Friday, June 17, 2011

TangoMoose.2 - Still No Zeppelin Ride


Team TangoMoose arrived in good order... and definitely is not in Maine anymore.

I've read that you can walk off a plane and the sheer physicality of a place can hit you like a sledge - you become viscerally aware that you're in a different location.

Same here - Jim C. is most aware of it. The pressure of voices is greater - I have to shield myself more to not follow conversations (though I got good fast). The limo ride into CN's apartment also gave us proof - both the constipation of the traffic crossing the bridges and the lack of constipation of a man relieving himself (number 2, no less) right on the curb. At least both people and dogs are curbed here.

No, not in Maine.

Couldn't reach my camera - and yes, the thought did cross my mind. Sometimes untended baggage is not a bad thing.

The apartment was very spare - smaller than mine at home, actually - but cozy. Jim C. agreed to change out a couple of light fixtures in the ceiling so we went out to a local hardware store (thank you, Map App) to get the necessary.

There was a Russian Doorman - and there the intrigue started. There is a lady who lives there who is in charge of maintaining the good order of the building and she is very sensitive when rooms are "informally sublet" even for a weekend.

So we all had to pile in and out of the place so fast that the Russian Doorman couldn't tell if CN was "with" me - or Jim C. - or Both. At all costs he couldn't get the impression that Jim C. and I were "with" each other or the "good order Police" would rumble the game.

On the way I noticed a bistro, Italian - the Chelsea Ristorante. We had dinner - some of the best bolognese sauce I've had in a long time - and Jim C. returned to change the chandelier - a one-person job - and I found a Starbucks to check my email.

CN began to rethink the complexity of the plan - also the Russian Doorman would not be on duty all weekend and each entry/exit of the place was a chance for the whole wicked scheme to fall apart. Fun but risky.

So we switched. Jim C. and I are sharing a bed - a large bed - at the Standard hotel (more in the next post) and CN took the apartment. I bought a huge bouquet of flowers to brighten the place and took my camera up to the penthouse roof - the 11th floor of the building.

Technically it was open only to residents but no one seemed to be checking ID's so I got some lovely pics. Gallery is here.

The move happened at 8 - had we turned down one block earlier we might have walked right into this Apple store but we came down 13th. Noticed a barber shop and I think I'll have a shave there - the ladies are spending most of the rest of the day getting ready for this "event' (I found an iron and ironing board and set to work this morning) so it behooves me to get a decent shave.

So here I am at an Apple store in New York, getting ready to chase down a fez. I'm intensely curious to find out what's going to happen next ...

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