The Flip Medley

Okay, so the first posting pretty much covered Saturday… with the exclusion of finally forcing Karen to see “Love & Sex” because Yan and I decided a long time ago that she reminded us of “Horse-Face” (Famke Jannsen).

I decided, before crashing out, that I would try to stick to three resolutions:

1) Go running and try to do better than my pathetic, wheezing attempt around the reservoir in Central Park back in May

2) Balance out this bizarre “farmer’s tan” I’ve got from driving around in a convertible

3) Get home early so I could be well-rested for Monday morning.

Sunday morning began with a phone call from Yan telling me that she was working on a movie with Eddie Murphy. To be more precise, that she was doing extra work, and on set for a movie called “Starship Dave” starring Eddie Murphy.

But… before I could go play paparazzi, I had to go running and get some food in me.

The running part was pretty good — I did a mile along the Hudson, then walked a bit, then ran some more. I probably did only a mile and a half (Scratch resolution #1… I was hoping to do about three miles), but I was happy to slowly work on running outdoors. I’m trying to crank up my hiking (Hey Sushma!) & running skills because, while I’m killer on the machines, I need to develop some “real-world” athleticism.

That said, I didn’t run shirtless (which is good — I didn’t wanna scare the delicate people of New York), so the tan got worse (Scratch resolution #2).

Karen, of course, ran like a gazelle… One day, I’m hoping to be able to keep up with her.

Afterwards, we wandered over to 61st & Broadway to try to catch a glimpse of Yan on set, and we were successful at playing “celebrity stalker” — case in point, check out this video captured of Eddie Murphy (in the white suit, mostly obscured) acting out a scene, and then you’ll see me track Yan walking by….

As the day wound up, I spent waaaaaaaay too much time goofing around with Yan & Sean at their place, watching some Discovery channel special on the dating process for Dinka tribesmen.

After that, Karen pimped hard to get me hooked on “Hitch,” which was surprisingly entertaining and not quite as fluffy as I expected it to be. Granted, it’s no “Swingers,”, but it was a fun romp. I enjoyed it enough to delay my train ride back… which meant that I wound up getting home around 1:00am on Monday. I guess that was her revenge for getting her hooked on a movie the night before… so there went resolution #3.

0 for 3, but damn it was fun while it lasted!

Two of my best friends, Yan and Karen, live in New York City.

This sucks for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that they are a perennial source of humorous moments. You have to realize that I can have entire conversations with Yan that go something like this:

Flip: “Hey Yan, what’s up?”
Yan: “Why are you annooooooissssing me!”
Flip: “Shut it! You’re a toilet bowl head!”
Yan: “YOU’RE A TOILET BOWL HEAD!”
Flip: “I’m going to spank you…”
Yan: “Ooooh, I would like that!”
Flip: “I have to fart.”
Yan: “No! Not here! It’ll get in to my hair! Go somewhere else! You are so gross!”

(that conversation is even funnier when you realize that we may be on the phone)

Karen is a bit less likely to descend to the same depths as Yan, despite the fact that everyone likes to bug her by touching her boobs. Granted, when I say everyone, that means everyone except me. In fact, when I say everyone, it really means Yan and Sean, who enjoy stepping over the fence around everyone’s personal space to try to touch their naughty bits.

(They’ve gotten me so inured to having my ass felt up that I don’t even register it anymore… So go ahead, cop a feel… whatever…)

That said, Karen is silly. I’m talking sock puppet silly. She also does funny voices, including one that sounds like a member of the Monty Python troupe doing an impersonation of an old woman. And she also has her own patented “Smurf-Dance” (which is not like the “real” Smurf Dance… this one is like someone doing a Riverdance while high on crack).

All of this is to offer up some background as to why I meander in to New York City as much as possible to see my buddies.

Friday night began with me catching a train from Boston down to New York’s Penn Station.

Beautiful sunset, and I felt like the bridge and water made for a beautiful moment…

Once I got in to New York City, Karen hooked me up with a place to stay. Given that I got in late and had survived a full workday, we decided to chow down on chocolate cake & vanilla yogurt while catching up… and then I forced Karen to sit through a bit of Henry Rollins’ “Uncut from NYC” where he ranted about his trek on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Afterwards, we decided we were going to crash out and try to go running in the morning.

Yeah, right…

The next day began with pain — to be more precise a Vornado blasting cold air at my testicles as I tried to walk past it to get to the bathroom for my morning constitutional. My dog-like whimpering didn’t rouse Karen, so that was a good thing… I wouldn’t want to have her inconvenienced by the trauma inflicted to my body that had me simultaneously wanting to collapse in a heap on to the floor while trying to hold back the tears from the impact with the door.

Things did get better from there, though… we wound up heading down to South Seaport area, snarfing up tickets for “Phantom of the Opera” and hanging about for a bit…

Karen getting ready to go to South Seaport…

In front of the ticket booth with some friends

Once we snarfed up the tickets, we bounced around a bit, snapping photos and generally just chilling & relaxing while trying to sync up with Yan and her husband, Sean.

We like sharks.

We really like sharks.

I was channeling Capt. Jack Sparrow for a moment there, and thought of stealing this ship and renaming it “The Black Nut”, but…

We then rode the NYC Water Taxi around the island to Yan’s place…

Chillin’ on the water taxi. No idea who that lady is, though…





Lady Liberty!

Once we linked up, we dined at Gaucho’s which is an Argentine steakhouse on the Upper West Side. Highly recommended, and very affordable. I also enjoyed their selection of Argentine reds. And we wrapped up with a walk along the Hudson and maintained a comfortable state of chilled-out silliness.

Karen suffers from narcolepsy, while Yan demonstrates that she is just too cool for school…

Yep, we’re douchebags.

Once we reached a near-comatose state, Karen and I had to bolt to get back to her place an change up for “Phantom”, which unfortunately I have no pictures of (hey, recording devices are prohibited!), but the show was amazing. It’s not a story that big on plot or even lyrics, but the sets are amazing, the music is moving, and it’s something that is a “must-see” if you’re in New York. It’s an amazing production.