New York in the Rain
Po, a packed romantic place in the Village.The other night I was thinking of an old friends birthday party which we celebrated at the excellent Cornelia Street restaurant Po when I was 19. It was raining then and my ladyfriend, two of her friends and I were navigating the village in the downpour. Our nice clothes getting drenched. By the time the last of the wine was poured into our below-legal-age glasses, the rain began to clear up and we met a friend and listened to live jazz in an underground club which only served juice. I've wanted to get back into that restaurant ever since. I remember someone taking a scandalous picture of the ladyfriend and I who were induced (under the influence) to take a picture like a magazine ad for perfume. Where is this picture?
These memories were brought back to me as I drove into New York City while on my way to my new pavement city err Northern Virginian home. The rain and fog lay thick over the Harlem River and as I crossed from the Bronx into northern Manhattan over the Henry Hudson bridge I looked to my left and I could have sworn that all of New York was lit by warm candle light. I went to my friend's improv show and we retreated to the Triple Crown - a nearby sports bar. I sat at the bar in order to enjoy some food and a gin and tonic as my friends talked and joked with each other at a table behind me. Think about this: Watching highlights of the Mets game (they won that night), eating some innutritious bar junk, drinking gin, avoiding the rain, my sport jacket fetching looks from the only two single women in the bar, and hearing my friends laughing (without having to actually interact with them). I could have ruined my good mood if I had stayed with the thought too long but something drifted into my mind.
"I turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skillful: but time and chance in all. " - Ecclesiastes
And the rain falls on the just and unjust alike. Even in New York City. My friend Tommy would buy the next round.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in The Big Bagel, Under the Influences
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