Wednesday
11pm Drive to Pittsburgh, arrive 2am. Check into the Radisson.
Thursday
5:30am Wake-up. Call for a cab. Leave the car in the Radisson lot and get dropped-off at the Megabus stop. Get on the bus to NYC. Read all of Allaploosa.
2:30pm Arrive in Manhattan. Subway to Harlem. Check-in at Michael Duncan’s place. Change clothes and head downtown to TKTS. Long TKTS line, at least 300 people. Discover the “plays only” line – only 8 people. No good shows available, though. Call 2nd Stage – Chad Deity tickets for $79. Acacia gets a discount code online through her magic iPhone. Call 2nd Stage – buy Chad Deity tickets for $53.
5:30 Sit down at Cafe Blossom. Eat lots of vegan food disguised as regular food. Enjoy it a lot.
7pm Get coffee at Joe the Art of Coffee. Yes. Yum.
8pm Sit down to watch The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a play about professional wrestlers. It’s bawdy.
10:30pm Hail a cab back to Harlem. Sleep.
Friday
8am Wake-up, get ready for running and coffee.
9am Acacia runs, Matt reads Eating Animals and drinks coffee.
11am Leave Harlem, check into the Four Point Sheraton in Chelsea.
1pm Lunch at John’s Pizzeria – without meat. Miss the meatballs and feel conflicted about it. Shop for cheese at Murray’s. Walk to Film Forum.
2:50pm Breathless at Film Forum. Acacia wants the Jean Seberg.
5:30pm Dine at Le Singe Vert. Order only vegan food, despite the rich French foods on the menu. Grow to like beet carpaccio. Walk to the Joyce Theatre. Pick-up will-call tickets.
7:45pm Talk to Sai, from OSU.
8pm Watch American Document (2010) with the SITI Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company. The SITI Co. look pretty thrilled. Laugh, cry, gasp, etc. Leon’s really funny. Russian guy is really cool. Enjoy the parts where the actors dance and the dancers act. Intermission.
9pm Watch sketches from Chronicle, a classic, anti-war Martha Graham piece. The dress is really cool. The dancing has verve and is viscerally affective. How do they do that? How do they move so quickly?
10pm Walk to Billy’s Bakery and take cupcakes and ice-box cake back to the hotel. Watch parts of Men in Black and eat sweets. Acacia sleeps. Matt reads, looks-up and sees that å is on TV. Watch Viggo. Sleep.
Saturday
7am Wake-up in hotel. Grumpy.
8am Wake-up in hotel. Grumpy.
9am Wake-up in hotel. What time is it? Grrrr. Grumpy.
10am Oh crap, we better get up. Acacia, get-up and take a shower. Grrrrumpy.
10:30am Get up. Shower. Pack masterfully.
11am Exit hotel. Walk through Chelsea to the Ace Hotel and Stumptown Coffee. Realize again how special Luck Bros is. (Luck Bros sometimes has Stumptown’s beans and they do a better job with them tan Stumptown. I recommend a cubano from Lucks, made with Stumptown’s Hair Bender espresso.
12pm Return to hotel for bags, take subway to the Public. Get student tickets (Don’t ask.) for the Andrew Jackson show.
1pm Off to Brooklyn.
1:30pm Check-in to Stephen Slaybaugh’s place. Drive (!) to some bar in Red Hook to watch U.S. vs England and eat pizza (without meat) and hummus. Tie.
5pm Go to the pier to see the Statue of Liberty and the fishermen.
5:30pm Stop by Baked for Josie’s free cupcake. Buy treats for the megabus-ride back to Pittsburgh.
6:30 Drive to Williamsburg and Blue Bottle Coffee. Admire their incredible, Japanese slow-drip machines. Struggle over a choice of bean. Relish the cappuccino, and even kind of like the chilled coffee that Acacia chose. Yum. Buy XXXXXX beans. Walk around Williamsburg to gawk at the hipsters and their tiny mustaches.
7pm Dinner at Lodge. Yum. Ask about local, sustainable food sources. Get a story about the tables in response. Order the free-range fried chicken (with macaroni and cheese and a tomato-cucumber salad) and cross your fingers. Order hush puppies too. Meal starts with lobster roll sliders and charcuterie plate. Great meal, great atmosphere, a great time with Steve and Josie.
8pm Exit Brooklyn to the East Village. Visit Ninth Street Espresso on 10th street. Closed. Visit å on 9th street. Closed. Visit Abraco on 7th street. Closed. Dammit. Visit Starbucks and use the bathroom.
9:30 Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. WOW. Great show for 60 minutes. Good show for the last 30 minutes. Marvel at Martin van Buren‘s five minute non-verbal twinkie gag. Amazing. [If you can, see this show. Seriously.]
11pm Visit Aroma Espresso. Closed. Okay, we get the picture. Back to BK.
12am Acacia reads Outliers while Matt empties his RSS reader. Give in and eat some of the stuff from Baked. Sleep.
Sunday
7:15am wake-up. Acacia: “What time is it?”
9am wake-up. Matt: “What time is it?”
10am Abduct Acacia and leave to get coffee. See a cab and think “Let’s have some fun!” Cab it to south Williamsburg and Oslo Coffee. Get Thor. Cab back to Red Hook.
11am Meet Stephen to go have brunch at Buttermilk Channel. OMG cheddar waffles. The tall stack is REALLY tall. (They served Gimme! coffee, too.)
12:30pm Get sandwiches at Caputo’s Fine Foods for the trip home. Speck. Walk to downtown Brooklyn. Get cannoli and twist cookies at Court Pastry.
1:30pm Return to Stephens to play FIFA World Cup and watch the World Cup (Germany vs Australia). Pack masterfully.
3pm Depart for the 2.
4pm After much confusion about lines, get on the Megabus for the ride to Pittsburgh. Worry about the car.
4:40pm Start writing this blog post.
5pm Eat the rest of the stuff from Baked.
7:15pm Eat sandwiches.
7:56pm Watch Acacia play Doodlejump.
7:57pm Realize this blog post is going to tedious pretty quickly from here on out.
12:43am Return to the car in the Radisson parking lot.
1:48am Re-enter Ohio.
3:51am Arrive at home. Set alarm. Go to sleep.