Slowly Going Bald

• I had just a brain-shaking amount of fun in New York. It was the perfect trip at the perfect time with the perfect group.

• One of my two fellow travelers talked on our first afternoon about the "new city high," and about how you can take the excitement and fun of being in a new place on a trip as intentionally reckless as ours and basically wrestle that joy into submission and ride it for the week. And that's exactly what we did. By Saturday afternoon, prepping for departure, the specific order of events from earlier in the week had taken on the blissful haze earned from a packed schedule of drinking, eating, drinking some more, and watching the sun come up.

• We saw the sun rise every morning of the trip.

• We saw Emmylou Harris put on a great show at Town Hall, and her set list included "Return of the Grievous Angel," "Pancho & Lefty," and "Green Pastures." I couldn't have asked for more.

• We saw Times Square and rightly hated it. I went in expecting to be underwhelmed and was not disappointed. It's just a mass of tourists and overpriced shitty restaurants and neon and things you should really avoid. What's the point of flying across the continent just to go to Walgreens and Gap?

• We found a great restaurant/bar one night, though I'm not sure of the name or location. (It may have been Fratelli down on Mulberry, but that's just a rough guess.) One of my friends and I ordered the burger only to discover a locally award-winning patty served on a French onion roll that kicked major ass. And the whole week was like that, just running across places that turned out to be great.

• I don't really care about Joba Chamberlain.

• We came home at the right time, too. If the vacation had been any longer, I would've wound up pawning the title to my car or succumbing to alcohol poisoning. But that just means it was a good trip.

Here are some photos, and here are some more.