09.24.05
Dawn to Dark
I told my friend Teresa that I would meet her at the airport this morning and set my alarm for a 6am wakeup: enough time to get up, shower dress and get a bagel on the way to the subway. I kept waking up through the night (might have to do with sleeping on a sleeper sofa) and looking at the time out of curiosity. I had myself mostly convinced to stop worrying and just wait for the alarm when I noticed on a wakeup it was dawn and that the alarm clock said 3:30AM… dawn at 3:30AM? Something was amiss. Sure enough even though I had set the alarm properly the clock had not been changed from Pacific Standard Time to New York time and guess what, yup I was already half an hour late. A very quick shower and dressing later and I was running down the street for an express train to connect with an A train to JFK.
I found Teresa just after she had picked up her luggage and escorted her to Terminal 4 to pick up a rented cell phone and then on into town. In Manhattan by mid-day we had a not too bad but not really good lunch at Harry’s Burritos then made plans to meet with Teresa’s friend Eileen that evening. Teresa went on to run errands and meet people while I napped and then got ready to receive a priest friend of the family visiting town with his Niece.
We could only afford a short visit before heading down to the Village to meet Eileen at Otto’s on 8th near 5th AVE. The wait staff played a nasty trick and told Eileen not to bother with holding a table (they would seat us right away when the rest of the party arrived) and then had us hold for almost an hour before we were seated. The wait did not matter though as the ambiance was nice, the wine was good and the company absolutely lovely.
During most of dinner Teresa and Eileen caught up on news from the ever-migrating family of animators. We all got a long so well that we lost track of time and were eventually asked by the sommelier if he could bribe us to release the table with an offer of drinks on the house up at bar. We thought the offer was made quite gracefully and went out into the New York night for some wonderings around the Village looking for a cup of tea. Tea being in poor supply at 10pm we settled for canolis and an outdoor bench from which we could continue to talk and witness the ever-stranger parade of tourists, locals, cruisers, punks, fancy and assorted creatures of the night making their Friday night rounds. We did not get home until after mid-night and Teresa, whom like me two days previous, had not slept on the plane crashed after her 40 hour New York push.
Rest… rest.. for tomorrow is another day and it holds a new adventure.