An Afternoon in the Sun

A week ago, I discovered that two aunts and a cousin would be in NYC this weekend. Perfect timing for me, as it was pay week. They flew in Saturday morning and left tonight. A quick 36 hour trip to the big city. And it was great to see them!

I met up with them on Saturday evening, intending to have dinner and then let them go on their way. They had gone to the TKTS booth and bought half-price tickets for West Side Story, some would argue the hottest ticket on Broadway. As we finished dinner, they asked what I was going to do next. I flipped the question and asked what they planned to do after the show. One said, "Going to bed." To which I responded that I would be going home and going to bed myself. My cousin piped up and said that Diane had mentioned the possibility of getting dessert. I said I would spend the next two and a half hours scouting locations and finding the best dessert in the City.

As we walked toward the theater where West Side Story was playing, I had an inspiration. I walked over to the Marriott Marquis. They have a revolving restaurant on the 45th floor that I have never been to. I soon found out why. They only offer an after theater all-you-can-eat dessert buffet for the low, low price of $17.95 each. While this was a possibility, and the view, theoretically, would be amazing, I just couldn't see spending $80 for a few desserts. Combine that with the fact that dinner was at the Olive Garden in Times Square, and we had already seen the lights, I moved on to other ideas. My idea was to talk to someone-the bartender. I told him I was looking for good dessert, and was thinking Little Italy. It was, after all, on the way back to the hotel, and who had better desserts than the Italians?

The bartender rattled off the name Ferrara as if he knew I was coming and would be asking for dessert places. That decided, I went over to the concierge and got the address and phone number. I looked at my watch and discovered the show had been going on for four minutes. Two hours and twenty-six minutes to go. I was at the Crossroads of the World and my guess was it wouldn't be hard to pass the time. A couple of souvenir shops, and an electronics store, then I found myself belly up to the bar at TGI Fridays. When the show let out, I got a town car and we all jumped in. A short time later we pulled up to Ferrara. They loved it, and I found a new place to go for Tiramisu. When my mom comes to visit again, we are there.

When we left to go back to their hotel, I went outside to hail a taxi, and a stretch limo pulled up. The driver told me it would be $5 each, so we piled in. Jen, Debbie, Diane and I rode back to the hotel in high style. Unfortunately, the ride wasn't long enough for a cocktail. The last time I was in a limo was in 1994, for the short trip from my wedding to my reception.

Sunday morning dawned early-we lost an hour due to Daylight Savings-and wet. We haven't seen the sun since Friday afternoon, but it didn't dampen our spirits. Charity and I left home and went to meet Jen, Debbie and Diane at Serendipity. An old-fashioned ice cream parlor and restaurant that is a little bit tourist-y but was very good. Two-and-a-half hours later, and full as we could possibly be, we left the restaurant and walked to the subway. We took the 6 train but for our destination, we needed to be on the 4. I told the aunts that we were going to switch trains and Debbie asked rather loudly, "Do we have to pay again?" I said, "No" and she said, "I have paid enough already!" She probably didn't know this, but the MTA is talking about fare hikes and service changes (again.) I thought the people on that subway car were going to elect her Mayor right then and there. I think I heard a smattering of applause.

It was so good to see family, even if only for a short time. I can't wait to see who visits next!

Where Is the Love?

Procrastination is my friend. I have promised this entry for a month, so it's time to get it done. Valentine's Day weekend was full of violence. It doesn't seem like it should be that way, but indeed it was.

Valentine's Day is the second busiest holiday in a card store. Right behind Christmas. Mother's Day is a close third, or Valentine's Day and Mother's Day may be flip flopped, I'm not sure. Either way, we get a line to the back of the store, of mostly men who forgot to get their cards despite my reminders since December 26, when we put up the Valentine's Day cards.

This line causes ordinary adult human beings to behave in ways you might expect to see only in the lunchroom line at your local junior high school. Generally, people would form one line towards the back of the store and when a register opened they would move to that cashier and be rung up. Woe to the little old lady who didn't realize there was only one line, and the business executive would let her know in no uncertain terms that the line went that way. When someone bought three cards, the fourth was free. If they came to the register with only three cards, I would suggest getting the fourth and coming back to me. If they chose to do that, and the next person in line didn't hear me say that, near-fights would break out. There were at least two instances when I thought it really was going to come to blows right in front of me and everyone.

One of the stores in our district was told on February 1 that they would be closing on February 25. The store went on sale almost immediately. People always amaze me when they go into a store that's closing and try to get a bigger discount on prices that are already deeply slashed. Couple that with the emotion of the people who are about to lose their jobs, and you can imagine that tensions might be riding high.

One lady came to the register with a photo album that was normally $12.00. Because it was a Valentine's Day item and the store was closing, it was 75% off. 3.00 what a steal! The lady's response to the price was "Why isn't it 90% off?" To be fair, the photo album was not in its normal place, because someone else had been interested in it earlier, and turned it down, so it was on another shelf elsewhere in the store. As I was trying to explain this to the customer, the store manager looked at me and said, "Well, why isn't it free?" The customer became defensive and shot back a retort, and the manager responded. I really thought the manager was going to go over the counter. I stepped in and told the customer that her order would be 80 cents, unless she wanted the photo album, in which case it would be $3.80. The lady turned the photo album down and things began to cool down in the store.

Later that night, as I was coming home on the train, a gentleman who had clearly come from the airport, was arranging his luggage before sitting down. A little old lady said "Hey, watch it," which I think is good advice, if someone is slinging bags around, and nearly hitting someone. This was not the case, though. This guy was simply rearranging his luggage and sat down. Just as he sat down, and the train departed, a lady next to her shouted, "That's my mother! You better apologize!" The gentleman turned around and said, "Oh, did I hit you?" The lady said, "No" and the guy replied, "Then why am I apologizing?" I thought that was a good question, but the lady informed him that he was going to wish there were transit police in that car.

Two days after Valentine's Day, a lady walked into the store and asked if we had any cards left. I was just putting away the last of them, and she explained that she was looking for a specific card. She pulled it out of her purse in eight pieces and told me that she had gotten into a fight and tore this one up. She needed the same card in order to save her relationship. I brought two boxes of cards out for her to sift through and went back to look in one myself. I found it within just a couple of minutes. I went back to her and asked if she had found it. She said no, so I pulled it from behind my back, and she thanked me profusely. I enjoy helping people, but maybe we could think a little more about the consequences before tearing up cards and having to search for it again.

Maybe we need to ban Valentine's Day on account of the anger, strife and violence it creates. Or, we could all take a Valium and sleep through the holiday.