Syrup!

I have been hating New York lately, but sometimes I can't help but smile when I think about all of the bizarre things that have happened during my time living here.

Despite being sickly last evening, I decided to, against better judgment, accompany D to this contemporary art fair to which he'd been given two free tickets to an opening reception cocktail party. I have, dear readers, decided that I am contemporary-arted out. I'm just not an art person. I like art, but I am not obsessed and I don't get much out of looking at it constantly.

The art fair was cool, if, of course, you are rich, and can afford art. It's actually billed as an affordable art fair - prices range from $100 to $10,000, though the least expensive thing I saw was $1200. There were some cool pieces, and in my former life when I had money and was not in a constant financial panic, I'd probably have considered buying something.

I overheard a woman who said "I wish I had a bigger apartment so I could buy all of this stuff!" which struck me as odd, because if she could afford to buy all of this stuff to put in her small apartment, she can most likely afford a larger apartment. I feel like the appropriate thing to declare loudly was "I wish I had more money in general!"

Anyway... I wasn't drinking because I was sickly, and D tends to involute and not speak when we look at art, so I wasn't having the best time. Being sober when everyone else is drunk is never fun.

This was supposed to be our date night - out for dinner! Yeah! We never do this - we never make plans to go out together, so I'd been very excited before the sickness kicked in. D suggested we take a cab from the art fair to a restaurant. When we got in the cab, D said "Can we go to blah blah blah and take 9th Avenue, please."

The cab driver decided to ignore D and take a ridiculous route that was much congested with traffic. This meant lots of stop and go, which is not good when you are sick. About ten minutes into the ride, I yelled "Ummm, can we please get out?" because I was fairly certain that another minute of his insane driving would cause me to lose what little food I'd eaten that day. D said "Can you just drop us off here?" The cab driver kept going. "Can we just get out here? This will be fine..." Still he ignored us. I felt myself turning more and more green and was about to scream when D did. "Please, HERE!" he said and the cab driver was all "What? You want to get out?" and KEPT DRIVING!

Once we were out, we decided that he must have been deaf. CRAZY.

Anyway, we got in another cab and were dropped off in the vicinity of some restaurants we'd seen earlier in the week that we thought looked cool. It smelled really good outside. "Hmmm.... smells like cookies!" I said. D said it smelled like something else... I can't remember. "Or caramel!" I said.

We ate. Well, D ate and I had like three gnocchi and some water. When we left the restaurant, we walked for a few minutes and still it smelled delicious. "I guess what we were smelling was from over here!" D said as we walked a bit.

He then smiled and said "It smells everywhere. Maybe it's me!"

Heh.

Back at my apartment, I swore I could still smell it. "Maybe it's me," I thought, but said nothing while compulsively smelling my hands to see if it was something I'd touched that day.

This morning, I saw this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/nyregion/28odor.html

Upon reading more on the blogosphere, I have learned that everyone everywhere smelled maple syrup last night. People in Harlem! People in Brooklyn! People in Astoria! People in NJ!!!! I love being part of insane New York news.

This being said, this is a little weird. Apparently we are not to worry, but really, what could possibly cause everyone to smell maple syrup? I don't think a spill. It's a release of some sort - chemical? On purpose? Someone online suggested that maybe its a plot to determine the successfulness of a chemical release on the city. Or maybe it is a chemical release on the city.

NUTS, folks, nuts.

I just mentioned this to Bench Buddy and he was all "Oh my god, I thought it was me! It was driving me crazy! I hate things that smell sickly sweet!"

So yeah. Another crazy thing in NYC.

And now it is the weekend. Thank god. I am going to Princeton to visit my brother because I am in desperate need of some unconditional affection. And I will sleep lots, because I am still feeling weird.

Have good weekends.

Until Monday...