Breakfast #1 was out of the way. I took in a bit of the graduation festivities and reminisced about my own college experience--good times!

The caffeine was kicking in and I was in a good mood. Being in a different place with lots to do and see was doing wonders for my vacation state-o-mind.

I'm normally a fast walker--it's the one kind of exercise I get a lot of. No wonder I'm so trim! Anyway, I managed to make it all the way up to like 20-something street before I got a text from my dancer friend (let's call dancer friend DF for short from now on, OK?):

"hi...where r u?"

I texted back, "out walking. now @ east 29th and 5th. donde estas?"

Ten minutes or so go by--was enjoying sights and sounds of a busy New York street and didn't keep track of time. DF calls, wishes me a good morning and explains that she's still lying in bed and would call me in half-an-hour.

I work with female dancers all the time as you well know. Love 'em all to death of course, but dancers and females in general will say half-an-hour and when translated into real-time is more like 60 minutes. It used to bug me in gig situations--I'm probably the only flamenco in DC who shows up to gigs super early! :-) But it's just the way things work.

So instead of wearing myself out walking another hundred blocks waiting for her to call, I ducked into a huge Barnes and Noble and lost all track of time--you know me and books, love 'em! Some actress named Teri Hatcher was doing a book signing at this store and there was already a line forming at 9:30 and she wasn't going to arrive until noon. Sheesh! You'd think that New Yorkers would be used to seeing celebrities all the time.

Like clockwork, DF calls me an hour later, ahem (I know she's going to playfully punch me next time I see her. hehe). By this time, I gave up waiting in line for Teri :-), um I mean, finished browsing the New York tourist books section, and walked twenty blocks or so south to Gramercy Park where DF's friend's apartment was--a really nice neighborhood! By this time, I had burned all the calories from breakfast #1 and was ready for #2.

DF calls me and I tell her that I'm at a Starbucks around the corner from her friend Ashley's apartment. Not much to eat here at Starbucks 'cept pastries and stuff. I was already well-caffeinated as it is so I got a three-dollar bottle of all natural fruit smoothie with over-the-top nutritional supplement--like 3000% of vitamin C etc. This was going to be my breakfast #2. It's da new Miguelito diet--six small meals a day.

DF arrives, we linger for a bit in the cafe scanning the tourist brochures and finally decide we'd go visit the Empire State building, but before that we'd get some lunch and do some clothes shopping, yay! Walked up a few blocks and ended up at Cafe 28--good place to eat on 28th and 5th.

Her lunch. May 12, 2006 12:35pm

I loaded up on carbs this morning, but I was running behind in the veggies department so I stocked up on the greens with a little bit of seafood and tofu for some protein. Good stuff! I think we spent more time circling the buffet (they're huge!) than we spent actually eating.

My lunch. May 12, 2006 12:35pm

Did a lotta window shopping when DF mentioned that she needed some nice shoes tonight. So I kept my eye out--I'm not a shoe fiend but I just followed my aesthetic instincts and I steered her into this one store window that caught my eye. She ended up buying a very nice looking and comfortable pair of shoes that she wore out of the store. She also walked out with a pair of equally comfortable white pants. I needed to do some clothes shopping myself, but by now we were at our tourist destination...the Empire State Building!

Admission was like $16 each and there are pushy salespeople trying to sell all kinds of extras like a virtual reality movie that simulates visiting the Empire State for a ridiculous price--kinda lame cuz why look at a movie of the place you're going to visit when you're already there?

The lines were long--mostly because of post-911 security screening--but they moved rather quickly. Then there was a ticket line. Then there was an elevator line to the 80th floor. Then there was another line for the observatory deck elevator to the 86th floor.

At some point, you end up passing through this thing where some people take a digital pic of you with a fake skyline view in the background (so lame!) and give you claim ticket and on your way out try to charge you $21! I don't mind paying a little extra for a nice memento every now and then, but this was a total rip-off. Ugh.

Anyhoo, the elevator arrived at the 86th and as the door opened a brisk cool breeze rushed in making a high-pitched whistling sound. We were at our long-awaited destination, yay!

The breath-taking panorama was worth the wait. OK, I'll just shut up now and let you enjoy the next few pics...

View to the West. May 12, 2006 2:27pm

View almost straight down. May 12, 2006 2:28pm

Tourists. May 12, 2006 2:30pm

View to the South. May 12, 2006 2:30pm

DF's camera. May 12, 2006 2:43pm

Afterwards, I still had to get myself some new clothes for tonight and visited a few stores like H&M, Zara and some small designer places (felt like being in Madrid). Saw lots of cool shirts but a little too pricey at $60-$70 for the ones that appealed to me. Oh well, I decided to skip out on some new clothes--I was dressed appropriately enough anyway.

DF needed to get some cash but she didn't have her ATM card (long story) so we ended up going to a bank and got a cash advance from her credit card through one of da tellers--a real live bank employee, remember those? :-) Anyway, it was kind of a relief to be inside this bank with its high ceilings and conservative ambience--almost like being a in a quiet cathedral. Nice!

Back out onto the lively noisy streets of Manhattan we did a bit more exploring. Sometime later we made it to Fazil's in time for Jose Molina's dance class. DF invited me to stay and watch but I was feelin' hungry again so I walked down the street and satisfied my craving for protein at a sushi place and got back to the studio at around 8:00pm assuming the class ended in an hour, boy was I wrong!

Jose Molina's class. May 12, 2006 8:47pm

I think it was supposed to be an hour-and-a-half but he's one of those teachers that doesn't keep track of the time and instead soldiers on with the class drilling the students until they get the steps right. And so he did go over 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I stood in the hallway enjoying the cacophony of music between Jose Molina's flamenco, the mambo class, belly dance class and the flamenco rehearsal down the hall not to mention the over-the-stop PDA session between a teacher and one of his female students. Ugh, get a room people! :-)

It's funny how the teachers leave the studio doors open. You'd think they'd close them to avoid the extraneous noise, but I think they like people to watch--kinda helps with attracting new students I think. I was even tempted to drop-in to the mambo class. Even though he was working on some advanced stuff, I was able to recognize the equivalent moves from my salsa lessons (just one beat off cuz it's mambo) and I noticed some of the students were more or less at my beginner level.

OK it's noon now, my self-enforced time to sign off the computer and get out of da house. I'll continue my NYC story later. Ciao for now!