October 17, 2002:
Always love the first two days: the vibrance, the energy. After that, standing in line for every little thing begins to wear. After a week you'd move to a cabin in the woods.
We find the cheapest hotel in the city, on 55th Street around the corner from Rockefeller Center. The weather is wintry, heavy clouds below the tops of tall buildings. We spend days traveling up and down the island looking for shoes. She eventually buys a pair at a shop next door to the hotel. We go to Liberty Island. Lou Reed is playing: she says, "I want to see The Man....," in her I-am-a-little-girl singsong.
We pass a church and I ask her to marry me. "No, I won't marry you," laughing. "Why did you ask me to meet you here?" "I was afraid to be in New York by myself."
After she boards her plane I break down in the subway.
If I lived in New York I'd eat nothing but cheese pizza and cokes.