HOLY CRAP!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED!!!!!!

Tuesday was certainly a different day for moi in The Big Apple. What do I mean? Well, let’s begin at the beginning --

First on my agenda was my semi-annual cleaning and polishing session with my dentist Dr. Steven Gualtieri, whose office is on 54th Street. Now many of you who have known me over the years know that if I had to choose between the removal of a limb without benefit of anesthesia or going to the dentist for any procedure, the chopping off of the limb would win every time, so the day did not begin on a high note.

The procedure would be done by Dr. G’s assistant, Marsha, and in order to protect myself I presented her with a single red rose before she began the chopping, scraping and polishing regimen. It worked and everything went very well although I was emotionally drained when I got back to the apartment. I’m not joking, this is how I felt.

But, I didn’t have time for recovery because I had planned to have lunch with student/intern/bartender Scott Reed. We met up and headed out to a restaurant in the ‘hood known as McAnn’s. Scott was stressed out from his various activities and I was stressed out from the dentist and things I had to do after lunch. Actually lunch was fine even though the other patrons at McAnn’s made it look like a dining room at a St. Petersburg Senior Citizen’s Home.

When Scott and I split I then began the second stress-filled venture and that was to get a new passport picture, fill out the Visa Application Form from the People’s Republic of China (not an easy task), and then FedEx all of the stuff together with my passport (kinda scary) to Visas International in California. This whole process took about 3 hours.

So, I was back at the apartment around 4:00 with plans to watch as much of the Yankees 4:10 game at Kansas City as I could before heading out to Lincoln Center around 6:15 for the New York City Opera Company’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s version of “Candide.” The show started at 7:30. I had a discounted ticket from Theater Development Fund (TDF) for $37.

So, I lay down on the couch to watch the game and the Yankees basically sucked. Even though I had eaten lunch I fixed myself a small fruit and cheese plate and lay back down on the couch and ...

Holy Fuck - the next thing I remember is waking up to the announcer talking about the end-of-game summary (the Yankees lost). The clock said it was, gasp, 7:30 - damn damn damn - 7:30!! I had completely missed my show.

This was a first for me since being in the Big Apple, and, hopefully, the last. So, I blame everyone - Dr. G, Marsha, Scott, the People’s Republic of China, the Yankees for playing such a boring game, the calming effect of the fruit and cheese plate, and, I guess, Billi Pod.

The only positive things - later in the evening I was able to finally connect with Ginger Flowers in Atlanta for a long overdue telephone update, and, I finally figured out how to post a picture on this blog.