Umbrellas

Why do all the awesome umbrellas have to be from the UK? I just found foud umbrellas that I really want but it costs more to ship them than the cost of four umbrellas. I can rationalize buying four umbrellas because I will lose them all within one year's time, and a girl needs replacement umbrellas in this town!

The weekend was good. Real good.

It started Thursday night with D's friends, one visiting from Madrid and one from Santa Barbera. Both were delightful. We ate dinner out and had drinks and walked through Times Square and went to the Mac Store where they both bought the new Shuffle and then to Max Brenner(if there is such a thing as too much chocolate, this is it) and then home where their attitudes were lovely about participating in my new art project.

I took a half day on Friday as Sister originally planned to arrive by noon. She didn't, so I had time to read and clean the bathroom.

The main theme of the weekend (aside from Sibling Awesomeness!) was piss poor service. We ate dinner at Roberto Passon, which was previously awesome but is now low on the list. Well, not so. I'll still eat there because the food is amazing - pumpkin sage ravioli, folks - but still. We waited for 20 minutes for a table, and when we sat down, weren't served for 30 minutes. Which would have been acceptable given how crowded it was, except that the table next to us, which was seated ten minutes after us, received their drinks, bread, spreads, and appetizers before anyone even gave us water. There was also the Curb Your Enthusiasm moment when the waiter was chatting with them and had his butt on my bread. The waiter never brought us an ice bucket for our white wine (again, not a big deal except that he said he'd bring one), we had to ask for spreads for the bread, and when we asked for more it never came. Sister and I are lightweights, and were asleep by 10:30 thanks to the wine.

We slept in on Saturday (Sister got 11 hours!), chatted, listened to old mix CDs and remembered how things used to be. We got dressed and had brunch at 44 SW, which is great because of homemade mini muffins but we got stranded because the absentee waitress never came to get my credit card. Brother was waiting for us at Penn Station and we were late because of the bill issue. We ended up tipping less with the cash we had so we could get out of there.

We met Brother at Penn Station and took the 3 to The Brooklyn Museum, which was unbearable because it was running local. I had a New York moment where I nearly kicked a woman who's train etiquette offended me. The Ron Mueck show was amazing. We stayed to watch the documentary. The Annie Liebovitz show was also amazing, but it was too crowded to see everything. The watercolor exhibit was nuts in a good way, which makes me sad because nobody was looking at it.

Back in the city, we decided on an early dinner because we were all starving to death. We met D and his friend from Madrid at the newly renovated Film Center Cafe. We were seated immediately and nobody came to our table for half an hour. No water, no waitress, nothing. Poor Brother nearly died of starvation! When we finally ordered, we waited for a long time before the appetizer came. And then 45 minutes between appetizer and main course. We left a small tip, and did I feel bad? No! Because no restaurant experience that starts at 5:45 pm on a Saturday night should require two hours when there are no drinks and desserts involved.

We ended up being half an hour late meeting people for drinks at Hi Fi. I was blissed out by friends meeting friends, friends from high school, friends from MA, family, friends I'd only had for two days, friends from class, friends of friends, friends from work... I caught up with a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while, and we headed to Sing Sing for the karaoke party of the century.

Amazing time had! Lionel Ritchie's All Night Long! NKOTB! Hot Hot Heat! Milli Vanilli! 80's songs galore! Drunkenness! Loudness! Shy people grabbing the mic! I kept saying "I have such an amazing life..." and realized that I don't want to move. Being settled is such a wonderful feeling.

Of course there was drama with the bill. I don't recommend trying to count $700 in cash while drunk in a karaoke bar when you're pissed off about having to pay an automatic 18.75% gratuity on a room where the freaking waiter only showed his face twice in 5 hours' time. We were freaking out. Sister was being assertive. I was appreciative but couldn't deal. NR told them that things were "unacceptable" but we had no proof that people had or had not checked out, and we had no idea how many drinks had been consumed. I won't go back there again. There are plenty of places in the city that may be more money but most likely have better attitudes.

We headed to the Automat where I had a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could have stayed out for hours, but other people were tired, and I couldn't complain because it was 4 am. The Siblings and I took a cab home and everyone fell asleep instantly except me, buzzed from too many Captain and Diet's. My brain wouldn't shut off. I hate men when I drink and I was mad at all of them and therefore D for something inconsequential that was resolved within two seconds the following day.

The Siblings woke up and the three of us brunched at 44 1/2. We talked about family issues, the topic du jour these days that we all try desperately to avoid and had successfully avoided for the previous 24 hours. We're not on the same page but support each other anyway. We left an exorbitant tip because the food and service were exquisite. Brother actually shook the waiter's hand on the way out.

Sister headed to Grand Central to grab a train and Brother headed back to my apartment briefly to avoid the rain. I napped for about three minutes before D and his friend returned. I had a salad. D and I talked, as we hadn't been alone in what seemed like eternity.

AH and TE came over at around 7:30 to practice. Anxiety was high, but we have a plan despite not even being sure that we need one. We ate burritos, chatted off topic, and disbanded at the right time. I read for about 7 minutes and fell asleep by 10:30.

Tonight I shall cook a broccoli casserole and engage in the bizarre ritual of cooking a separate meal for myself while D has someone over for an entirely different dinner. They are having french toast, which is death for me without something else. I try to eat healthy when I am at home because I can control my diet in the house, which causes problems when D invites people over. I think its awkward for everyone, because once someone said "Couldn't you just cook something that your girlfriend can eat?" It was a very unhealthy weekend meal-wise, so I shall abstain from french toast. Plus, I had french toast for breakfast yesterday but rationalized it because it was smothered in fruit and stuffed with marscapone and didn't have syrup. My having the french toast is what inspired D to have it for dinner, but I think french toast, even if you could eat it all the time, is better saved for special occasions because its not the sort of thing you can eat all the time. I said "Do you think S would want the casserole instead?" "Probably," he said, but he never said I should also cook for S. I don't know. I'm not going to worry about it.

OK. I am going to stop blogging about french toast because I just wrote an entire paragraph about french toast.

Until tomorrow...