Today is Thursday, March 13, 2025. It’s late here, owing to Elliot and me seeing our two adopted “nieces” at a lovely – but noisy – restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens. The name of the restaurant is SoleLuna and is located at 40-01 Queens Boulevard, right under the El. We intended to take the subway to the locale where we expected to have no trouble taking the E or F to Roosevelt Avenue and then changing to the 7.

However, when we got to the station, we saw people walking out of there and informing us that service was terminated because someone was struck by a train. Huh! We didn’t enter the station and started for the Q60 bus across the street when a commuter told me that we could take that bus to Queens Boulevard and 40th Street. When we got to the bus stop, there was a swarm of people left stranded by no subway service and I decided to call one of my nieces, “Elizabeth.” I explained the situation to her and she informed me that this incident didn’t just happen. It might have occurred as early as 3 and she opined that the passenger who was struck by a hurtling train was in fact “surfing” the train he was in and probably fell off. However, this has not been verified; I’m just reporting it here from what she supposedly learned. That’s when Elliot and I grudgingly decided to now drive to the restaurant. The car was parked right in front of the building; I just had to dart upstairs to get the car keys.

So now I had to drive our new car at night. Even though it wasn’t totally dark when we started out for Sunnyside. I turned on GPS from the car and drove exactly where the GPS voice told me where to go. What was totally bonkers was that we got to the restaurant within 15 minutes or so and we got to the area before our two nieces got there, Elizabeth and “Rae.” We did find parking close to the eatery – on the island right by the El. I’m elated that I looked at the signs indicating that the meters were still in effect until 10 p.m. These meters did not go off at 7, which is what I thought. If we walked away from the car without feeding the meter, we would have definitely have gotten our first ticket on this car. But we avoided that!

We got to SDoleLuna around 7:20 or so and mentioned our niece’s name in which the reservation was made under. We thought we were going to have five people, but the host said that four persons were actually coming. We didn’t know that. We were ushered to a rear table that sat four people. The host said if there were another person in the group, we would have been moved to another table.

When our “nieces” did arrive, a little after 7:30, we did in fact see only two other individuals: Elizabeth and Rae and not Rae’s fiancé, “Taylor.” We hugged and kissed them when they got to the table. Rae did say that Taylor was unable to attend this gathering since he was working late. We said that was too bad. I had actually brought two issues of Fantastic Four for him to peruse at the table, but I said to Rae that I would give them to her at the end of the evening. I made it clear that they were not a gift; they were being loaned to Taylor for the time being.

The big news of the night was our nieces’ announcement that their father, a polymath by the name of “Ralph” was mulling a run for Congress from the state of Pennsylvania. We scratched our heads when we heard this stunning news. But it makes sense! Ralph as been devastated – like millions of others – by the direction this country has taken within the last two months with the election of an idiotic despot, so we said, “Why not?” Ralph has more or as many qualifications for seeking political office than the ninety-nine percent of cretins already in Congress – cretins like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, et al. He has a degree from Princeton University, is a licensed engineer, has written several books, has played in a rock band many years ago, writes for my political journal, The Banter, and is as left-leaning as they come. Of course, detractors will label him as “elitist,” but he will never give up his principles like so many ugly repugnicans with the same sort of ivy-league education that they turned their cowardly backs on in deference to the mighty appeals of political power. People like Josh Hawley, Ted “Ooze,” JD Vance, and a numbing number of other repugnicans who have held on to power in the age of Dump.

After the shock of Ralph running for Congress wore off, we finally perused our menu and ordered dinner. For starters, we ordered burrata and polpette for our appetizers, which were very tasty. My entree consisted of pesto pappardelle and Elliot ordered the same dish. The girls ordered something different which they devoured pretty nicely. No one asked for doggie bags at this meal.

For dessert, we ordered the chocolate mousse which looked like a ball of chocolate. It was more a creamy pudding than anything else. It too was very good.

My main criticism of SoleLuna was the acoustics which made it difficult to hear our nieces throughout the conversation. I had to ask Rae and Elizabeth to repeat what they said several times during our time in the restaurant. I would gladly overlook this defect because of the quality of their cuisine.

After we paid the check, we walked outside to the car since the girls hadn’t seen the new Subaru until now. I made the comment that since driving it, I can’t distinguish it from other similar models on the road. At least our old Nissan Altima was a distinctive color – light blue – and there weren’t as many out there as this Forrester.

We volunteered to take Rae back to Taylor’s apartment in Astoria. She put on GPS and I obeyed the commands to the letter getting Rae safely to her destination. We said good night when I got her there.

It was not difficult getting home since Elliot knew the way. We got home safely and we parked the car in the garage.

It was a very pleasant evening. Sorry to hear about the subway incident. I’m sure I will hear the details about this subway incident tomorrow, but as of now, I’ll just say “and so it went!”