Take me out to the "ball" game

This isn't the first time I've found it hard to photograph a nightlife excursion. My iPhone, with which I take all my pictures, doesn't have a flash. Regardless, it's not exactly polite/hip/permitted to go around taking quality photos of strangers who are just trying to mind their own business. So I gotta be sly. In the end, I come away with the photo above being my best shot of the night.

Alex dragged me out. When you're as elderly as I am, it does take a little dragging. Once out, though, I can -- believe it or not -- be sort of fun, or at least stay out till late. I think we got back at 4. That's pretty amazing, considering that exactly 24 hours earlier I was being awakened to engage in prayers at the dergah. Kind of a long, bizarre day, come to think of it.

Anyway, our evening in the Big Apple began in what I think was Chelsea at Ink 48, where a friend of a friend of a friend was having a birthday party on the rooftop bar, which come to think of it was not on the rooftop at all; it was just a bar with a terrace. I loved this place, actually, $10 drinks and all. Alex's friends were super nice; one of them is about to go back for his MBA at Stern, and has been in the publishing business, so we had no end of things to discuss. Like being in the publishing business and then getting an MBA, for example.

Of course, in New York City one doesn't just park at a bar, even if he loves it. He then treks across town to somewhere he doesn't remember the name of and drops a $10 cover to walk into a loud room, decline a lap dance, then leave. Then he has a chicken wrap and goes to Barracuda, then G Lounge, then back to Barracuda. Why he didn't just stay at the nice place is lost on him, although he appreciates having explored, especially since these places are all pretty close to where he'll be working this summer.

In not too long I'll be heading to check out what will hopefully be my summertime residence in Sunnyside, Queens. I have gotten mostly favorable comments when mentioning that this will be my neighborhood; I am going to hang out there for a bit and soak it all in.