The Morgan, Online Dates & Maverick Sabre

Ohhhh I am so very lazy when it comes to posting about my recent vacation - recent my arse. I'm just so busy and tired from work and working out all the time. I did have a nice weekend though, I met my friend Melissa for brunch at Riverpark on Saturday - deeee-licious smoked trout cake - and then after wards we headed to the Morgan Library to check out the Xu Bing exhibit, the living world, which the artist is currently installing.

Here's a photo from the Morgan Library website of how the piece will look once the installation is complete.


We also came across a gem of an exhibit on lists, which is much more interesting than it probably sounds. It's basically a collection of different lists: to do lists, shopping lists, lists of people, wish lists, any kind of list you can imagine, created by a whole bunch of different artists including a list of artists recommended by Picasso for inclusion in the 1913 Armory art show. My favourite though was the illustrated list by Adolf Konrad of the clothing he packed for his trips.

I am a woman after Adolph's heart in that I write lists of the clothing I plan to pack. I probably shouldn't admit to this, but before I pack I write lists of outfits I think are good to take and then I find I can switch out clothing items so as to maximize total outfits while minimizing the amount of clothing I need to take with me. Essentially I create a vacation capsule wardrobe for each trip, but I mine aren't represented as beautifully as Mr. Konrad's, since I tend to write descriptions like "lilac Anthropologie top, AG Jeans, Blue J Crew cardi."


Anywayyyyy on Sunday I had a date. How was it you say? Why thank you for asking, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons to be honest. We'd planned to meet at 6pm for a coffee at Once Upon A Tart on Sullivan St in SoHo, a cafe I've been to many many times - fantastic buttermilk scones - and so since we both knew the place we hadn't discussed the address in any of our email exchanges, however it occurred to me on Sunday to look it up, just in case, to make sure there weren't 2 branches. As I thought there was only one branch, but I happened to check the opening hours and noted that the place closed at 6pm on Sundays. Okay, no big deal, but I sent my date a text message to give him a heads up and said lets just meet outside the place anyway and we can go on somewhere else. After checking the MTA website to see how the subway trains were running I found out the 6 trains were running express between 14th street and Brooklyn Bridge, so at 5.10pm I summoned up the requisite enthusiasm to leave my apartment - I rarely look forward to dates, which I suppose is a good thing as that way I tend not to be too disappointed if they don't go well, but on Sunday I was feeling less thrilled than usual having only managed 4 hours of sleep the night before - my brain wouldn't switch off - and also being in the throes of the first day of woman's week which had left me with an aching lower back and a sore stomach - with the intention of taking the 6 to 14th street and then taking a slow walk - too too hot to walk fast this Sunday - down to Sullivan St instead of taking the express train to Brooklyn Bridge and then a local train back up town for a few stops.

Anyway transportationally speaking all went as planned and by 5.55pm I was on the corner of Mercer and Houston in good time to be outside the coffee shop as arranged when my phone rang.

"Hi, it's D__, I just saw your text, that's a shame the coffee shop is closed, I'm actually just about to get on a C-train at 96th...."

Um....what!!!!!!!

Seriously he's supposed to be meeting me in SoHo in 5-minutes and he calls to tell me he's still at 96th street - 5miles away for the uninitiated - not really offering an apology or a valid reason for being late.

"Okayyyyyy," I responded

"I don't supposed there's any chance you live on the upper west side?" he asked.

"No, I don't and I'm already downtown," I responded in a somewhat cool tone.

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can"

I was too shocked to tell him to stuff his date - which is pretty much what I thought when I hung up the call - and instead told him to call me when he arrived and I would meet him somewhere and headed off to see my one true love, Anthropologie, which thankfully doesn't close until 8pm on Sundays. I never knew that. Anyway I killed a good 20minutes in there and tried on a few bits, although amazingly I didn't buy so much as a sausage, so I patted myself on the back for that, but the whole time I was consumed with thoughts about how I just didn't want to bother with the date after all and was tempted to leave him a voicemail letting him know that I'd headed home. I didn't, but I was very tempted.

At 6.30pm he called and we met on the corner of Sullivan and Prince and ended up going for a drink at Red Bench where we were the only customers and our very pleasant bartender was celebrating her birthday. Anyway he did apologise for being late and for suggesting a place that happened to be closed, but he didn't really offer me a valid explanation for being late beyond admitting to being a bit crap generally at being on time for social appointments and then added that he needed to head back to the UWS to meet friends for dinner at 8pm.

Right!!

Anyway had he won me over with his sparkling repartee I may have given him a second chance, but he didn't really, so it's a definitive no from me I'm afraid.

Between this and the pervy middle of the night texts and emails I was getting from a pedicab fleet owning bloke - seriously I was getting "I want to $%&# you" texts at 3am before we'd even met!!! - I'm wondering how much longer I'll stick out online dating.

I love this song, although there's something about his singing style that really reminds me of Finlay Quaye




And now take it away Finlay...