shoulder inadvertently, thinking I was someone else.

Friday night was also my first experience meeting a new person through Dodgeball. I've been using it to check in when I go out, and I met up with Nichelle last night because she knew where I was, but last night one of the folks in my "friends of friends" group started text messaging me because I was nearby. On my way back to the Magician from Luna Lounge, I stoped into Pianos, where he was, and introduced myself. So it works!

I finished the night at 'inoteca -- where I hadn't been in a while. And even though I arrived there just after they stopped serving food, they were kind enough to serve me a little snack because I'm friendly with some of the folks who work there. All in all, a fun, social, people-filled Friday night.

The only downside to a night like that was that it completely derailed my plans for an active Saturday. I ended up relaxing for most of the day, doing a few errands, then staying in and cooking for the evening (the picture is for Tien -- I think the crust needed much more salt and I'm still not great at making it round, but it was nice and crispy). Now I'm off to fit in a quick rollerblade or run before I head up to my camp reunion, but more on that later. . .