Overall this weekend was both good and wasteful. I flew in Thursday night to 1) get in more family time, 2) get in more friends time and 3) make sure I was there for my uncle's 50th birthday party on Friday evening.
Of course none of my friends could meet Thursday night since everyone was back at work, and most people lived too far for a quick get-together. Ditto on Friday during the day, with the family event Friday night. Saturday during the day was another waste... no one was available to hang out. Saturday night was great. I met up with "Aris" for dinner and (many) drinks in the city. Sunday morning I saw a friend for brunch in Brooklyn. I hadn't seen her in 3 years so it was good to catch up. Then Sunday afternoon/evening no one was around to hang out either so I changed my flight from leaving Monday morning to Sunday night. So the hanging out that I did do was great, but there was too much down time... which is not a good thing when the result is me sitting around my grandma's apartment listening to her and my mother argue nonsense all the time.
The Russians
My uncle's party was at a Russian restaurant which I assume is his favorite because he always goes there (my grandfather's wake, his 25th wedding anniversary, etc). For those who haven't been to Russian restaurants for large parties, here's how it goes:
1) it's BYOB, and my uncle B'd 2 large boxes of vodka, cognac, and wine for 30 people;
2) there are no menus. The table is set before everyone arrives with platters of cheese, salami, fish, etc... and as the platters empty, more stuff comes out. Two signature dishes are fried potatoes, and crepes with red caviar. There are benefits and drawbacks to this style of service. The bad is, if you don't like salami or fish, or potatoes, there's not much to eat, and the menu is always the same from one party to the next (one year to the next). The good is, if you do like that kind of food, it's heaven, and even if you only like some of the food, you can easily fill up on anything you like.
3) no Russian restaurant is complete without live entertainment involving scantily dressed young girls doing covers of American/Latin songs in a thick Russian accent. They throw in some Russian songs as well. At the beginning, they had a large screen playing some Christina Aguilera concert. As dinner got going, the "MC" came out dressed in a bright red suit complete with bowler hat, and passed the mic around for the toasts. Then he joined the "band" either behind the piano, or on the accordion (yeah, that's right).
It was just our party at the restaurant so we sort of "ran" the place. We had them turn the music up or down, depending on our mood. Half the guests also decided they couldn't wait an hour, or god-forbid, step outside for their cigarette, so there was lots of chain smoking at the table. My uncle, the guest of honor, was only at the table about 25% of the night. Every time someone wanted to toast him, he was nowhere to be found. I think he was the only person considerate enough to step out for his cigarettes, and since he can only go about 2 minutes between them, he was running back and forth quite a lot.
I think an experience at a Russian restaurant can be summarized by this sign, posted by the entrance:
Stupid People
I'm generally a very patient person, but one thing that really gets me, is the stupidity of people, especially in airports. Aiport stupidity is particularly irritating since it directly affects me by increasing my waiting time in lines. The biggest problem at the JetBlue terminal in JFK used to be people coming up to the bag-drop counter without their boarding pass, even though there are 50 open machines by the entrance with big signs telling everyone to print their boarding pass before getting in line to check their bags. It would really piss me off when 3-4 people in a row would go up to the counter without their boarding pass. If the terminal was really busy, the agent would just go through the check in process and print the boarding pass for them which would take 5-10 minutes when it should take 1. Thankfully, this problem has mostly been solved by roping off the bag-check counters and having an agent check for a boarding pass before allowing someone to get in line.
Yesterday, I saw several new forms of stupidity. This one couple packed their 2 suitcases so that one was much heavier than the other. This resulted in the guy opening both suitcases on the floor in front of the counter and repacking! I kept wanting to scream "get out of the line asshole and repack where you're not holding up a line of people." Immediately after him, was a girl with a personal item, her purse, a carry-on suitcase, and a lamp shade. She had a 5 minute discussion with the agent about the fact that the lamp shade was indeed considered a carry-on and she would need to ether check it or her suitcase. "Well, which one should I check?" Let's see... the lampshade, which will get thrown around and crushed, or your suitcase, which is made for checking? Idiot.
I'm sure these were all smart people in the book sense, but they weren't very smart in the practical sense. Too many people these days lack any ability to make practical decisions. I'm not even talking about "street smarts," just your normal human consideration for others around you. Have your frakking ID out when you walk up to the counter and security too. Rummaging through your purse or wallet for 2 minutes is annoying for everyone behind you. And who these days isn't aware that you have to take your laptop out for the x-ray?
/rant
Ok, I feel better now. Happy week 2 of 2007!
