And so it was Saturday. Actually, I was woken up rather early thanks to that stupid cat scratching repeatedly on the outside of our door. Twice, she had to get up and settle the bastard down. Finally, she stayed in her parents room just to keep them company. And I was too out of it to even notice. So she got up earlier than me, which I never thought could happen. She woke me up around 8 am to let me know she had indeed made pancakes for us. They were the standard Bisquick jobs, but it was nice of her. She was amazed when I told her i did not need syrup, just a little butter. She showed me her deal, which was to spread grape jelly on the pancake, then fold it, and eat it. I'm not even a grape jelly eater, I haven't been in maybe 20 years, but I decided to shut up about it and do it anyway. I will not do it again.
Her family was coming home later that afternoon so I moved my things down to the basement, where I cleaned up and used the Internet for a while. Around 11:30, we took off for the Central Park zoo. I know we took the M to the L to the R! We got a little lost in the park, but we did walk by the skating rink and the Checkers/Chess House. Eventually, we found our way to the zoo. Now I had been to the San Diego Zoo just three months earlier. So in terms of size, by comparison, this one seemed like a storage closet. It's just walking around a square with a pool of sea lions in the middle. We saw some interesting creatures like a red panda, a snow monkey, and a drooling polar bear. Our lunch was splitting a pretzel and feeding some leftovers to the pigeons.
We spent the extra $7.00 for admission to the 4D Theater. It was about polar climates with fake snow and wind. It was cool (no pun intended), but we felt a little shortchanged when the presentation concluded after just ten minutes. We walked into the gift shop and we didn't see much to get excited about. I did see one t-shirt with a Cardinal on it with the words "Early Bird" on it. Considering a cardinal banging on her bedroom window had caused Catherine to wake up early three straight days in the Poconos, I thought it was hysterical. She did not! So we left and walked down Central Park South, the street that of course, runs east to west along the southern edge of the park. I asked her if Mickey Mantle's was nearby, since I knew it bordered Central Park. She laughed and said she was just thinking the same thing. So we went inside and sat at the bar. It was probably my first time in there in maybe 20 years. We each drank a Blue Moon and the bartender was gracious enough to let me charge my camera behind the bar. Amazing how this stupid camera drains so fast. The lens cap doesn't close, I can't wait to get a new one. Anyway, I walked around and observed some of the memorabilia in Mickey's. I saw Robert Redford's New York Knights jersey from "The Natural." I saw an old WWF poster from a 1970's card in South Amboy, NJ. It was like going back to Dr. Galkin's orthodontics office again!
We went two stops to Greenwich village. It was finally time to eat. But on our way, we passed by a playground with about 20 guys playing street hockey. Catherine recognized this one Asian dude and they chatted for a minute and I stayed silent. After we watched a couple goals, we said our goodbyes. I asked who the guy was and she admitted she didn't even know his name! I thought it was just hysterical.
Anyway, we wound up at Arturo's around 4:20, so not too late after they opened. She promised me that this place would fill up fast and she was right! The bar was full and I would guess 8 percent of the table were already occupied. We got a tiny two-topper table. We decided on a 15-inch pie with bacon and roasted red peppers on one half and sliced meatballs and fresh mozzarella on the other. Beyond stellar! The sauce was bright, there wasn't too much cheese. The crust was nice and thin, but not too thin. The bacon and peppers balanced perfectly, and thankfully the bacon was not overdone. If I had one complaint, the crust tasted a little too burnt for my liking, but I could live with that. And my other disappointment was they don't offer free refills on iced tea or soft drinks. Thankfully, I asked them ahead of time so I didn't get scammed. I would certainly return.
After we finished, Catherine told me I had to go into the bathroom and to bring my camera. I look at her like she had three heads, but I did it anyway. Apparently this restaurant used to be an apartment building. And the owners kept the bathroom and as part of it, they kept the same bathroom. Including the bathtub! I did take a photo of the toilet and bathtub right next to each other.
So around 6:15, we arrived at the Molly Wee, an Irish pub about a block south of Madison Square Garden for the viewing party for the Rangers game in Toronto. We were immediately greeted by the Simos clan and Zach Budnick. I also met Peter for the first time and we hit it off quite well. I also met Bill Morrison, the Jerry Garcia-look alike, who from his FB profile, I couldn't tell if he was even a real person. Later on, I met the boisterous Helen Yoon, her assumed boyfriend Michael, George, Jimmy Tholke, and his very cute friend Grace. I even convinced Moe to show up and I was very happy she made it. After drinking a ton of water, I drank a Bass and a Yeungling, I decided not to eat. I don't remember too much about the game in retrospect. I had conversations with Peter about NY vs Chicago and with Claude about fitness and women.
I remember the second period intermission in particular. Catherine put her arms around my neck from behind and kissed my cheeks a few times, something she hadn't ever really done before. I could feel my face glowing. Jimmy took a photo and it's become my Facebook profile photo. Also during the second break, we had chocolate cake to celebrate Jimmy's birthday. Well, ok, a lot of people around me did, but I wasn't going to. Anyway, it was a happy finish as Ryan Callahan won the game for the Rangers in a shootout.
The bar emptied pretty quick and Catherine and I headed to the Fuse studios to watch Hockey Night Live. We think we made it on TV wearing our Callahan t-shirts, no one seems to have confirmed it though. There were some drunk/stoned jerk-off fans pretending to moon the studio and just yelling, trying to draw attention to themselves, but in a totally obnoxious way. Eventually, Helen, Michael, Moe, and Zach joined us. We met Ken Daneyko and Catherine got just another card signed. They took photos with Ron Duguay, I didn't really care.
We finally got home around midnight and the traffic light incident had finally been cleared from the street! We walked into the house and to no surprise, her mother felt like talking. One question after another question. No big deal, it's just her personality. Catherine and I went downstairs for a little bit, not too long though. The next morning, I reconnected with Angelo and Francis. I also offered Catherine's parents some opinions and suggestions on their upcoming trip to Chicago in May.
Willie drove over again and picked me up. I left at 11:45, said goodbye to her at 12:00, took off at 1 pm and landed around 2:45. Six more weeks of waiting to see her again, at least...
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