We liked

First, at least one regular reader will want to know that West Lounge was closed, with some (small) evidence of work going on inside, but no sign on the door or anything to suggest something was amiss. The Investigator arrived, and, this being a rare blind date for me, I was pleasantly surprised. She took the closed bar in stride, another point, and we walked over to Automatic Slim’s where the pints were $3. Do you know the last time I had a $3 pint? I was knee high to a pint in those days. We got a little table and chatted autobiographically, the usual where-are-you-froms, what-do-you-dos, and so-ons. I felt there was an equitable me-speaking/her-speaking ratio. Good eye-contact (nice eyes). She’s been here for two years, the ol’ love hate thing with the city, particularly since she works among the Undead in Midtown. (You’ll gotta come out to Brooklyn, I swear.) And is originally from the midwest, still recovering from a long-form relationship.

Short version: very nice women, smart, bright, attractive, what wasn’t to like? Nothing. She suggested we go hiking together, which is how this whole started. Good earrings, too: simple metal circles that could have industrial, could have been Iron Age.
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On West 11th Street, there’s another out-of-scale building going up (or is it being re-done; those windows look old-fashioned, and not in a pomo style, either) that is the most remarkable color, a sort of Tuscan blood pink. Can that possible be the final color?

Great sunset way up the Jersey side. After tomorrow she'll start slinking south again.