imaginarycircus

The last 48 hours have been a roller coaster ride of stress and fun. Yesterday David took me out to breakfast at our local Irish diner. We were out of milk and I cannot face the day without coffee, just milk. I had a waffle. Then we popped into Manhattan to meet up with David's father. His parents were staying at the Gramercy Park Hotel. His father always wants to go somewhere for a hot pastrami sandwich when he is in nyc. Last time he was here I took him to the Carnegie Deli because as a pescatarian it was the only place I could think of to go. But overpriced tourist trap, no thanks. Yesterday we took him to Katz's. I hadn't been there since I was like 10 year old. So 26 years. Holy crap. What a mad house. It was totally fun and I guess the sandwich was good. I had some latkes. They were good. Not great. But the coffee was pretty good.

We popped back up to the hotel and had a drink in the bar. All the cocktails were $20 so I had a glass of Veuve Clicquot. They have one of those hyper perfect NYC bars that is so painfully cool and pristine that it looks silly to have people in it, making a mess. But it was beautiful. As is every single person who works there.

David's step mom came from her class and we went and walked through Gramercy Park. One of the major perks of staying there is that they have a key to the park. I had never been inside before and it too was beautiful. We went inside and hung out in their gorgeous room. This was a spree for them, something they had wanted to do for a while. This was not normal life for any of us.

We watched the Preakness. Crazy race. Then we changed for dinner and went up to the roof garden (enclosed! omg it rained) and had more champagne. We realized we had to tear off to make our dinner reservation. David drove us the 55 blocks in record time. It was a bit of a crazy ride up Park Ave and through the Met Life building by Grand Central.

At dinner we had another bottle of Veuve Clicquot. Cafe Boulud was amazing. And really expensive. The bread was so delicious. I wanted to eat a dozen of their olive rolls. They also had miniature crispy baguettes that were adorable. I had the lobster bisque. It was rich, smoky, and complex. The taste changed and blossomed as I ate it. I had planned to have the seared scallops, but both David and his father ordered it. So I had the garganelle with morels and pea tendrils, which was earthy and fabulous. I adore morels. But the scallops were sublime. I don't know what they did to them because I only had two small bites. But damn. I won't forget them anytime soon. David and I split the molten chocolate cake. And they bring you a little container of fresh warm petite madeleines. They would have made even Proust shut up.

So yesterday was a very strange culinary day, but such a high. I thought about not eating today. Though I broke down and ate a bagel. And now I am starving. I also have to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Eh, whatever.

We went to Whole Foods tonight. We needed milk and just about everything else. I was perusing the fresh fish and I was staring into the bin of ice at the oysters and mussels and realized there was a huge whole monkfish looking up at me like it wanted to chomp off my whole hand. Those suckers are scary. I squeaked and ran and hid behind David. Then the fish guy went and picked it up and brandished it at me. He and David both thought it was hilarious. GACK. That thing is going to give me nightmares. I could barely walk past it after that. Just thinking about it making me shiver and break out in goosebumps.