40 Days in Brooklyn: Day 40

Saturday, October 29th

What I did on my last day in Brooklyn:

• Packed.
• Cleaned house.
• Weighed suitcases again and again and again.
• Cooked an omelet and sausage for breakfast while simultaneously trying to consume the rest of the vodka in the apartment.

• Cooked the rest of the turkey burgers for lunch but never ate them. They're probably turning green in the fridge as we speak.
• Went on one last walk in Prospect Park. Made sure to photograph lots of things for posterity.

The entrance to my fabulous apartment.

The front of my fabulous building.

A beautiful day in the park with a whole bunch of people
doing I-don't-know-what.

With a helicopter.

Getting lost in a yellow tree.

The road less traveled

Okay. Who knocked all the trees down? 

Pods. I picked them up and made a bouquet with them.

'Shroom on a log.

Getting lost in the park and then, off in the distance, seeing an entire circle of food trucks.

That circle of food trucks.

Thinking you're taking a photo when you're actually taking a video.

An Apple Cider Donut that's as good as everyone said it is.

Crazy beautiful scene

With crazy beautiful swans

One last shot of the apartment. Bye apartment!

My ride to the airport

Thank you. I feel welcome.

And then it's all…

And next thing you know.

Guess who'd picking me up at the airport?

And guess who's happy I'm home?

Bagels, Mummies and Dirty, Dirty Puppets

40 Days in Brooklyn - Day 39 

Friday, Oct 28th. I started my last full day in Brooklyn the way many people do—at the Olde Brooklyn Bagel Shoppe.  

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of ordering a gluten-free everything bagel. I do not recommend this. Ever.  After one bite, I traded it out for a regular everything bagel. 

Gluten free. Blech.

Chock full o' Gluten. Yum!

Then, I went back to the apartment to continue the packing process and send a few final emails. And in the afternoon, I finally made it to the Brooklyn Museum. I’d walked by it a hundred times and at last, this was the day I went in.

It's quite an impressive building. And inside, there are many impressive things.

An extensive Egyptian Collection

Some amazing sculptures

A whole section on modern design that I really enjoyed.

A bicycle produced in 1969 that I'd love to buy right now.

The famous Wiggle Chair by Frank O. Gehry. It's made of cardboard.

And a few famous paintings.

Me and George.

After a few hours in the museum, I headed back to the apartment and on a whim, I decided to stop into another place I'd passed many times before.

A soul food cafe

The grilled portobello and brie sandwich.
Not really soul food but delicious nonetheless.

After that, I went back to clean the apartment and prepare for my last night in town.  

Yeah, this is exactly how I do it.

At 7 pm, I met friend Stephanie on West 49th St for a libation at Lillie's Victorian Establishment. Named after the famous actress Lillie Langtry, this place was, as Stephanie so aptly described it, "lit." (Meaning on fire. I know. I had to ask too.) 

Best part? 80's music and videos playing on the big wall, including Hall and Oats, Cyndi Lauper, and an awesome mashup of Madonna's Like a Prayer and Michael Jackson's Beat It. This place felt like my high school dream.

Lillies on 49th. I highly recommend it.

But we only had half an hour in this spectaculicious environment because we had to go pick up our theater tickets for the evening. Our show? Avenue Q.

Yeah, it's 13 years old but live-on-stage puppet sex is
still appealing to, you know, everyone.

This lively and profane show with puppets had Stephanie and I rolling in the aisles. It may be a little dated—one of the characters is supposed to be Gary Coleman, now the super at the apartment building where all the characters live—but it's still very funny. With songs like "It Sucks to be Me", "If You Were Gay", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", "The Internet is for Porn", and "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Making Love), it was right up my alley. The in-seat beverage service was also a plus—drinks were waiting for us at our seats after intermission. 

And at the end of every show, the cast passes the hat to raise funds for charity. That night was for an organization that helps support aging actors who may not have insurance or pensions, etc. To raise money, they let people take photos with the puppets. And that night, they had Hillary and Donald puppets.  

This was obviously a gag because no one in this town in voting for Donald.

I'll admit that my subway ride home is a bit of a boozy haze. It was late and I was tired but I remember marking the occasion in my mind as "My last subway ride for I don't know how long." I vaguely remember feeling a little sad.

This is probably how I looked.

I am NOT the Walrus.

I am the Fail Whale.

40 Days in Brooklyn: Day 35 to 38

Monday, Oct 24^th.  I think the last week and a half has finally caught up to me. In addition to gaining 9 pounds (??!! Thanks Chris, Lawrence and Tom!) I woke up with some kind of stomach bug that laid me out all day. (I suspect this whole town is just a squirming petri dish of every imaginable germ and bacteria.) As a result, I didn't leave the apartment all day. I emailed, wrote my blog, watched tv and slept. And had no experiences. Sorry Todd.

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Tuesday Oct 25^th. Intended to get up and walk today but was still feeling under the weather. And it was cold outside. Maybe not cold by NY standards, but cold according to my thin Texas blood.

That friend is me. 

So instead of walking, I got up and started cleaning out the fridge to see what I could use before it went bad. I made soup using the remaining celery, onion, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, tomatoes, yams, leftover tomato sauce and the meat sauce in the freezer that came from my originally mangled meatball attempt. It turned out yummy and I think I ate 4 bowls before the day was over. 

It might not look good but it tasted amazing.

I emailed and blogged most of the day, then went out to the grocery store in the afternoon to get some much needed protein. Made salmon sashimi and a salad for dinner. Went to bed early.

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Wed Oct 26^th. Woke up to 38-degree weather (Brrr!) then did laundry and started preparing for my trip home. While I’ve really loved my time here, I’m ready to be back in the Big D. I miss my husband and my pets and my house, car, yard, greenhouse and tree house. I miss my entire Texas life that not filled with strange people standing uncomfortably close to me at all times. 

I absolutely love the subway but right now, I’m looking forward to very private rides in the luxury of my giant albeit gas-guzzling car. And although I’m not proud to admit it, I’m sort of looking forward to eating something that’s not organic, grass-fed, cage-free, pesticide-free, hormone-free and five time the cost of what I pay for it at home.

Since I’m going home and I want to look good, this afternoon I got a haircut and color. In NYC, that costs $326 plus tip. For that, I think it should come with a happy ending too, but maybe I’m just cheap.

Tonight I took my first Uber Pool and shared a ride with someone named Hashim. He spoke quietly into his phone the whole time so I guess he was fine as far as Uber-mates go. He was dropped off first and I was taken to Bushwick to a place called Hell Phone to attend The Inspired Word, an open mic event for writers, comedians, poets, singers and musicians. 

The entrance to Hell Phone

A shot of the bar from their website

The back area

Hell Phone is a French restaurant and speakeasy in which you have to go through an old-time phone booth to get to the bar in back. It’s not hard to imagine you’ve walked through a portal into the past. Until the show begins, that is, and the first performer is a guy rapping to pre-recorded rhythm tracks. And he's rapping about Jesus. For a minute, I had to look around to see if someone was pranking me. 

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not being judgmental. Everyone has to try out their stuff somewhere. And I suspect it’s difficult to bust a rhyme with words like “crucifixion” and “scourge” so more power to him.

The emcee for the evening.

I, on the other hand, did a modified version of some material from my mostly unperformed one-woman show. In this venue, you’ve only got 7 or 8 minutes, so I pared down portions while still retaining the overall journey. It culminates in a thrilling rendition of a song I wrote for my dogs.

Bringing the house down with The Poopy Song

I smiled like an idiot the whole way home. My Uber Pool mates thought I was mentally unbalanced.

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Thurs Oct 27^th.  Weather was cold and rainy again today. But I didn’t mind. I had nowhere to be until dinnertime and I had blogging to catch up on.

Rainy days and Mondays.

In the afternoon I went shopping for a carry-on bag. I’d ordered in a luggage scale and upon receipt learned that, with all my fabulous purchases in NYC,  my luggage was now substantially overweight. So I made the short trek to the Atlantic Center Mall and bounced from Target to Marshalls to Burlington Coat Factory to a place I’ve never heard of called Pay Half. There I had the pleasure of purchasing a lightweight but sturdy Steve Madden bag that I’m hoping lasts for quite some time.

This may come in handy next weekend at the Komen 3-day.

That evening, I met Sarah at the Black Horse Pub in Park Slope for a drink and one more chance to see her before I head home.

The Black Horse

Then we walked over to Toby’s Public House for dinner. I didn’t realize that I’d been to Toby’s before until we got there. It’s where Tom and I had dinner in 2010.  The crazy bartender made amazing beef jerky.

Toby's Public House (and Tom) circa 2010.

Sarah and I enjoyed a couple margaritas and shared a great salad, pizza and some to-die-for roasted cauliflower. Then we had dessert—Sarah got the tiramisu and I ate some sort of chocolate and powdered sugar-covered apple tart that was literally the size of my arm.  

I think I'm fortunate the tequila & sugar coma didn't hit me on the walk home.