Sooooo…..After
spending all day Friday getting my nephew settled in at college, I had oh like….a
4 hour catnap and then I had to be back up at 6am to make the drive back to
Newport Centre Mall to return my rental truck by 8am. I got out of the house at about 6:45am and
drove down the West Side Highway to go through the Holland Tunnel to get to
Jersey. I pulled up to the rental place
at about 7:30am and all was well. I got
a credit (which is always nice) because I paid for an E-Z pass reader and then
got to the GWB and realized that they forgot to put it in my car. I walked back through the empty mall and sleepily
made my way to the PATH train. I picked
up what looked to be a very delicious breakfast creation fresh out of the oven
and a cup of coffee and settled in for the train ride back to NYC. I excitedly opened my breakfast creation and
took a bite only to find it was dry and tasteless as hell. I took a second bite just make sure I wasn’t
dreaming (I wasn’t) and put it away to dispose of when I got back to NYC. Is it me or do the PATH stations deliberately
not have trash receptacles because eating is prohibited? (Um…I found this out
when I saw the sign posted at the 33rd Street station). Anywhoo…my coffee was delicious. I took an uptown bound D train and was truly
dreaming of the EPIC NAP I was going to take when I got back home. I got in around 9am, set my alarm for 12 noon
and quickly fell asleep.
My alarm
went off and I got up and jumped in the shower to try to wake myself up for the
cast brunch that playwright Kimberly “Q” was hosting for the cast of her new
play “It’s All Relative”. The Brunch was
being held at City Crab, one of my favorite NYC seafood spots downtown on Park
Avenue South.
I took the back of the A
Train to 14th Street, took the 16th Street exit and was
immediately jolted back into time by the memory of all of the fantastic
birthday parties I had for myself at Rebar Lounge back in the day. That whole block of old buildings was razed
and I barely recognized it now. But the
memories still came anyway. I took a
brief taxi ride across town and when I arrived, Q was waiting at the bar for
me. She informed me that most of the
cast had canceled due to prior commitments, so it was just going to be me, her
& my cast mate (and fellow Pisces) Gha’il.
We decided to take the booth in the back on the main level and Q ordered
a carafe of Grapefruit Mimosaswhile we waited for Gha’il & surprise guest WRKS-FM Quiet Storm Host Lenny Green who was coming through for a few late birthday cocktails. Gha’il arrived shortly after we were seated and we just drank, feasted on Lobster Mac & Cheese (SO GOOD) and talked until Lenny arrived. Q hit me over the head with the news that my beloved City Crab was closing on Sunday (WHAT???) and The Bubble Lounge downtown had already gone out of business a few months earlier. We both agreed that NYC was (is) steadily losing its “flavor” and for the first in my life I have actually contemplated living somewhere else.
Lenny
finally arrived and joined us at our booth.
I think we may have been working on our second carafe of Mimosa’s when
he sat down. I watched him as he greeted
Gha’il for the first time and I just KNEW he was going to extend his hand to me
like we had never met before (because he NEVER recognizes me without my makeup
and when I am wearing my glasses) I gave him the evil eye and smacked his hand
away and gave him a hug. When he sat
down I quickly brought him up to speed on how many times he’s met me and how
many mutual friends we have….lol.
The
four of us had a lively discussion over more Lobster Mac & Cheese, Seared
Ahi Tuna (You KNOW that was mine right?) Calamari and a Lobster (or crab…I can’t
remember) Burger (Gha’il) and a Lobster Omelet (which ol Bougie azz Q ordered…lol).
It was a
really wonderful afternoon….so wonderful that we didn’t want to leave and tried
to order a FOURTH carafe of mimosas AFTER we had already paid our bill. The Manager bribed us by offering to buy us
another round of mimosas if we gave up our booth and moved to the bar (which we
did). Lenny had already left us by the
time we got to the bar.
Q and I took
a taxi uptown and I dropped her off….and I won’t deny it….I was LIT!!! I haven’t
hung out with Q in a very long time and I am going to make sure that it won’t
happen again (as in taking years to get together).
Thanks Q for
a wonderful afternoon mama, I really enjoyed hanging out with you again! PISCES RULE!!! Love you!