Staying in NYC 3-4-05

After the hometown adventure, Button and I headed to NYC to see The Barber of Seville at the Met with David and Amy Marash. They are a wonderful couple from NYC who are in the TV news business. David for ABC and Amy is a freelance. Martha Stewart had just been released from prison so Amy had been working around the clock. David covers news like Baghdad and tsunami stuff so he wasn't on the Stewart story.

We left for the city from Providence. We had decided to take the Amtrak regional from Providence as it got to the city 20 minutes after the Acela express which cost substantially more (yes, I am cheap about some things). The regional was 1 hour 15 minutes late arriving in PVD! It was so inconvenient. Button complained to Amtrak customer service and they upgraded us to the Acela for free. The girl at the ticket counter said "the regional is on it's way and should get there the same time as the Acela", but we were having none of that. If it was 1.25 hours late arriving from Boston (.75 hours from PVD), we figured it would be a bad idea to take that one. The regional left PVD before the Acela and we passed it in Mystic. I think we made the right decision. When we got on the Acela there was only 1 "table seating group" that had a notice on it "for 3 or more persons". The 4 women at the table next to us said that one of them would be our "beard" if the conductor gave us any lip about being just two at the table. It turns out that they are from the Cape and work in the real estate business. In fact, I had spoken with one of them previously regarding a deal. They also work with my friends Suzanne, Ali, and Wendy at Realty Executives in Barnstable. What a small world. They really were a good time. They were nearby when we wanted to talk and minded their business when we were watching a movie. We watched Moonstruck as it is such a great movie to watch anyway, but especially if you haven't been to the Met before.

We got to the city around 3:30 and checked into our hotel, The Blakely on 55th between 6th & 7th. This was arranged by Brett and Antoinette as a "comp". What a nice surprise. The hotel is a little "boutique" job and quite nice. I had to go out to get some cash and some supplies at the drug store so I hung up our tuxedos in the bathroom and turned the shower on so that they could steam a little. I told Button to keep an eye on the water level in the tub and turn off the water if it go too full.

When I got back to the room a 30 minutes later, Button was on the sofa watching Law & Order. I sat down and had the coffee I brought back from him and me from Starbucks. I wondered aloud how our tuxedos were doing in the bath and he got this shocked look on his face, then ran into the bathroom. The bathroom had an inch of water on the floor! "I forgot" was his declaration. I told him that he was now responsible for the cleanup and the explanations to housekeeping, the front desk, or anyone else who may happen to comment on it... that I was washing my hands of it. He did, to his credit, take care of it and thank God, there was no permanent damage. The floor was marble tiled and apparently sealed very well.

We rested and snacked on sandwiches from Au Bon Pain before we left for the Met.

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