I had a bad night. The room was too hot and I learned that Wagyu beef and my digestive system are not friends. I ended up getting only a few hours of sleep. Gayle and I had discussed the possibility of going to the Museum of Arts and Design and having Sunday brunch at ROBERT, a restaurant overlooking Central Park. I stayed in bed fairly late and then couldn't get moving. So no Museum of Arts and Design today.
There is a Winter Weather Advisory out for NYC today. We are supposed to get anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow. Mayor Eric Adams is asking people to travel by subway if possible today. In the wee hours of this morning, when I couldn't sleep, I researched how we would get to the Beacon Theater tonight by subway.
We have reservations to eat at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park and then to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers at the Beacon Theater. Of all the reservations we made this is the day I was most excited about. Gayle, who lives on a farm in Kansas, tells me that 5 inches is nothing. There have been several times on this trip when I realize she is a farm girl and not a city girl. I thought to myself that we might need to pivot and make alterations to the day when the snow began to fall.
Around noon we headed out in search of food. I made reservations for the Carnegie Diner around the corner which serves breakfast all day, every day. Gayle and I both love breakfast. The place was packed to the gills with people waiting to be seated. As we waited to check in with the host the women in front of us told him they had a reservation. He said, "You were just up here and when you found out the wait you went outside and made a reservation. It doesn't work like that. You still have a 45 minute wait." He delivered this like he was the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I was glad I had made a reservation far enough in advance not to get the lecture.
After a delicious meal of Eggs Benedict we headed back to our hotel to take naps and watch the snowfall from the window in our bedroom. Usually when Gayle and I travel we treat it like a sprint and try to inhale everything we can from sunup to sundown. This is a very focused trip....just food and shows and naps!
When we woke up from our naps it still hadn't begun to snow. We headed out for our evening, hailing a taxi with no problem. We arrived at Tavern on the Green before our 5 p.m. reservation.
We used the time to enjoy a cocktail at the bar.
Once seated we enjoyed a lovely meal of sides (roasted figs, creamed spinach, lobster mac and cheese and shoestring fries) as we watched the snow begin to fall outside the floor to ceiling windows. I talked Gayle into the creamed spinach. I am a fan. It wasn't good. Since we had time to kill we topped off the meal with a peanut butter chocolate lava cake. Tavern on the Green is a lovely restaurant located in Central Park. My rating for the experience is 94. It would get a 99 for the lava cake alone if it wasn't for the failed creamed spinach.
We arrived at the Beacon Theater one hour before the show, which was the instructions we received from the theater. When we queued up to enter they took one look at Gayle's cane and ushered us in the line on the side and into the theater without much of a security check.
We killed time until the show began by reading through my blog regarding past trips we have taken together. The show began with a short set by a comedian named Brooks Wheelan. Next up was John Oliver. I admit that I have been in love with John Oliver for years now. His show "Last Week Tonight" helped me manage life through the pandemic and Trump's first presidency. I have a John Oliver bobble head and a John Oliver saint candle. Without a note or a moment of hesitation he did standup for an hour that was both funny and educational.
Seth Meyers did almost an hour of comedy, mostly about his children, his wife and the joys of living in New York City. He also talked without a note or a moment of hesitation. These two men are brilliant at what they do.
That was not the end of the evening. Together these two men did a half hour of Q & A with the audience. They gave us a generous evening of laughter. As we gird ourselves for another four years of Donald Trump I needed this evening of comedy and sanity to buoy me up. I would give their show a 99. I would give it a 100 but I wouldn't want them to think they did not to keep striving for excellence.
I expected to come outside after the show to streets packed with snow. There is no way we got even 2 inches of snow but it was definitely cold. We stood in the street for about 15-20 minutes before our attempts to hail a taxi were successful.
I just want to say that Gayle was right. We didn't need to worry about the winter weather advisory. She knows more about winter than this California girl.
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