now that was FUN

I had a trip to NYC this week for work. Because my opposing counsel can be a bit of a blowhard, I didn't plan to leave the evening of the deposition and instead stayed Thursday night and flew home Friday morning.

One of my co-defense attorneys lives in Chicago, but he knows NYC very well because he used to live there. Chi-lawyer is a great guy...and a grand-scale geek. As in, he takes binoculars everywhere because he likes to bird watch. Yes. I actually mean everywhere, including to depositions and after dark.  He wears "walking shoes", in brown, with all his suits.  And he doesn't believe in luggage...he just "throws a few things in the briefcase" for business trips.  He's proud of not having checked luggage in the last 20 years...including for his three-week honeymoon in Africa.  So while his eccentricities might have frightened me away from befriending him at one point in my life, not any more.  He's a really interesting person and I am grown-up enough not to be humiliated by his truly goofy aspects.

At the end of the deposition, a third lawyer suggested we go see a display of Cretan icons that influenced El Greco, that is showing at the Onassis Center. What the heck? Sounds off-beat and interesting, right? It was. These icons were beautiful, beautiful items. I never would have found that on my own. I didn't even know the Onassis Center existed (it's FREE people, FREE!)

Then Chi-lawyer suggested that there was a one-man show in the meat-packing district he'd been wanting to see. Was I up for it? Sure. Why not?  Right?

What a hoot this show is--The Myopia: An Epic Burlesque of Tragic Proportion. A review I read referred to it as campy, post-modern thought. I get (and lurve) campy. Post-modern thought stumped me a bit...but what the heck. The guy who wrote and performed the play was amazing. He sat in a chair for the entire 1 1/2 hour show but he was able to draw amazing imaginary pictures in your brain. You can read the play on-line, but somehow, I just don't think reading it can do justice.  I mean just how do you fit a Jewish Rapunzel into a show about Warren G. Harding?  I haven't a clue, but it worked.

Before the show, Chi-lawyer had run down a place to eat just three blocks from the theatre... Spice Market.  And can I just say, OH MY GAWD?  It was soo good.  And, since it's restaurant week, we got a three course meal for $35.00.  It is owned by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.  And then, Chi-lawyer, who is also a vegetarian foodie, ordered extras.  We had food coming out of our ears...Salmon Tartar with Soy Ginger Dressing, Avocado and Radish; Spiced Chicken Samosas with Cilantro Yogurt; Green Papaya Salad with Market Apples and Candied Ginger; an Avocado and Radish Salad with Chinese Mustard and Tempura Onions; and, Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce and Thai Basil.  Yum.  I am salivating just typing it all in.  We ordered so much that we ran late and would miss the show if we stayed for the main course and dessert.  So we skipped dessert and took the main course, to go.  Chi-lawyer says, "We'll just eat the main course during intermission of the show!"  Which was an ok idea, except...um...cod?  It's fish.  Fish smells! 

But, I went with it.  Lose the inhibition, Laggin.  Loosen up.  Imagine us watching this fascinating show with the smell of yummy Malaysian cod wafting up from under our seats.  I suppose everyone around us was irritated, except maybe not because it smelled so yummy and not too fishy.  During intermission we ran out to the lobby and snarfed down our main dish.  It was kind of crazy and obnoxious but liberating in its own way.

After the show we took a cab back to mid-town, where my hotel was.  It was about 10 p.m., and while I know NYC wakes up then, I was tired.  Chi-lawyer was headed out on the town to hang with friends.  But happy and full, I headed up to read my book with a glass of wine before heading home the next morning.  I wish all business travel was this great.

It's a New York house!