Sans Monkeys

Three months ago Kristy and I went out with our friends and without any children. We just got around to doing it again last night because it takes that long to plan one of these outings. We all have to coordinate sitters during weekend nights when no one else has plans, or is out of town, or has to work, and it all becomes a really big headache. You start to wonder if it’s even worth it. But it was. It was because there were no children. And that’s really why we have children, to get away from the children. The children Kristy and I left last night happened to be sick, too. At least two of them were. Yet we went anyway because that’s the kind of commitment we have to getting away from our kids.

As of late afternoon Friday the plan was to eat sushi out east, but with a flurry of last-minute E-mails this was changed to Midtown Northern Italian at our favorite restaurant, Bari. Phone calls yesterday confirmed that Bari was booked, so other plans were hastily arranged by people other than me, and we ended up at Marena’s for some Exquisite Dining (it says so on their menu). We all met up early for a drink at Fresh Slices, which has no bar to speak of and I’d like to apologize now to the couple trying to eat their dinner seated at the two-top so close to where we were all huddled up with our beers. We walked down to Marena’s and found two delightful little Mediterranean decorated rooms, dim lighting, and service that was so bad it became laughable. Laughable for seven of the eight of us anyway. We talked a bit about the kids we left behind and laughed at their expense because that’s another reason we have kids (incidentally, the third reason to have kids is so you have someone to take over the crime syndicate some day, because you should never trust anyone outside the family). Other conversation revolved around how electric cars, Ed Begley Jr. and Al Gore could save this very planet, college fundraising, religion or the lack of, the tastiness of baby animals, booze, weddings and other nuggets that will never make it into this blog.

Despite the last-minute scrambling for a location and the truly bad service, it was a wonderful evening full of good food, wine, talk and friends. I’m looking forward to sometime in May when we can possibly do this again. We really should start thinking about it now, though, so we can get that ball rolling five hours before we’re to meet.