I slept very well, but throughout the night had dreams of extreme languor. In all the dreams, I was part of a small, multi-racial group of young men in charge of a prisoner in transit. A spirit of brotherhood and affection developed between the prisoner and guards. What exactly happened, I can't remember anymore, but it was passionate and erotic.

When I woke up it was such a disappointment to find it wasn't real. My subconscious is obviously telling me it's time to hook up again :)

When I was fully awoke, and had gotten my dreams out of my head, I went for a run in Central Park. I'd originally intended to go to a downtown fashion show for which I had a free ticket. But it was so hot, and I could only imagine the crush to get in. A run seemed more inviting. It was already very warm, though, and I was quite beat when I got back, not to mention in a pig-sweat (another one of my mother's colorful phrases).

Once I was cleaned up, I walked the few blocks to the Museum of Natural History. You could wander this museum for days and not cover everything. It's such an optimistic shrine to the sciences and to the expectation that people want to learn. Of course, it was filled with kids too!

There's always someone wanting me to take their photo :)

There was so much to see, and although I wasn't particularly interested in the agricultural techniques of the Aleutians, the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth was a fantastic exhibit. I didn't know there was a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska in the 1960s - did you?

Someone I met in a bar in Chelsea :)

When I was a kid I was fascinated by dinosaurs. Diplodocus was my favorite, but I didn't see him today. However, I did see all kinds of skeletons of weird dinosoaurs that haven't had their day on the big screen yet.

Freshly exhausted from battling kids to get a view of the exhibits, I took a cab to midtown to meet Randy for lunch. Randy is someone I'd only met briefly a couple of times on the phone, and, like all the people I've met through my website and subsequently met in real life, I had certain images in my mind of what he'd be like and how he'd behave. But I wasn't expecting such a handsome, sexy, masculine gentleman. We had a nice lunch in Mangia, before Randy took off for Central Park to bag prime seating for this evening's New York Philharmonic free concert.

Lunch with Randy in Mangia

Randy in his office - from here he makes all those sexual innuendoes in the chat room :)

I spent my last New York afternoon shopping. I still need some clothes for the "office casual" look I have to adopt for my new job in August. I did, eventually, find a pair of pants in Barneys, but since when did everyone become skinny enough to fit into those pants that stock most of their racks? By this time, the afternoon was fairly sweltering. I walked across the park and hugged the shade.

Walking through Central Park after a hot afternoon's shopping expedition

I had hoped to complete my outfit by buying shoes at the famous Harrys on upper Broadway, where I'd actually bought my last pair via the Internet, but even Harrys had only four single pairs of shoes to offer in my size. It's tough being me ya know!

After commiserating with myself awhile in my hotel room, I reemerged for the sunset to join a friend to attend the free NY Phil concert in Central Park. We found a spot under a tree, about two miles from the stage :) and could just make out the exciting rythms of Bernsteins "Symphonic Dance from West Side Story" over the noise of all the other people chatting either with each other or on their cell phones. Despite that, and the cigarette smoke from a nearbye couple who were fighting all-comers tooth-and-nail to keep a foot of green space around their precious blanket, it was kind of lovely to lie down in the warm evening, stare up at the trees in the dusk and hear the distant music.

Listening to the New York Philharmonic sunset concert in Central Park