Yesterday it seemed that I had just gotten off the train from New York City after the Neil Diamond Concert, when I found myself boarding the same train for the trip back to New York City for a bit of a mini-blogmeet. It seems that Zonker was in town to attend a bachelor party on Friday night, so I arranged to meet him near his hotel in New York for some interesting and thoughtful conversation semi-drunken carrying-on.

Mr. Surly and I went into the City together and did the steamy and fragrant (sometimes good, sometimes bad) walk from Penn Station to Desmond’s Tavern, which was right next door to Zonker’s hotel. This was a good thing on several levels. First, it was a good thing for Zonker, who, the night before, had found himself drawn into the beer-tequila, beer-tequila, beer-tequila maelstrom and really needed a nearby bloody mary joint. Second, it was an extremely comfortable and friendly saloon that served excellent draft beer in pints (I recommend the Brooklyn Lager in mass quantities).

Also in attendance were Kate of Katespot, Mary of Bookblog and one of Mary’s excellent friends, who, understandably, sometimes seemed a bit bemused by the non-stop blabbing and laughing that invariably characterizes one of these gatherings. Bemused or not, he fit right in.

After several rounds of refreshments, we headed off to find a place to eat, which should never, ever be a problem in Manhattan. However, after about ten city blocks of strolling about, I began to think that we might be the only knuckleheads in Manhattan who couldn’t find a suitable place for victuals. We finally settled in on a Thai restaurant and wolfed down some terrific food. We were, of course, loud.

After chow, it was back to Desmond’s (Did I mention that it is a friendly place?) for a parting drink or four and yet more blabbing and laughing.

By about 8 o’clock, it was time to saddle up. Turns out that we had been talking for about seven hours!

That’s easy to do at a blogmeet.

Note: Zonker’s version of his excellent adventure are here, as is acknowledgement of the grassroots campaign to make him the next Governor of New Jersey!

SloppyDawg is hosting this week’s carnival, and this one comes with some excellent satellite images of the Garden State. Naturally, I was particularly taken with the image of a genuine Parkway Rest Stop. However, I also liked the final image, which serves to remind us that we’re all in this together.

Go read.