4 posts tagged “friends”

So last night, Rose had a birthday. And she had a gathering of friends - slash - party - slash - jaunt out to deepest Queens to the most amazing spa place in the world.

But before that, there was pie.

A whole group of us got together at Grand Central Terminal for dinner, and in the lower depths of the facility there is this food court, and in the food court is a place that makes pies and cakes. Josh and I spied the pie and mulled over whether key lime or mud was the better option and of course went with key lime.

Over dinner, as the pie sat between us at the table, Josh noted that we should eat it on the subway. "Train pie!" either he or Rose cried, and so train pie was born.

Look, if Improv Everywhere can take off their pants on the subway, we can all share a pie. It was very communal, as well as being very yummy.

But all of this was mere prelude to the evening, and why we were on the subway in the first place: We were taking the 7 train to the Q25 so that we could disembark and walk into the formerly named InSpa World -- now called Spa Castle, clearly after the many whirlpools and hot tubs available back in medieval times.

It might sound a little dodgy, but this brand-spanking-new building looks like a 5-star hotel. You walk in, fork over $35 and can stay all day (we were just going for about four hours, until midnight). You get a uniform of unfortunate pink and orange if you're a woman (gray and blue for the menfolks) in the locker room, and a wristband that resembles a watch with a number on it (and an RIFD chip to access your locker). You leave everything but your bathing suit and the uniform in your locker, including shoes, and the place is yours. Anything else you buy -- from massages to scrubs to slushies -- gets rung up on your number and you check out later and settle the bill.

We hit the pools. You have to hit the pools. On the roof of the building are these large, elongated outdoor swimming pools with spray jets and massage hoses and a little flume area that makes you feel like you're rushing down a river, there's a hot tub alongside the main pool, there's a hotter hot tub on the far end made of cedar (aka "the lobster pot"), there's a kiddie pool (no funny animals, just a lovely shallow reflecting pool), there's a sauna. There's a food area, and a place where you can buy whipped or fruity drinks and drink them while still inside the pool.You can sign up for massages but by the time we got there they were all full up so I can't report on that.

Inside the locker rooms there are mineral (allegedly) baths if you don't mind getting nekkid in front of everyone else -- these went from 102 degrees to 109 and let me tell you, those 7 degrees do make a difference; there are also two "cool water" pools of 77 ... and 54. You go get in the 54 degree pool and tell me if you don't feel it for the next hour. There are steam rooms and more saunas (I don't know why I love a steam room, but it's 133 degrees and you can barely breathe and I can only stay for about 5 minutes but there's something glorious about it. You activate a lot of the jets and such by touching a little pad in or near the pool area; there was a similar pad between the steam and sauna rooms so like a moron I touched it and -- got drenched in cool water by a shower head I hadn't even seen right above me.

By the end of the night prunes and raisins had nothing on us for wrinkles, and we were tired but happy as if we'd done some kind of major workout. I am absolutely, totally going back there again. Sooner rather than later.

Thanks, Rose!

Oh, my! Can it be done? Tune in and see....

So: Yikes. December happened, and it wasn't blogged. Whatever shall we do?

Move on. Today, Cameron and I did one of the few remaining things I haven't done in ten years in New York City -- went and sat on Santa's lap in Macy's. We're both suffused with David Sedaris and his marvelous tales of being a Macy's Santa elf (we even did the Billie Holiday "Little Drummer Boy" while in line, and if you don't know what that means go get "Holidays on Ice" by Mr. S now, now now -- or even better, listen to it).

"I love it when the big kids come to see Santa!" said the elf outside Santa's door. There are four santa houses. Without prompting, the elf told us the others were holograms. That this was the real Santa. And this Santa did have a kick-ass outfit, with bells on lederhosen-like straps and everything. He asked us to leave him cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer.

"What about a shot of whiskey?" I asked.

"Not until the 26th," he told me.

I just asked for a ticket to L.A., but Cameron wanted a duplex on the Upper East Side. Clearly, she's got her priorities in order.

Earlier in the month there was the Maryland Tour of Aught-Six.

Went down to Maryland to catch up with various best friends; started off with Lynda here. She showed me around her Hampden neighborhood, which is just adorable and fun. She knows everyone! Waves to people on the street! Is friends with the proprietors! (Proprietoresses, really, if that's a word!) We shopped, we went to Faidley's for crab cakes, I got all tense thinking I'd miss my train, and then didn't. In fewer than 24 hours she even managed to take me to a birthday party where I recognized the former girlfriend of a college friend who got weird on all of us one year. Neither of us have seen him in forever. Byron Cruz Navarro, radio in!

Is this the most beautiful girlchild you've seen in your life? On the right, folks. (Well, except yourself and the ones you're related to, we'll give you those.) I thought so.

Took the train down to D.C. and Metroed it up to hang with Alexis and Jerry and their lovely progeny. I've known the two of them since we were in high school, they've known each other since they were in high school, and I have the notes to prove it. Alexis and her eldest daughter Katie came up to visit me in May, so it hasn't been as long a drought as it was with Lynda, but I hadn't seen her other kids -- Emily and Peter -- in forever, and it's scary how fast they grow. And a cliche. Yet true. Peter showed me his room and his light sabers and we played "try to hit Peter with the light saber only not really because he has Ninja Force Field," and Emily showed me her room with her cluttered desk which is how she likes it and her "too many books" in the closet and when we went to play ball it turned out she likes to have an overhand pitch, and I'm used to underhand and this turned her off pretty quick. It kind of went around that speed, too. Katie was at the movies with some friends.

We did Hanukkah, which required me as an unclear Jew to go on the Internet and download all of the information they might ask, like what the point of it was and what the word meant and all that. Of course, no one asked but they did give the blessing a go, and then we painted dreidels (Alexis is Mrs. Crafty) and ate gelt.

And then came the greatest and worst part of the evening: We went downstairs and, following a game of Wii Bowling (eh) they showed me Guitar Hero II. I gave "Message in a Bottle" a shot on slow speed and every time I botched it I kept expecting Sting to slap me in the head. But then I got up to full speed and made an avatar (Pandora) and created a band name (Squalid) and began the rocking out. When my hands hurt I turned it over to the experts -- Katie and Jerry -- and officially announced that I hated them for turning me on to a new addiction. I now have to get a PS2, which sucks. I wanna rock.

Next day we met up with yet another shiny delightful old friend, Rebecca, and her beautiful progeny (and slightly cranky husband Paul). We bonded during a Jewish group convention in Ocean City the weekend Friday Night Videos premiered "Thriller." I know this because she had a crush on Michael Jackson at the time and we had to break away from the party to run up to the premiere. It was important. Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything.

We all met up at this tremendous jungle-gym type place and the kids ran around and got nutty and Ethan (Rebecca's) got almost stepped on as witnessed below. But mostly he was this complete daredevil running around and asking to be swung higher and higher and climbing up to heaven and sliding down the tube-like winding slides with abandon. He's amazing.

The rest of the Maryland tour involved a few hours with Becca just catching up, and then a night of latkes at my godmother Suzanne's place, and then a long bus ride back to the big city. Being in Maryland is a strange thing now, since my immediately family all vacated last December for that Texas place they now live in. Maryland now has to be a place to visit, forever and ever anon.

But it does have its attractions.