Alan LX

Living in the Bronx means taking a trek most days. Yesterday’s was an extra long one to Greenvale Long Island. What would bring me out to that suburban backwater? Alan’s surprise 60th birthday party. I had tickets to see Vienna Teng and Jean Rohe was doing a co-bill with Rachael Kilgore but they’ll all play again, this is the only time Alan will turn 60.

How do you get to Greenvale from the Bronx? Not too hard, the subway to Penn Station then the Long Island Railroad to Greenvale, changing trains at Jamaica, then walk 0.6 miles to Ben’s Deli where the party is. That’s how you go if you aren’t an idiot. If you are an idiot you plan things well You leave yourself a cushion and get to Penn Station with a comfortable margin. You get on the train and remember to get off at Jamaica. The train you need to transfer to is on the same track as the train you arrive in so you go into the waiting room on the platform. You notice that the train you came in was early and sits in the station. You start reading the Times on your phone. You hear an announcement, Stand clear of the closing doors on the train to Oyster Bay, the train you need. You look out on the track and don’t see a train. You wait. No train. You wait longer, no train. You look for an information booth and walk right by it because it faces the opposite direction from the way you are walking and there is no sign on the back of it. You finally find the booth and the guy in it tells you that you are an idiot and missed your train. He insists you looked at the wrong track. You know you didn’t. What must have happened is that I didn’t hear it come in and it pulled so far up on the platform that it was well past where I was sitting. So when I looked I saw nothing.

Now I had to figure out another way of going, The next train was in an hour and I’d miss the surprise part of the party. I looked at the map and saw that the Mineola is the closest station on another line to Greenvale. I got on that train and arrived at Mineola 12 minutes before I was told to arrive. Of course it would be OK to get there a little late. I got a cab. I checked on Google maps and it was just a 14-minute trip. I’d be fine. There was a ton of confusion at the cab stand and as often happens he took another passenger. He misunderstood where she was going and she didn’t tell him when she saw he went the wrong way. Where she was really going wasn’t on the way to Greenvale. It was perpendicular and was further than the train station was. I ended up getting their 25 minutes late. Then his credit car reader didn’t work. I didn’t have enough cash and had to go inside and ask another party goer, none of whom I knew, to borrow the money. Someone had enough cash on them and I went out and paid the cab driver.

I was in, I was settled, and there before Alan and his wife, Melissa. After sitting for a bit I had to go to the bathroom. I had taken a long trip, so that’s not unexpected. I was gone just a minute. That’s the minute when Alan and Melissa arrived. That ended up being fine as it ended up being a double surprise. He knows I live nowhere near there so he didn’t expect to see me.

The only ones I really knew were Alan and Melissa. I had met his brother at their wedding, he was the best man and I was an usher. Alan is in a different social set than my other friends. We had two close friends in common; they are the two close friends, that died in the last five years.

I was afraid it would be awkward as I knew nobody but I sat with Alan and I had a lot of fun. One of his relatives, Austin, works for the Mets. When I mentioned being disappointed that I didn’t get the Mets GM job he asked if I had applied. I hadn’t. When the new GM, who is less qualified than me, is fired in a year I’m sending Austin my resume and Alan will write me a letter of recommendation. The job is as good as mine.

Ben’s is Jewish deli so I ordered what I order at all Deli’s but Katz’s. tongue. They have fabulous French fries and had that too. This was reliving my youth when the family would go to the local Jewish Deli at least once a month. What did I drink? Everyone that knows anything about Jewish Delis and anything about me, should know this. That’s right, a Doctor Brown’s cream soda. If you said Dr. Brown’s Cel-ray or Black Cherry you get partial credit. I would never drink them but they are the other Jewish deli mainstays.

Alan and Melissa drove me to the Manhasset train station after the party. That’s near their house and we got there one minute before the train . That’s on the Port Washington line, the one I grew up on. I had to resist getting off at Bayside where I lived. If it stopped at Citi Field I’d have to resist getting off there too though it was Shea Stadium when I took the train there.

I have very little music on my calendar. I’m going to have to find some. The only thing I see in the next week is Mya on Tuesday. Is that possible? That makes this a good week to get together with friends. Who wants to see me? I think yesterday was my first meal with a friend since August. I hate when I get stretches like that. Today’s excitement is going to Aldi. I’m using a very broad definition of excitement.