Le Pomme Grande

So in the interest of reading this when I'm 80 and remembering what a lovely time we had, I'm simply going to list everything that happened this past weekend. It won't be funny or engaging, but merely a laundry list of stuff. So you may want to drop out now.
Friday
No begging, no pleading, no hoping. I automatically got upgraded, just like that. Thanks Delta! You're not the rat-bastards my dad says you've become.

Cabbed into the city (love the ride from JFK - it revs me up for the entire stay) and checked into the UN Millennium Hotel. Ray met me an hour later and we got a cab to the meat packing district to meet PJ and Barbara at the Spice Market. Cool huge place, cobbled streets outside, inside, waiters dressed like Buddhist monks, spicy Thai food served family-style. We ate downstairs after having a drink at the bar. Had my "city cosmo" but it came in one of those glasses that has no stem. Not the same. We hit another couple of bars after dinner...not sure the name of the first one, but we ended up at The Campbell Apartment. Where I got cut off. By my husband. Maybe it was the weaving.

Saturday
A little sleep in and off to Chinatown for Dim Sum at he Golden Unicorn. Train back uptown to Central Park for a stroll down The Mall past Robert Burns and our bench. Who brings nothing but high-heeled boots to NY? Where you walk everywhere? Me. The Hobbled Tard. Thankfully I was able to sit for two hours while we watched Dances Patrelles at the Ailey Dance Center. I realized partway through that I was sitting directly behind Cynthia Gregory! What a thrill.

Met Joe, Amy, Sujay, Robin and Henry at The Black Duck for dinner. Sweet little place, 75 seats, we had a booth in the back. Ray wanted the night to go on, so we went back to the hotel bar for a hot minute. We decided that it was really not happening in there so we took our drinks upstairs to the room...and promptly fell asleep!

Sunday
After another little sleep in we went to The Brooklyn Diner (a staple) for brunch. I love, love, love their Eggs Benedict. We said a while ago that we should really take advantage of being in the city when we visit, meaning, we should see more theatre, so we went to see Alfred Molina in Howard Katz and were blown away. It was totally engaging in every way, the acting, the lighting, the staging. To see such professionalism is awe inspiring. I believed everything Alfred Molina said, went through Howard's thought processes with him, held my breath in his silences. I loved it. It's a gift to see such a gift.

Ray and I had an early dinner at our Italian restaurant , Nino's Positano. It is newly expanded, but we wanted to sit in the old section. I had to pack, so we went back to the hotel and I caught a cab driven by a crazy old Greek who yakked and laughed to his brother on speaker phone the entire way. Delayed by two hours, I landed at 1:00 am, got into bed by 1:40 and stayed awake, unable to wind down, until 2:30.