Right at the very time of this entry I am sitting on the upper porch of my friends’ house in Ft. Liquordale, Fl. I arrived here this afternoon after spending the week in NYC and the break is very welcome.

I love NYC and I also it love when I leave. It’s not a city that I can live with or in, but when I’m there I’m quite happy and without complaints. Except for the insane subway service changes perhaps.

I was there for work, although I really wouldn’t call it that, hosting two parties and doing a little charity event. Hosting means that I lend my name to the flyer and I show up all hoping to increase the crowd for the promoter and bar owner(s).

Monday was my arrival night and I met up with my old friend Greg Endries at our little place called “Nowhere” in the West Village and then, well, that night really didn’t end; it kept repeating itself with different venues, people and times. All in all it was the same alcohol laden debacle.

Tuesday was my girl Jamie aka: TheFruitFli at her thing, “Tijuana Tuesdays” at the Ritz in Midtown. My old buddy and all time fave DJ, Randy Bettis was providing the musical stylings and bff, recording artist, Brian Kent was there helping to use up my free drink tickets. Home @ 5am.

Wednesday was my charity event where I auctioned off a jock strap and called a couple of bingo rounds with Jamie, but not before having a few lovely plates at Craft Bar in Chelsea. I got home after 4… again.

Thursday was spent spending in SoHo with another awesome buddy, and future possible roommate, the smashing Jason Wimberly. We started out at Balthazar in Soho and found ourselves at Joe’s Jeans where we discovered a sale. I then took him back to Craft Bar where we indulged on red wine and handmade whiskey drinks. Even though I got home at 11 and slept almost 12 hours it still wasn’t enough; at this point a complete gastronomic transplant was in order.

Friday was the big day, the one I was supposed to be saving up for. Brian was spinning at the Eagle in the meatpacking district, how appropriate, from 8-10 for customer appreciation night. Open bar and food! Most of my dinner was served over ice. We headed to Eatern Bloc in the East Village where I was to host a birthday party. It was so packed that the only thing I could really do was stand in the only available corner and chat with passersby doing shots with the bartender. I got home, not my own, and was up to at least 5.

Saturday up at 11 to catch my flight home to Ohio where I’d spend the night, pack some better clothes and come to Florida. There had been about an inch of snow when I touched down in Cleveland, it was 60 in Manhattan.

It’s 80 here and I’ve put my boots in my Samonsite in favor of my Adidas flip flops. It’s the gym, a haircut (I have a photo shoot) and general relaxation poolside for the duration.

A short while ago I was asked to shoot a campaign for a new vintage Men’s Resale shop called ConsignmenLA owned by Ryan Crowe.

I arrived, on time, as usual, to the location which was his gorgeous loft downtown. I was driving a beautiful new mustang convertible which I was still getting used to as I drove into the parking lot behind a fairly large pick up. I inched forward trying to judge the space between myself and the Ford Goliath in front of me when I hit him ever so gently. Daddy was a bit scared now; these are the sort of altercations you hear about in the news. I waited for the person in the truck to either come out swinging, yelling or both. Instead a smiley Mexican man with a western style hat came out and surveyed the damage. He looked down and as he did I poked my head out of my shiny blue car and apologized explaining that I had just gotten the car and was still getting used to it, obviously. He smiled even bigger and shrugged his shoulders and said to me, “This thing is so old, I’m more worried about your car, it’s so nice.”

Come again? Are you serious ? This is LA not some small town in Idaho, but he was serious and after I saw there was no damage we shook hands, exchanged smiles once again and he was off. It was then that I noticed a 10 inch hitch attached to the underside of the Ford. I didn’t feel so incapable of maneuvering my Mustang anymore.

After a short wait for the photographer, and a lovely visit to the craft services table ( I requested pretzels and mangoes) we were shooting all over the space and even the rooftop which I must say was GORGEOUS!

I cannot say enough how much I love doing shoots like this… shoots where I’m modeling clothes and not skin. For one, I can actually eat the day before and the day of and not feel as if I’m the spokesperson for Lane Bryant and two, it’s just so fucking easy to do… for me. I’ve guilty of watching an entire season of Americas Next Top Model in a single sitting.

Rumor has it that this photo will be running in the holiday issue of a local newspaper here called Frontiers and another rumor has it (God I hope this one is true) that he’s renting a billboard somewhere in West Hollywood. This will be my first billboard and I have to say from a completely egotistical standpoint, I’m quite excited.

Check out the website ConsignmenLA.com and you bitches in WeHo, keep a lookout for the ad in Frontiers and the billboard sometime around the holiday.

I raced home from downtown after my shoot making it to Santa Monica in a record time of 18 mins to meet BW for a belated birthday dinner at Son of a Gun on 3rd St. It’s owned by the same pair who own Animal, but this place is a move in the other direction; a more seafood oriented spot.

We were the first to arrive, it was quite small, as most of those spaces tend to be on 3rd, and we were seated in the corner, my favorite spot to eat. I immediately saw the oysters which is exactly what I had been craving all day. In P’town I lived on them and ate them almost every day. They were Kusshi from British Colombia, small, clean and not as fishy as some other varieties. We ordered a half dozen as BW, as brave as he is, was a bit weary to have any; he tried one and decided that it’s just not for him.

This was the kind of experience that I wanted to enjoy so I took great care in ordering everything one at a time, much to the dismay of our waiter, to avoid being inundated with plates. Our next course was Steelhead Roe with a Maple Cream and Pumpernickel and amberjack crudo, galbi vinaigrette with a watermelon radish. Steelhead is a type of fish that resembles a cross between trout and salmon and if a dish could sing this one would be in perfect pitch. Everything about this was spot on, the saltiness of the roe was in perfect harmony with the sweetness of the maple cream which was essentially a maple whipped cream, so light it almost wasn’t there and just sweet enough to match the roe. The pumpernickel gave it a savory crunch that rounded everything off flawlessly. The Amberjack crudo, amberjack aka Kampachi and crudo, Italian for raw, is a tuna tartatre dressed in a Korean style vinaigrette that I found to be quite interesting, again keeping everything orally sound, the texture of the fish matching perfectly with the salty vinaigrette was highlighted by the sweetness of the watermelon radish, do you see a pattern emerging yet?

I’m a big fan of mid courses, especially salads. We chose the lettuces, arugula, pomegranate, almond, manchego, sherry salad to cleanse the palate and prepare for the next act. Nothing fancy here which was the goal, but I have to say that the construction of the salad made it a bit difficult to enjoy. The leaves were far too large to accommodate such tiny components like the almonds and pomegranate seeds in one bite but still a lovely intermission.

For the headliner we decided to split something and luckily, as is usually the case we both were stoked about the alligator schnitzel with heart of palm and orange. When this dish came to the table I was quite surprised because I had always known hearts of palm to be somewhat dense pieces of fiborous plant material. This dish however had shaved ribbons garnishing the dish with a generous portion of orange segments. (I forget the sauce) now the thing that tied this dish together that was not listed but luckily worked incredibly well was the sauce………with vanilla. It’s always nice when you end a culinary experience with something amazing and delicious.

I really enjoyed this spot and would come back for sure, I haven’t had a meal that was so focused on the pairing of textures and tastes in a long time. It was clearly well thought out and presented even better.

I give it a 7.

We passed on dessert as neither of is has much of a sweet tooth and decided to spend the rest of the evening at one of our favorite watering holes Micky’s in WeHo. We were both home by midnight feeling very accomplished and well fed!