It’s been a long day. At 10pm last night I boarded a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey. To my complete disappointment the flight time was just a shade over four hours. Usually it’s five-and-a-half to six hours. Even with a shot of Jameson to wash down the Xanax I only slept for maybe two hours. How long is the Stars Of The Lid album “Avec Laudanum”? I slept through that and God knows how much longer. An hour? I couldn’t sleep the last hour of the flight due to turbulence, which sucked. I landed at 6:20am. Called mom, she woke up and drove t the airport to get me. What a gal. Got home and fell into bed for thirty minutes. Then my sister came into my room and shook me awake to welcome me home. I guess sleep just wasn’t meant to find me today.
Even more unfortunate than taking a red eye flight that was far too short for me to get some rest was the fact that I’d scheduled myself a dentist’s appointment for noon today. Which meant when I finally got t0 sleep (a whole 90 minutes) I had to wake up quick and head out across town. I’d wanted to get my marathon training done before the appointment, but I couldn’t find a keycard to get into the gym so I had to scrap that idea. The dentist was a dentist. Nothing exciting happened. The girl behind the counter apparently went to college with me but I didn’t remember her. You’d think a stacked redhead would leave an impression. Mmm…nope!
I got my run in afterwards, 8 miles in 67 minutes (that’s pretty good, right?) and showered and dressed. Went to my father’s office to let him know I’m in town for a few days, because otherwise I’d be a horrible son. We tried to make dinner plans for tomorrow. We’ll see if it works out.
Tonight dinner is at Blue Hill At Stone Barns. I haven’t been this excited about a meal since Ian and I got into Minetta Tavern for the Black Label burger last year. If you don’t know about Blue Hill, it’s in Tarrytown, New York. It’s a four-season farm which also houses restaurant that sources its menu from the surrounding fields and pastures as well as other local farms. The only menu options are a five-course, eight-course or twelve-course tasting menu designed by the executive chef Dan Barber (he’s been a guest judge on Top Chef several times, and Blue Hill was used at least once that I can remember as a setting for an elimination challenge). The dishes are wholly unique from day-to-day depending on what is fresh and ready to be served, and what (if any) a diner’s allergies or dietary restrictions might prevent them from consuming. Guests are presented with a list of over 100 ingredients, updated daily, which contains the best offerings from the farm and market on a given day. It might just be the most literal example of the “farm to table” ideology in American cuisine. You’d better believe I’m going to walk in there and tell them I’m unrestricted. Serve me whatever you want. I’m going to enjoy it.
After that, I’m going to get rip roaring drunk. Because when I come home to suburban New Jersey there isn’t much else to do. My main focus here is to get as drunk as possible and have as much fun as possible with old friends and new friends. The good news is, there’s a lot of young talent ’round these parts…
I’ll review dinner tomorrow. As for the drunken exploits, they’ll have to wait…
By the way, Swan Fungus broke the 3,000 daily visitors barrier for just the second time ever yesterday. Thanks, everyone.
Death In June – We Drive East
