Sowing the Seeds of Love

Ah, walking home after 1am-- that magical time when you can't really tell the hookers from the bridge-and-tunnel clubbers, except for the fact that Giuliani kicked the hookers out of my neighborhood years ago.

I had a pretty fun day. I got up early, feeling slightly cold (refreshingly), so jumped straight into as hot a shower as I could stand, then curled back up in bed for another hour to watch an old episode of Law & Order on my laptop (gotta' love the Netflix "Watch Instantly" feature). I then took myself out to savor some breakfast along with a good chunk of the book I've been reading (Jennifer Weiner's "The Guy Not Taken").

I puttered around the house a bit afterward until I went to pick up the tickets for a matinée I was seeing with a friend. We had tickets to see "Electra", staged in the original Greek, playing at City Center. It was a pretty good production. Apparently, it had a long, successful run in Italy. The whole Greek chorus concept has always grown a little old far too quickly with me, but it was otherwise quite enjoyable, albeit a bit slow. It's not the type of thing I could see every day, but there are many things I enjoy in small doses. I think I'm good on the Greek classics for a good year now, especially in their native tongue.

Afterward, I had dinner with my friend R, followed by a little bit of shopping (electronics and books). Dinner was fabulous. We went to Becco, which is one of my favorites, food-wise (when in the mood to splurge on rich pasta), but the service has been hit and miss. Tonight was their final shot and they hit it out of the park. We walked in without a reservation (it was early) and they didn't have anything for about an hour and a half. Starving and disappointed, we were just about to head out the door when one of the staff ran to catch us before we walked out and said, "Wait, are there two?", to which we replied in the affirmative. He said, "I just had two seats open up in the wine bar, if you don't mind that". Mind that? It was perfect!

The staff was practically doting on us, not to mention the fact it was near the service place for the bar, so we could be chatty with some of the wait staff or ignore the world and keep to our own conversation. And the food? Each of us had superb delivery for each course. The mushroom and truffle pasta was out of this world. And their antipasto with such a lovely spread of vegetable heaven never disappoints (I always choose that over Caesar salad, a dish I find disgusting in general-- I don't get the appeal of lettuce and fishy oil). He had the zucchini blossoms stuffed with veal, a side of one of the special pastas, and a pork chop that looked good even to me. All around, we were a happy crowd. And, just from half a plate of ravioli, I can safely say I don't think I really need to eat again until Thursday. I was stuffed to the gills.

Later, we met up with some friends at this cute little bar in Hell's Kitchen. We were hanging out and killing time before a movie. Then we went and saw "Michael Clayton", which everyone else seemed to hate but me. I didn't do flips over it, but liked it. It was slow, but I didn't really feel it dragged. I'll probably be hearing about not wanting to see "Elizabeth; The Golden Age" instead for some time. And, yeah, I still don't want to see it, even though I'm sure it's an excellent film. I have my reasons (Why does it seem I should add a "So, there, neener!" after that? Haha).

Tomorrow, being Sunday, is a bit of a "me" day. I have some running around to do, but then will probably do some cooking for the week and spend the evening in, heading to bed at a reasonable hour (at least that's the goal) and chill before diving into the work week again. I feel a need to catch up on sleep.

For now, I'm headed off to bed. 'night, all.