on the up side
One of the great things about Winter, and the cold weather that comes with it, is the coats. Everyone has to get bundled up. And that means more pockets to carry more stuff around. Back to carrying the ipod to work instead of just the shuffle. And the camera comes with me everywhere - which means more pictures being taken… always a good thing.
let the games begin…
Today I begin the trek to Chicago for Thanksgiving. I say trek because I’m not sure when it will end.
Currently the headline on Drudge reads: TRAVEL NIGHTMARE TO SPOIL THE TURKEY
Presently my flight clocks in as “on time” but under notes it reads “flight subject to flow control”
Don’t know what “flow control” means, but it’s making me wish I’d downloaded a movie onto my laptop before leaving for work today.
UPDATE: Flight is delayed from 6:00 to 6:25. It’s on.
UPDATE: Flight now scheduled for 6:55. 55 minutes late.
UPDATE: on board. Hoping for a 710 wheels up.
dinner: inoteca
I had dinner last night with a few friends at Inoteca in the Lower East Side.
A good tapas bar with an upscale/hipster clientele. The service was a little awkward, because the explanation of the menu wasn’t very good. The wine selection is dense here, and help was appreciated. The food was actually quite good - we had a variety of bruschetta and panini. Stay away from the large chicken entree. It’s just about a whole chicken delivered in a bowl. Not good for sharing. And not good in general.
All in all - good place for dates, after concert snacking/drinking, friend gatherings.
Inoteca:
www.inotecanyc.com
98 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 614-0473
(Barely) leaving on a jet plane
I had to fly from NY to Cincinnati tonight. I usually enjoy travel. I hate packing, but I love airports and airplanes and the whole whirl of going places.
Tonight I was sure my flight was at 6. I had had several conversations with my brother to that effect all weekend. He lives in NY too and we were set to fly together.
Cute that at 340pm I’m sitting at my desk at work when and email comes across saying - your flight leaves in about one hour and is on time.
Whoops.
I bid a hasty farewell to my colleague and bolted for the door. Ran halfway up central park west. Got to my place - fortunately my brother was early. I packed in 3 minutes (a record) and we jetted for a cab.
I somehow got the taxi driver from heaven, he did about 90mph up park avenue (all the way up in the grungy part of park ave - like the spanish harlem part). We made it to lga with 25 minutes to takeoff. Dammit - I thought we were golden. Apparently checkin closes 30 minutes prior to departure. So we convinced some lady to help us get boarding cards, barrelled through security without my brother’s jumbo pomade being confiscated (thank god), and sprinted for the gate where we again (sweaty, this time) had to convince the guy to re-open the door to the jet bridge for us.
Bump bump bump. All the way down to the little plane.
Made it.
Have to say, I’m usually the one hating on people who run late like that. But we didn’t hold any one up, and the flight attendant was remarkably pleasant.
Maybe the fact that we kept saying we were funeral-bound helped our cause.
At any rate. Yay American Airlines. Yay us.
law of life: new york city transit
It will go without fail, that as long as you desire to be on time or early, new york city transit will collapse and deliver you late. Similarly, if you desire to be someplace on time or fashionably late, new york city transit will inevitably have a train waiting and deliver you with more than enough time to kill - causing you to appear over-eager… middle-aged even.
’tis the season
On the way home tonight, I had to stop to pick up a few greeting cards for various events coming up. I suppose I wasn’t entirely shocked to hear the Christmas music playing in the shop. The holiday season seems to be in full tilt. On TV, the ads are already featuring family scenes involving red bows and copious amounts of snow.
Now, it’s not like this really comes as a surprise. The same things happen at the same time every year, holiday-wise. But you’d think there was a way to ease into it, perhaps?
My mother used to start playing Christmas music in the house and in the car on October 1. Too early, but you couldn’t fault her for having such passion for an entire three month block of the calendar.
At any rate - I gather that the trees will start plopping up on New York City street corners in another week or two. Hard to believe autumn came and went in the course of a day and a half (the leaves are still on the trees here, aren’t they?).
’tis the season.
