Day 3

Really digging the pizza. I could eat it 15 times a day.

So . . . I'd like to go on the record as saving Laurie from getting booted from a bar. She wasn't even in whirlwind mode, but was getting a little too crazy for the bouncers' comfort. Well, actually she just picked the wrong guy to stand next to and both he and his "girlfriend" got kicked out. I slowly walked behind them (chuckling of course) and as soon as they reached the door stepped in and saved her from certain explusion.

We barely made it out of the house last night. We decided to take a late afternoon nap and had to literally drag ourselves out of bed. We decided we wanted to have a relaxing night and try to find a cool jazz club. Did a little research and found a couple good possibilities. Our first try took us to the East Village (a 5 minute subway ride). We arrived at the place and soon realized it was filled with the gentle sounds of a really bad improvizational lounge singer -- well, I don't know if he was actually bad or not, but that style is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Made it about 3 minutes.

From there we wandered around a bit, but couldn't really find anything interesting in a few block radius so we headed for our second choice which was in our neighborhood. Our wise decisions and timing continued as we made it there just as the show was finishing. Quite a few other places to choose from in the area, but somehow we made it to the most Boulder-like fraternity scene you can imagine. We chuckled through our beers and decided to call it a night. On the walk home I can't even describe how much activity is going on. People eating dinner, going out, getting cabs, window shopping, etc. - and this is all at 2 in the morning. There is a cool looking club (if long lines and limos mean cool) next to our place that we're planning on checking out sometime soon.

Today was a nice relaxing day. L woke up with a mission for this morning: find a good Bloody Mary and Sunday brunch. The task of trying to narrow down the 4000 brunch restaurants proved too daunting (even with the Internet and 3 guidebooks) so we just set out on foot. In about 3 minutes we found a suitable place. Not too bad, reasonably priced, but no Bloody Marys. There are lots of tourists around, but they all seem in the know about the area -- I get the sense that even those that don't live here still come back frequently and turn their adopted haunts into their own. New York is big and diverse enough that each of the neighborhoods have their own style of tourist -- which was very apparent from our movements about the city this weekend.

We decided to catch a show today as both of us are still exhausted from fighting the rain yesterday. We're slowly becoming familiar with the subway and I know I'm going to really enjoy the freedom of movement it brings. Though we could spend the entire time in just our neighborhood we both really want to see as much of the city as we can, even though we realize that our exposure to everything will be really shallow. We headed uptown to Times Square and the very popular TKTS booth. On the way there we passed the theater were Spamalot was showing and it was extraordinarily tempting to get in the cancellation line. Something about seeing the fake horses and coconuts in person . . .

Instead we settled on The Producers, a show that both of us have been wanting to see since the last time we were here. A nice girl outside the booth offered to take our picture, spent a few minutes in casual conversation, and then wanted to know if she could "ask us a few questions" about New York and Times Square. Although inside I was groaning, we obliged, but after a few questions I noticed she stopped writing things down. I don't think she knew what she was in for as Laurie and I eased into our standard bit of indecisiveness, contradictions, back-tracking, and information overload.

With a couple hours to spare before the matinee, we were able to track down a good Bloody Mary at the Algonquin Hotel. The place was very nice and the wait staff was surprisingly relaxed and casual. It sure seems that you can get treated well regardless of where you are if you're simply yourself. Since it's very unlikely that I'll ever hit high-roller status (unless P-Diddy likes my demo tape!) my best bet is to keep smiling, lose all pretention, and learn a little spanish.

The Producers was very entertaining. Though it took me a while to get into the characters (it's hard when my expectations were so high) the writing was so good and the jokes so offensive that it was impossible not to enjoy it. It's been awhile since I'd been to the theater (Laurie's Ft. Collins Lincoln Center stories keep scaring me off), but I'm psyched up to go again soon. We left the theater in the midst of opening day Yankee fans and it was fun to watch all the hustle and bustle.

Instead of a big night (I was trying to find a "poetry slam" for this evening) we decided to hunt out a little Thai food. Again, a zillion choices and we settled on one near our house that was really, really good. On the way home we decided to pick up a few groceries at a market near our place. It's a nice small Whole-foods type of place and we wound up with the requisite olives, cheese, and salami. Every thing I've read and every person I've talked to mentions the outrageous prices in New York. Maybe I've just been fortunate, but things really don't seem any more expensive than Boulder. I'm sure if we hit the high-end places we could easily wipe ourselves out, but the average everyday things and activities are completely affordable.

Oh yeah, don't worry about my health -- we picked up a set of tortillas, peanut butter, and honey to keep me going. When that runs out we found an *entire* restaurant based on peanut butter -- described as "every peanut butter combo you can imagine and some that you can't". However, if they don't serve it on a tortilla I'm turning around and walking out.

Like I said, a relaxing day. Maybe I'll see if I can get Laurie in a fight tomorrow to spice things up.