I spent the weekend in New York with MJ. I left Wednesday night, arrived early on Thursday, and proceeded to spend much of the day asleep. My plans had revolved more around a shopping trip in the Fashion District than a good long snooze, but I probably needed the rest.

The shopping trip, once it got underway, turned out to be overwhelming. Just one store, Mood (of Project Runway fame), provided more options than I could deal with. I walked in with the idea that I would pick out perhaps a dozen really cool fabrics, bring home a few yards of each, and let them inspire my projects for the next several months. This plan turned out not to make any sense. Each single aisle had as many bolts, stacked floor to ceiling, as an entire Pacific Fabrics outlet – and the store spans three floors. There was just no way to narrow it down. Instead I wandered, browsing at random, letting my sense of possibilities expand, collecting swatches of everything that caught my eye. I’ll go back in six months with some specific designs to shop for, and in the meantime I can mail back a swatch if I want to order some material.

MJ finished work around eight-something, which is early for her these days, and took me on a tour around her office. It’s a great place; nice, polished, and more approachable than I expected a big NYC law firm to be.

Friday, we collected her friends Jodi and Cat, Jodi’s little sausage-dog Gus, and a trunk full of camping gear, then proceeded upstate for a weekend in the Adirondacks. We all brought our iPods, and spent the drive up shuffling them around and picking tracks from each other’s collections. The city becomes forest with surprising speed, and most of the drive in runs through green rolling hills. You’d never know you were only a few hours away from North America’s second-largest city.

The group totaled about a dozen people, and we spent the weekend at a wilderness reserve called Dippikill, hanging out in a big log cabin, cooking over a wood fire, playing Taboo and kick-the-can, chopping logs, drinking a lot of whiskey… MJ’s friends are smart and fun and the conversation rocketed along nonstop. She enjoyed herself thoroughly and I think everyone else did too.

The big question, of course: what about the jacket? I hope to have pictures up within a couple of days – MJ looks great in it, and was really happy with the way it looks. All the back-and-forth with the prototype paid off, as the the fit didn’t need any adjustment. I did tweak the front hem line to better suit MJ’s taste, but the new line still works with the original concept.

This was the most ambitious project I’ve attempted so far, and I was worried that some mistake in styling or execution would turn it into a big white elephant. It’s a relief to have it finished, and I’m so glad MJ likes it! It has its rough edges, as every creation will, but I achieved what I set out to do, and it feels really good.