New York City, 2007
Cris was working in NYC for three weeks, and I decided to join him for the
weekend in the middle of his trip.
Fri March 2/07
I wasn't feeling horribly well, and after my appointment for a knee MRI at
the hospital, went home and rested. I called in for the noon
teleconference, but didn't feel up to actually coding, and didn't get out
of my PJs until it was time to head to South Station. I'd just picked up a
Charlie Card and it worked nicely to get me on the bus and the red line.
The bus ticket had said to arrive an hour early, and when I saw the line
snaking from the NYC gate, I understood why. I got into the line at around
6:05pm and just made it onto the 7pm bus that I'd bought a ticket for. I
lucked out with a seat near the front on the aisle, with a quiet seat mate
who ended up sleeping most of the way (and not on me). I read for a little
bit, but then switched to headphones to block out the talkers and the loud
movie (Clear and Present Danger), but had to concentrate hard to focus on
the audiobook rather than hear the sounds around me. I listened to "The
Old Man and the Sea" and really enjoyed it. I missed two phone calls while
I was listening, texted Cris back to let him know I was close, and watched
Manhattan scroll by. We'd made a brief stop in Sturbridge and I'd grabbed
a bottle of water to sip at, but finished it as I got to NYC. I called
Cris when I got off the bus, but he hadn't left the hotel room to meet me
(the bus actually came in 20 mins early), so I started off on my own. I
made it through the subway no problem to Penn Station, but managed to
mistake the hotel address for being on 37th street, instead of just a
block away, and walked in a big circle before finding the Affinia
with Cris waiting for me outside. Up to the room, and ate the salad that
I'd picked up in a corner store, and then crashed out.
Sat March 3/07
Woke up relatively early and were out of the room by 10-10:30am. Did some
window shopping, limited by what opened at 10 versus 11 versus noon.
Missed Other Music and Screaming Mimi's because we were too early, but had
a good browse around Forbidden Planet.
Meandered our way to Smorgas
Chef for brunch, arriving a bit early and snagging a table at the
back. Service was slow and they seemed to not have a record of Raul's
reservation for 7 people, so we got a bit friendly with 6 at the round
table as Christina, Christine, Raul and Liza arrived. Took a bit of asking
to get our drinks (the rose and cherry green tea was really good, in a
tiny Henley's metal pot, but no offer for more hot water), but the food
was good and the serving size just right for me. I was the only one who
didn't do the full brunch, I just went with the regular lunch without
alcohol.
We split up after lunch, and Cris and I walked to Chelsea market. Loved
it. :) The building reminded me of Mass MOCA, all exposed beams and high
ceilings. But it was stuffed full of food stores. Heaven. :) Got a divine
stilton in the cheese shop, Cris got crispy bread and fresh produce and
eggs. I was feeling a bit worn out and sat on a bench with his coat and
shopping while he hit the last store, and a guitar busking duo set up near
me - they did a Barenaked Ladies song and a few couples settled in with
their kids to let the youngun's enjoy the music too. There was a young boy
that had the oddest half walk half crawl to get around, he kept creeping
up to the musicians and watching them very seriously, it was sweet.
Back to the hotel with our loot and rested a bit, reading and idly
debating what we wanted to have for supper. We finally settled on sushi
and headed out to Houston St, I think it was Ushi Wakamaru that we
went to. We went with the omakase, putting ourselves in the chef's hands.
All three sushi chefs took their turns making us dishes, it was a
wonderful reminder of our meals on Yakushima, the food just kept coming
and it was wonderful. :) We had all sorts of sashimi, nigiri, soups, I
think a roll or two, and the green tea kept getting refilled, and the
green tea ice cream that I finished off with was obviously home made. I
enjoyed it a lot, it was worth it, I was almost drunk on the fishy
goodness. :)
We rolled ourselves out of there and made our way to Angel's Share, via
a short stop in the St. Mark's bookstore where I found a book for half
price that I'd had on my wish list for a couple of years. We had a bit of
a wait to be seated at the bar, it was quite busy. I had a mojito and Cris
went with Scotch. The obnoxious drunk at the end of the bar left soon
after we were seated. It was neat watching the bartenders make the drinks,
they were formally dressed with elastics holding their dress shirt
sleeves, and their movements were quick and efficient. The line was still
long so we didn't linger after we finished our drinks. Back to the hotel
and crashed out again.
Sun March 4/07
Cris went out for an early morning bike ride and I slept in, trying to
recover my strength. I snacked on cheese and bread bought yesterday and
read in bed. He came back around 11:30, we cleaned up and headed out for
brunch/tea with Zoh. I gave Janette a call but got her answering machine.
We actually caught up with Zoh as we were all leaving the subway station
and walked together to Alice's
Teacup. It turned out to be closed due to a permit issue, but the
clerk came out and directed us across town to the other location. We got a
cab and headed through Central Park for take two. When we walked in we
were told that they weren't accepting walk ins as they'd taken on all the
reservations of the other location, but they were able to fit us in when
we told them that we were sent over. Lucky for us, a it was all delicious.
Zoh and I went with the Keemun, and Cris had the Lapsang Souchong. My eyes
were bigger than my stomach (though it was pretty big) and I tackled the
Mad Hatter's platter, but was conquered. The cran-orange and pumpkin
scones were delicious, so were the curried chicken and smoked salmon
sandwiches, and the mousse, but the cookies were way too much. :) I had
about half of the total boxed up and we headed out, splitting off from Zoh
to walk across Central Park to the Frick
Collection. It was pretty busy, I grabbed a free audio guide and tried
to find quiet corners to listen to a few of the painting descriptions - I
liked the ones where I'd get a bit of gossip about the painter and/or the
subjects. I really liked the Turner ones, as well as the Titian samples,
but the Gainesborough ones, while pretty, started to all look alike.
We headed back to the hotel, and then over to the bus station so that I
could get in line around 6pm. The line was shorter, but there were fewer
buses leaving it seemed, but I got on at around 6:45. My seat mate was
quiet again, he had the same mp3 player as I do and listened to that and
dozed most of the trip. I was in the front row this time, and didn't get
bothered by motion sickness, though I couldn't read much. This time I
listened to the "Siddartha" audiobook, though I kept dozing off, the
narrator's voice was soothing. We had a short bathroom stop again, but
still came into Boston early. Quick trip home, collapsed into bed.
Back to my diary page.