03 December 2003

Of Comedians and Crazy Cabbies

I love New York. I really do. I grew up close enough to Manhattan to be able to see the skyline from my bedroom window on really clear nights. My family would take at least two or three trips in to go shopping, see a show, or go to a baseball game each year. I've kept that tradition going as an adult, joining friends for a show, or heading in to do some shopping, hitting a pub or two in the Village for a few drinks. Even now, when I live a good long distance from New York (almost two hours by train) I keep up the love affair. While I didn't grow up in the city itself, I have grown to love and appreciate it for everything that it is: noisy, fast, exciting, smelly, cold, wet, expensive, crowded, funny, entertaining.

So, it was with the giddy excitement of a 6-year-old on Christmas morning that I found out two of my friends from the online world, Jared and K-Grl, would be coming to town. I was happy, of course, to actually get to meet these people in person. I was also thrilled that I would get to share the city I love so much with them.

Each trip to New York is unique for me. This weekend in October was no different.

I wisely chose to stay overnight in New York, and made reservations at a nice hotel. I also schemed and giggled with K-Grl on IM about fun things we could do to surprise Jared while in New York. You see, he was planning this whole trip as a present to her, and we thought it would be nice to give him a present, too. But I had no idea what kinds of things they'd like to do.

"How about a comedy club?" I asked.

"Sure. Sounds good." She said.

A quick search came up with a few late evening shows for the weekend in question. When I said "Chris Reid is at Caroline's,� the response was overwhelming.

"We have to go see him."

"Is he funny?"

"I have no idea. But he's Kid from Kid 'n Play. House Party. Jared's favorite movie of all time."

And so it came to pass that I made reservations at Caroline's and we had a nice little surprise for the boy.

On that particular Saturday morning I took a cab to the train station, boarded a train for NYC, and hopped in a cab to get me to the hotel my friends were staying at that weekend. I waited in the lobby while the one working elevator, which was approximately the size of a refrigerator, crept on down to take me to their floor. After lots of hugging and chatting and excitement (as well as me waiting for them to get ready. Really, people. Next time be ready, ok?) we headed off to conquer New York. We did a sushi lunch. We wandered the streets, gawking at the wares of street vendors. I bought a Viking hat. We had a lunchtime alcoholic beverage at a pub near Radio City and called Julie to tell her about it. We got to see a very bizarre looking man standing outside the pub, right in front of the window, playing some songs on his faux and amp-less guitar � the kind a child would play with. We saw the ice-less Rockefeller Center rink. I pointed at where SNL is filmed. We looked for a coat for Jared. We made a pit stop into St. Patrick's Cathedral where a wedding was going on. We razzed Jared a lot about his surprise, which we said involved leaving him in some of the seedier neighborhoods on the little island. We went to Tiffany's and FAO Schwartz. We finally retired to our hotels to get ready for dinner and an evening of what we hoped would be great fun. My feet were already killing me, but I was doing something I had never done in New York - share it with someone who had never been there before.

Winging it, as far as a locale for dinner, turned out to be a good idea, in my opinion. We wandered a few blocks from my hotel and wound up at this Italian joint that looked like something out of The Mafia's Guide to New York. Lots of wrought iron, stucco, red and gold adornments. Our waiter? His rug was impressive in how completely fake it looked. But he was one seriously jolly fellow who really wanted to make our evening's meal pleasant. And it was. The food was plentiful, and really good. Of course, so was the company, even if you count the table behind us with the shrieking infant. In my opinion, no meal out is complete without inattentive parents ruining everyone else's lives, right?

After dinner we opted to have drinks back at the hotel's bar, as the entertainment starting up at the Italian joint was more for the senior crowd, and we loosened ourselves up with some tasty beverages. I don't remember if I told Jared and K-Grl this at the time, but the gentleman sharing our pseudo-table/bar thing looked suspiciously like I imagine the first boy I ever kissed would look all grown up. He and I made eye contact once or twice with that same bewildered look. Weird.

Anyway, then we were off to Caroline's on foot.

I think Jared was shocked, happy and a little scared, too, once we did the big reveal. Well we all should have been a little scared, seeing as how we were seated right down front, right smack in between the DJ dude and the stage. Right in Prime Comedian Target Land. Luckily I have great clapping rhythm and a Don't Pick on Me look, because I managed to deflect all comedic attention off of me and onto my dear friend K-Grl. She handled it like a pro. Any further detail on this part of the story needs to come from her. (Feel free to pester her into updating her journal.)

The show was hilarious. And long. We didn't get out of there until well after 2:00 a.m. if memory serves, and there we were: tired, sore of foot and weary of soul with not a yellow cab to be found. However, like a knight in shining armor, one lone horse and carriage dude was sitting right out in front of Caroline's and we took him up on his offer of a tour of the sites and sounds of New York on our way back to my hotel.

This man was certifiably insane.

I'm not sure what disturbed me more -- his crazed cackle-laugh or the fact that he insisted on praying for us, our souls and our safety aloud. At least we got to pet the horse at the end of the trip, and the driver dude even hugged us. I'm guessing since it had been a drizzly day, business had been slow and he was probably happy for the company and the money. Or maybe we were really just cool enough to warrant a prayer and a hug from a looney cabbie preacher.

The troops and I parted ways for the evening (around three or four in the morning) with a promise of getting together the next day for lunch before I headed back to NJ. Unfortunately, my stay in NY was cut short by a frantic phone call from the parents, but I can honestly say that I had the best weekend ever in NY with my two good friends, a crazy cabbie and Kid minus Play.

I returned to New York the next weekend to have a completely different kind of time. Stay tuned...