“I like New York in... er... February?”

“How ‘bout yoooooouuuuuu?...”

I know. I know. I’ve been Blog-MIA. Bad bad Zoot! Oh, wicked bad naughty Zoot! I would suggest spanking, except I have excuses. Good ones. All right, just excuses then.

Well, first... there was the audition-o-rama-rama. Er... yah.

More on that anon, though, because – really – it’s SO much more interesting to note that I just returned from a whirlwind weekend in !!!NEW YORK CITY!!! with the fabulous, lovely and talented Adrienne Kress.

Now, see, this was my first time in the land of the fabled Giant Red Fruit. Where they do NOTHING in small.

There was Times Square – uh – whoa. Seriously. Just – whoa. There was the Chrysler Building – just down from our hotel. Whoa. There was fifth avenue and Central Park and Grand Central Station and the Metropolitan Library – oh, Mercy! – the Library!! What a fantastic edifice created in celebration and service of the written word. Also, and equally as important, the site of some of my favourite scenes in GHOSTBUSTERS!!! I mean, Dude – WHOA!

There was a carriage-ride thru Central Park (just ‘cause we HAD to – I mean – c’mon!) with a horse named Commander, who lost none of his horsey masculinity even though his hooves were painted a sparkly purple and he had flowers woven through his mane.

There was lunch at the Tavern on the Green which is an INSANE place. INSANE! It is all bubble-mirrors and painted unicorns-cavorting-about-castles-in-the-clouds murals and pastel fret-work on a ceiling festooned with tongue-sticky-out-y cherubs and satyrs and dripping with a multitude of chandeliers, one of which resembles a blue glass octopus, another of which I’m certain was fashioned out of SOLID KRYPTONITE. All of this is contained in a gazebo-like room looking out onto a topiary garden and an oversized shrub trimmed in the shape of the 1930’s King Kong!

“Scream, Ann! Scream for your life!!”

Seriously. It was like lunching INSIDE the cotton candy machine at the carnival. I loved it.

There was also dinner at a Brazilian restaurant with some dear friends who I’m pretty sure were trying to kill me with endless skewers of meat. And Caipirinhas. These latter are yummy Brazilian cocktails made from yummy Brazilian Cachaca and that is the best possible description I can come up with. Oh and then there were the desserts. I loved that, too.

The days were bright with blue skies and FREEZING and I didn’t care because I had THE (big, fuzzy, ear-flappy) HAT that John bought me a couple of months ago. Thank you, John. Brain Freeze successfully averted. YAY!

And Adrienne was terrible fun to share it all with.

And, oh yeah... the absolute BEST part? I got to have a fabulous lunch with my WICKED FABULOUS AGENT. Prior to meeting her, I was pretty darn sure I was just the most fortunate little writer girl going, but well, now it’s confirmed. She is witty-smart-gorgeous-personable-charming-positive-on-top-of-her-game and, best of all, seems to think that I am at least some of those things, too. OH yeah. She also loves my stuff.

So. All in all, all I can really say is... “I love New York in February.... how ‘bout yoooooouuuuu?”