1) Earlier in the week one of my closest friends said that I was “sitting on his shoulder” as he was writing a series of thank-you notes. Between 6-10 AM, while I was cleaning house between final bouts of packing, he was sitting on mine. He may be staying at my place here and there while I’m away, and since he’s well known for his tidiness and organization — and I am, um, not — I wanted to be sure that the study was cleaned out and the rest of the house in reasonable order for him. I’m afraid the dining room was sacrificed to the effort, as it’s now full of everything I had to take out of the study, mostly books.
2) While packing I kept remembering a story from Missie Vassiltchikov’s diaries about her escape from Vienna at the end of WWII with her friend Sisi Wilczek (and other friends). People kept discarding things as the journey got more tedious and treacherous, but Sisi would take them on herself: topless thermoses, costume jewelry, even an accordion! And here I was like a magpie wanting to back every shiny thing in an increasingly finite space.
3) My large suitcase (not Daddy’s enormous “anvil”) had been picked up earlier in the week. But as I walked to the T with my smaller suitcase, valise, and laptop bag, their weight brought home to me the extent I’d be away.
4) The train down to New York allowed me to catch up with a few people via the socials. At one point, perhaps around Stamford, the big bearded conductor was looking out my window for a woodchuck on a hill. They served me a lovely Statler chicken for lunch.
5) The train was late — again — but I had acres of time to catch a taxi to J. Press by Grand Central Station to pick up a new navy blue blazer (classic for shipboard), and then to my tailor for my amazing new suit (my first since 2018). It was hot in the city, and hotter inside both those taxis.
5a) Back when I was still working Reunions, our team was put through an exercise to help us understand how the elderly comprehend things in different environments. We had to complete tasks explained quickly while wearing headphones broadcasting white noise or something. That came to mind with the impossibility of understanding a cabbie speaking with a pronounced accent through a plastic barrier in a construction zone. File under: Traveling While Old.
6) As Mary Astor so memorably said in Across the Pacific, “I’ll have to find someplace where they have a bath at the end of the hall and a forty cent lunch.” For these two nights in the city I chose the Jane Hotel way down south on the island; once the Seamans Rest House, surviving Titanic crew stayed here during the American inquiry after the sinking; eventually it was a YMCA, and last night I was told that RuPaul lived here for awhile. Now it’s a hotel, but the rooms are the size of Pullman compartments, and the shared bath is indeed at the end of the hall. With my love of train travel and the Titanic, I think it’s charming.
6a) As luck would have it, it’s next to another hotel/nightclub, which I entered by mistake. Why I don’t know, but they thought I was the DJ! Perhaps it was my struggle with the luggage.
7) With the city so hot, I was eager to change clothes, after which I strolled half an hour at a leisurely pace to Mamo, for dinner with my friend A_____. An excellent Italian restaurant decorated in creamy white and hung with Italian posters of American movies, they serve a succulent manhattan. We split fried artichokes and burrata with tomatoes, and then each got the pappardelle brisket for dinner. I think the pappardelle won in the battle with my fork. It wore me out, all that slippery twirling, but my goodness, how tasty.
7a) For awhile it felt like we might be the only men in the place. Strong Girl Energy filled the room, which seemed to be mostly young women celebrating birthdays (with some industrial strength sparklers in desserts from the kitchen) in groups of three to six.
8) After dinner we strolled awhile, A_____ pointing out the sights, including his office. Eventually we ended up in Sheridan Square, site of the Stonewall Inn and its National Monument, improbably full of young heterosexuals enjoying a warm Saturday night al fresco. The energy was bubbly, as A_____ steered me into a club called The Monster.
9) We sat at the bar nursing gin and tonics and chatting, observing our community on a Saturday night, before heading downstairs to observe the go-go boys go and go and go-go-go. Where is Tura Satana when you need her?
9a) In other news, I’d accidentally locked myself in the restroom for about ten seconds. Yikes!
10) It was after 11 before we parted company, and I had a very easy walk back to the Jane from there. Because it was so late, I didn’t think anyone would be in the bathroom, and I was wrong.
11) It feels a little unreal that this is actually happening now, and that I won’t be returning to what is familiar for several weeks.