Monday, December 08, 2008
my wife now likes the city
Allyn always hated New York. She'd only ever been for work, and usually the people she'd work with would drop everything at five and return home to Connecticut or Long Island or wherever, leaving her alone in the city. The only time a co-worker took her out he spent the whole time texting his girlfriend (who apparently was related to the guy who did Mother Goose and Grimm, which is kind of awesome). So she got royally screwed by folks who should've been showing her what's good about that place, and thus always hated New York.
Last week she had to go down for an awards ceremony, and basically got to live like a really rich middle-aged woman for a few days. They put her up at the W on Lexington and 50th, she attended functions at the Waldorf-Astoria and the Rainbow Room, saw them putting the tree up at Rockefeller Center, got to hit up the big department stores when they were relatively uncrowded, etc. So, y'know, not the type of New York shit that we would normally experience (or even want to, even if we could afford it), but still maybe the best possible reintroduction to the place. The only thing that would've made it better is if she got to land a helicopter on a skyscraper.
She dug it so much that we drove back down on Saturday for an overnight trip. We stayed with some friends in a very livable part of Brooklyn and did all the touristy Christmas in New York stuff, mostly for my benefit. We saw that tree (this year it's from Georgia), toured Saks Fifth Avenue's legendary bathrooms, had Dr. Zizmor take a look at my rosacea, did a bit of shopping in Soho, etc. We also went to the Upright Citizens' Brigade Theater and saw an improv troupe featuring Scott Adsit from 30 Rock, Jason Sudeikis's wife Kay Cannon, and a couple of writers from 30 Rock or Colbert or something. It was, um, affordable? A way to kill an hour or so? A decent enough way to divert your attention while resting your feet? Yeah, it wasn't very funny, and actually kind of embarrassing in spots (at least for one of the women, who was just awful), but still, a good experience, and nothing I regret.
Anyway, we then went and got drunk in Brooklyn and went to sleep. The next day we met some awesome dogs and bought Oscar a present at a dog store and then drove home. It was a great weekend and Allyn's newfound respect for and appreciation of New York was solidified. We have no intention of moving there, but we now feel we could probably live now without hating it too much.
Allyn always hated New York. She'd only ever been for work, and usually the people she'd work with would drop everything at five and return home to Connecticut or Long Island or wherever, leaving her alone in the city. The only time a co-worker took her out he spent the whole time texting his girlfriend (who apparently was related to the guy who did Mother Goose and Grimm, which is kind of awesome). So she got royally screwed by folks who should've been showing her what's good about that place, and thus always hated New York.
Last week she had to go down for an awards ceremony, and basically got to live like a really rich middle-aged woman for a few days. They put her up at the W on Lexington and 50th, she attended functions at the Waldorf-Astoria and the Rainbow Room, saw them putting the tree up at Rockefeller Center, got to hit up the big department stores when they were relatively uncrowded, etc. So, y'know, not the type of New York shit that we would normally experience (or even want to, even if we could afford it), but still maybe the best possible reintroduction to the place. The only thing that would've made it better is if she got to land a helicopter on a skyscraper.
She dug it so much that we drove back down on Saturday for an overnight trip. We stayed with some friends in a very livable part of Brooklyn and did all the touristy Christmas in New York stuff, mostly for my benefit. We saw that tree (this year it's from Georgia), toured Saks Fifth Avenue's legendary bathrooms, had Dr. Zizmor take a look at my rosacea, did a bit of shopping in Soho, etc. We also went to the Upright Citizens' Brigade Theater and saw an improv troupe featuring Scott Adsit from 30 Rock, Jason Sudeikis's wife Kay Cannon, and a couple of writers from 30 Rock or Colbert or something. It was, um, affordable? A way to kill an hour or so? A decent enough way to divert your attention while resting your feet? Yeah, it wasn't very funny, and actually kind of embarrassing in spots (at least for one of the women, who was just awful), but still, a good experience, and nothing I regret.
Anyway, we then went and got drunk in Brooklyn and went to sleep. The next day we met some awesome dogs and bought Oscar a present at a dog store and then drove home. It was a great weekend and Allyn's newfound respect for and appreciation of New York was solidified. We have no intention of moving there, but we now feel we could probably live now without hating it too much.
