Monday, May 25th: All packed and ready for the trip... At the airport in Oakland, CA.

Not a lot of sleep the night (and weeks!) before... My chiropractor loves me for this. :)

Arrival at JFK. Okay, yes, I've dreamt about this... (Not such a big moment for Rajid, but he was a good sport about it.)

My new friend Rajid-- the latest victim of my favorite perfectionist paparazzo. ("Your eyes were closed in the last one!")

Me and enough luggage to last a month... (Yes, half of it is Eric's and we knew we were going to extend our trip in NYC.). But we didn't forget ANYTHING... (except a jacket and an umbrella that works)

Oh, and it ended up being chillier than we thought. Only two sweaters in all those bags... arrggh.

Finally, the camera's turned on the paparazzo with my usual panache: note the artsy blurred effect. :)

Our room at the Crowne Plaza, on Broadway in Times Square.

A welcome note and gifts from our generous hosts: Amazon and Penguin... (Thank you!!) Beautiful hardcovers and yes, that's a Kindle II!!! It's sitting on a very cute Penguin tote.

La salle de bain, as Tristan would say. Sounds so much nicer than "the bathroom."

More of the room; it was very nice... quite large by New York standards.