Returning to New York City

My New York girlfriends partied two nights in a row with a few of the Wayans brothers while I spent the weekend in Western North Carolina doing this and had another 7-hour delay in the Cincinnati airport on Sunday.

In happier local news, a coworker got engaged on a mountaintop in Montana over her weekend. Before our weekly ad sales meeting today, my colleagues discussed her exciting news.

Amie: Well, we just got a dog so engagement seemed like the next logical step.
Me: I just don't know if I agree with marriage just because of the arrival of a dog.
Sam: But studies show that it's better for the dog in the long run.
Me: Be that as it may, I just don't think it's a good idea to follow one mistake with another.

And my cubicle neighbor - another of the executive assistants in the row of white cubicles lining the glass offices behind us - just sent me this.

Incredibly, Warren Wilson College, in Asheville, NC - where I recently witnessed an unwelcome reaction to a gay rights parade during Bele Chere that had me ready to rejoin modern civilization in New York - was ranked the Most Socially Liberal College by MSN Encarta.

1. Warren Wilson College (Asheville, N.C.)
The typical WWC undergrad "likes good organic wholesome food, a good local brew and bluegrass on a starry night, is health conscious but smokes hand-rolled cigarettes, dresses in work clothes but accessorizes, recycles, doesn't watch TV and knows some botanical-ornithological basics." To put it more simply: "This place is a haven for hippies and very left-wing people." Other types pepper the student body, including "surfers, farmers and punks, some people with dreadlocks, others with dyed hair. A small portion of the population has facial piercings and tattoos."

Students who considered Warren Wilson also looked at Earlham College and The Evergreen State College.

To be fair, Asheville is one of the more socially progressive cities in the South, and I am generally proud to have lived there in my late teens. New York City, however, is for my late twenties.

And beyond.

A Year Ago Today:
New Tag: Search-Term Saturdays
The Morning After Jet Blue
Another Charlotte No-Go
Interesting Things I Saw in JFK Before I Did NOT Fly to Charlotte
Two Years Ago Today: Top 10 Favorite Asheville Memories