Friday we got up early (6:30, yuk) to catch a 7:30 cab in order to make our 8:30 train. I was worried that it being rush hour we might get caught in traffic, and had considered changing the taxi reservation to 7:15. Of course, traffic was extraordinarily light, and we were at Union Station by 7:50. You never know, though, and I’d rather be early than miss the train.
The ride up was uneventful–no wild turkey incidents this time–and snoozing most of the way up, we pulled into Penn Station at 11:45, feeling like it had taken practically no time at all.
We made our way to Jere’s apartment, which we were subletting for the weekend. It’s a charming space, if a little hot, though the bedroom was nicely air-conditioned, ensuring we spent most of our time there. We gathered his mail, watered his plant, snooped around his bookshelves (and I’m green with envy over his near complete Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Encyclopedia Brown collections) and then headed off for a terrific Cuban lunch at the excellent Victor’s Café, where I had the Croquetas Corral con salsa Lulu, the Camarones borrachos con vegetales Chino Cubano, and Arroz con Leche, while Jeff had the Ensalata mixta con aquacate, mango, queso Criollo y tomate, the Ropa vieja al nido de viandes, and Flan. We both had a glass of sangria.
After a quick “disco nap” (we knew we were going to have a very late night) and shower we headed out to Broadway for the first of our three weekend musicals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Circle in the Square Theater, which was really terrific, T-E-R-R-I-F-I-C, terrific. We loved it.
After the show we headed down to the Village where we stopped in at a Starbucks to have frappucinos and share a tarragon chicken salad sandwich, and then we walked across the street to the Duplex, where Friday night features the “Mostly Sondheim” caberet, and where we had told some of our New York blogging acquaintances we could be found, for socializing. Mike and Jeff showed up, and we had a nice time up until conking out sometime between 2 and 2:30.
Throughout the day there’d been a growing tension between Jeff and me, and on the walk home from the subway we were able to address it more openly, at which point I realized that my pique had been based entirely on an incorrect assumption that was not simply wrong, but in fact was a full 180 degrees from the truth. Boy was I embarrassed, but I was also man enough to admit my mistake, and it felt like the experience made us even a little stronger.
[Ed.: Turns out that Jeff posted his entry about the weekend after all, around the same time I posted this one. I’ll probably still write about Saturday and Sunday, from my pov, but you can see his take on the weekend as well.]