August 06, 2006

Clubs

Much has happened since I last wrote which means I've neglected to record a lot of important details. And as I type this even now, I'm stuffed with the pasta Craig made us for dinner and my head feels heavy like it's nearing 9 on a Sunday night and oh how I wish a new work week weren't starting up again tomorrow but I can do nothing to prevent the inevitable. In other words, I'm not sure how long I will be able to endure sitting upright in this chair to type. Nevertheless, there are things that I wish to remember so I will do what I can to recap events. Last weekend one of my very best girlfriends from college flew into JFK from Indianapolis to visit us (Jen, who married Pete this past June in Illinois). After battling an extreme amount of delay she finally arrived in the 9.30 p.m. range (her scheduled arrival was 3.13 in the afternoon - Delta will be receiving an unfriendly letter from her, I bet). Craig and I were in Queens with our friends Brian and Aubree waiting for Jen (we'd had our first "work-social" after a grueling week and Brian, who works with us, decided we should carry it on after the fact while awaiting Jen). Anyway, Jen finally arrived, we had a couple of drinks, then bid goodnight to Brian and Aubree and headed back to Manhattan. The entire weekend was completely perfect following her irregular travel day. Saturday we took her to the Top of the Rockefeller Center, where a new viewing platform has opened with commanding views of the City. She was amazed, completely taken with the sprawl of City below. We took some incredible pictures, surely one which I will post eventually here. We walked to Dave's Late Show studio, because Jen is an Indiana enthusiast, of course, and who did we see standing outside his deli but the made-famous-by-Letterman Ruppert. Craig and Jen were overjoyed, positively gleeful, so we walked right up and Craig asked if we could take a snapshot - Ruppert's just as expressionless in real life as on TV, but he agreed, then wished us a fun afternoon. This was the first in a long line of indications to me over the course of the weekend that Craig and Jen will get along famously - they have an unbelievable amount of interests in common, which makes me absolutely positive that my taste in people is consistent! I loved having two of my most favorite people get to know each other (despite the length of my relationship with Craig, geography has stood in the way of those two ever really spending time with one another) - this was well overdue. Anyway, we also went to Ground Zero, walked in and around the building where Jen's dad George does consulting work for Merryl Lynch, stood down at the river overlooking Lady Liberty and pondered boats filled with people and what they might be up to on a lovely (yet somewhat hot) Saturday afternoon. Relatively speaking it an uneventful afternoon but really relaxing and I could tell Jen was having a wonderful time - so were we. We ate lunch at the ESPN Zone in Times Square, and then worked our way back to the apartment to shower and change for dinner. My request was that we check out Cafe Delsace, which turned out to be a great little place. And after that, we headed to Lauren's boyfriend Jeff's apartment for a little party he had thrown together to celebrate his final month in that apartment before he and Lauren move in together. Eric, Lynn, Peter (Eric's brother), Amanda (Lauren's roommate in East Harlem), Chevon (spelling? - I swear I met here years ago when Craig and I were first reunited with Lauren in Brooklyn - she doesn't remember Craig or me but I still think we met - anyway, she is couch-crashing at Lauren and Amanda's presently) and of course Lauren and Jeff, and one other stray couple that are unidentifiable to me even now after having met them twice - were all in attendance. Sounds like a fairly large group for such a small apartment, but it worked out alright (you learn quickly how to step over legs without tripping/bruising, or ducking around conversations without interrupting, while hanging in cramped NYC apartments!) and we had a fabulous time with everyone. We arrived pretty late, but got to indulge in always-brilliant conversation with everyone before the night's end. Sunday, then, we took Jen to Yankees Stadium to roast in the blue seats while the Yankees played the Tampa Bay Blue Devils (not the ideal match up for Jen's first Yankees game but we figured she'd enjoy it either way). After the game we returned to the apartment and basically just unwound from the hot day. She left the apartment Monday morning when we did for work (actually, Craig flew to Ohio for a daytrip to check out some foundation operations and I reported to the office). It was a hit, a huge success, our first New York visitor! Here's to Jen for being a charming and entertaining house guest - I think she loved her first experience.*Then the week unfolded into a sweaty, humid, sticky, triple-digit mess. Power was out in portions of Queens for days and days, subway platforms turned human furnaces, our commutes felt like mini eternities, each walk, each wait, each transfer. But we are made all the stronger for it, aren't we? The temperature has finally lowered into more reasonable ranges but it's still hot. Anyway, last night two co-workers came to our apartment and we all jumped in a cab to go meet Brian and Aubree and their friend Tall Paul (extremely tall) for dinner at an Italian place called Three of Cups. After dinner we headed to a music venue called The Knitting Factory, where we saw Aubree's old friend's band Gordo Gringo. The sound system in this place wasn't too great, so we headed to CBGB's, one of the legendary punk venues that's been around since the 70's and which Craig and I have always wanted to experience. This place was nothing short of an incredible dump (see above for reference) but it was so much fun. There are band stickers literally covering every single inch of the place - Aubree pointed out, "The stickers hold this place up!" The band had a female guitarist and a female vocalist who positively screamed the lyrics into the microphone - but it was all too perfect! Brian and Aubree have frequented CBGB's in the past, so they were proud to show it off. I had the camera and we must have taken near 100 photos through the night, excellent material for our visitors' guide book, which we need to get put together before Andrea's trip here in late August. We had such a blast, a really fun night.*It's time for me to call it quits and crawl into bed with the Joan Didion book I began this morning. I finished Prodigal Summer and still owe my book club friends in Richmond part II. of my essay/review of it (I'd definitely recommend it to anyone - it was a great read). I've already read 50 pages of Joan's memoir and it is definitely a gripping read, in part because I think she's unleashing something in such a forthright manner, something so personal and naked that it's impossible to even consider it from a critical perspective. I'm really glad to finally read it; it's been sitting on my book shelf for a couple of weeks now.*Here's to hopefully a good start to a new week - a good night's rest after a few chapters of good book. Here's every bit of appreciation spilling forth from me to New York for just plain being New York, relentless heat and all.

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