finally awake

Now that the horrific jetlag of the past six days has finally subsided, I'm settling in to being in New York and starting to get organised with all the stuff I need to work on. I've scored a fantastic place to live - a really lovely, sunny and spacious (for NYC) room in a great apartment in a converted warehouse in Williamsburg. Apparently this means the apartment is a "loft" - ever so hip right now. I have two friendly flatmates who look like being a lot of fun, and for a small contribution to the Martha Stewart empire (via her cunning Kmart outposts) I have my bedroom set up for comfort and livability.

Two days after getting here, I went to Philadelphia for a conference. No sleep whatsoever the night before meant there was no danger of missing the 8am train - but I was ruined. Never go to a conference with jetlag. The conference itself wasn't too bad but I just wasn't physically able to do any of the meet-and-greet stuff I had imagined I would attempt with other relevant academics and publishers. Or that's my excuse. Having Elle from Sydney there with me made the three days much more fun, sharing in jetlag self-indulgence (daily disco naps), conference post-mortems/bitching, and experiments with local bars and restaurants. Oddly, almost everywhere we went, we heard The Smiths playing.

Here we are doing cheesy fireside straight couple dinner-for-two at a place recommended for its "upscale comfort food and Brady Bunch interior".

The Philadelphia Flower Show was also on very close to our hotel, generating busloads of Middle American blandness - women called Gloria and Arlene with bad jeans, bad hair and embroidered chambray. Otherwise, much of Philadelphia seemed quite lovely, with lots of great architecture (like the amazing, monumental train station, even if large sections of its massive entrance hall were covered in enormous bright yellow Ikea ads) and some cute cobble-stoned streets in the old town. There were also lots of cops everywhere in hot uniform - always a plus. I gave up my Philadelphia sight-seeing day to catch up with my brother back in New York, and we had a lovely dinner out, followed by more drinks than I think I've ever had in his company.

And so now, on with the business of meeting a number of writing deadlines, getting in touch with useful people to schmooze for work opportunities, catching up with various friends, and buying shoes.