This will be the easiest blog entry ever. It was pretty much just a travel day so not much to report on. I don’t remember what time I woke up but seem to recall it was reasonably late, for me anyway, like 6am. I responded to emails, etc, packed and left probably around 7:30. It was going to be in the 90’s when I landed in NYC, but it was cold and rainy in London, so I wore my raincoat over shorts and sandals, didn’t care what it looked like. And I sure appreciated that long tunnel to get to the subway so I could avoid much of that wet.

I took the Piccadilly line all the way to Heathrow Terminal 5. It is home of British Airways international flights so the one I’m most familiar with. I think Heathrow has like 7 terminals, I’ve only been in 2 and 3 once and that’s it, all other times it’s been 5. Because I’d booked this through American Airlines, I wasn’t able to get my boarding pass on my phone and had to get it in person. Good thing because they reminded me that as a gold card holder I could use the fast track security. Sweet! (Thanks, Dan!)

It was probably 9am when I got to the lounge. My flight wasn’t boarding until 11:10 but that was fine with me because this was more comfortable than the room I’d been in, plus all the coffee and food I could want for free.

One view of the lounge

At the very moment I was feeling subconscious and extra touristy by taking photos of the lounge, through the lens I saw this British Airways employee on the right taking one, so I got over it. I don’t know what or who he was shooting but it sort of underscored the “nobody cares” thing. This is the lounge I’ve been in the most often over the years, and the biggest I’ve seen. It’s easily 4x the size of what you see here, actually probably 6. Lots of different kinds of seating areas.

The dining area

You can of course take food from here to wherever you’re sitting, which is what I did. There’s a buffet down on the end – typical English breakfast fare out at this time – with coffee, water, juice all along the right side.

My flight was delayed a little but landed on time, touching ground at exactly 2:00 Eastern time. I had my patience cap on and it was a good thing. Everything after you land can take a very long time (deplaning, customs, subway ticket lines), and it did; I finally got to my hotel at 4:30. An hour of that just on the subway.

I’m staying at The Jane in the West Village. For $89 a night, a ridiculously low rate for NYC, you get a very small room.

Laying on the bed facing the mirror on the wall

This is the whole thing. It’s the smallest of any I’ve been in on this trip. Shared bathroom – co-ed even – a couple of hallways away. It’s an odd set up and not very comfortable.

I rested for a little while then took the subway over to Art’s hotel in Midtown. Many of you know Art (I know this because we have 113 mutual friends on Facebook!) and that he was planning on being here at the same time was a fun coincidence we are fully taking advantage of. He’s a puppeteer – coolest profession ever I say – and had shows in Boston last week, and has one on Long Island Saturday, so is hanging out here in the mean time. His husband, Mike, is coming up tomorrow, and they’ll spend Labor Day weekend seeing shows, etc.

We grabbed a couple of slices of pizza from a hole–in-the-wall around the corner from his hotel and went back to his room and got caught up. It was the first actual conversation I’d with someone since August 17! Then we went to a meeting over around 37th and Lexington.

The Chrysler Building

We caught a nice view of the Chrysler Building as we got out of the cab. A friend of ours who had moved here from Sacramento about 6 months ago joined us for the meeting, Joel.

Joel, me, Art, and the Empire State Building

We walked around a little after and snagged a selfie with the lit Empire State Building behind us. By this time it was about 9:30 and I was Done, especially since it was really like 2:30am my time.

Art and I have a fun day planned today so tune in tomorrow….