This might be the Get Off My Lawn day during my trip.
Yesterday evening, one of my English friends chided me (somewhat) gently about spending the day in the lounge and not exploring. “You’re getting old!” he said. “Admitted!” I replied.
1) The Moxy Times Square is one of a young, hip brand of hotels run by Myrriot, with what I’d call all the modern inconveniences. In the summer of 2021 I stayed at the one on 28th Street and enjoyed it. This time, while the room I was in had its charms — and the shower was amazing — the bed had to be entered from the foot because that’s how wide the room was. The a/c vents immediately behind the headboard blasted out arctic air at intervals, even though the thermostat was set to 76. As a writer, what I really missed was a desk and chair.
1a) But the bed was super-comfortable, and as I mentioned, the shower was amazing, and it was for only one night.
2) After combat in the café next door for coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I spent the morning reading and writing, and packing, and then used up the rest of my “destination fee” for a couple sandwiches in the café.
3) Since my lunch engagement had been canceled, I was then able to wheel my luggage to a favorite New York destination: the Metropolitan Lounge of the Moynihan Train Hall. And I spent a delightful afternoon writing, working out some details for my next trip, and spending a little more time than usual on social media. It was wonderful.
3a) I hadn’t been there in nine months, and it was interesting to see both that the bar had finally been completed and opened, and the banter of the bartender with some regular travelers.
4) The staff (all of them wonderful) have perfected the procedure of getting first class passengers to the platform before general boarding. Now an usher lines everyone up at the escalator, escorts everyone down at once, opens the barrier at the escalator, and sends us down before the track is even announced. It couldn’t have been smoother.
5) Bourbon and soda, stuffed chicken dinner, and a little nap while I watched The Rains Came through my ear buds. Before I knew it, we were home!
6) By the time I walked through my front door, the Little Formless Fears* had started to take over, anxieties about having done or said the wrong thing, or in such a way that I could be easily misconstrued. At least they didn’t impact my sleep too badly.
7) Overall, an action-packed trip including partying with the 20-somethings on Wednesday, Edward Hopper, the Stonewall Inn, and an amazing choral concert on Thursday; the joy of Interlochen community (and prosecco) Friday night, the joy of my hosts and their friends over dinner on Saturday (what at evening!), and mass on Sunday, followed by getting a giant rainbow wig lobbed at me during drag bingo. In the words of the late Noel Coward, “I couldn’t have liked it more.” But I am exhausted. “Aging actress, yesterday’s glamor queen . . . “ yup that’s me!
8) “There’s got to be a morning after,” as that unfortunate song goes, and mine has been marked by the usual post-trip tasks: writing a Lovely Note to my hosts, laundry, poor customer service from ye Vyrizyn, housecleaning, and moving almost every piece of furniture in the dining room to replace the light bulbs — much of it to Pod Save America and Lawrence of Arabia. And I finally, two months later, took out all the decaying Christmas holly that had been petrifying in vases.
9) Now I can think about the spring: home improvements, more socializing, more writing, and preparations for my trip to England in May for the coronation of Charles III. It’s going to be a busy two months!
*From Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, which I read in college.