I didn't get no premium candy....

 

OK, you'll have to pardon me for my terrible grammar in this entry's title.  But I had to make a mention of my recent visit to Economy Candy, and I wanted to catch your attention....

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RQS and I had planned to go into NYC today.  Sadly, it looked like rain, and we didn't want to risk going to the Nom Wah Tea Parlor and getting caught in the rain going back to the subway station on the way home.  So we ended up deciding to go to Katz's Deli for a nice pastrami sandwich and looking for something else to do while in Manhattan.

We decided to take the M train into Manhattan, as its last stop was at the one train station we would have normally used to go to Katz's.  (The M train terminates at Essex Street on weekends, and this complicates weekend subway travel a little.)  Across from the two of us were two young women, and both of us were saying that they were cute. Given the usual characteristics of a subway rider, it was nice to see two young people enjoying themselves as if they didn't have a care in the world.

Upon arrival at Essex Street, we climbed up several levels of stairs to reach the street.  RQS commented that this station is hell for a visually impaired person due to its complexity - and I found that easy to understand.  This is a major interchange station which is not well adapted for the needs of the handicapped.  Thankfully, both of us were in good enough shape to climb the stairs and then walk to the new site of the Essex Street Market.

Having visited the old Essex Street Market once, I found that the new market was much more inviting than the old one.  However, both of us were shocked by some of the prices being charged for meats, fish and cheese.  Yet, if I lived nearby, I'd shop here now and then, as all of the expensive goodies were of top notch quality.

Once done with the market, it was off to Katz's.  We didn't plan it, but we stumbled into Economy Candy just before it closed.  Although we were interested in candy, neither of us succumbed to temptation.  We both knew that we'd soon be at Katz's, and that a Pastrami Sandwich would be waiting for us.  The candy was tempting us, especially the almond butter crunch pieces.  (I used to love Loft's version of these treats, and could easily finish off a whole box of 12 or 16 when I was young.)  However, at $22/lb. I was not going to spend my money on candy when I could get a tasty and humongous Pastrami sandwich for the same price.

Finally, it was off to Katz's.  I'm sure that most of my readers do not know this, but one has to take a ticket upon entering the place.  One needs this ticket to exit, as it tells the cashier how much food you consumed, and how much you have to pay for that food.  Instead of getting our tickets and finding an available seat before going to the counter to get our food, we decided on going to the back for waiter service.  This was the best decision we could have made.  Although the waiter didn't seem to pick up on our order (he didn't bother writing down our order, nor was he giving us his full attention), he got everything right and had it on our table quicker than expected.  The man was simply very good at his job, and had no need for pleasantries - a pure professional.  

This is what we got for our meal.  We shared a giant pastrami sandwich, and I still had leftovers for the next day.  The only thing I felt lacking (and this was no fault of the restaurant) was that the split pea soup was missing something - ham flavor.  (This can not be expected in a Jewish style deli.)  So, I added a little salt, and most of my concerns were addressed about the soup.  As expected, the pastrami was top notch, and we'll be here sooner, rather than later.

All too soon, the day had to end.  So it was a trip back home with sunset views across the East River....

Missing a play

 

Casual readers of this blog know that I love to attend theater performances, especially when in Marian Mode.  Last night, I was scheduled to see a performance of an Off-Broadway play and missed it due to subway maintenance.

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A while back, Vicki said that she was going to get her hair colored and trimmed.  Since she was going to be out of the house, I suggested we get together for lunch - which we did.  The one thing she wasn't expecting in her conscious mind was to see me in Mario mode.  But then, she wasn't connecting the dots between us getting together and RQS and I getting together.  However, she realized which mode I was traveling in today, and we had lunch a few minutes later than planned.

After lunch, I drove to RQS's place, where I had to hunt about 15-20 minutes to find a parking spot near her house.  We killed a little time before leaving the house.  However, we made one mistake - we ate dinner in Queens instead of Manhattan.   Had we done this, we'd have made the theater on time because we could have taken alternate routes into the city.  But I digress.  Once we finished dinner, we dropped off her leftovers at her apartment, and then headed to the subway.  Sadly, the train we needed wasn't running, and it didn't make sense for use to hoof it into Manhattan to do anything else.

When I left RQS's place, I made a quick run to Wegmans to pick up some lunches for the rest of the week, and then home to relax....

The Subway and the Mattress

 

Today was a day I almost wasted.  Like yesterday, I didn't have much energy.  Unlike yesterday, I knew that I had to get out of the apartment to do some shopping for the week.  However, with that as an excuse, I was motivated to get up to test a mattress I'm thinking of buying.

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Normally, I'd take Metro North into NYC, then take a bus (or subway) to the area of the mattress store and hoof it from there.  However, I had other transit plans for the day. Since I knew I'd have problems with an out of date Metrocard (see above), I decided to go to the subway station nearest Ex-GF-M's house and see if I could get help transferring the balance from one card to a new one.  The older card (expiring during the worse of the pandemic) has to be mailed into the MTA for a refund.  But at least, I should get some money back.  The newer card hadn't yet expired, so I exchanged it for a new card and added some money to it.

Once on the subway, I knew that it would be a 1 hour trip into midtown.  Luckily, the saatva.com studio was only a short walk away.  After trying out their "HD" mattress for size (it's designed for heavy folk like me), I was close to making the decision to buy the mattress then and there.  But I figure that I can wait until tomorrow, and be sure that I'm doing the right thing.

Next, I went home, buying some lunches for the coming week.  I decided to cancel a few meetup RSVPs, so that I can spend more time at home - and maybe clean up my apartment with some of the time I freed up.

Jury Duty - Deferral Requested

This is what a SDNY (Southern District of New York) Federal Jury Duty summons looks like.  The bottom part of the form has been cropped, so that my private information isn't made public.  This will be the second time I'm asking for a deferral, and I need it for two reasons: (1) I expect that we'll be very busy at the office dealing with headaches from a new customer. (2) I don't want to travel to Lower Manhattan during the summer on potentially overcrowded subway cars on the Lexington Avenue line.

Travel to this courthouse takes me about 2 hours.  If I find it hard enough to get up by 6 am to be at work at 8, imagine how much of a pain in the ass it will be for me to get up by 5:30, to be in court by 8:30.  People from Northern Westchester are expected to go downtown, while people North of me are allowed to go to White Plains.  This is not fair.  But we are stuck with a system that is geared to impose hardships on the jurors, and make it easy for every other stake holder involved in court cases.  No wonder why people try so hard to get out of jury duty.

The last two times I went to this courthouse for jury duty, I "served" by being available for a grand jury, but not being picked.  (I like to imagine that this grand jury may have been investigating some of Trump & associates' crimes.)  Last time, it was just before the pandemic struck.  And I wasn't going to give up $194/day (before taxes) to get a measly $50/day plus a 4 hour round trip commute.  So I asked for a deferral, and the pandemic gave me a year's reprieve.  Now, I am asking for a short deferment, so that my service can be scheduled for cooler months.  At that time, I will go into serve (dressed as Marian), and get this duty over and done with.  Since a winter jury duty service will excuse me from being called for 4 years, I figure that with the right use of deferment requests, that I might reach 70 years of age before I get a "Must Serve" request.  And if that's the case, I will have successfully avoided service at this god-awful location.

Thinking about going to a museum.

 

 

The above picture does not do this piece of art justice.  The Dinner Party (by Judy Chicago) is best viewed in person at the Brooklyn Museum.  Like most great works of art, it is best appreciated close up and in-person with appropriate attention being given to the details which are not put into perspective in photographic reproductions.

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I miss going into NYC to meet up with my niece and to go to a museum.  She is now locked down in London, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  As soon as things open up for her, she will do the equivalent of going to a "marriage mill" in our country, and get the legal procedure done that will allow her fiancee and her to live as man and wife.  But I digress....

Recently, I talked with a NYC resident, and she told me of the relative desertion of the NYC subway system.  She implied that it is much more comfortable to travel in the subway during the pandemic than it was before the pandemic - enough people have abandoned mass transit to allow many people to maintain appropriate social distancing underground.

Given that my vaccination priority is about to be called soon, I figure that it would be a stupid thing for me to catch the virus by letting down my guard, than if I stayed in my bubble for 2-3 months more.  But who knows?  There is a certain craving that can't be satisfied by staying alone in my room.  And sometimes, I feel it's worth the risk to start living my life again.

Knowing me, I probably won't go into NYC on my own, as I don't want to pay the price to park my car in Manhattan.  Could it be that my general frugality has been a reason I'm still alive? That would be an interesting thought....

A recent trip into NYC for dinner.

Scheduling a dinner with a friend is not always the easiest thing to do. The other day, I finally was able to meet Sarah in Chinatown for dinner.  We've met before, and it was nice to see her again.

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As you can tell, Sarah is a bit tall for a woman.  If I'm 5'10" or so, then she stands at least an inch or two above me. We certainly look like "Mutt and Jeff" in this picture, with me being the homely woman.  But that's because I have a lot of fat in the wrong places, and that I have yet to go on hormones.

Trekking into Chinatown is not the easiest thing to do.  This area of NYC is not served well by mass transit, as the subway lines stop about 1/2 mile away from any of the good restaurants. On a weekday, or if the sun was out, I'd consider getting off at the Brooklyn Bridge station on the IRT, then walk the "maze" passing by the city office building, the police headquarters, a church, and the federal courthouse over to Chinatown.  This path becomes desolated at off hours, and at these times, I prefer to walk along Canal Street because there are people on the street at all hours of the day.  At least, I get a mile or two of walking in whenever I go to Chinatown to eat.

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One of the things a person might not expect about the TG community is that not all of us are Liberals.  There are some of us who are much more conservative than I am, and that's because they do not live in a Liberal News bubble.  (I try to read information from both sides of the current political debate, but I draw the line at misleading reactionary opinions coming from the right.)  As much as I despise our current president, I can respect those people who tolerate him for extending the economic recovery, or those people who wanted a monkey wrench thrown into the political system.  I can even respect those people in the hinterlands, the mill towns where the mills have closed, who feel that the urban liberal elites have abandoned them.  But what offends me is willful ignorance, a belief in the propaganda being spewed by the likes of "Fox News" that they echo as if they were the daily orations of 1984's "Big Brother".  The longer I participate in maintaining contact with TG's of all political positions, the more I'm convinced that just as many of us TG's are making the same mistakes that the larger society makes as a whole - the mistakes which cause us to support our political tribes, even when their actions hurt us as individuals.

Why do I mention this?

Sarah and I come from different backgrounds and have different values.  And yet, we are able to have pleasant and intelligent conversations.  We listen to each other, no matter how much noise is in the background (as there was in the Chinese restaurant we ate at the other day.)  All too many of us look at each other as the enemy, and we don't make the effort to be civil any more.  Yes, I am guilty of this when I lay awake, alone in my room.  But in public, I try to make that effort to be as civil as possible - it's the best way of having a chance of helping another person's opinions to change in and of his/her own volition.