Loving Seeing Shannon

Shannon had a performance this past weekend at a show up in Connecticut, and since NYC is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, I was lucky enough to get some time with her, too. We had a fabulous dinner at Tartine in the village with Todd and a friend, and then the four of us visited Fat Cat, a bar downtown that I love. Todd discovered it a while ago, but this was my first time there. The subterranean bar is large and filled with all manner of games. Booths at the front have chess and scrabble; further back are pool tables, ping pong tables, a table version of bocce ball, and more. We staked out a spot at an open foosball table, where Shannon and I quickly proved that enthusiasm for the game is not synonymous with talent. Luckily we were mostly in it for the fun and not the competition. Oh, and this bar also has live jazz. I loved it.

The next day Shannon and I indulged in a bagel breakfast at Absolute (Virginia apparently only offers Dunkin’ Donuts bagels and the like, which is not the same as a proper New York bagel), did a Wii workout, lunched with Todd, and then wandered the city looking at bric-a-brac, beautiful dresses we couldn’t afford, and books we had no time to read (my currently to-be-read pile hovers around 80 books).

We feasted on home made vegetarian chili that night while watching Man Vs. Food, a show all about a normal guy who tries to eat a LOT and which instantly made me feel better about my big bowl of chili. After that, Shannon, Dylan, and I were off to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I’ll post a full write-up of my thoughts on the movie soon, but will say now that I’d like to reread the latter half of the series. Books one through four I’ve read multiple times each and know very well. Five, six, and seven are less embedded in my memory, though, and deserve a reread. Of course, see above for the size of my to-be-read pile, and you can imagine how soon that will happen!

Shannon was off early on Saturday morning for Connecticut, but I did get a few more hours with her last night when she passed through NYC again before heading back below the Mason-Dixon line.