I met Hana for lunch yesterday in the city. We were supposed to eat outside at Centosette on 13th and 3rd, but they've closed it, and moved to a new location. So wrong! At least it's not gone completely, but their pesto better be just as good at the next location or someone's going to pay.

Instead we ate at the completely useless Cafe DeVille across the street. The service was shit and my salmon sandwich was initially served on stale bread. Again: so wrong! How hard is it to have fresh bread? I was ready to walk over to the fucking deli across the street and buy them a goddamn loaf.

And then I had a glass of wine at lunch which calmed me down a bit, but it didn't react so well with the allergy medicine I had taken for the swollen eye problem from seven hours earlier, and, coupled with the fact that I had been up since five AM, I felt like taking a nap.

Immediately.

Fine, no problem, there's Union Square Park. I'll just go take a little nap on the grass. No one will care. Except the big grassy area of the park wasn't open yet, because it's too early in the year. Could I sleep sitting up on a bench? Well, maybe, if I had just gone on methadone, or something.

So I decided to go see a movie, any movie, just so I could rest my head. Ten bucks for two hours of rest. I choose Anger Management, one of two films playing at that time. Jack Nicholson's voice is so soothing, I thought. I can rest now. But in the lobby I ran into Mark, this guy I used to go out with in Seattle who moved to New York and ended up working in a lamp store, and was the subject of one of the retail photojournalism projects. I hadn't seen him in a year. He and his girlfriend, Carolina, had gone fishing for the summer, and had turned their cellphone off. I had assumed they were gone forever, but really it was just four or five months.

Anyway, I couldn't even walk a straight line and there was Mark.

"How are you?" he said.

"Uh, not so well," I said, and said something about wine and allergy medicine and an inflamed eye. I was mumbling. He looked at me like I was crazy, and I think I was a little crazy right then. I really just needed a nap.

So he and Carolina and I all sat together during the movie and I felt so ridiculous sleeping even though it was so cool and so nice in there. I closed my eyes a couple of times when Jack was talking, I must admit. (I want him to read me a bedtime story sometime and I mean that in a totally non-sexual way because he's like ninety.) But mostly I was forced to watch the movie and, in case you were wondering, it sucked. Not funny, not in the slightest. Maybe I should have gone to see Head of State instead. Oh, I don't know. I was thinking, Chris Rock, he's got that scratchy, high-pitched voice. I'm not going to want to listen to that for two hours. But I'll bet it was funnier.

After the movie, Mark and Carolina walked me to Beauty Bar, where I was meeting Catherine. Mark hadn't been there before, and probably would never be there again since he had quit drinking (A good idea, if you ask me.), though he hadn't quit smoking. And Carolina still drank, but had quit smoking, so she didn't want to be sitting in a bar either. Ah, I thought. No wonder they're going to see bad movies in the middle of the day. They're probably seeing every movie made just so he doesn't have to think about drinking and she doesn't have to think about smoking.

At the bar Mark immediately recognized the bartender - also an ex Seattleite - as a former roommate.

"You lived in my basement, man," Mark said.

"I did?"

"Yea and then it flooded and you had to move out."

"Oh YEA..."

Brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it?

Mark and Carolina took off because being in a bar was clearly hell for them. I told them to come visit me in Brooklyn sometime, and I sure hope they do. They'd like it out here, down by the water.

I had a couple of drinks with Catherine and the bartender told us about his three motorcycles and their different roles in his life. Cat headed home to watch Buffy, and I took the L back to Brooklyn. I decided to take the bus back to my neighborhood instead of walking once I got there, because I was still tired. I called my parents while I was waiting for the bus so that they could keep me awake.

My parents were sitting out back, enjoying the nice weather and the breeze. My dad told me he decided to stop traveling as much with his job (Another good idea, if you ask me.), and he seemed happier and more relaxed than he had in months. My mom bitched about her job a bit. I told them that I was feeling pretty free these days. I was just going to enjoy myself, enjoy the spring, before reality set in and I had to find a job. We talked some more about the weather -- the weather was making everyone happy. And then, I arrived home, and there was still a little light left in the sky. I took some more allergy medicine, and then, finally, I slept.

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