Hanging out to Reduce Productivity

While the flooded subway was a disaster for my plans, it did prove extremely beneficial for my couchsurfers, who were coming in from NE and were going to have to take transit into the city and then wait until I got home at 7. Not going to Montauk, I was able to pick them up at LGA and bring them here in 15 min as opposed to an hour by transit.
After getting back here we chilled out for a bit before going out to get coffee and food. We went to the little nearby coffee shop next to McGorlick Park and chatted quite a bit about our respective cities and travels. Seth and Robbie are from Lincoln, NE and Robbie, the actual CSer, just got back from living 11 mo in Prague. They had each always wanted to check out NYC and the Beastie Boys concert at McCarran Pool gave them just they needed to make the trip.
We then walked through Greenpoint and then on to Bedford St in search of food and I took them to the Read Cafe, which is a cozy little coffee shop on Bedford. They have tons of books on the walls and a really nice little garden in the back. When I refer to a garden in NYC, I mean a little backyard seating area. That seems to be the nomenclature here.
We then walked the remainder of Bedford and tried to go to the Reliquery, but it seems to be closed for renovations or something. We continued down Metropolitan and I pointed out a few more places. By this time though we were all pretty tired from waking early, them much earlier than I, so we started back with the suggestion by Robbie that a cold beer would improve the moral of the walk. We stopped at a little bar on Graham Ave where they had the Family Guy pinball machine. I played several games, finally giving up my last free one because of boredom and the antsiness of my companions.
We got home in time to leisurely get ready for a dinner that I had planned in the East Village with Jan and Larisa. Ji was supposed to come but apparently she got incredibly ill on her trip to Seattle and was not yet well. The dinner was at a nice little Italian place on Ave B called Max. We ordered several appitizers and entrees and shared, which turned out quite well.
As usual Jan had brought Zoff im Zoo so we went off in search of a place to play while consuming cold beer. After scoffing several reasonable places, like good picky New Yorkers, we settled on a small chic-looking place. It turned out to be a good choice though since there were good tables with plenty of light and a very comfortable back room that we got to ourselves.
After beginning play we were treated to the sounds of some excellent live Jazz spilling in from the main part of the bar. This only added to the comfort and charm of the place.
After a good amount of card playing we left, Jan to his home and the rest of us to Barcade in Williamsburg. Barcade is this interesting bar on Union St near the Lorimer L train stop. This is hipster central and nowhere would you be less surprised to find a bar such as this one, however it is a very cool place. For those of you in my age bracket and slightly older, do you remember all those great video games you grew up playing? Yes, I mean Galaga, Out Run, Toobin', Rampage, Centipede, Mrs. Pac Man, 1943, Gauntlet, Punch Out and Tapper, among many others. Yes, these games are all present here in arcade game form. There are also some 20 beers on tap. We rounded out the night with several of these classics. I was supposed to meet Kristin here for a Galaga face off, but alas I came too late and she was gone.
Today we got a bit of a late start and the CSers didn't leave until about 11. I and Kerri, a CSer from Philly/NJ had planned a lunch since she was leaving today to go to London and Stockholm. We went to this Thai restaurant near Lorimer with a garden that I have been wanting to try. We ended up collecting two other CSers despite the late notice. There was Carrie from NJ, heh, who is living in Granada Spain but is back in the States for a bit because she broke her arm and foot. There was also Jolena from Zurich who is travelin' travelin' and is Casey Fenton's girlfriend, who is the creator of the site.
We ended up sitting at the restaurant until 3 and then, after seeing Kerri off on the subway, walked down to Bedford and had coffee at this other nice coffee shop and hanging out there for another couple hours and doing a short walk up Bedford. This seems to be the story of my time here in NYC. I am always on the run doing something, everything ends up lasting much longer than I expected, I'm always late and I don't get anything productive done. Hmm, at least I have made a lot of great friends and had an excellent time. And I have actually gotten some things done, just not as much as I'd like.
Now Eric and I will play Scrabble and then I will go to the Revival CS meeting. There won't be as many people there b/c they are at Daft Punk, but should be fun anyway. Now I must go.