Colossal Waste: NYC, March 2010, Day 4

The third morning that you wake up away from home, at least for me, is the morning that it feels completely normal. Novelty is gone, and you are finally There.

For example, I woke up this morning and it was simply normal that someone wanted me to scratch his head and slide a firm hand along his back.

That looks says, "Good morning, Dude. Not too fond of having to wait on your lazy ass."

Oreo happens to be the type who comes over to you and rubs his head on your hand, looking for a good scratch, and then he presses against you as he moves by, getting that full-body deal. He's the Titanic, I'm the iceberg. Only in this case the Titanic cannot get enough of that iceberg. Max, the cat who adopted my family when I was in High School, jumped in your lap and didn't move until he was done with you. Considering my goal is not be covered in cat hair, I'm quite digging Oreo's preferred form of affection.

I took a large number of pictures to capture Oreo's morning ritual with me. (In fairness, my morning is 1-2pm EST.) At this point he tries to rub against the iPhone as to him it's clearly just part of the hand that should be against his head.

Amusingly, we thought Denise's home was cat-free. I am allergic, after all. Taking DayQuil and NyQuil to deal with it. Had we known she had a cat in advance, we might have opted for some shmancy hotel. As it stands, the entire NYC visit is going down as, "Five Days of Oreo."

We ventured out for brunch. Here's Houston Street. Interesting that New Yorkers go with the British pronunciation, unlike Texas. In New York it is, "How-Stun," while in Texas it is, "Hew-Stun." When you're in London, the Texas pronunciation of Houston can cause train station issues, because Houston Station & Euston Station are very different places. An actual travel tip in the travel blog.

We walked by our Day 2 lunch spot and I learned that the blog is inaccurate. It is "Frankie's" not, "Frank's." Oops. Got to fix that. We often use the blog to look up restaurants we have liked.

Finally, I am remember to follow the correct restaurant blog procedure. Outside pic first. This is Tampeo 29. Brunch until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Barbie at the bar, awaiting her brunch.

Brioche french toast for me. Spectacular.

Eggs Benedict for her.

Denise stopped by to say hello, back from the Catskills and on her way to her mother's. New flash! She told me that she thinks of Oreo sometimes as Oreo Speedwagon. Tectonic shift. The name remains the same.

On today's agenda we will be meeting our friends Steve & Julia, with whom we apartment swapped in 2008. We thought it would be nice to bring them wine.

I love the Dot Com.

My wife requested I take this shot, as the buildings definitely define the time they were built.

Headed back to Denise's, I realized that this was the first time it was not raining and I could point out that our bedroom window is right THERE. That is the window which I have show you twice to indicate the amount of rain outside.

Now, up in the bedroom, I point out that the previous picture was taken from THERE.

A quick stop home to stick the wine in a backpack, and we are off to Brooklyn. and we're wondering why Steve has moved from the Upper West Side, right by Lincoln Center, to Brooklyn.

On our way.

We surface across the river in Brooklyn. Bedford Street. I realize almost instantly that we were in the tragically hip area of Williamsburg, which the young hipsters moved to years ago for the cheap rents. This lead to the creation of business to cater to these hip youngsters, which lead to property values going up, which leads to it being tragically hip, for the hip can no longer afford to live there.

Yet here we are, old people with money in our wallets, standing on Bedford Street, the most tragically hip street in this tragically hip neighborhood.

Random facts I read ages ago. The term "Hip" comes from Opium culture. Look it up. Before the Bridges were built, Brooklyn was not a suburb at all, but was in fact it's own rather significant American city. Look it up.

We were rather early, so instead of going straight to Steve & Julia's, we stepped into Blackbird Parlour. Everyone in Blackbird Parlour was, yes, young and hip. They wore fashionable clothes and had fashionable hair that made them look wealthy and unemployed. And all the conversations you overheard were about art. So I stood up and shouted, "Hey, do you guys think that Jake was right to pick Vienna on The Bachelor?" Luckily, the tragically hip are all physically weak and they cowered, afraid to mock me.

Bean & vegetable soup for yours truly.

Latte and cake for her. She wanted carrot cake, and they were out. Tragically hip.

Even more tragic. It started to rain again! I tell you, sometimes my no swearing rule on the blog is difficult to follow.

Bedford Street all cold and wet.

When we got to Steve & Julia's, rained on and cold, we saw that they lived in a brand new building that was much taller than anything else around. Across from a park, no less. We zipped up the elevator and had that surreal experience that the elevator opened not to a hallway but to their apartment. Penthouse living, baby!

Surprise, surprise! Steve had kept us in the dark that he and Julia had purchased this hyper-realistic robot baby from Japan! Okay, okay. They actually created Jayden through human reproduction. Steve hadn't told Barbie because he figured it would be a nice surprise. And it was.

The floor to ceiling windows on both sides of the penthouse are a nice touch as well. It was great to hang out and chat, and soon it was time for Jayden to go to bed.

Steve was telling us about all the cool things in the neighborhood, and on the list was a bowling alley. Not just any bowling alley, but a tragically hip bowling alley. He decided to drive us to the subway station with a stop for a drink at the Brooklyn Bowl first.

Not much to add.

In the mode of Lucky Strike in Hollywood, the Brooklyn Bowl is a bowling alley for the people who are too cool to normally bowl. I don't mind bowling with the overweight and blue haired, but the kids of Williamsburg certainly would.