a full week in a short entry.
I did not die, nor did I stop the journal. I did two things that required all my time and attention and energy: I went to New York City for a week and I got a really, really bad case of bronchitis. These two things do not mix, and the former is not conducive to getting over the latter in a hurry.
I have no energy to do an entry for each day. So without further ado:
Monday
I flew Austin to Atlanta and Atlanta on to JFK. I slept most of the way for the first leg; no such luck on the second half. Though I did my Good Deed and switched my seat with another passenger so that he and his new wife could sit together--the same thing happened on my honeymoon and someone switched seats so Darin and I could sit together; I guess this is Newlywed Airplane Seat Karma or something.
I met up with Darin at the Delta terminal and we waited a few decades for the free bus to take us to the subway station. My parents were already in the station waiting for us, despite the fact that our planes had gotten in way before theirs. Clearly, United has better access to the subway station.
We took the subway into the city and went to the Hotel Olcott on the Upper West Side. My parents stay there each time they come to NYC (which is about once a year). The hotel's about two doors down from the Dakota, so it's in a great location--right next to the park, right near Columbus, Amsterdam, and Broadway. The selling point of this hotel is that each room is actually more akin to an apartment: our suite had two bedrooms and a living room, with a kitchenette spread over two former closets.
The downside is that there are no king- or queen-size beds in the place, only twins or doubles. When your husband is 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, a double is not a comfy option. However, as we discovered the first night, pushing two uneven twins together isn't much of an option either.
My parents weren't hungry, so Darin and I checked Zagat's on the web and went to a little restaurant down Columbus, the Ocean Grill. It might have been okay, except we were seated in the bar area, and guess what? You can still smoke in the bar area in NYC restaurants. I coughed through most of the meal. Darin did not like the way I was sounding. We also had the world's most inattentive waiter; he'd say things like, "Can I get you some more iced tea?" and then disappear for 10 minutes.
Tuesday
When I awoke for the final time on Tuesday--had a restless, cough-filled night--it was quite clear that my chest congestion was not a passing thing; I had bronchitis. Yuck.
We had the maid switch our two twin beds for one double bed, on the theory that it would be better to sleep together in cramped quarters than nowhere near one another. Also, the rooms were cold and the beds only had one thin blanket (that didn't even reach the sides) on them, so we could use the body heat.
My mother, Darin, and I walked down to the Duane Reade drugstore on Broadway to get me supplies: cough medicine, medicated tissues, lozenges. We discovered Gray's Papaya, a hot dog joint Darin had read about, was right at 72nd and Broadway. So after dropping my mom back at the hotel, we got hot dogs and walked over to the Museum of Natural History, which was up a bit on Central Park West.
At first we thought, "This is a stupid museum," because all we saw were dioramas of animals and peoples of Africa and Asia. You know, the stuff that makes a museum look as though it's fifty years out of date. Then we joined in on one of the free tours the museum holds and discovered that there is a ton of cool stuff in the museum: it was just all on a different floor. They had samples from the "black smoker chimneys" that were discovered near (and now I forget) Alaska? And core ice samples. And dinosaurs. And...
The tour was supposed to be one hour but took two. By the end, we had to drag ourselves back to the hotel, where I crashed for two hours. But there is no rest for the wicked: we had reservations at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's Tex-Mex restaurant.
We dragged my father along with (my mom won't go out at night in the city anymore) and we got seated in the upper floor, which allowed us to look down on the people arriving and waiting in the bar. We suspected we got those seats because we weren't all dressed up, but we didn't care--the food tasted the same.
And what food! Darin called this one of the 20 best meals he's ever had in his life. Everything was good, including the truly amazing desserts. I had the sixteen spice chicken, which was tasty and moist and wonderful, and Darin and my dad had the duck, which disappeared off of both their plates rather swiftly. I had the special dessert: a fudge brownie with quite possibly the best dark chocolate gelato I've ever had in my life. Dad had the apple tart, Darin the triple chocolate strawberry shortcake. All of them were amazing. Definitely worth every penny.
Wednesday
We went to the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station for lunch with my mom. Darin and I had gone there a few years ago and really loved it, so it was must for this trip.
Then Darin and I walked crosstown to the theater district to see the matinee of Fosse, for which Dad had bought tickets. I was kind of surprised to see that Darin and I were the only people there under 35 (I don't think I'm exaggerating). My verdict: this was the best musical of the year? It must have been a slow year. It's not a musical, it's a revue. Dad really loved it, Darin liked it, I was...underwhelmed. I realize I am simply pointing out my more Philistinish qualities, but the dancing really bugged me after a while, because it was so repetitious. A little went a long way for me.
After the show we went to Shun Lee West, a few blocks from the hotel, for dinner. It was pretty good--better than most of the Chinese food I've had in the LA area--but the service was slow. We decided this was something we'd better get used to in NYC restaurants.
The fun part of the night, of course, was trying to get to sleep. We would be dropping off when I'd be hit by another coughing fit. I pointed out to Darin that I was developing really strong stomach muscles, which could only help with delivery. Actually, the furious coughing made me quite concerned, because everything that happens when you're pregnant makes you concerned. I decided that the baby, being Darin's kid, really like the jostling and was saying the five-month equivalent of "Whee!" every time my body shook.
Thursday
One of the things my parents like to do when they come to New York is go to Tavern on the Green for lunch, so we headed over there to get lunch in the Crystal Room, a room with ceiling-to-floor windows that looks out at the park. Lunch was pretty good.
Darin and I walked down to Central Park South with Dad, at which point we split up: he to go down Sixth, us to go down Fifth. We meandered down Fifth until we headed over to the United Nations. We ran into construction on the latest Trump residential tower, billed as the highest such tower in the world. The last time I was in NYC, I don't think I saw the name Trump quite as often as I did on this vacation. How unbelievably annoying that man is.
We walked around the lobby of the United Nations--how very Sixties that place is in design and layout--and then headed back crosstown to the main branch of the New York Public Library, where we diligently searched for actual books. Well, mostly we took advantage of the benches to rest a while.
Then we headed back up Sixth to the Museum of Modern Art, where we discovered the guidebook had lied to us: the museum was not open late on Thursdays, it was open late on Fridays. Well, damn, that screwed up our plans, but we were there, so we went in. Not the best time to go in: they have a new exhibit they're putting on entitled "People, Places, and Things"...but right now only People is out. Wait a month or two before they get the whole thing up, then go.
The Museum of Television and Radio is only a block away, so we walked over there to check it out. Turns out it is open late on Thursdays (yay!). It's not a museum with exhibits and everything, but it has quite a collection of television shows, radio shows, and commercials that you can ask to see. You find the shows you want to watch, put in your order, and then get two hours of carrousel time to watch your shows. We watched a Nova special on alleged alien abductees and a program with Bill Moyers on lying in public life (made in 1989 and centered on Watergate and Iran-Contra). The best part was resting our tootsies for two hours.
Then it was time to go to dinner at An American Place, at 32nd and Park. We stopped at the Barnes and Noble on 5th for a while, but then continued along our way. When we got to the address, the restaurant wasn't there. There was another restaurant, Rosehill, there, and I noticed a sign in the window for An American Place. So we went in to ask where the restaurant was. Turned out it had moved to 50th and Lexington--you know, about 5 blocks from where we were at the Museum of Television and Radio. Oh damn.
So we had dinner at Rosehill, which was both expensive and mediocre. Our waiter was clearly an actor--very good-looking and incredibly, um, lackadaisical. I can't even tell you what we had for dinner, that's how unmemorable it was.
We took a taxi home.
I'll do the other half tomorrow.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com