The Rest of the Story

As you can imagine, Friday was a bit of a write-off. I spent the lunch break during the course napping and drinking Gatorade. The second half of the course was hit and miss. Petunia's portion was great, very interesting and informative. And then there was the other guy. Who was, shall we say, arrogant? An idiot? He just pissed me off, and I was glad to get out of there. I really wanted to attend another session, but I was SO tired (very little sleep, and no food that day may have been factors), so I went to chill out in the room. I dozed a bit, and Pearl hung out for a while, until Berly (formerly K.) arrived. Pearl headed off to her session, and Berly and I chatted. We looked into dinner plans. I really just wanted rice. NOT Chinese food fried rice, but a nice rice pilaf, like you get as a side dish at Italian or Greek restaurants. Or even Red Lobster. Well, Meriden's restaurant selections are somewhat. . . lacking. Fast food, fast food, Ruby Tuesday (and the idea af salad repelled me), Friendly's, and a place called Lido's Pizza. Lido's apparently had very good food - pasta and pizza and calzones, and other Italian dishes. Hoping that they would have rice, we headed off.

The five of us - Pearl, Berly, Petunia, Peaches, and I - were seated quickly. Lido's was pretty busy, and it smelled great, but food was just not appealing (hmmmm, could this be the jump start to a great diet?). The menu held a wide variety, but no rice. I finally settled on baked ziti, but should have asked for something off the children's menu, as I managed about a tenth of it. Oh, well. (fyi, the calzones were the "good" kind, like you get in Western MA with the sauce on the side, according to Pearl). We all headed back to the hotel, and had a pajama party in Peaches and Petunia's room, where Clary B (their adorable 19 month old lab/corgi mix) entertained us.

Peaches and Petunia also gave me my birthday present, which was awesome! The background story - when we were in Austin, TX for a conference, I saw a t-shirt that I wanted. When I went back, the store wasn't open, even though it should have been, and I couldn't wait any longer or I would miss the shuttle to the airport. Peaches' brother, Orca (who lives in Galveston), tried to get me one, but couldn't find any. I figured that I would have to go back sometime to get a "Fuck Y'All, I'm From Texas!" t-shirt. Peaches recently posted about it, asking if I'd found one, and someone posted a link where you can order them. Cool, I figured I'd order one in the future, and posted to that effect, saying that "Fuck Y'All, I'm From Texas" has more zing to it than "Fuck Y'All, I'm From Ottawa". Peaches apparently disagreed, and I am now the very proud owner of a "Fuck Y'All, I'm From Ottawa" t-shirt. Red, with white lettering - decidedly Canadian. One caveat - Clara and Corwin are starting to read, so I'm trying to decide if I will sleep in it and change early, or wear it to the gym - I think the gym might be the way to go (should certainly get a laugh from the Senator - she's not, really, but works for one, and you know that it's the woman who's the brains behind the politician!). Anyway, a little while later, we were all yawning so we headed to bed. Before midnight. How sad is that? What happened to my fab weekend away? Friday night was going to be the drinks and dancing night, staying up late, a real girls' night out. Damn flu. Looking back, I think we would have been disappointed in the severe lack of nightlife in Meriden anyway.

Next morning, feeling far more like myself, Peaches and I headed off to the Big Apple. My first time!!! We stopped at an IHOP for a bit of breakfast. Sadly, they didn't have potato pancakes on the menu. Not that I would have been able to eat them. I managed my side order of bacon, and about a third of one pancake. Then we headed back to the highway. We made good time to New York, and it was pretty amazing to see the skyline as we approached on I-95. The Empire State Building! The Chrysler Building! And, of course, the traffic! Actually, it wasn't too bad - it was stop and go for a bit, but we got to our exit fairly quickly. We parked in Brooklyn, in front of the former apartment of Peaches' friend (who actually got married at Grand Central Station - how cool is that?). We wandered towards the subway, pausing often to admire the daffodils and hyacinths, and all the flowering trees. It was so warm that we left our jackets in the car.

We descended into the subway, and bought our metro passes ($7 US unlimited one day pass - a good deal). Someone had a little difficulty getting through the turnstile. And no, it wasn't Peaches (We later saw the sign "keep to the right or you will lose your fare". It would have been nice if the warning was more timely). Anyway, I was let in by the surly subway guy (Probably thinking "tourists!"), and we were on our way. We took the A train (the A train!!) to the Brooklyn Bridge stop, and climbed the stairs in order to walk across the bridge into Manhattan. Unfortunately, about a thousand protesters with placards against the deportation of Muslims had the same idea. While we thought theirs was a worthy cause, we just didn't have that much time to fritter away, so back down we went. At this point we discovered that there were no express trains stopping at that station due to construction. So we ended up spending quite a bit longer underground than originally intended. Peaches felt bad about it, but I figured that it was all good, and just part of the true New York experience. Finally, we made it to Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station is beautiful. You can tell that many other city train stations have been modeled after this design, including Union Station in Toronto. As Corwin and Clara are obsessed with Madagascar , Peaches took a couple of pictures of me in front of the clock, and the grand staircase. Then we headed out into - the rain. What? It was sunny! But that's what happens when you spend such a long time underground - the weather even has time to change. At least it was just a light rain, a few drops here and there, as neither of us had any rain gear or umbrellas. Next, we made our way to Times Square.

Wow, the amount of neon in Times Square is amazing. It has to be seen in person to appreciate the vividness of the colours - TV doesn't do it justice. We looked for the Naked Cowboy, but it was still kinda rainy, and a bit chilly to be wearing just skivvies - oh well, next time. We went into Sephora to ask directions, and I ended up buying Lip Venom for my skinny little lips. It's supposed to make your lips plump up, and Peaches swore it was working on me. I also bought false eyelashes - I've always wanted to try them, and now I can. Directions and cute little Sephora bag in hand, we headed back to the subway, enroute to Lexington Ave.

When we emerged from the depths, it was sunny once again, and we enjoyed our stroll to Serendipity, where we put our name on the three hour wait list. Yes, THREE hours. Apparently, when Oprah says she likes something, everybody has to try it. We hadn't heard about Oprah's endorsement, though. We had been talking about movies the previous evening, and I mentioned that I loved Serendipity, the movie. During the drive to NY, Peaches suggested that we could go to the restaurant. Until then, I had no idea that it was an actual place, not just a setting in the film. They told us to check back in an hour and a half, just in case. We headed up the block to Dylan's Candy Bar. It was extremely crowded, but very fun. Peaches bought herself some chocolate-covered gummi bears, and I bought five Dylan's chocolate bars to take home (5 different flavours), and a Bit'O'Honey bar. FYI, the gummi bears may sound disgusting, but are actually pretty good (thanks for sharing, Peaches). With some time to kill, we continued walking, crossed Madison Ave (no, I didn't browse or shop - that would be a whole day in itself), crossed Park Ave (and we may have seen a real New York Nanny - man, they have some high-tech strollers in NY!), and ventured into Central Park. We found a bench and sat, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the ducks on the pond, the view of the stone bridge, and the flowers that were blooming. We also had a blast people watching. Soon enough, it was time to mosey back.

Once back at Serendipity, it wasn't long before we were seated upstairs. We both decided that we needed some real food in addition to their trademark Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, but didn't want anything huge. We both settled on a very healthy choice - french fries. Yes, french fries and ice cream. No, neither of us is pregnant! You'd be amazed at how good a combination this actually is. And ironically - this was the first thing I was able to finish and fully enjoy since my gastro incident! All hail the french fry! Bow to the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate! (oooh, baby, it is DIVINE).

Satisfied and a bit tired, it was time to leave the fairy tale city and return to the barren tundra of Meriden. The subway back to Brooklyn was uneventful, but took FOREVER - just service problems and re-routings because of construction. We made it to the car and were on our way. Big kudos go to Peaches, who had to drive through a construction zone across a bridge - hemmed in on both sides by those cement barricades. Nicely done!!

Back at the hotel, we hung out in Peaches and Petunia's room. Pearl and Berly had departed in the afternoon (planned), and Bert had arrived for the evening and overnight. It was a quiet evening, but enjoyable because of the company and the cocktails (in my case, Magic Hat Brewery Number 9 beer - thanks, Petunia!). The next day, I had another 5 hour course. Unfortunately, Bert got a migraine, so she headed home (and made it safely, thank God - driving with a migraine is not recommended). She and I will just have to plan a catch-up in between conferences - it's been too long! And Peaches and Petunia (and Clary B) drove me to the airport, where I headed back to the Great White North. With surprisingly more cash in my wallet than I had anticipated. Nice!