new york city, day 4-6

Day 4:

• More training.
• More food. Italian this time. Arno's. From the swarm of waiters to seat us and take our orders, I guessed that meant good service... But, they forgot about us once they cleared away our plates. Weird. "Yes, we'd like to see the desert cart." Then nothing. For what seemed like an eternity.
  
• Walked up to Times Square. Lights! Crowds! Applebees!

Day 5 :

• More training.
• Buy the purse for Liz. Just as fabulous... And, it comes in three styles.
  
• Met up with Chevan after work. He took us on the subway down to the World Trade Center site. Then back on the subway to find something to eat.
• Found a vietnamese place near NYU. Very good. Butterfly Grill. They'd mounted butterflies in glass cases all over the walls. Was very cool.
• The calamari appetizer was very good. Much better than the usual batter coated crunchy chew rings.
  
• For the main course, got the 'spicey frogs legs'. Good. But not spicey. Chevan and I act like an old married couple, "Oooh, that looks good. Can I have a bite?"
  
• For desert, the red bean ice cream. When it arrived, I got a prize. A piece of cardboard in the ice cream. I was stunned (and a little drunk), so Chevan came to my rescue and asked for a new bowl. And, we did our old married couple routine again.
  
• Took the co-workers back to the hotel, then went out for drinks with Chevan. It was good to have a chance to catch up and gossip about old friends. Haven't had a chance to talk with him one-on-one in a long time.

Day 6:

• Sleep in.
• Realize my voice is really hoarse after yelling back and forth with Chevan to be heard over the music in the lounge. Iron shirts. Hope I don't lose voice.
  
• Grandpa & Grandma (mom's side) have seats to the Metropolitan Opera, arranged to meet with them before the trip. Unfortunately, Grandma wasn't feeling well, so I just met Grandpa. Had a fantastic lunch at the Met and saw La Forza del Destino.
  
• Accusations of innocence deflowered! Accidental shootings! Explosions! Cross-dressing! Betrayal! Murder! With subtitles (via screens installed on the backs of the seats)!
• Back to the hotel to meet up with co-worker #1 and her cousin. They're in her room, watching 'Tall, Dark, and DEADLY!'. I go up to her room to harrass her, in time to see self-defense manslaughter delivered via boat to the face. ON LAND! I can see why they were riveted.
  
• Call up Chevan to see if he's free for dinner again.
• Walk up 9th Ave, try to decide which of the many places look tastey.
• There was a cluster of 4-5 Thai places. It must have been a sign from Jeebus. Decide on Breeze. The menus are presented in CD jewel cases. Odd.
• Once again, decide to go with the the kookiest sounding thing on the menu. It was a panang curry with squid, scallops and shrimp. Served in a banana leaf. It was very good. And it came in a banana leaf, so it was clearly the winner.
  
• Also once again, Chevan and I do our old married couple routine.
• As if it's not bad enough that we're eating off each other's plates... Find out that Chevan watched Project Runway too. He pointed out the places where they filmed on our way up to dinner. Parsons, Atlas, Toys R Us, Red Lobster. And Nick was his favorite too. And, Chevan also demonstrated his Santino-as-Tim-Gunn impersonation, as we walked by Parsons' and saw the infamous Red Lobster.
  
• Back to the hotel. Call Liz.