Ah, New York. It is good to be back in you for a few days.

Yesterday was a tour de force involving some of my closest New York friends (a tour de friends?). I had a leisurely, margarita-y lunch at Rosa Mexicano with stellar saxophonist (say it: sacks-often-ist) Rob Wilkerson, followed by an intimate beer or two with my old bandmate Bill Campbell at Kettle o' Fish in the village, followed by a nightcap of jazzy awesomeness at the Village Vanguard. I got to witness my old college roommate and fellow Nebraskan, Frank Basile, live the dream. He plays baritone sax with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, my favorite ensemble with more than ten and less than 30 members (yes I like them better than the Los Angeles Lakers).

I walked hither and yon throughout lower Manhattan. In Los Angeles, we'll walk hither, but we'll have to drive to get there. Yon is just out of the question.

Today we're driving our faces off to Blacksburb, VA, home of Virginia Tech, which is the locale of a concert I did with the Plain White T's back in 2k3 or so. My friend who facilitated that concert, Nada, is having a kidney transplant very soon, so everybody do a shout out to whoever you shout to for such events.

We woke up at 6 am, and are now close to arriving, therefore it's time to post this blog and shut down the lappy. Sleep is for non-New Yorkers, by the way. I'm a non-New Yorker, and will therefore soon need a nap.