broadway goes dark

my college friend and i decided to meet up today to do some catching up.

i suggested an afternoon broadway matinee. she agreed and we decided to meet at the tkts booth for some discounted tickets. on my way there, i saw some things that were not supposed to be there: i.e. news vans on every other street, picket lines, demonstrators, the works. then i realized, broadway's stagehands are on strike.

these are the people we don't get to see because they are the ones who run the show. people have been talking about it for weeks, months even, but i didn't think it would happen this week. yes, long-planned and long-threatened strike by stagehands became a reality and thousands of theater-goers were left holding tickets to shows that shut down. i saw a young girl on the verge of tears as her parents consoled her. they probably spent a lot for the trip to new york and the tickets and when they got to the theater, all they saw was a bunch of people marching.

tough luck.

so we walked 10 blocks to columbus circle to grab some food at whole foods. our lunch was alright, well, it was good actually. healthy good. had some chicken tikka masala, basmati rice and some vegetables and my friend had fruits, grilled chicken and some leaves. hahaha.

after lunch, we walked towards central park and stayed for a while, just people-watching. i called one of our college-mates and asked if he could join us. he was kinda sick but since we haven't seen each other in a year (my friend and he has not seen each other for 10 years!) he obliged. we decided to meet up at the west village.

in a little less than 30 minutes, we were there. we looked around, window-shopped and i made a very nice discovery: over at bath and body works, i am a big fan of bigelow products, specially their lip balms (and with this weather we're having, lip balms are God's blessings!). imagine my surprise to find out that their original apothecary is in manhattan and we happened to just stumbled into it.

it was nothing fancy. it was probably how apothecaries of yore looked like. this one was established in the 1800s so you can imagine how old and rustic and nice it is. it was like stepping into an old era. i've only read about apothecaries in books so i was excited to be in one, and the bigelow apothecary at that.

few blocks down we hit nyu, then washington square park, then saw this quaint little cafe in the heart of greenwich village. it's also old and rustic so i was naturally drawn. it's called cafe reggio, the "home of the original cappuccino". of course we ordered the house special, mine with chocolate toppings and my friend, cinnamon. it was heaven. it was that good. i've had great cappuccinos before, from milk on beverly blvd to urth caffe in west hollywood but this one was really god-damn good. perfect for the weather outside.

after a few sips, a called and was asking where we were. in a few minutes, he was there and what followed was almost two hours of catching up with stories both sad and happy. we promised to meet again in the future as we bade each other goodbye. a had to go to a "meeting". sure.