A Most Excellent Weekend

People's unbelievable generosity continuously overwhelms me.

Renee and I are back from our weekend getaway and we had a really amazing time.

On Friday night we met an old work colleague of Renee's for a drink and then I left them to catch up while I went to meet my friend Bob. They ate at Pearl Oyster Bar, the restaurant of an author they both worked with, and were generously comped a treat.

Bob and I went to a tapas bar in his neighborhood, which was loud and yummy with excellent sangria. I hadn't been in such a lively place in so long, I actually felt like I was in my 20s again, albeit with less hair :-)

Perhaps strangely on our actual anniversary date, it was so much fun for us to do our own thing and then meet back at the hotel. Usually we would never spend a children free night apart, so it felt somehow luxurious to do so. Anyway our true celebration plans were for all the following day, so we felt like Saturday was the more important day to spend together.

On Saturday we had a late New York classic bagel breakfast, walked in Central Park, and saw the matinee show of "Guys and Dolls", which was kinda bad. Renee loved Lauren Graham in Gilmore Girls, but the girl can't sing or dance. The stage time she shared with Kate Jennings Grant, who I guess is a true Broadway performer, was painful, even to my uneducated ear. Their duet juxtaposed their voices, really highlighting how bad Lauren's singing was. Her part sounded more like shouting then singing. The only great part of the show was about 20 seconds long, by a singer named Mary Testa who has one of those voices that even someone who knows nothing about singing (like me) can recognize as really powerful. I'm not a real fan of Broadway or musicals, but at least I could chuckle at the train wreck aspect and enjoy some of the video technology they used.

(Later we found out the Obamas saw a Broadway show that day too; to bad we didn't have tickets for that show. We did see his presidential motorcade go down a closed FDR, as our taxi meter ticked an extra five or six dollars sitting in the traffic they created).

Saturday night was the main event of the weekend, a meal that we had been trying to get to for years. The brother of one of my oldest friends (and a super nice guy) is a long time manager at Tribeca Grill and we've talked about trying it out for probably as long.

Although Avi wasn't managing the restaurant that night, his staff was well prepared for us. They knew it was our anniversary, and they presented us with a note he had left, which we couldn't quite believe. If we were reading it correctly, there would be no bill at the end of the night!

We knew that occasionally Avi's family members would get perhaps a free course or dessert, but we had no such expectation. We would have been happy with a nice table.

We really felt that we had misunderstood the note and went ahead with ordering as if there had been no change in plans. We each had a celebratory glass of Champagne with our appetizers (shrimp for Renee, tuna for myself). For our entree we switched to a bottle of red wine, the scallop entree for Renee and a filet mignon for myself. Everything was absolutely delicious, and Mike, our waiter, brought us two surprises: a small in-between course of ravioli with fava beans and pesto, and finally two delicious desserts: strawberry cheese cake and fruit parfait with a single candle on each with "happy anniversary" written in chocolate on both plates! (I loved the cheese cake, Avi read my mind.) We felt like true VIPs.

With neither of us drinking too often these days it took a while for us to finish the bottle of wine and by then we were well buzzed. Without thinking about it I asked Mike for the check. Neither of us could believe it when he simply shook his head, saying "there's no check for you tonight. It has been taken care of by your friend."

Avi - if you're reading this (and you didn't get my email or my text message :-) THANK YOU. It's too much. I was speechless then and I am now. I'm really honored that you'd extend yourself this way. We will find a way express our graditude.

After Tribeca Grill we went to a rooftop party thrown by Renee's cousin, Michelle. It was a beautiful night to be outside and the view of midtown was amazing. We only stayed an hour or so but it was again nice to be at an adult party without children to chase or perhaps more importantly children to wake up to early the next morning.

On Sunday we went to KOOZA, the current Cirque du Soleil show which was playing on Randall's Island. It was very entertaining and flawlessly performed but I have to admit I was a bit exhausted by that point in the weekend.

I had walked more, slept less and drank more in this weekend then I had in probably a month, so I was feeling a bit worn down. In fact on Saturday night I did get a fever (a Saturday night fever?) as I did in earlier rounds when I overtaxed myself. Per my oncologist such a fever is only a concern if it exceeds 101.5°, in which case I must go to the ER immediately. Of course we didn't have a thermometer at the hotel, but we didn't think it was that high. When I woke up on Sunday it was gone. I did however sleep about 13 hours last night, and only after that did I feel 100%.

We really had an excellent weekend, with special thanks to Avi, my in-laws for watching the children (being away from your kids is only relaxing when you have competent child care and with you guys on the job we are able to forget we had them!), my parents for their contribution and to the many of you who wrote to wish us a happy anniversary. It truly was very, very happy.