heart smart

there are three days of the year when one should avoid restaurants at all cost...New Year's Eve...overbooked...that table next to you over inebriated...food...overcooked...Mother's Day...have you been to a diner on that Sunday morning?...there are probably more vasectomies scheduled that following week in May than the whole year...and yep...Valentine's Day...but there we were last night..with our 8:30 reservation at a local restaurant we hadn't been to in many years...as you New Yorkers know...it has not been much of a winter yet...(kind of dreading March thinking it will be a shit show)...but just in time for that day of hearts...well, the temperature matched the calendar...so we opened the door to the restaurant quickly to get out of the cold...and my heart dropped...so many people jammed around the teeny bar...we checked in and the hostess said..."it would be a little while"...I looked around and thought I would be collecting Social Security before our table would be ready...but it was 8:30 on Valentine's...so this was it...even with all that body heat...every time the front door opened for more people to jam into this place we were hit with that arctic blast..."would you like to check your coats?"...hell no!...the restaurant hired a singer/keyboard player for the evening...she wasn't bad...taking requests for couples' wedding songs as I played the game "don't get hit in the head with the drink tray"...after a few songs I began to realize what this felt like...it was "The Fabulous Baker Boys"...now, if this singer was Jeff Bridges circa 1988, I would have been a happy camper...or if she were Michelle Pfeiffer circa any year...ditto for Mike...by some miracle the hostess called our name only a few minutes past 8:30...we were unceremoniously seated at our table as the hostess turned her back to us and disappeared in the crowd...I ordered a drink...the staff was working so hard...the waiter was pleasant...and dinner not bad...the pinot softened hearing "Lady in Red"...again...dessert was sublime...and then it was late and time to bundle and head home...another Valentine's dinner done...I sighed...wonder what they'll have on the menu Mother's Day?

the parable of parallel parking

last week while leaving my Tuesday writers group, I joked with a friend about parallel parking...on Long Island we can joke about it...there aren't that many occasions out here, in strip mall heaven, to break out that oft dreaded driving test skill...or lack thereof...not like the years I lived in Queens...when you could spend the better part of your existence trying to fit a relatively normal sized car into a space suited for a Barbie jeep...all the while being honked and nearly side-swiped...and many people don't see it as a challenge...and just aggressively "love tap" the crap out of the cars bookending that sacred space...the rest of us...well, we keep circling...and circling...praying for that space...you know the one...it's really two and you pull right in... and you're done...and when I thought about it...parallel parking is kind of like life...those who take the challenges life can throw at us...and face them head on...and those that avoid them...pausing...thinking...maybe over thinking...those that need to "circle" and muster the skill and confidence...and then face the music...i keep thinking about most of us...we're just packing the roads...driving on fumes...passing those hard spaces...never hitting curbs...never failing...maybe never really living...now, I know you're probably talking back to this blog...yes, new car technology really can do almost everything for us...even park that damned car...and new advances in all other technology can practically take care of the rest...if you want to live life in grey...but maybe it's time to face that teeny space...hit the crap out of the curb till you get it right...take the spot not taken...you never know where it could lead you...