October 15 – Day 39: Monday Is the New Weekend


A day off, at last!

I slept late and didn’t expect to do much since it was supposed to rain all day. I hoped to catch up on the blog (which I did, for the most part) and some TV while Pidge was having lunch with Chris.

The weather has indeed turned, and it is mostly cool (if not cold) and fall-like, a very pleasant change from previous weeks. I went out to get a bagel for breakfast and a newspaper, and it was downright chilly. I expected to be able to walk through the park, but they keep closing down gates, so I keep having to make detours; they’re pleasant detours, for the most part, but detours nonetheless. There was a small film crew working on something (I assume a student film), and I wondered if they had had the gates closed to help their work, but they were still locked Monday night and Tuesday afternoon.

I brought my bagel back here, wrote while I watched TV, and generally had a day of doing nothing. Pidge came back about 5:30, and it turned out her lunch had gotten postponed, so she’d spent the day just kind of wandering around downtown. We had a dinner reservation at The Little Owl at 7:00, which meant we needed to leave about 6:15, so she didn’t have a lot of time to rest and change.

It seemed like the rain was over (it was), so we walked over to the restaurant and while got there pretty much at 7:00, we were told that the parties that were already eating were taking their time and it might be a few minutes. The restaurant is really good, but also really small, so there’s no place to wait. There’s a raised area next to the entrance, but that was occupied by a couple of women who were drinking wine (and were still there when we left a couple of hours later). There are also some seats outside, so we waited there with another couple. (I have no idea what they do in inclement weather.) (It also turns out that the building the restaurant is in is the building that was used in the establishing shots of Friends.)

 
 
Ocular proof!
(Photo stolen from Francesco Marciuliano)

After a few minutes, the owner came out, apologized again, and gave us all coffee cups of champagne (which was pretty good, and I don’t normally like champagne). He came out a little later, and offered us meatball sliders, which is one of their better starters. After a few more minutes, he offered us more champagne (which I declined, though Pidge didn’t). Finally, after about 40 minutes, parties started to leave, and we were seated—coincidentally at “our” table. (We’ve been there five or six times, and somehow usually sat at one table.)

The food was great, as always. We each had a salad, and Pidge had the halibut (which tasted a little too fishy for me) and I had the chicken (which came with potatoes and Brussels sprouts and was delicious. We maybe shouldn’t have had dessert, but Pidge saw beignets, and it was all over. (I had the blueberry cheesecake, which was a nice round portion, rather than a triangular slice.) We paid up, had a brief debate on what was the best route to go home, then had a spirited discussion about a number of things while we walked. Since she’d walked nearly 12 miles on Monday, her pace got a little slow. I can only imagine what we sounded like to the people we were passing. Fortunately, there was no opening at the building next door, so we were able to get into the building with no trouble.

 I probably waited too late to take this, but I 

didn't want to seem like a rube. (Then the Swedish

kid next to us took a photo of his immense pork chop.)

We got home and made up, and things were fine again. We decided to watch some television, and she turned off the main light and turned on a smaller table lamp next to it. In the glass bowl of the lampshade, we could see the shadow of the world's biggest bug. I mean, this thing looked like Mothra. I went over, saw it was a cockroach, and didn't panic, but went into crisis mode. 

The goddam thing seemed to be stuck, but I couldn't figure out how it got in there. If it could fly, it could have flown out, but didn't. If it fell in, it had a hell of an aim. If it had crawled in, it could have crawled out. Regardless, after a concerted search to figure out where the lamp was plugged in, we unplugged it, I covered the top of the shade, and took the whole thing outside and shook the bug out. I saw it land on the step, and under normal circumstances, I would have crushed it, but it was just too much trouble.  I hope wherever it is, it's fine; just stay the fuck out of my apartment.

Despite her protestations that she was wide awake now, she fell asleep fairly early while we were watching The Good Place, while I stayed up (as always, probably too late) since I had no real plans for the morning or afternoon.

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