I love New York, more for the potential of it than the reality I think. It’s not the cleanest place in the world and as gritty as Hollywood tries to make it appear their portrayal invariably comes across more polished than the real New York. Perhaps it is the lack of an accompanying soundtrack or having to endure the malaise of the time elapsed between plot relevant action, the likes of which would grace many an editing room floor, but in spite of those failings along with it’s dirt and grime which is all the more focused on a damp and foggy day, and the fact that I may never know what it truly feels like to be a New Yorker I have a real affinity for this city.

As I made my way to the meet up I saw parts of the city that I had not seen in visits past, I came through the open air market on Broadway just past 14th and I was reminded of my days at the farmers market in Studio City eating fresh corn tamales and buying the makings of a great weekend meal farm fresh and yet miles from any semblance of country life.

It was particularly tough for me on this occasion though with the carts peddling polish sausages and something called a Mozzarepa, which for those of you who are not familiar like myself, is two cornbread cakes fried with mozzarella in the middle. The smell created by these was horribly wonderful, as a man on a mission to eat cheesesteak for what would be an entire day I surely could not indulge in these treats and still hope to be functional for what was to come. So I fought the good fight and continued on my way to Fourth and MacDougal.

I had wondered on trips past where NYU was, I had never thought to closely consult a map as it was just a passing curiosity on each occasion, and only while I was in the city, you see before my first visit it was my closest tie to the city as it is the alma mata of my good friend Nick. I remember him telling me of what life was like living and studying there, oddly enough something about the ability to obtain Chinese food at 2am stands out most vividly in my mind. I was pleasantly surprised to be winding my way through it’s campus buildings as I neared my destination, being passed by rushing students as they fed into the various structures.

I made my way into the park and passed through a group of…… well lets call them entrepreneurs who were eager and pleasant and while obviously a fixture for the park surprisingly quick to disappear at the sight of NY’s finest. I took up a spot at the indicated corner where the group was to gather and waited. Soon they began to trickle in and shortly after noon the majority had arrived, we divide into smaller sharing groups and started off. My group was initially made up of T.J. Shuck, Tyler Thompson, and myself though we later were joined by Rosalee and slightly later on abandoned by Tyler who found spending time with his lovely spouse and young son Scout more important than not being a quitter. ; )

Our first stop was BB’s Sandwich Bar, a small place carved in the buildings on 3rd street between MacDougal and 6th Ave. A mash up of steak and cupcakes touting their victory in whatever publication crowned them NY’s best cheesesteak, which I found throughout the day was required decor and just as valid today as I’m sure they were when actually awarded, regardless of how much time had elapsed since. BB’s was a bit of a maverick in the cheesesteak world, choosing to forgo the hoagie for a kaiser and adding, what I as a layman can best describe as a salsa, what they describe as a “secret wet sauce” which in my humble opinion could not make it sound more appetizing.

Each group designated a representative to go in and acquire the sample and before long we were all involved in our own processes for tasting and grading each offering, a process which I found to be surprisingly engrossing, so much so that we within my own group failed to notice that all the others had begun to move on to the next stop, so we quickly moved to join them all at Wogie’s Bar & Grill on Greenwich Ave, so quickly in fact that we somehow beat them there. All to often I found myself, the only one not currently calling NY home, following the group by being in front of it, along with my friend Tyler, himself a recent transplant from the great northwest not exactly Lewis and Clark we awkwardly at times stopped to fall back into the mix.

The day wore along much the same from spot to spot, great people sharing the experience of the city, the beer, the roller coaster of quality in cheesesteak fair, American, wiz, chopped, sliced, onions, breads that ran the gambit of soft to hard and chewy to crunchy. From what was generally considered the worst at the Cheesesteak Factory on the Ave of the Americas to the best at Carl’s Steaks on 3rd Ave, which coincidently enough was awarded it’s claim to fame by my current employer, AOL, in it’s Cityguide section.

The walk was long and the group less excited as the day wore on. When we finally found ourselves at the last stop I think we were all happy with how we spent the day yet glad to be moving on and away from the steak and cheese. I made some new friends saw some new parts of the city and overall had a fantastic time but by this point I too was ready for the train ride home. I took the opportunity of being on my own again to hit those all too touristy spots along the route to Penn Station, Time Square and Toy’s R Us to pick up something for the kids. I think that if I had it to do all over again I would have brought the nice camera left the over shirt at home and carried an umbrella instead of the raincoat so bright it could affect the flight paths of low flying aircraft.

Many thanks to Jason for organizing it and to everyone who was there for making it a blast and something I truly will never forget. If ever you find yourselves in that place that I call home please don’t hesitate to give me a shout. I’m always up for a beer and a bite to eat.

Our first day back was a whirlwind of eating beginning at one of our favorite old breakfast haunts, Jinky’s in Sherman Oaks. Then down to Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica where we stopped by Broadway Deli before a walk on the Santa Monica pier. All that walking prompted us to make a trip to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills for some of the most amazing cupcakes. Then back to the beach where we met up with old friends for the most amazing Tapas at Primativo in Venice where we were treated with some wonderful news.

Today it’s a walk to the Studio City farmers market for tamales and then who knows. Tomorrow is Disneyland. Linnea packed her Alice in Wonderland dress and I can’t wait to see how it goes over in the magic kingdom.

Not much has changed, it feels as though I was just here yesterday instead of four years ago. More to come. Feels great to be back, however short a time it is.

Shwew. I really was not prepared for the end of day one. I was saying goodbye to Jason and Rob on day one because I seriously thought I was going to fall over and be done with it. The fact that I even pulled my sorry self to Fadó for the opening night party is almost as amusing as how quickly I took that same sorry self back to my hotel room, I was asleep by 8pm I’m sure, which sets the stage for my first regret of my first conference. Missing the opening party and the mad wandering herd that it may degrade to and the wonderful places they may choose to graze, especially being such a meat connoisseur.

Now I myself find it humorous to think that sitting for 8 hours would be taxing but it truly was, now please don’t read this as a complaint it was really enjoyable and educational, but it wiped my old @$$ out. Sucks to start to realize you aren’t young anymore, heh. I blame my kids ;)

Probably the most interesting aspect of this particular conference is that you are going to be exposed to people who concentrate on areas of web development that you rarely hear discussed, at least not with the level of complexity in which they discuss it. I recommend it highly to anyone who might be considering it. I had never been to a conference before and I am glad I choose this as my first one, also first time in Chicago it really was a lot of fun.

I look forward to conference number two, whichever one that may be.

I’ve never been to Chicago before, except for a flight change once maybe twice. So I am looking forward to this and I hope to share a great deal over the next few days about it.

An update on all things me…

The house in NC was sold, the moving company picked up everything today and I add another place that I have called home to the list of those that I will forever miss for the great things that happened to me and the family while living there. For 200 Flint Point Lane it was the birth of my son Xander, two visits from Santa to my daughter Nea and spending time with my good friends Mark and Bert as well as meeting two new friends Chris and Matt all of whom I will miss a great deal. North Carolina was always and will always be home, to a degree, where I was born and where I grew up. Friends, the familiar landscape, they all change over time but they remain familiar and important.

I celebrated my thirty third birthday, alone in Virginia, another caveat to making a move like this. I spent a few days on the Vineyard, love doing that, wish it could be more than just once a year.

It’s been four months now at AOL and I am still happy to get up and go into the office everyday though once we have a new house that we all settle into, that appeal might loose a little of it’s luster, it’s a pretty easy thing to want to leave a 600 sq ft apartment that is neck deep in boxes and various artifacts of normal life. We have launched improvements to shopping and we are now looking at mobile all very interesting work thought I do miss the code and I look for as many opportunities to stay involved in it as much as I can, it is a real shift for someone like myself who for so long has done everything front end, back end, pixels and code to just concepting and designing and handing it off. It has been both frustrating and liberating, the thing that is nice is that we have some extremely talented people putting these sites together and there are not too many roadblocks you hit when taking concepts to reality. More changes are coming and hopefully it will keep getting better.

So the transition is continuing and moving well, the job is good, we are working on getting a new house, and I hope to become more involved in the web community, experiencing and I hope in time contributing to the discussions and the growth of this industry.

There’s the update. Stay tuned for more, thanks for stopping by.

It was the best part of my trip downtown for the AIGA DC meet and greet I went to last night. I’m not the cocktail mixer kinda guy, free fruit, cookies, and a cash bar rarely prompt me to spontaneously converse with complete strangers. “Excuse me I’m just reaching for this last piece of cantalope before I go over to the third paper company booth to listen to as much of the pitch as I feel I have to to earn the swag they are offering”. I am not saying it’s the format, the sponsors, or the organization that is flawed, it’s me trying to fit in it.

I did enjoy looking at the clocks that were commissioned for silent auction, some real nice stuff and any excuse to go into the city I’m all for.