Tea at the Marquis with Vincent Irizarry
September 16, 2000
It was the best of times, it was the worst of timing.......
My adventure started about 4 weeks before the Tea was to be held. I had been fortunate enough to go see Vincent Irizarry and Cameron Mathison in Bellmore, NY. As I sat thru this show I had some realization that I had a fever of 105, and was barely tolerating solid food. On my arrival home, it became apparent that a hospitalization for my Crohn's disease was inevitable. CATScans later that week revealed an abcess which would need to be treated with surgery. NOW my first thought was NO! I have tickets to go see Steve Burton and Billy Warlock (Jason & AJ from GH) this Saturday. (I was really bummed these front row tickets went to waste :-( ) But on August 27th I went under the knife!!
As my surgeons discharged me 10 days later, one of my first questions was "Do you think I am strong enough to make a trip to NYC in 2 weeks?" They said as long as I didn't lift, pull, or push anything more than 5 pounds. So once I got that answer, I KNEW I was going to go. Nothing would keep me from meeting some cybersisters and seeing a few hunks along the way.
So, 2 weeks later on September 15th, My cousin, Michaela and myself were headed to the BIG Apple. Our bus out of Atlantic City was leaving at noon. When we got to the bus terminal there were NO parking spots, and I started to freak out. We wound up parking about 4 blocks from the terminal and running (and huffing) the whole way to the terminal. We got to the bus at 11:59. Boy someone was watching over us. We even had time to take a pic!! ;-)
We gabbed the whole ride up about things only girks talk about. When we arrived in NYC we decided to get a little lunch before we walked over to the hotel. As we sat in the little deli, Ki says to me "You will never guess who just walked in?" "Vincent Irizarry" Well as any good HO would do, I whipped my head around to the site of a man around 5 foot 4, dark hair, and around 65 years old. I was just about to kill her. (remember this story, because it will replay itself later, unbeknownst to ME)
We finally made our way over to the Marriot Marquis, which was right smack dab in the middle of Times Square. We were on the 41st floor overlooking Times Square, and our view was just incredible. We figured that we would have had a perfect vantage point during the New Year's Eve festivities. At this point I needed to rest in the room for a little bit. We then went down to meet Elise(Audiodoc) and Elizabeth(Turk) so I could make arrangements to meet Elise for our Broadway show and dinner.
Elise and I decided to go uptown near the Lincoln Center to catch some dinner before our show, which was at the Vivian Beaumont Center. Once we finally located the theatre (after much hunting and asking a security guard) we decided to walk for a little bit since it was just a gorgeous nite. We finally decided to eat at an Italian cafe out on the sidewalk, called Fiorello's?? I so wish my diet was back to normal because some of the things on the menu just looked outstanding, but I had to go with the basic veal parm. When they brought my dinner out I was AMAZED. It was the largest veal parm I had ever seen, pounded so thin and tender. No veal parm I will ever eat will top this.
Now at this point of the evening, Elise says to me "You will never guess who is sitting at a table here?" to which I of course replied, "Vincent Irizarry I am sure HAHA" She said "No I am serious, what is his name" I turned discreetly and recognized the man immediately, the real ugly guy from Homicide, and Law & Order: SVU. Munch. what was his name??!! Oh yeah Richard Belzer. He was much thinner in person and just as ugly. He was sharing a bottle of red wine, with a young blond woman. and two men joined them a little later during dinner.
We had a great time at dinner talking about all kinds of things, a D&D fan and a D&E fan. We got along with no problem until Elise HAD to ask, please tell me why you like D&D, I just need to understand. We had some good laughs, talked civil, and continued to have a smashing time. And then it was time to head to the theatre.
