Everybody Looks Cooler In New York

Forget that the natives are restless, the natives ARE gorgeous. New York has the best looking men I've ever seen in my life. Sure, the whole dark hair, glasses, preppy dressed and hurried look does it for me, but wow, they're everywhere. When people come to California, do they say all the surfer boys look a like, because I feel like I keep seeing the same guy on the street, in the restaurant, etc. Michelle told me that when she first got here she thought all the women looked like models, only they really were models. It's interesting. From my vantage point, even us conventioneers look cooler on the streets of New York. Must be the between-the-buildings lighting.

This is my fourth trip to NYC, and definitely the best.

I love the neighborhood Michelle and Kris are in, West Village. The NYT Travel Show is going well, though we're not selling as many books as hoped. The travel writing workshop that David Farley and I taught had a great turn out yesterday. More than 100 people filled the room and seemed to enjoy themselves. Others have been coming to us with enthusiastic feedback.

Kent St John, travel editor for GoNomad.com already wrote up the class on his blog and was too kind with his compliments. Check out "Best Young Travel Writers," if you want his take.

Last night a group of us met for drinks, and that was great fun. I'll have to do a proper write up about it on Written Road, but for now I'll just throw out some names. Don George, Tony Perrottet, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Ayun Halliday, Michael Luongo with Frommers, Andrew Evans with Bradt, Alex from Jaunted.com, and our great organizers David Farley and Jessie Sholl, among others.

So, will the real Jen Leo please stand up? Poker, travel??

I feel like I've gotten some solid job leads for Jenopolis Viral Marketing, but then whenever I get in front of a group and speak, everyone tells me I need to be doing that. Last night Stephanie urged me to get into motivational speaking for the Asian women's community, not the first time I've heard that, or thought about it. Apparently it's really good money.

Ahhh, what to do with my last 2-3 years of freedom. I don't know, I don't know, I want to do it all. If I could do anything right now it'd be stay in bed, but I have to go back to the convention for the last day.

Current: New York City
Next: Burbank, CA (late late tomorrow night)