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enoying culture for Gretchen's birthday
Friday, January 16 2026
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, New York
At some point in the last 30 years my right upper wisdom tooth received a root canal but not a crown. Supposedly a tooth with a root canal becomes brittle, which is why one normally installs a crown in place of the tooth. Without a crown, that tooth did indeed become brittle, and under the stress of the strong bite forces close to the jaw joint, that tooth gradually shed mass. Every now and then I'd feel a crunch as a new piece calved off the tooth like an iceberg from the Greenland ice sheet. In recent years, there was little of the tooth left protruding above the gum line. I didn't think much of this; if the tooth entirely disappeared on its own, it wouldn't much matter. But this morning I noticed an unusual pain coming from the gum covering part of the tooth. And when I ran my tongue over that painful spot, I could feel that flesh was unusually smooth, lacking the normal gum texture. This could only mean one thing: the gum was swollen, probably from an infection. I immediately took action with the waterpik, blasting the gum at a high pressure setting and aiming for the bits of the old wisdom tooth that were still reaching up through the gum. I did this until the water dug in to a place that hurt. After that, the gum felt tender but also relieved, and by the end of the day the gum was no longer swollen and that part of my mouth had returned to a painless equilibrium.
Gretchen's birthday would be coming in a few days, and one way she likes to celebrate it is by going down to Manhattan and doing cultural activities with husband, a guy who (frankly) doesn't much enjoy spending time that. But for her birthday, she wanted me to accompany her to the city and go on her adventures "without complaining." I figured I have enough free will do do that.
So early this afternoon, we drove in the Bolt down to Old Hurley to drop off our dogs with Ray and Nancy. Charlotte was so excited as she stood on their porch waiting for us to let her in that she was trembling violently. And then she was so animated as she greeted Jack the Dog that the kitchen floor behaving like a skating rink, where her paws could find no purchase. We were there about fifteen minutes, which Gretchen didn't register as any time at all, but it was enough time that we were wondering if we'd still have time to get oak milk cappuccinos at the New Paltz Dunkin Donuts before catching our bus to Port Authority at the park & ride. Taking a chance, Gretchen phoned in our order while I drove noticeably above the 65 mph speed limit. We got to to Dunkin with minutes to spare and our order was aleady ready. I'd probably drunk a quarter of my drink by the time we boarded our bus. We sat in the back-most seat of the bus like teenagers going to school. That seems like a good idea until you factor in the presence of the bathroom, which became fairly active as we approached the Lincoln Tunnel. The ride went quickly, with us both playing Spelling Bee but not figuring out the panagram ("malefic").
Gretchen had made a reservation at Pestana, a hotel near Port Authority, and we checked in there immediately. Our room was 1708, on the sixteenth floor (as there is no 13th floor in that building). That's high up, far enough above the street to be reasonably quiet, though, since it is surrounded by other tall buildings, there isn't an amazing view.
We weren't in our room long before it was time to go to dinner. Gretchen had made an early 5:00pm reservation at Al Andalus in Alphabet City (in the East Village), and this required us to ride several subways to get there. It being early, we were among the first diners there. It's cozy restaurant with lots of pointed arches as part of its North-African/south Spanish theme. The food there is entirely vegan and is served as tapas. I'm not a huge fan of food in this form (I prefer a large portion of something I definitely want to eat), but again, I'd agreed to do everything Gretchen wanted to do without complaint. The first tapa that came out was the simit, which is a circular bread covered with sesame seeds and served with a dip and it was amazing, although the baladi pita with za'atar butter that followed was a disappointing. Later I ate nearly all of the mushroom schwarma, as it was more of a me thing than a Gretchen thing, which she seemed to really like the koshari pie (which included macaroni elbows, among other things). As for drinks, I had the azafran old fashioned, a rye-based beverage that was great, whereas Gretchen had to send her first drink back, as it was too smoky for either of us. Gretchen found the attitude of one of the staff annoying when he came up during dessert and joked about how unlikely it was that one of the items could taste so good and still be vegan.
It took us another couple subways to get back to Midtown to attend the cultural event for the evening, a two-person play called Circle written by Suzanne B., a woman Gretchen had known in Oberlin (we'd attended at least one of her other plays in the past). Starring in the play was Suzanne's husband Bob. The venue tonight was tiny, with seating for fewer than 25 people, and the stage came pre-set with various stations, each containing props for a scene. It was a very sexy show, with the two actors playing a variety of characters. After the first scene, the woman played the same characters as in the first scene while the man played a different character. Then she played a different character in the next scene while his character was the same, all the way around until the male actor was playing the same character from the first scene. Meanwhile, the props included things like keyboards (for a cybersex scenes), a whip (for a scene where both characters played mismatched submissives), and a turkey baster (where two gay characters decide they should probably make a baby the old-fashioned way). There was a fair amount of costume changing and a little minor nudity, though all of the actual sex was implied with industrial sound effects in a brief moment of complete darkness. It was an enjoyable show even for someone like me, and I didn't find myself hoping it would end like I usually do. After it was all over, I chatted some with Bob, Suzanne's husband and the male actor. He chuckled about a review I'd apparently written (probably something on this website) that he claimed to have on his desk to this day. I got the impression it wasn't kind (as I rarely am), but I laughed along with him. Circle will be going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so Gretchen was excited to tell our Scottish friends (and entertainment journalists) Kelly & Brian about it.
After the show, Gretchen and I walked through the bitter cold (though we both had good coats) to a sports bar called the Mercury Bar to give it a try. It's full of screens playing many different sports, and one would normally not think such a place would be our thing. But they have a second, completely vegan menu, and Gretchen wanted to see what the vibe was. I drank a beer and Gretchen had something mildly alcoholic as we watched a men's basketball game. I'm so used to women's basketball that the men looked like they'd somehow been stretched. Gretchen like the Mercury Bar and wanted to come back tomorrow before catching our bus back to New Paltz.
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