Autumn is here! (A short post)

 

The other night, as I was coming home on the second to last train of the night, I noticed one of the signs of autumn - frost on the windshield of my car.  Although I will still have need of my summer clothes on my upcoming cruise, most of them can now be safely put into storage containers for a few months.

Soon, New York City's fanciest stores will have their holiday displays in their storefront windows, and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade will march through Midtown Manhattan.  It will be one of the best times to visit this city - if one's flights aren't cancelled and if one can afford the nightly rates at a Midtown Hotel. As for me, someone who lives near the city, I will avoid the tourist districts like the plague, as it's the time for pickpockets to collect easy money.  For others, it will be the Christmas Shoplifting Season.  Yes, I am a New York City cynic.  But it is the right of every New Yorker to trash their home city - if only to discourage visitors from coming and allow leaving the room for locals to enjoy their city as well.

Ask any New Yorker, and you find that most have a love/hate relationship with their city.  For me, it's a place that my rights as a TG person are respected, not denied.  It is a city where most people feel free to live the lives that they choose, and not have their lives imposed on them by a dysfunctional culture.  It's a city that seems to be the center of everything - if you can't find something here, it probably doesn't exist. 

Yes, New York has it's problems.  We have the crime rate expected in a typical American city.  Yet, young people have always flocked to it because it is the home of great opportunities.  From its beginning, New York's focus has always been a place where "money talks, and shit walks."  When Christian settlers complained about Jews in their then remote outpost of the Dutch, the Dutch West India Company didn't care - they wanted the then Niew Amsterdam to have its focus on making money  Both tolerance for "the other" and a focus on making money is the foundation of New York's culture and will always be the case.

So, why is Autumn so important in New York?

The answer is simple: New York is a place of constant change.  New Yorkers are reminded of this change when the leaves fall, when the storefronts change, and when the tourists come back to enjoy the city.  From Thanksgiving to New Year, we will be flooded by tourists. And I'm glad this is as much a constant as the swallows coming back to Capistrano each year.  

Not Ready for Prime Time (Again)

 

This afternoon, I treated RQS to an afternoon performance of "Not Ready For Prime Time."  It was the second time I would be seeing this play, and it would be worth the effort I made to see it again.

But first...

Late last night, I saw that they opened up the rush tickets for this play a little early.  So I booked front row tickets for RQS and myself at rush ticket prices around midnight, and left a message for RQS that I had tickets in hand.

The next morning (today), I took my time in starting to move and missed both trains into the city that I wanted to catch.  Luckily, there was one more train that I could catch to get me to the theater on time. However, I ended up parking at the far end of the parking lot, as none of the "midday spots" (as I call spots that open up when people return from the city after the morning's commuter rush) had yet opened up near the parking pay station.  From the get-go, I knew that I'd get in my 2+ miles of walking today.

The train got into Grand Central at 1:45.  After taking the shuttle to Times Square, and then the local to 50th Street, I still had over 1/2 mile to walk before I got to the theater. I was lucky to get there by 2:15, and I found RQS waiting for me having arrived 10 minutes earlier.  (She took an Uber to get across town, avoiding a lot of the walking I had decided to do.)  Once seated, we both enjoyed the play.  At the end of the play, one of the actors prompted RQS to get out of her seat and dance - too bad I couldn't get a picture of that for her.  She felt that it was well worth the effort to get to see this play, and I felt it was well worth seeing it a second time.

When the play let out, we took a taxi back to Grand Central and caught the next train back to Croton. Exactly 7 hours after I parked the car, I was turning on the ignition so we could go home.  It was a good, but mildly expensive day out.

Happy Birthday! (A short post)

 

It seems as if a lot of people "Got it on" in February, given how many birthdays there are this month.  First, we celebrated the birthday of a Meetup sponsor, followed by TCL's birthday a week later, and FCP's birthday a week after that.  In a way, it's a good thing we get the chance to take another trip around the sun. But I'll bet there are some people who'd still say: "Been there, done that."

So, I won't dwell on birthdays.  Instead of that, I'll describe the meetup I went to tonight.... 

The focus of tonight's meetup dinner was to celebrate the birthday of the meetup group's organizer, albeit a little late.  Unusual for me, I started getting ready to go out around 5 pm, and had myself made up and in a dress before 6 pm, and made it to the restaurant by 7, parking right in front of the restaurant.  I was the first person there, and the rest of our group of 20 trickled in over the next 30 minutes.

Service was very slow, and it was getting close to 8:30 by the time our orders were taken.  (Most of us ordered from the Restaurant Week menu.)   While waiting, I chatted with the woman across from me, a friendly person I've had the pleasure to be with at other meetups.  She mentioned my blog, and asked for advice about going to Hawaii for a cruise.  I gave her some information, and sent her links to 2 Hawaii Cruise articles I posted in my other blog.  By the time our dinner came, and then dessert, it was pushing 10 pm.  By now, I was getting disturbed at the wait staff, as they handed out bills to half of us, and left my group waiting.  After 10 minutes, I went up to the station and complained a little - and then our bills were finally presented to us.  

I'm not going to say that the wait staff ruined dinner.  Far from it!  But they did detract from the experience, as some of us (like me) had to leave a little earlier than others.  But I was able to get out of there by 10:20, and was able to chat with RQS for the entire ride home.  By 11 pm, I was glad to be home, as I couldn't wait to strip off my dress, remove my bra, and get into something something comfortable - just like most cisgender women my age would do. 

 

Socialism, Si! Fascism, No!

 

The above is an image of New York City's next mayor.  An avowed Democratic Socialist, Zohran Mamdani has defeated a GOP candidate without elected experience and two disgraced Democrats in an election closely monitored by the White House.  In California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City, the Orange Snowflake was very disappointed by the seemingly leftward shift in public opinion.  Collectively, the public is waking up and telling the snowflake to go F--k himself and the horse he came in on.

Years ago, a great American offered these quotes, illustrating his political philosophy:

1. On liberty and extremism: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"

2. On government and freedom: "I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them."

3. On government power: "The government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away."

4. On choice: "I will offer a choice, not an echo."

5. On political strategy: "The only summit meeting that can succeed is the one that does not take place."

6. On the role of religion: "Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy."

7. On monopolies: "Let us henceforth make war on all monopolies—whether corporate or union. The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power..." 

Although Barry Goldwater was considered a right wing radical in his time, he would be considered a moderate by today's standards. I feel this man had a more nuanced and balanced view of things than for which people would give him credit.  He understood the balance and tension between individual and societal rights. He understood that the power of government, business, and labor must be balanced. And he understood that no religious faction should be allowed enough power to dictate its will on the majority of American citizens.

I'd bet that Goldwater would have a smile on his face, seeing American democracy work to check and balance the power of the lunatics now in charge of the GOP.  Yet, he'd also worry about socialist political promises that get fulfilled, as well as those that can't be fulfilled.  Historians may see Goldwater as the man who triggered the GOP's shift to the far right.  I see him more in line with people like Rand Paul, someone who believes in limiting over consolidation power in some areas that affect the public.  

Do I agree with the late Barry Goldwater and his ideas?  That's not the best way to put the question.  Instead, I'd ask: Did Barry Goldwater see problems with America which could not be solved, even with an imperial presidency?  I'd say yes to that question, and that he recognized the dangers in over consolidating power in any one area.  We could do much worse than looking back a generation or two and see what they thought about problems similar to those we have now, and learn from their mistakes and their trade-offs.  

As they say: "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." 

Going into the city for a movie

 

Even though RQS went home yesterday, our plans were to meet today in Midtown, NYC to have dinner and see a preview of a movie that won't be in wide scale release for another 2 weeks.  So, while RQS took care of her tasks, I took care of clarifying the logon to a cruise line's site and paying off a cruise on a different line we'll take next year.

RQS doesn't know that I've been thinking of giving her a cruise for Christmas (to be taken later on), as well as some other gifts she can open after Santa goes back up the chimney.   It's not something I'd consider doing all the time, but she is a good woman and I want to show her that I appreciate her in my life.  I'll have to figure out a way for me to pay for the cruise AND have all of her information in the reservation without her knowing.

- - - - - -

Around 5:00, I drove to Croton-Harmon, paid for parking, then got on the train to NYC.  Although it was a local, I had more than enough time to both make a subway connection and then walk to the restaurant where RQS was meeting me.  Darbar is a cozy Indian restaurant on 55th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues.  Although the prices seemed a little steep by the standards of places I eat at (they had a $60 Prix-fixe dinner menu, as well as a good al-a-carte menu), it was well worth the money.  By the time we finished dinner, we had 45 minutes to make it to the theater for "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery."  

Although the new Knives Out movie is a preview of what is being released at month-end, we figured that it would be a great thing to go into NYC on a weeknight for something special.  One problem - we got there at 9:00 for a 9:30 showing, and there was nowhere to sit and wait.  My back was killing me for the next 35 minutes or so, as they were running late.  (There was a Q&A session with the director after the film.) So, it wasn't until 10:00 until the film started, and it lasted until after midnight.  (Go see this film! It starts slowly, as it has to introduce all the main characters.  But once it gets moving, it is a fun comedy wrapped inside a mystery movie.)  I won't spoil the movie for you, but I was able to guess who did it based on the actor's performance.

We left the theater at midnight and hailed a cab - first to drop me off at Grand Central, and then to bring RQS home safely.  She was home much earlier than I was, but spent more on the ride that brought her home.  As for me, I didn't get home until after 2:00 am - and was still awake 2 hours later. 

 

 

Another weekend with RQS

 

We awoke on Saturday morning, and decided to relax for most of the day.  It was a nothing burger of a day, I don't have much to say about it.  So I'll skip it and move on to Sunday.  I had two things on the docket for the day: (1) Church for the first time in months, and (2) Dinner with Vicki at Benjamin Steakhouse.  And this had me get dressed up in the morning, stripping off my clothes for the better part of the day, and then getting dressed again for dinner.

- - - - - -

I awoke early and proceeded to rest a little before getting dressed.  Going back and forth into the bedroom, I tried not to make noise, so that RQS could continue to sleep.  Around 10 am, I went to Dunkin Donuts for some coffee and a donut, and I was off to church.  What can one say about going to church.  It is a communal feeling, where one feels more connected to people and one's better self.  It was nice to be there, but I left before after-mass coffee, so that I could get back to RQS.

Stopping at the supermarket at the bottom of the hill, I bought some cream cheese so that RQS would have something to smear on her bagel. When I got in the door, RQS was already in the living room watching YouTube videos.  But she got up to toast our bagels, and we both had something to eat before taking an afternoon break.

Around 5 pm, we both got ready for dinner.  I put on the same dress I was wearing for church, while RQS was in the shower, and then we both made ourselves up for dinner.  At 6 pm, we drove to Vicki's, and then proceeded to the steakhouse.  Arriving at the steakhouse, they tried seating us near a fireplace.  I asked the hostess to seat us somewhere else, as I didn't want the heat making me uncomfortable.  (RQS later agreed with me later on - it was way too warm in that corner of the room.)  So, we ended up being seated in a far corner of the room, but could barely hear each other speak over the noise of the room.  Shortly afterward, our orders were taken, and we proceeded to feast on our steaks.  YUM!  The $45 restaurant week dinner menu wasn't bad.  But Vicki ordered an $80 bottle of wine, not realizing that I've cut back on my drinking after my doctor asked me to stop to see if certain blood levels were affected by the medicines I've been taking or by my alcohol consumption. Although the meal was good, I could have easily skipped having a half glass of wine that added $55 or so to what I was paying for dinner for RQS and myself.  

Around 9 pm, we were on our way home with leftovers.  Vicki was coming to a home that just had power restored.  (Last week's storm killed her power lines for 2 days, and she was living in darkness since then.) We came home to a warm apartment, and were both glad to strip off our clothes and relax.

I finally got my nails done!

 

I finally had the chance to get my nails done.  It's something I've wanted to do for several weeks, but the need to go out as Mario has gotten in the way.  Seeing my brother, having a doctor's appointment, and having to go to the bank for the co-op has all made it impossible for me to have at least 7 days (or more) in female mode.  As a result, it didn't make sense to have polished nails.

RQS was scheduled to arrive in Croton at 5 pm.  So I had just enough time after I got dressed to get my nails done, have a little snack and get to the station.  When I arrived at the nail salon, they knew me enough to ask whether I was there for a mani-pedi or just a manicure.  Since I was there for just a manicure, I sat down at the manicure station and proceeded to have my nails done.  While there I struck up a conversation with a recently widowed woman, and got into talking about cruising and the lines we preferred.  (Later, I mentioned to RQS that I wish I could have befriended this woman as Marian.  But this was not likely, as this woman was visiting family in Croton, but lives on Long Island - a very inconvenient place for me to visit.)

Once my nails were done, I had time to kill.  So I filled up the car, then drove to the station to relax until RQS arrived.  She didn't see me at first, but after a few honks, she saw me and my car, and we were off to have dinner.  The first stop was at the new Thai restaurant in town.  They couldn't accommodate us until 8:30, so we drove to a Mexican restaurant nearby.  I had the paella, while RQS had some tacos.  Both were yummy.  But my dish had enough food in it to feed two people  So I had leftovers to eat sometime over the next day or two.

And then it was time to go home....