Saturday, March 2, 2013

WAKING IN NEW YORK CITY...

... to the sound of--not much traffic, on a Saturday morning.  We have rented a tiny utility apartment on West 85th Street.  Not grand, by any means, but clean and practical. And relatively quiet.  We're between Amsterdam and Broadway, and 85th is definitely not a busy cross street.

That dust-up, you'll be wondering, turned out to be a lot less difficult than what I had lost sleep imagining the previous night.  The agent I spoke to, in great ire, after discovering that our seat assignments had been changed, had consulted her map and found two seats together, aisle and middle, at the very back of the plane where the toilet queue lines up.  Booking two months earlier we had requested, and been assigned, bulkhead seats upfront in "Economy Plus."  (Plus what, I had inquired, at one point, snarkily?  There was no "Economy.")  Anyway, once I agreed somewhat reluctantly to the toilet seats, the agent came back at me with the information that she couldn't book them for me anyway: the seating was now under "airport control."  Oh, thanks.

The joys of airline travel!  But once we reached the United desk at LAX, all geared up for a fight to the death if necessary, the agent calmly looked us up and announced that we had, after all, been re-assigned and the together seats at the back of the plane were ours.  Oh, bliss!  He was also kind enough to check our bags without the $50 charge, by way of compensation for the inconvenience.  Very nice.  Good work, United.  But then... the audio and video system on the plane was totally kaput.  No in-flight music.  No movies.  We were to be left to our own devices for the entire flight--if you can imagine.  It was actually a quite pleasant, if bumpy ride.  A shared sandwich, pre-bought at La Brea Bakery at the airport.  A couple of New York Times crosswords, saved up from the hard days, and a paperback thriller later we were headed on down into JFK.  Touchdown was interesting.  What I suspect must have been a strong crosswind buffeted the aircraft this way and that on the runway, the pilot seeming to struggle to keep it on track.  But we made it to the unloading ramp okay; picked up our luggage from the carousel; and found a taxi to bring us into town.

It was still relatively early, L.A. time, so we made an expedition out to the local market to bring in a few breakfast supplies and a couple of other necessities, came home, and watched a bit of Leno and a bit of Letterman before hitting the sack.  This morning, Saturday, we laze awhile...

3 comments:

stuart said...

Waking up in Manhattan is very exciting, coffee, bialys, what to do first, I'm kind of envious, have fun.

Doctor Noe said...

My old stomping grounds, Peter. Used to live on 95th Amsterdam-Broadway. You are right down from the best "neighborhood markets" in the world. Zabar's, H&H Bagel, The New Yorker Theater,etc. to name a few.

My old friend Doug Garr and his lovely wife Meg Perlman ( whom you have met -- she a curator for the Matisse fam among others) are on 83rd and West End.

We will keep the beach warm for you in your absence.

Doctor Noe said...

You are right down the road from the best "local markets" in the world, Zabar's, H&H Bagels, even the New Yorker Theater, where I received my cineaste indoctrination.

My good friend Doug Garr and his lovely wife Meg Perlman-Garr (whom you have met, she a curator for the Matisse fam and others) live on West End at 83rd.

We will keep the beach warm for you in your absence.

Cheers.