I Heart New York

Oh my god, I finally met Walt!!!

My daytrip adventure to New York via busride from Wilkes-Barre, PA, was for the sole purpose of meeting this man, finally.

I say "finally", and yet it has been only a month since I even started chatting with him, then blogging (due in no small part to his encouragement and to inspiration from reading his own blog).

At one point during dinner, he gave form to thoughts that had been swimming around in my big-round-charlie-brown-head since very shortly after meeting him: "if you lived here, we'd hang out, i'm sure of it."

Me too, Walt, me too.

While I stand by my words about the energy one must put out just to maintain one's sense of self in New York, I should add that when you're not by yourself, when you're in the company of such a genuinely lovely (and damn fine looking) human being like him, an exquisite contrast appears between the With-Out and the Within. A small bubble of quietude is carved out and away from blinding light and deafening noise.

Rita's cafe, where we went for coffee after dinner, is a terrific place to just be. To stop, or at least to slow down enough to breathe, to think, to feel and most importantly, to enjoy the presence of a friend. New friend or otherwise, doesn't matter.

It's always a chance you take when you meet someone in person for the first time, regardless of the circumstances that led to the meeting in the first place. But that's what makes it an adventure, isn't it? Risk?

Now, to read Walt's writing, to absorb the soft and fluid line-betweens of his words, you just know it's going to be at least an enriching and valuable experience to meet the man behind it all.

But today was more than that. He is charming, engaging, handome, effusive, catty, sweet, observant, wry, genuine. All those things and more.

What a GREAT day.

Did I mention that I met Walt today?