NY Day 7 - Cousins, Coffee, and Crossing into Columbus
Today started with lots of hotel coffee to combat a mean mimosa hangover. The whole family commandeered a bunch of tables at the continental breakfast though so it was nice to get to see everyone one last time.
It was a lot harder to say goodbye to my parents. I made the mistake of joking to my mom, "See you at Christmas", which I maintain was funny but perhaps a little too mean. I know they worry about me while I'm on the road, and it's also really the first time any of their kids has been this far away from them for this long a period, so I know it's hard. I try not to take that for granted, but my first defense is always to make a joke about things when they get hard for me.
After a tearful goodbye, I started heading to my aunt's house in Buffalo to do some much needed laundry. I stopped along the way at Daily Planet Coffee. It was really great. The baristas were super fun and funny, and everything was vaguely Superman themed which made things interesting.
Even more caffeinated, I made it to my aunt's house. While I was doing laundry, I got to actually catch up with the groom while he was helping his mom around the house. That was really nice, because understandably he had a lot of people to see over the course of the wedding, so I wasn't sure if I'd get any quality time to chat with him. Because he was always six years older and a couple hundred miles away, Andrew wasn't always the cousin I knew the best, but last summer we spent a weekend in Amsterdam together after we both happened to meet up in London, him for his job and me for school. Once you take care of your dumb little cousin as he throws up all over the red light district though, it makes for a whole ton of bonding.
My cousins who live in Nevada also came to hang out while they waited for the flight so it was good to get to see a bit more of them as well. They're both younger than me, but the one that is still in high school already has the dark sense of humor of a middle aged woman. She was talking about the Las Vegas shooting that happened less than a month ago. One girl from her class was shot, not fatally but still that would have really shaken me at her age. Instead, she said she was more annoyed that a different girl called out of school because she was too sad about it and her reaction was just, "She wasn't even there. We were all sad about it, but we went to school. What a faker." I will always be impressed with how the women in my family, young and old, can handle genuine tragedies with complete resilience, but get so worked up about minor inconveniences. Hell hath no fury like my mom or my aunts being told they can't use a coupon.
Rounding out the post-wedding get together were my brother and his girlfriend, Andrew's sister and her wife, and my aunt Tina, who is perhaps the funniest person I know. My aunt who's house we were in had bought far too many sandwiches from Wegman's, a local chain of grocery stores that everyone I know from Buffalo raves about. I guess they are really known for treating their employees well and offering good deals and food. I enjoyed the sandwiches quite a bit, and the company quite a bit more.
With a big bag of clean clothes, I said goodbye to my family and started making my way toward the Buckeye State. I stopped at one more coffee place in Buffalo first though. Caffe Aroma was really cool, and they also had a full bar and stayed open until midnight so it seemed like a good spot for college kids to hang out.
Fueled up, I began my next six hour drive. It was pretty uneventful, which is I guess a good thing on the road. There was one cool highway rest stop right before the border of Western NY and Pennsylvania that was up a little hill so there was a little observation bridge to the shops where you'd get a cool view over the highway.
The other thing that was exciting for me at least, was that I had forgotten that I had an Eddie Izzard comedy album on iPod and it came on over the drive. I was aware of Eddie from a young age because of the underrated classic of a film Mystery Men, but I don't think I first heard his comedy until my freshman year of high school when it was put on Netflix. It was revelatory. Oddly stream of consciousness, smart, silly, and very British, it really wasn't like any of the stand up I'd seen before (except maybe Robin Williams). I'll say that just listening to it, it does lose something because he's such a good performer, but I still laughed out loud several times.
I did finally make it to Columbus. I'd heard that people in the mid-west are really friendly, and based off my interactions with my Air BnB host, it already seems like that stereotype is probably gonna be true. He was just a super nice guy, but the thing that cracked me up was how excited he was to show me that he had just installed in a bidet. "I don't get why these haven't caught on in America, every other country in the world knows they're awesome!" To be fair it really was a cool bidet. My suspicion as to why they never caught on here was that it was probably lobbying from Big Toilet Paper. Bidets are but another casualty of the endless march of Capitalism.
Favorite Random Sightings: Million Dollar Bills for 50 cents; Classic Man Barbershop.
Regional Observation: I don't know if this is a Massachusetts thing, but I was taught in Driver's Ed that you should always go 5mph above the posted speed limit as a courtesy to other drivers. (If that's not universal, that might partly explain why we have such a reputation as aggressive drivers). I get though that because this is more of a rule thumb that not everyone will 70mph in a 65, which is probably the average highway speed limit on the northeast. What I really don't understand though is why the hell, anyone would drive under 70 once you hit Pennsylvania and the speed limit is 70. It doesn't make any sense but it's very common.
Albums Listened to: Give Give Give by Nick and the Adversaries; Give the People What They Want by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (RIP); Global a Go-Go by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros (one of my all time favorites); Glorious by Eddie Izzard; God Bless Satan by Mephiskapheles (one of the best album and band names I have in my collection); The Godfather of Ska Anthology (Disc 1) by Laurel Aitken
People's Favorite Jokes:
What did the buffalo say to his son leaving for college? Bison
Do you like Mangoes? Man go fuck yourself. (I don't know how funny this necessarily is, but hearing it from one of the baristas really caught me off guard in a funny way)
NY Superlatives:
Favorite Beer: Coney Island Mermaid Pilsner
Favorite Bar: Earl's Beer and Cheese on the Upper East Side
Favorite Restaurant: The Heights on the Upper West Side
Favorite Cafe: Pure Taste- The Roasting Plant in Greenwich Village; Best All Around- The Daily Planet Coffee in Buffalo
Favorite Bagel - Tal Bagels on the Upper East Side
Favorite Mic- The Branded Saloon in Brooklyn
Favorite Attraction: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
General Impression of the Comedy Scene- NYC comedy is such a big scene that it's kinda hard to generalize. I feel like because of this there is ever kind of smaller comedy scene good and bad encompassed by the broader NYC Scene, so it can definitely be tricky to navigate which mics are generally good and which ones are generally rough. Dan's advice is to get to know hosts as opposed to venues, because that's a more reliable indicator. Also that reminds me but if you're in NYC and you get any opportunities to see a Dan Fitzpatrick perform, you won't regret it. Overall I'd say NYC is a good place to go once you're a bit more confident in your material, but I feel like it would be a really hard place to start in. Especially since most mics either charge you a fee or ask that you buy a drink to perform.
Song of the Day:
