September 18 – Day 12: A Dessert with Ap-peal

Attentive readers—or at least those with nothing better to remember—will recall my purchasing a battery case for my new phone that was the wrong size. I assumed that exchanging it would be a breeze: a few minutes at the customer service counter to return the old case and buy the new one, then I’d be off to rehearsal.

As almost never happens, I miscalculated. I had scoped out the local Best Buys, and thought the one at 23^rd and 6^th would be most convenient. I mapped out my route: walk to Astor Place, take the 6, walk the long block to the store, do the exchange, walk back to take the Q or the 6 uptown, and be at rehearsal in plenty of time.

My mistakes began when I left a little later than I’d expected to, so I had to take the 4 instead of the 6. When I realized that really wasn’t going to do me any good, I thought I could just get off at 14^th, then transfer over, but my subway app was showing an unusual logo that I couldn’t quite figure out. I ended up thinking it might be for the PATH train, but that didn’t make any sense. (I still have no idea what it means.)

As I waited for the 6 at Union Square, I was kind of calculating my route, and figured it wouldn’t put me too far behind, but before I got too far along, the train came. I jumped on, and only then found out it was not going to stop at 23^rd, but would continue to 34^th, which meant that, had I just started walking to 23^rd from where I’d been, I would have to cover only nine blocks, rather than the 11 blocks I’d be stuck with now. Resigned to my fate, I began to get antsy (especially when we zoomed past 23^rd), but figured I could still make it. When we arrived, I shot out of the subway and started down south 6^th Avenue. I’d made it about a half a block when realized I was actually going east on 33^rd. I turned around, finally got back to 6^th, and headed south.

It took about ten minutes to reach 23^rd (where I’d been just hours before), then I had to walk the long block to Best Buy. I had just a few minutes to spare before I totally had to leave. I walked in, saw the customer service department was downstairs, took the escalator, and got into yet another long line, behind yet another person who had an abstruse problem that could be dealt with only at length by the sole person behind the counter. (There had been a second person, but she utterly vanished as soon as she sensed I was in the area. Damn my karma!)

After about two minutes of no movement (and with two people still in front of me), I realized this wasn’t going to work, so I left, figuring I could stop by after rehearsal. Once again, my app gave me the weird icon that was of no real help in telling me how to get where I wanted. I was pretty sure the 6 and the Q stopped up at 86^th and 2^nd (where I wanted to end up). Now, I know both of them stop there, but the way things were running that morning, I could have ended up in Queens. Both trains were about equally far, but the Q station uptown is closer to the bar where we were rehearsing, so I headed for that station.

Surprisingly, the trip was uneventful, and I arrived at 86^th Street pretty much on time. I could still make rehearsal and not be too late. The Second Avenue subway is pretty deep underground, though, so in addition to climbing one flight of stairs from the track level, I had to take two escalators to get to ground level. I walked up the first one (New Yorkers, for all their sidewalk-clogging ways, at least adhere to the “stand right, pass left” rule on the escalators—BART patrons, please take note), then was too tired to do anything but ride up the second one.

Last year, we did a lot of rehearsing of Sam and Dede at Ryan’s Daughter, a very nice Irish bar on 86^th and 1^st. I’m pretty unfamiliar with the Upper East Side, though, and got lost on my way to the bar on the first day. We’re back there for most of our rehearsals this year, and I was determined that I wasn’t going to be late this year, though, and was grateful that I knew the route to the bar. Despite that knowledge, I was still a couple of minutes late. It ultimately wasn’t a problem, though, since we started even later.

 Our rehearsal room. We're at the far end, but the couch isn't there anymore.

It was a typical first day. We went around the makeshift table and introduced ourselves with dull facts. My own dull fact was that, last year, I was late to the first rehearsal of Sam, so the cookies I’d bought at Veneiro’s were a partial apology, and that, since I was late this year, I was using the cookies as an apology again. (It seemed to work, by the way.) We read through the show, were introduced to the design concepts (set more or less the same as what we had in San Francisco, with some alterations based on the limitations of the new space on 59^th), discussed Brian’s vision of the story and the play, then spent a long time just discussing it all and getting to know each other. It’s a very good group, and I’m proud to be a part of the ensemble. It was still brutally hot, though, so we alternated between running the air conditioner, which was deafeningly loud, with the windows closed, and turning it off and opening the windows, which let in the heat and the humidity.

We’re working no more than six hours a day for now (generally 12-6 or 11-5), so (after the Equity breaks were figured in) it was a fast day, and one that got me really excited about what’s in store.

During our breaks, I was checking the Best Buy site to see if the stores in Manhattan carried the Mophie pack I needed. The three stores I was most interested in were the one on 23^rd, where I’d been that morning, the one on Fifth Avenue (where I’d bought the original), and the one on 86^th, which was just a couple of blocks from the theatre. All of them showed it in stock, so once rehearsal was over, I walked the couple of blocks over to 86^th, and started searching the mobile phone section, which was as picked over as a convenience store before a hurricane. After searching every aisle at least twice, I finally asked a guy if where the packs were, and he took me to the section, saw they weren’t there, then went into the stockroom to see if he could find them. He was gone for a few minutes, came back, and said they must be out, despite what the website showed. I thanked him, left, and headed back to 23^rd—this time knowing the route.

Once I arrived, instead of going to the returns desk, I went to the mobile section and didn’t see the thing, so I asked a woman behind the counter. She checked her computer, saw they had them, took me to the section, and couldn’t find it. This time, though, when she went to the stockroom, she found one, brought it out, did the exchange, and I was in business.

 The infamous Juice Pack. Does your Best Buy carry them? Don't count on it.

While there was some brief talk about going out for a first-day drink, when we were actually done, no one wanted to go, so I was in a mood for dinner, particularly some fried chicken. Last year, I discovered a nice little place in the East Village called Bobwhite Counter that had really good fried chicken. The sides aren’t especially “soulful,” but are still good. When I went last time, it was hopping, and I got crammed into a little space on a stool, eating off of a shelf in the window. When I got there this night, though, it was more or less deserted. There was one couple when I got in, another than came in after I arrived, and only one or two people picking up to-go orders. I assumed it was because it was Tuesday night, but talking to the French waiter (you know it’s real soul food when the waiter is French), I realized it was probably because it was Yom Kippur, which seems to be a good night for the goyim to get tables in New York. The chicken was once again excellent, but not so filling that I didn’t want dessert, so I asked him what they had, and all I heard was “(French accent French accent French accent) banana (French accent French accent),” so I ordered that, which turned out to be bananas and vanilla wafers in banana pudding with whipped cream on top. It, too, was excellent, so I felt fulfilled.

 How would you not want that?

With that, though, it was time to go home and get to bed, because I had rehearsal the next day and was determined to be on time this time.