50 for 50: 42 - New York with Deb

Deb used to be my neighbor.  My condo was above her family's, and over one, back on Euclid Street.  I can't recall when I actually first met her, although I have a vague recollection it had something to do with using a Blockbuster Video card to jimmy the door open.  (I kept a Blockbuster Video card long after Blockbuster Video just for that purpose.  Damn, those things were of the perfect size and flexibility.)  But I REALLY met Deb when the smoke alarm in the then-vacant unit next to hers and below mine WOULD NOT FUCKING STOP BEEPING.  It was a problem somewhat unique to our two units, and one night, when we couldn't take it any more, we called the police, who called the real estate agent who had the listing, and got SOMEONE to break in there and RIP THAT DAMN SMOKE DETECTOR OFF THE FUCKING WALL.  (Blockbuster card would not have worked; they'd set the deadbolt.)  We became friends; we ultimately became friends with the law student who eventually bought the unit with the offending detector, too.  We were a weird little bunch, demographically speaking -- I think I was closer in age to Deb and the law student was closer in age to Deb's daughter, but we all got along in various combinations.  Frequently over Chinese food at Yang Chow.  Sometimes watching "Pushing Daisies."  Often baking cookies.

(Ask her about the Unfortunate Apple Pie Incident.  Go on, ask her.)

She moved away.  Then I moved away.  Then she moved REALLY away.  Several states away.  We kept in touch with cheerful text messages, although the text messages which used to say "Neighbor!" now started with "Former Neighbor!"

We decided to meet in New York City.  This was a pretty cool idea because "Broadway" was on my list and "New York" was pretty much on hers.  Deb hadn't been in New York in (more or less) ever, so I was excited to use my vast knowledge (limited to a finite number of blocks in the theater district) to show her around the place.

We got in Tuesday night, and went to tea at a quaint little place called Alice's Tea Cup, which I'd always wanted to try.  (The tea selection looks like they've stolen a fraction of Chado's menu, but the sandwiches are thick and the scones obscenely large.)  Deb and I squealed over each other's new "looks" and got caught up and shoved way too much food in our faces.

For today, with one small, super annoying exception (I had to go pick up my badge for New York Comic Con because they sent it to my house too late), I pretty much left today to Deb.  It was hard because there was just SO MUCH she hadn't seen and wanted to see, but we ended up with ... well, we ended up with me putting, like, more than 18,000 steps on my step counter.

We started at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is WAY more than a decommissioned aircraft carrier.  We started by touring the Growler, a Cold War era guided missile submarine.  It was super cool and I took a selfie in the torpedo room.

Then we went up to the flight deck of the Intrepid.

And then we walked over to the pavilion where they had parked Enterprise, because if you need a place to park your Space Shuttle, OF COURSE the deck of an aircraft carrier is the logical choice.

And once we'd finished with that, we had lunch and we talked about the Kavanaugh nomination and #metoo and racism and sexism and the right to identify however you damn well want and how to have legitimate, respectful dialogue with people on the other side and we solved all the world's problems so nothing to worry about there, you're welcome.

And THEN, we took a Lyft down to Lower Manhattan and did a walking tour that was one of those self-guided scavenger hunt thingies.  We got to see the Wall Street Bull and Fearless Girl; the Ground Zero site; City Hall; lots of parks; the Vietnam Memorial; Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church; anna bunch of public art.  It ended in Battery Park so Deb got to see the Statue of Liberty (albeit from a distance).  We named our team "Euclideans" (after our street), and we ended up scoring 9th out of something like 84 teams who've done this hunt.  Which was fine and good (except some construction prevented us from solving one of the clues, and I sent them an email because someone owes us 75 points and at least 10 minutes and no, I'm not competitive, SHUT UP).  And I'm glad Deb got to see some of the stuff she'd wanted to see, and I was glad I did too -- I'd always MEANT to catch up with Fearless Girl, but had never taken the time to go down there.

When we finished, we grabbed some Chinese food ("real Chinese food" having also been on her list) and saw "The Nap," which was a British farce played Way Too Slow.  (I was speculating that they'd intentionally slowed it down so American audiences would understand the Yorkshire accents, but slow farce is deadly.)  And that's pretty much enough time spent talking about that play.  We'll aim a bit higher tomorrow.

We came back to the hotel, enjoyed some leftovers from last night's tea for dessert, and crashed.

Bit of a day.