Andy's Mints

Andy Ball is here! Yay, Andy!

Alex was working when Andy got in yesterday afternoon, so I went and met him at La Guardia. Took the 7 to 82nd and picked up the Q33, as per usual - a 45 minute trip.

Or it's supposed to be, anyway.

Except when the bus gets stuck behind what turns out to be four ambulances and a fire truck, lights all flashing, parked in a line along a one-lane, double-parked residential street for at least fifteen minutes. I say "at least," because after fifteen minutes and no sign of improvement, and Andy's plane already at the gate, several other passengers and I disembarked and headed out to Northern Blvd. to catch a cab. Which is difficult in Queens! We finally - four of us all headed to LGA - piled into one of the black cabs, the first to come along. And then the guy said he wouldn't take card (I thought all cabs in NYC are required to take cards? Maybe not the black kind), and I didn't have any cash on me, because I just expected to be on the bus, and I had been in a hurry leaving and did not think to take a twenty just in case, as I usually do. But the kind middle-aged woman sitting next to me paid my share and, when I thanked her, and felt like a big lug, said to me, "anytime! no worries, anytime. Just pay it forward!" Man, nobody better tell me anymore that New Yorkers are mean.

So anyway, I got to La Guardia and found Andy, who had only been waiting for five minutes even though I was half an hour late, because it took them a long time to disembark from the plane. So that worked out. We took a yellowcab home, which was delightful, although the guy kind of gave us the runaround and drove circuitously through the neighborhood towards the end, and so I gave him a lousy tip.

Jamie got home from her Eleemosynary audition (she found out today that she got the part! Yay Jamie!), and then Alex got home from work (actually, other way around! Alex got home first. But I don't feel like deleting and retyping, so you are stuck with this extra parenthetical. And probably you don't notice it at all, among so many other sets of parentheses. They are a bad habit. I apologize), and then we got Thai food at a dramatically designed restaurant at 47th and Queens Blvd., went back home, and hung out until very late and had a lovely time!

This morning we got up later than we meant to (the plan was 9:30; the reality was 10:30, no surprises there); all showered; I proved that I am, in fact, my father, by delightedly standing at the stove for half an hour making pancakes on two frying pans at a time; everyone enjoyed the pancakes; and then we left for the city! Andy has never been to New York before, and is interested in everything. So we started in Times Square, went in a couple of the stores at his request, showed him the TKTS booth, and then began walking down Broadway.

All along Broadway this month - the parts of it that are set aside for lounging and pedestrian use these days (one of the few good things Bloomberg has done for this town, in my opinion) - are mannequins dressed in fashionable and fascinating garments made from bizarre materials, such as seashells, shower curtains, and bricks; they made a nice art show as we walked. We stopped for a few minutes in Madison Square Park and chatted about baby pigeons, undermining of public sector unions, and the Shake Shack, not to imply that these things are connected, and then proceeded down to Union Square, where we ate at - can you guess? - Chocolate by the Bald Man!

Yay! Delicious! So delicious! I had the mac and cheese. I never get mac and cheese at restaurants, even though I always want to, because it is always wildly disappointing. This was not. I still like the kind my family makes better, but this was pretty delicious. Also, it had bacon in it. Jamie and Andy shared a turkey burger, and Alex had a B.A.L.T.; I ate some of all of their waffle fries in super delicious sauce; everyone drank Jamie's and my respective peanut butter chocolate and hazelnut chocolate milkshakes, and we shared chocolate fondue for dessert. I effing love that place. The main dishes sound so mundane, and yet they are so transcendent! And don't even get me started on the heaven that comes in those Alice cups.

It is designed to look like a Cheshire Cat smile

when you turn it around!

Anyway, then we dropped Jamie off where she was seeing a concert in Tribeca, went back to the apartment, watched She's the Man, which is a great movie that I love even though Alex and Andy made ceaseless fun of it (Lissa would have watched it and appreciated it with me, so there), and I made after-dinner-mint ice cream (vanilla with Andes mints in it; good, but not all it's cracked up to be; I made it at Andy's request; next time I'll stick to chocolate peanut butter; or possibly bacon ice cream, which no one else is excited about, but which I can't wait to try my hand at; but anyway, it is good to try new kinds, so I am glad I made this kind anyway; also, it might have been less good because I ran out of cream and had to use half and half), and no I will go to bed!

Clearly, I misled you all in my last post about what would be in this post; I have written about none of the things I promised. Maybe next time! Good night :)