I’ve been remiss in keeping my journal but my social schedule is keeping me busy.

I slept in to 8 am on Sunday. I think it’s going to take some time to catch up on my sleep.

I have a party in the Bed-Sty section of Brooklyn (Bedford – Stuyvesant for those not in the know) this afternoon then I plan on going to the Drama Book Shop then meet Madeline Muravchek for dinner at six at Union Square.

Easy to get to – two subways, walk five blocks. So I hop on the first subway – get off at 59th to find some beer to take with me. No luck. Back on the subway and get off at Times Square. Walk for blocks and blocks finally find a place that had cheap beer (Bud) for $11 a six pack. I get on the second of the two subways I need to take, realize about fifteen minutes into the trip I’m on the wrong subway, so I backtrack to Times Square again and look for the subway I was supposed to take. I can’t find it so I ask a cop. Nice guy, good answer. The subway I want isn’t available at Times Square – I need to go to West 4th and get it there. Know what subway I need? Right! The one I was on and back tracked so back onto it and go south. It’s now taken me over an hour and a half to get to where it was supposed to take me twenty minutes to get to. (But that includes getting the beer.) Get the right subway and get to the party over an hour late but I’m still one of the first there. The others trickle in over the afternoon. With very few exceptions, the later they arrive the later they got home last night (or to be more accurate, this morning).

You know, one of the best things about the subway is the cost structure. The fare is $2 (or $76 for an unlimited one month pass like I have) and once you are in the subway you can take as many trains as you want. You can ride all day if you want – until you leave the subway system.

The party was at a brownstone – what we call a townhouse today – the interesting thing is that the houses are just 20 feet wide. Deep enough to have a reasonable square footage but really narrow. This is based on my survey of two places. Different families live upstairs and downstairs.

The party was really fun – a nice mix of people from the Lab, others associated with the theater and neighbors of our host. We had a cookout in the back yard.

I’m having a real good time so I bag the plan to go to the Drama Book Shop and leave at 5 pm to meet Madeline at 6 at Union Square. I ask directions: Go to West 4th (I know that station pretty well now), walk north ten blocks to 14th then turn right and walk to Union Square. Is there any way to tell which way is North? Just walk towards the Empire State Building. Got it.

Back on the Subway, the right direction this time, get off at West 4th and exit the subway. First, there’s no way to see the Empire State Building or anything else with all the high buildings surrounding me. Second, I end up in the middle of the biggest Gay Pride parade I’ve ever seen – floats, streets blocked off in every direction, men wearing a G-string and nothing else, women topless with Obama stickers over their nipples. The sidewalks jammed with people to the point of making them impassable. I watched the parade for a few minutes then need to get going if I’m going to make Union Square by 6 pm. So I struggle through the mob, getting my ass grabbed regularly. I don’t want to know whether it is men or women – I think I know the answer – and at this point it really doesn’t make any difference. Relax and enjoy, right?

I get a call from Madeline and she is running late and won’t get there until 6:30. I’m saved. I get there about 20 after and Madeline shows up a few minutes later. We walk deep into the village and have a nice dinner at a Philipino restaurant. We talked for several hours. She says to say hi to everyone.

We talked about her life – she’s leaving for Paris with Rob O’Neill to teach theater for a month. She’s getting discouraged – she keeps auditioning and getting call backs but not getting the parts. She encourages me to do some theater off Orcas Island – of course, she thinks it should be in New York but maybe Seattle is okay.

I get home around eleven. My feet hurt from the walking. Somehow I got a blister. Which really surprises me – I’ve walked far further before.