My flight to Washington was in the middle of Friday afternoon, but since I've used up all of my vacation days for the year, I had to pretend to be working at home, and hoped that nobody would call or e-mail me with anything urgent. I didn't get t ntil one in the morning, and, even worse, I didn't get to sleep until about 4.00.

A melancholy fall sky over the Tidal Pool

So I got up very late on Saturday morning and ditched my plan to go running. It was a beautiful, warm day and I was staying at the Hilton in Embassy Row, so first order of the day was to buy the New York Times and walk the couple of blocks over t rwords Cafe, Dupont Circle, my favorite brunch place in DC.

I recently read a series of articles in the the Times about the joys and pitfalls of solitary travel, a subject I'm very familiar with. Several of the commentators said that one of the best things about traveling alone is that you meet people whe you go. I guess the people writing those articles were not extremely tall, introverted English people. Nonetheless, I decided to make more of an effort, and when a cute, young European man thanked me for moving my brunch table so that he could fit he one next to me, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity. I inquired about his accent, which turned out to be Estonian. But after a few desultory efforts on both our parts, I gave up and retired behind my newspaper and sunglasses.

The Jefferson Memorial

Although I was very tired, it felt very nice to be somewhere different in such lovely weather with no obligations. And the yellow leaves crunching under my feet felt very nostalgic of my years in Philadelphia (we don't really get much of a Fall h San Francisco).

I didn't even do anything touristic in the afternoon, unless you count taking a walk around the Tidal Pool. I spent most of the afternon sitting at a cafe near Dupont Circle people watching and working on my next screenplay. I find Dupont Circle a great place for people watching. There are all types of people, from all over the world, not to mention a sizable (and attractive) gay population.

Not my best profile. I think my nose is getting larger.

I mentioned that I'm not very good at meeting people when I travel. Fortunately, my web site somewhat paves the way, and I end up meeting people that way. For some time, I've been chatting on the phone with a guy named Josh in DC, and Saturday e I finally got to meet him. Josh is definitely an odd bird in the sense that in my three plus years of journalizing on the Web, he's the only straight man with whom I've developed an online friendship.

I'm very wary of friendships that originate on the Web. The absence of physicality leaves too much to the imagination, and I've found that online chemistry far from guarantees the same in the flesh. So until Josh and I actually met, I'd definite n holding our friendship at something of a distance. But when I met him, I found that he was in reality exactly how he had seemed either online or on the phone: a charming, bright, magnetic, soulful gentleman (and I use that word deliberately). And emed almost as if we'd met much earlier. Of course the facts that we live a continent apart, that he likes girls and I like boys, and that I'm an atheist while his Christian faith is central to his life mean that there are many obstacles to developi eeper friendship. But so far, we both seem willing to make the effort.

The Washington Monument from the Tidal Pool. This one came out nicely -- one of the best photographs I've taken in D.C.

I woke up Sunday after another very bad night of sleep (I read one and a half novels over the weekend, most of it in bed in my hotel). It was even warmer than it had been on Saturday, so I spent another slow, easy, non-touristic day just sitting , writing, reading and people watching until my flight home in the early evening. It turned out to be an uncomfortable journey home since not only was I coming down with a cold, but a huge storm was stretching from Pennsylvania to Texas and we were right above it. It was the first time I've ever seen a lightning storm from the sky; it was fascinating and magnificent to see the night- time clouds light up and spark.

A trick photo -- the camera is actually in my hand. Outside the National Gallery.