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August in New York & California

Posted by Jim St. George on September 18, 2019
Posted in: New York (Home), North America, USA. Leave a Comment

Rob and Mel getting married with our new friend Mina officiating

August was a busy month for us, including lots of time waiting and waiting and waiting for a building permit so we could start the condo renovation. It was supposed to happen and then it got rejected because the reviewer didn’t see an item our architect had specifically included. And then they lost our file. And when they found it the inspector was out on vacation. So the month ended as it began, with no building permit.

Except for that we had lots of fun in August. The big excursion was an eight-day trip out to San Francisco and Napa County, ostensibly for a wedding but since we have family and friends we had lots to do there. First up was three nights in San Francisco. Lots of walking around and some last-minute clothes shopping for the wedding (it was a gay couple getting married and we couldn’t show up in the wrong outfits). Dinner one night with an old work colleague and friend of mine, a woman I worked with 30 years ago and have stayed in touch with since. That was great fun. And then one evening we took the trolley out to Mark’s brother’s house in the sunset where we enjoyed pre-dinner wine with John and Alma and their kids before going out to Third Cousin, and incredible restaurant where they did a tasting menu – a low-carb tasting menu – for us.

In graduate school Marie was a year ahead of Mark & me. Normally I wouldn’t have known her well or even at all except she was roommates with a classmate and great friend of ours. Then she was my coworker for two or three years and then even my boss for a while. Thirty-plus years later I still love hanging out with her.

From there it was up to Napa Valley for the wedding. It was a little strange insofar as we didn’t know anyone except the two grooms … and we didn’t know them that well. We’d met Rob & Mel back in the Seychelles where they were celebrating Mel’s 50th birthday. And then celebrating Rob’s proposal and Mel’s saying yes. We just really hit it off so when they invited us for the big event we had to go. The weather was hot but the wedding was beautiful. We even made some new friends.

Mark & Patricia. Like Rob she’s a surgeon. Except she’s an African American woman who grew up in Anacostia, the poorest section of DC. In other words, started with every disadvantage and today a surgeon. Pretty impressive!

And then we stayed in Napa for a few more nights on our own, moving to the Las Alcobas hotel just a few miles down the road from the wedding venue. The attraction to this particular hotel is that it’s owned by a friend of ours, a guy we met touring the Galapagos way back in 2002. We’d stayed at his hotel in Mexico City some years ago and it was fantastic (not surprising as at the time it was rated #1 on Trip Advisor) so we figured we’d give his newer California hotel a shot. And while Sam wasn’t around – he was down in Mexico – the hotel was great.

While we were there we did a day trip up to Healdsburg in Sonoma County to visit an old friend of mine from my Minneapolis days. Dan and Mark (Dan’s Mark, not mine) moved out to Sonoma four or five years ago and Dan telecommutes to his job in Minnesota. They have a great place with killer views but sadly we had so much fun visiting that I didn’t take any pictures.

Mark, Vlad, & Alex

Then it was back to New York. And after eight nights in the laid back Bay Area, it felt fabulous stepping out of Penn Station back in the intensity of New York. Except for waiting to get our building permit our time in New York included a visit from Boston friends Vlad & Alex and their very cute toddler Victoria. Plus a visit from Keith & Nic, and even a quick drop by from John Lee. Shakespeare in the Park one evening which we enjoyed even though neither of us are really Shakespeare types. Then there’s always the time hanging out in parks reading, going to the gym, cooking; all that normal stuff.

And just in case you’re wondering, eight months in and we’re enjoying New York and really not missing traveling. Of course, I supposed it’s easier to “not miss” traveling when you’re spring and summer have included London, Italy, Greece, and California.

Out for tapas with Nic and Keith

Virgin Mary Over the Toilet (seriously) at a mescal bar we love

Vlad, Alex, and Victoria. The little one kind of stole our hearts.

Mark and a pig. What else can you say?

I love that I’ve become the guy who can just hang out in Union Square in the middle of a perfect weekday and read

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in August. How did Mark celebrate? By having a root canal on our anniversary!

Mary Beth & Sven had extra tickets to Shakespeare in the Park, so we were guests. Now that feels New York!

One night our former intern-programmer-project manager-lead project manager-COO-CTO, soon-to-be first-time father, and still great friend John Lee was in town and joined us for drinks at Excuse My French, our favorite neighborhood hangout

Mark and niece Ava, days before she was starting college

Me and Alma out for a great dinner

Mark out for a long walk in San Francisco

And me

June in New York

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 4, 2019
Posted in: New York (Home). Leave a Comment

Happy WorldPride!

Like I said, lots of rainbows everywhere in New York this month

People like to visit New York. We didn’t travel at all in June, but we saw lots of friends and family. And somehow stayed very busy. We did plenty of cultural things. We started seriously shopping for furniture for our new condo. And we continued to wait and wait for the condo board to approve our building plans.

June was an especially fun and colorful month to be in New York because the city hosted WorldPride, a month-long LGBTQ pride celebration. New York was the 6th city to host WorldPride since it began in Rome in 2000. The city was decked out in rainbows everywhere for the month. And it all culminated in the June 28 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, considered the birthplace of the gay rights movement.

[Note: Speaking of building plans, we expect the last step of our endless approval processes to happen by mid-September. That is why we are now hurrying to get the blog caught up to the present day. By the time we start our construction process in a couple of weeks we really want to be blogging in real time again!]

Jim’s sister Rebecca made her second appearance in New York this year, this time with her daughter Lily. Here we are on the roof of our future condo.

Becky and Lily could not resist posing by this great big AOC in graffiti just around the corner from our apartment

The Staten Island Ferry is a very economical way (free) to take a boat ride and get a nice glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Or to just settle into a corner and read.

There’s Becky on our roof again!

Laura Migliorino is an old friend of Jim’s from Minneapolis. She was in town following an exhibit opening of her photography in the Hudson Valley. We hadn’t seen her in 25 years, but she was spunky as ever! We also enjoyed getting to know her New York friend, Ryan.

Speaking of graffiti — also just around the corner from our apartment

Our friend Thomas is a board member of the Trevor Project, a great non-profit that helps prevent suicide among gay people. Thomas and Anthony came up from DC for a big New York fundraiser, and here we are walking the red carpet.

We’ve spent a lot of time furniture shopping lately. It’s a grueling process because we hate most of what we see. I did somewhat dig this silvery couch.

This is at Poliform, one of the few furniture stores in New York that we really like. A variant of this very couch might well end up in our media room (which Jim says I’m not allowed to call the “TV room”).

We also had a visit from the Germains this month — Laura, Dan, and Elizabeth. Here Dan enjoys the view from the “window” at the old school Italian place we like in the Theatre District, after seeing the Broadway version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

And Laura tried on some fun glasses. Couldn’t convince here to buy them.

Here is Elizabeth, working to find the perfect little succulent for her dorm room at William and Mary, where she’ll be a freshman this fall

Here we are with our friend Sven (pink tie) and his brother Ralph (left) and Ralph’s son (right). Visiting from Munich, Ralph is an architect and was keen to see our new condo. So two Gierlinger families all came up and it turned into a fun, spontaneous party.

This is our neighbor Gregory. His search for a condo was featured in the New York Times and, fortunately, landed him in our building. You can read about it here.

My brother Pat and his wife Jenny came back to NYC so Jenny could run in the Pride Run

Jim, too, signed up for the Pride Run. The crowds were hellish, but the event did make the Guiness Book of Records for the largest ever pride charity run — with over 10,000 runners.

Here we are at the Stonewall Inn on the 50th anniversary of the uprising

Jenny and Pat pose with Blondie

Pat & Jenny’s visit overlapped with our friend Susan Shaer’s. We got caught up in all the excitement of the huge Pride march.

Susan and I get ready for the Broadway revival of Oklahoma!

A Busy May in New York, Boston, Miami Beach

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 2, 2019
Posted in: New York (Home). 1 comment

May ended with a visit from my brother Pat, his wife Jenny, and our 18-year old nieces, Molly and Lydia. Here the girls enjoy mocktails in a heavenly outdoor setting at Public by Jean-Georges. They reported to their grandparents that it was the best restaurant they’d ever been to. What lovely guests they were!

In contrast with the first part of this year, May was a busy travel month. And when we weren’t traveling we usually seemed to have visitors, as happens in New York.

After our return from Italy we had one quick week at home before heading to Boston (Cambridge, really) for our 30th class reunion from graduate school at the Harvard Kennedy School. We had a great time seeing around 40 of our classmates — a pretty good showing 30 years out. And I will personally take some responsibility for that good showing because I got involved and really worked the Facebook messages, email prods, and text messages to help drive the crowd.

I also worked with two of my classmates, Jenny Spalding and Dara Menashi, to organize a couple events: a Friday open house at Dara’s house in Brookline and a Saturday evening reception at a restaurant in Cambridge. Because these events were organized by us (instead of the school) they were by far the most fun events of the weekend!

Because the reunion fell just a few days before my birthday, Jim suggested it made no sense to go straight home. So instead we caught a flight to Miami Beach to spend the birthday week in one of our favorite happy places. We’ll let the pictures tell the rest.

In early May we had a visit from my former business partner Nathaniel as he was passing through the city going from DC to Vermont. At the last minute he discovered that his sister Eve just happened to be passing through at the same time. Since we all hiked the Inca Trail together some years ago, it was a really fun reunion.

Jim with Dara in the Kennedy School courtyard at the reunion

Out for a walk along the Charles river with Keith

Jim with Keith and Deborah at an opening night reception at Dara’s house in Brookline

Over the last 30 years I’ve only seen Joan at class reunions. Every time I swear we are going to do better because she is so much fun!

Catching up with Jon and Dara. At the Kennedy School, Jon and I shared the distinction of being the only two graduates of the University of Michigan in our class.

At our Saturday evening reception I had a blast catching up with Deborah and Shari

Outside the busy reunion activities, we did squeeze in time for a wonderful dinner at our old neighbors’ place. So here we are with Ann and Bart and Wil (the tall one who gets taller every time we see him).

As if the reunion weekend did not have enough fun packed into it, we just happened to run into my graduate school landlord, Steve Nil. It was wonderful to catch up with Steve!

Following all the reunion activities it was nice to land in Miami Beach for a bit of relaxation

For my birthday celebration we spent a fun evening with a friend and roommate from U of M, Allan Kleer, who lives in Miami Beach

And even better, we met Allan’s partner Mauricio for the first time. He is an artist, a former model, and a super interesting guy.

I love the colors of everything in Miami Beach — the sky, the sea, the greenery, and especially the iconic lifeguard stations

And yes, we did have a few days here and there in New York in all its glory this month

Art on the High Line in New York

More culture — at the beautiful Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the Brant Foundation, which happens to be six blocks from our apartment

Jim’s brother Albert suggested that we meet Kasey Altman, whose father is a coworker of his in San Diego. For some reason we assumed Kasey was a guy, but he turned out to be the most delightful young woman, who shares our passion for travel and adventure.

I love to discover idyllic little reading spots around the city

A very busy May ended on a high note with the visit from Pat, Jenny, Molly, and Lydia