Chillaxing
We have now officially moved out of our apartment and into the next door Hampton Inn. It’s funny, sometime after the financial crash of 2008, I imagine some aggressive developer who owned this building on Water Street stroked his chin about what to do with this underperforming B-class office building. Downtown office space was not in very high demand (except with HMO’s for some reason) as most of the action had moved well off Wall Street to any number of places from The World Financial Center across West Street on northern Battery Park City landfill, to Nomad to lower Park Avenue and all the usual midtown suspects from Times Square to the up-and-coming Hudson Yards. Back in ‘08 there were still vestigial downtown tax incentives that were put in place after 9/11 to support the repopulation of lower Manhattan. Hotels had stopped being built long enough so that room rates rose into the zone where renovating office space into nondescript rack’em and stack’em hotels started springing up like mushrooms after a late summer rain.
Whoever owned this building probably tried to find a better-rated flag to fly since it’s a big enough building to create a larger hotel. Once that didn’t work, they went to Plan B, which was to put in a Hilton Garden Inn on Water Street and a Hampton Inn in the back of the building facing Pearl Street. They are both part of the Hilton network, but branded like a Chevrolet and a Buick. So, we had our choice and Kim got us a room at the Buick Hampton Inn, which somehow feels like an upgrade from the Chevy Garden Inn for some reason. She chose a room online on the 7th floor, directly facing our apartment building. Luckily, we can’t actually see into our 8th floor apartment because that would be too weird. Living in a hotel right next to where you’ve lived for two years is weird enough.
The hallways do not try to be elegant and I’m sure they just meet code. The room must be 150 square feet at most, including the bathroom. It’s not as efficiently small as that TWA hotel at JFK that we stayed in last year, but it comes close. There is room for a King-sized bed, two night stands, a desk and a small wardrobe (rather than a closet). The TV is a flatscreen just a snick larger than my jumbo computer monitor. The bathroom is basic, but sufficient. We had brought some sodas to avoid minibar charges. But there is neither a minibar nor a room fridge. Kim asked for a fridge and they brought one up. The only place it fits is under the desk so forget being able to use that while we’re here. In a nutshell, it is exactly what I expected. It will get us through the three days of our stay, which is busy on Monday and totally open and free tomorrow, Super Bowl Sunday.
Neither Kim nor I are into football and care much about the Super Bowl. I tried to arrange a dinner with several people on Sunday and people reacted like I was out of my mind. I guess no one eats out during the Super Bowl, opting instead to bring in pizza and Buffalo Wings. I guess Kim and I will order a pizza from Adrienne’s on Stone Street and try to show enthusiasm for the game in between the $6 million ads.
Without an apartment to fuss over and no Cecil to distract either of us, we have the luxury of a weekend to do whatever we want in New York City. I somehow think it’s different from flying in for a visit. We’ve been eating out a lot at farewell meals, so there’s minimal incentive to explore new eateries. I went to a movie today (The Gentlemen, with Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and Colin Farrell, which I thought was quite entertaining), and we will go to see either The Assistant or Indictment before the Super Bowl starts. We are predictable and movies are our go-to activity, so it’s a nice chance to chill out together in the City we love the most.
We had dinner with all my kids and grandkids last night at Beauty & Essex, a very cool restaurant in Soho. It looks like a high-end pawn shop when you walk in and then you enter a very lively bistro. It was probably not a kid’s restaurant, but we went early enough that we were ahead of the clubbing crowd, which I’m told arrives at about 10pm. We ordered a full array of comfort food appetizers and they were great. For some reason, the kitchen was falling behind on this Friday night and while we were having plenty of fun with the kids and the appetizers, the management decided we were waiting too long for our entrees, so they brought vegetable potstickers to us to keep us occupied. We shrugged and enjoyed the added appys. Then, when the entrees came, the three of us who ordered burgers found our burgers too rare to eat. The management once again sprung to action and brought us new, fully-cooked burgers. They also brought us complimentary desserts to apologize for the less-than-stellar service. Strangely enough, I was enjoying myself so much in the bosom of my family in this loud and trendy spot, that I wasn’t at all put off by the service. In fact, I liked the added attention and price breaks we were getting. We were in no rush and we were happy to be chillaxing with the fandamily.
I called my older sister to wish her a happy 69th birthday today. Knowing that this was our last weekend in New York (she lives near our new home in San Diego), she expressed concern about how we were feeling in the throes of our final days here. Perhaps because we’ve been planning it for eight months, or maybe because we have staged the move over six weeks, but Kim and I are just making sure we dot i’s and cross t’s as we wrap up affairs here in New York. It feels like The Long Goodbye, the Philip Marlowe mystery starring Elliot Gould. Maybe it’s more like that episode of The Larry David Show when he tries to use the “Big Goodbye” as a way to avoid spending time with somebody st a party but still stays square with them by feigning a phony fond farewell. If I’m just judging by the title, I’m going with Goodbye Again, the Ingrid Bergman movie from the sixties. We are happy to be moving because we love the home we have on our hill in San Diego. Neither of us feels like we are leaving our work or our family and friends behind. We fully expect to see and stay close to everyone we love and even plenty who we don’t love. We are very chill about this whole transition and do not feel it is momentous in any life-changing way. We are just increasing our chillaxing coefficient.