A little moist

I had a bit of the lag so Hunnybear jumped up and down on my head until I woke up. We took a walk to Stage Deli, where we had some brunch. Hunnybear had a tuna melt and I had my usual Wilt Chamberlain open-faced Reuben sandwich with pastrami. The air conditioning wasn’t working too well inside Stage Deli so we were a little moist as we ate. We had the good waitress, who called us “my darlings” repeatedly even though she forgot to bring the pickles until we asked if we deserved them. By the time we paid the cashier it was time to go shopping so we went to Saks Fifth Avenue and looked around. I bought some shoes and socks. That was exhausting so I went back to relax in the suite while Hunnybear walked around some more.

We had plans to meet Michael for dinner so we went down to the lobby at 7:30 and found him waiting. We got a cab to SoHo where we had reservations at Savoy but their electricity wasn’t working and they had to close down. They offered to call another restaurant to accommodate us and Michael suggested the French Vietnamese place Indo-Chine. They had room so we walked uptown, crossing Houston St. into NoHo. We got a nice booth and had a very enjoyable meal, sitting in First Class next to a cramped table of 20 in economy. We ate family style, starting with steamed raviolis, baby squid salad, and “summer” rolls (not fried) of king crab and vegetables. All were outstanding. For the entrees we had yummy whole snapper, steamed sea bass, and seared beef filet. A small bowl of sticky rice was enough to go around. We had a very good bottle of 1999 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel. As a rule I don’t eat dessert but they had a trio of sorbets, including Hunnybear’s favorite coconut, so we shared just one order while Michael had a light hazelnut mousse cake. The bill came to just under $140 before a generous tip.

After dinner Michael suggested we try Pravda, a local vodka bar, so we walked down some steel steps and into a converted basement with Cyrillic street signs saying “truth,” “people,” and “boiled water” in Russian. The waitress explained the words had been chosen for their looks, not their meaning. Although the bar was not uncrowded, we were escorted to the only three empty seats in the place, luscious overstuffed leather armchairs. I looked up and saw the word “problemiy” (problems) written above. The only problem I could detect was with their air conditioning, which wasn’t working too well and hence we got a little moist as we enjoyed our martinis, Hunnybear’s a coconut one with pineapple juice and mine a red one with cranberry infusion. Michael’s was red too but it was too loud to talk to him so I didn’t find out what was in it exactly. The place filled up with people smoking cigarettes and cigars.

We started to walk uptown in the heat but it looked like rain so we ducked into the subway, where it was even hotter. We waited 10 minutes for an uptown train and found one with an air-conditioned car, although it wasn’t working too well and we got moister and moister. We gave Michael a passionate belly hug goodbye at his station and then we got off at 51st St., steps from the W.

I felt like watching The Out-of-Towners so I inquired at the front desk about their complimentary video-rental library. The clerk paged Whatever Whenever and had them bring a menu. Sure enough, the 1970 Jack Lemmon classic was on it. I verified there was no charge and ordered the movie. She said it would be brought to the room right away so we went up. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. An ununiformed kid handed me the tape and a form to sign saying I owed $10 a day for the movie. I handed it back saying I was told it was free so forget it. He handed it back and said he wouldn’t charge me so I signed it and gave him a couple bucks.

We got through about 20 minutes of the movie before we fell asleep.

[stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment]

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