"A gathering of friends brings you lots of luck in the evening."

So said the little paper in my fortune cookie. Which kinda came true in a way, given that I had to travel through several zip codes from the Upper East side to get home to Brooklyn. I spent the (rainy) afternoon with an old friend, tutoring her and her sister-in-law in some of Bill Gates products, and thus ended in dinner in a small cozy Jap-Chink diner on 83rd and 1st. I figured I wouldn't get back to Bay Ridge until 11ish, but I made a serendipitous choice by getting off at 59th St from the 6 line and getting on an N train, which went express until it got to my usual stops in Brooklyn. I made it home before 10 pm.

Haven't been to the Upper East side area in a while. I still remember the Comfort Diner on 86th (where I got off after a long circuitous trip uptown coming from Brooklyn), where my pal Edrich and I used to take late lunches (4 PM lumberjack platters!?). Its closed now and the glass windows have been peppered by Wanted and classified ads. Shame. I liked their steak and eggs.

The area is still clean and nice as I remember it. Brownstones, coffee shops, bookstores and the usual glut of commercial establishments dot the area, but it hasn't turned into a rowdy mecca like Downtown. My friend lives on a 3rd floor walkup on York Ave (near Gracie Mansion, which she hasn't visited yet. Well, neither have i). A $1,500 studio is nowhere near my idea of a comfy (physically, aesthetically, financially) place to live, but she didn't have much choice. She talked about moving later to Queens, which I absolutely pass on (yeeeech. No offense to Queens residents).

Going back home, I had Electronic providing the soundtrack as stations whizzed by. One of the stops was 57th St, which reminded me of a Hooters appointment with Delphi the Hooterman soon (Easter Sunday? The Resurrection!). As I crossed the East River (underground) into Brooklyn, a couple of things caught my eye. Three things actually. There was this deaf-mute ABC (America-born Chinese) girl who was conversing in sign language with a white guy (fluently). That's pretty fly for ... yeah, you got it. Another was these two lesbians who weren't that expressive (pardon but i didn't overhear any of their chat, as I had Bernard Sumner in my ears), but you can still tell. Oh, and they were black - and one of them was umm, fat. Ok, not to offend more cross-sections of society, but hey, I was just noticing. The last thing that drew my attention was when an eyeglass fell to the floor. The man across me was reading the paper and the eyeglass slipped. He had a difficult time picking it up - because the eyeglass didn't have temples (the part that hold the frame and slip over your ears - yep, i had to look that up). Once he finally picked it up, he held it near his eyes and resumed his perusal (take that, Jego) of the paper. Poor guy. Kind of the same boat I was in, when i slammed into a McDonald's glass wall in 2000 and broke my eyeglass frame.

And I made it home before 10pm. The drizzle had stopped. Lucky me.

Ah, New York. Am gonna miss this place.