Manhattan Chowder, Back in the Big Apple

Hey, Old Friend

This weekend in Washington was the Gay and Lesbian Journalist Convention. It just so happens I had two old friends attending, Joe, of Joe.My.God fame and Dave, author and cartoonist of A Couple of Guys. I've known both of them for years. Dave I met by chance on tour almost 10 years ago and it was just one of those friendships that has lasted and lasted. He's one of those rare friends you might not talk to for months but whenever you do you pick up right where you left off. And I've not talked about it much here, but ol' Joe.My.God and I go way back as well. I have the distinct pleasure of being one of the first friends he met in New York after his move from San Francisco. We had chatted online before but never met. My boyfriend at the time, Jimmy, and I planned to meet Joe at the Dugout on a Sunday night for beer blast one night back in 2000. Joe was sitting quietly off in a corner nervously scanning the room for us. He seemed shy first, but it wasn't long before the ice was broken and a long friendship has endured. Knowing him now of course it seems hard to believe that he was ever shy before.

It had been a while since I'd seen Joe or Dave. At least with Dave we have the excuse of living in different cities. I have no excuse for not seeing Joe though except that New York can be such a complicated place to stay in touch with people. Everyone's always so busy (and then Joe had to go and move to the Upper East Side!) Ironic that we both happened to be in Washington to catch up with each other. The thing with both of these guys is that whenever I see either of them we just laugh and laugh! After a week in a new city, as much as I love it here so far, it felt great to see some familiar faces, have some fun and a few laughs.

Labels: Personal

posted by Michael @ 10:02 PM