Today is Thursday, December 5, 2024. Well, I said I wasn’t going to post my blog today, but here I am. Elliot and I did have a full day out, with the two of us having breakfast at Friedman’s at the Edison Hotel, on 47th Street, around 11:15 a.m. The morning began at 8:30 a.m. when our alarm was set, so that Elliot could move our Nissan Altima to the other side by 10 since today is the first alternate side parking day, Thursday, where we live. Next week, I’ll probably have to go through with this ridiculous maneuver. Until we drive the car down to Maryland to transfer the car to Elliot’s daughter “Emily” and her husband “Allan.” Now this handover might not happen until January, I’ve heard. Well, that’s how the wheel turns!

From the restaurant, we walked all the way to Lincoln Center where we walked to the entrance to the Metropolitan Opera House ticket booth where I saddled up to the ticket counter and asked for two not-too-expensive seats to Puccini’s La Boheme. The cashier satisfied our wish for moderately priced tickets for my very first opera. We walked out of the theater and headed for the subway to take us to 18th Street, where we entered the Barnes & Noble on 16th Street and we bought a 2025 calendar and a 365-day calendar for me.

After our stop at the bookstore, we separated since Elliot decided to see Anora at the Angelika Theatre, on Houston Street, and I had the afternoon all to myself. I first walked to the Jefferson Market Library where I returned next month’s reading selection, Speech Team, by Tim Murphy. The reason for this is because I found the exact book at the North Forest Park Library, on Metropolitan Avenue. So I didn’t want to have two books in my possession at the same time. To kill time, I had a very nice chat with the librarian over this past month’s selection, Blackouts, by Justin Torres. She showed me that his first book, We the Animals, was made into a movie in 2018. I was very interested in seeing it, but she told me it was being streamed on Apple TV. However, I believe she said it was also being shown on Amazon Prime which we do have, so I might give it a look-see.

Then I went to the bookstore opposite Julius’s called Three Lives & Company to spend a few minutes browsing the shelves.

After this, I walked to 7th Avenue South and had pizza at Two Boots. Not bad, I thought. There I spoke to a manager about how the eatery got its name. The nice blonde middle-aged employee explained that the owner, Phil Hartman (I did point out that there was a comedian – now deceased – by this name who was killed by his then-wife Brynn some years back, and the manager agreed the name was the same) christened his place after the shape of Louisiana on a map and of Italy, the second boot. She mentioned that Hartman also had a film out many years ago, which I’ve now forgotten the title of.

From here, I decided to walk to Tavern on Jane, where we were going to meet at 5:30. It was not even close to that time when I located the restaurant using my phone’s GPS. I thought to myself, “Good, I know where it is, now what?” I wasn’t that far from the Chelsea Market which is indoors, so I decided to walk there to spend some time in another bookstore.

I walked rather briskly to the market since the wind was quite blustery today. Inside, I ambled right over to the bookstore in the back, which is called Posman Books and spent some quality time browsing the titles. I know I shouldn’t have, but I bought a book that I already have in hardcover, Vanishing New York, by Jeremiah Moss. I noted to the worker there that the one copy they had had a worn cover, and she said I could get 10 percent off. So I bought it; I’m more inclined to read books in paperback than in hardcover, so that motivated me to purchase this engrossing book about a vanishing New York once more. (I’ve started reading it already on the train back to Forest Hills.) By the way, no kindle for me; I’m old fashioned and I still love the feel of books, not reading a book on a screen.

Then it was time to walk back to Tavern on Jane, which I still needed to find through GPS once again. Elliot is wont of claiming I can lose my way in a bathroom and he’s generally correct. In fact, at some point, I still couldn’t find the restaurant on 8th Avenue and Jane Street, so I called the place and was told I was actually just across the street from the restaurant. How stupid of me!

I was first to arrive, so I was ushered to a warm table in the back. The first to arrive after me was our young friend “Barry.” He walked to the rear of the restaurant and found me, and then we waited for Elliot, who was coming to the place via taxi. He thought he wouldn’t have time to walk there since he left the cinema after 5. In the interim, Barry and I had a serious discussion about the election and how we both felt. He was definitely in the camp of feeling shocked, disillusioned, and depressed. Which is exactly how I have identified with the aftermath of the election. I mentioned to him my notion of forming a group of likeminded citizens out there and he kind of approved of the idea. Then Elliot came in and spoke longingly about how disillusioned he was over the results of the outcome. After this, we moved on to other topics since we didn’t want to remain depressed the whole evening.

We had such a good time, it seemed, that we might have still been there chatting away. But we did order food eventually and called it a night close to 7:30. I asked Barry outside if he wanted to see the new queer film starring the most recent James Bond, Daniel Craig, called Queer, by William S. Burroughs. He said yes, and I was quite overjoyed. So we’ll see what develops with this over the next few weeks. In the meantime, Barry is leaving for Miami next week.

Then we hugged each other and separated, where we walked to the subway to take the E home. I forgot to mention the train this morning was delayed a bit where I believed we’d be late for our 11:15 breakfast reservation, but we arrived right on time. Whoo!

Tomorrow we have no plans other than driving our new car at some point.

And so it went!