New York, I Love You

Every moment another story begins. - Tagline from New York, I Love You (photo above by Chad Nicholson, www.improveverywhere.com).

This photo was taken from a roof near Bryant Park where I gathered with 4,000 New Yorkers yesterday to celebrate Steve's birthday. Steve is one of the key players in the group 'Improv Anywhere.' This is the group that does an annual Mp3 Experiment in which everyone involved downloads an Mp3, meets in a particular area of NYC and follows the directions in the download.

This event started in retail stores in the mid-40's and ended up at Bryant Park where we celebrated Steve's birthday by playing a series of games such as speed walking, drawing sketches of a stranger, drawing the world map by switching with 7 people for each continent (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/fountainb/5045508645/in/set-72157625082681288/), creating words and phrases from the 2 letters each person brought and dressing each others as mummies and then dancing. There was also a gift exchange and a massive rendition of 'Happy Birthday.'

I read about Improv Everywhere (www.improveverywhere.com) a few years back through 'This American Life' and always wanted to participate in an event. It was just as fun as it looks. (Checkout the website for photos.)

Today I ran my first 10K on Governor's Island. A little island about 4 minutes away from the financial district in NYC. We went three loops around the island and at the top of every loop was a perfect view of Lady Liberty. It was an amazing race with beautiful views.

On the boat over to the island.

Welcome!

Triumphant finish after 1hr 7min.

Our amazing group of friends who killed the race.

Back home to eat breakfast pizza and take a long and beautiful nap.