Going to New York
In celebration of my birthday, which falls on Sunday, LL and I are taking off tomorrow morning to spend a few days in New York City. It will be the first time I've returned to the city in which I was born in quite a number of years.
Some specific plans are still up in the air, but I know many of the places I'm going. I'll be spending my birthday proper at the American Museum of Natural History with my sister and her family. One day will take us to Coney Island, the neighborhood in which I grew up. I'm planning on walking the Boardwalk for the first time in well over two decades and grabbing a hotdog at Nathan's. I'd also like to see what's left of the house in which I grew up; I still remember the address. We'll also be making at least one trip to Junior's, and very likely two (one for breakfast and one for cheesecake). I would like to work in a trip to Katz Deli, too, and maybe take LL for a walk down 18th Avenue in Brooklyn; I'm sure my Lebanese partner will feel right at home in the Hasidic neighborhood, but where else would we get good potatonik, I ask you?
In an ideal world, we'd be able to see a midnight Rocky Horror in Greenwich Village, but the theater at which it used to play is no longer playing it; I understand it's now the property of the Discovery Channel. LL has never experienced a live Rocky Horror, and I know she'd appreciate it. That's another thing I haven't done in years that I'd like to do at least one more time, come to think of it. Still, it must be playing somewhere... maybe on Long Island? We're going to stay out on Lawn Guyland to save a bit of money on the hotel but still have ready access to mass transit, plus there are a couple of stops I'd like to make out there as well.
Thinking about all this is making it very hard to concentrate on anything "important" today. The worst part is that I still have to teach lab starting at 6:00 this evening! How am I going to maintain any kind of focus for three hours when me brain has already gone to NYC?
Meh. I probably won't. I can't wait to get on the road!
