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THE WALK |
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NOW I am not quite sure how far of a walk it was over to the restaurant, but Vincent has a pretty quick paced walk, which was fine for me since I am tall, but poor little Val, with her burned foot. I kept looking back to make sure she was ok. I asked him if he had any suggestions for a Broadway show. I said Elise and Leslie were trying to convince us to go see Jekyll & Hyde, but I couldn't get past David Hasselhoff. He said he hadn't heard much about him, that you really need to be fair and give an actor at least a week before you can critique their performance. He said we could not go wrong with Aida, or the Mae West show (what was it called?). He also raved about Miss Saigon, since it was going to be ending soon. He had been leery to let Siena go due to the content, but since it was ending he was trying to convince her mother and stepfather to take her for the holidays. He mentioned Contact, I said I had already seen it, and he asked what I thought of it. I said I was surprised by it's format, but that I would see it again. He asked what I thought of the controversy with the Tony's, how it was really not a musical, with no singing, just movement. He spoke of how successful Boyd Gaines had been. |
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As we walked through Lincoln Center, he pointed out Juliard. A young guy then looked at him and asked him if he was on TV, Vincent kinda smirked, and said Yes, The guy said well what is your name, VI replied "Vincent, Vincent Irizarry" The guy was real psyched and said his mom would be soooo excited.
We then walked up Columbus? and Vincent said there was some great shopping here. As we walked past The Disney Store, I mentioned my daughter loved the new movie "102 Dalmations." He said that they have a great tape in there that his daughter loves "La Vida Mickey", based on current hits. I laughed (I KNOW my daughter will love this cause we have been known to be "shaking our bon bon's" around the house and it reminds me of one of her other favorite CD's Radio Disney) As we walked up this street, he caught the eye of a little girl in a stroller, who was flirting with him, batting her eyes, as he said "HI Honey." He rakes 'em in early huh?
He pointed out a few other things like the ABC studios and the OLTL studios. We finally arrived at the restaurant. |
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He had made reservations, and as we arrived we checked our coats and bags. I looked down to notice I still had my ABC tour pass stuck on my chest, he kinda motioned for me to take it off at the exact moment I was going to take it off (imagine where my mind could go here a la Dixie)
The restaurant was very small and intimate, dimmed lighting with natural light coming in. The one wall had tasteful art of nude women. (Val thinks he must have known we were HO's LOL) |
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We sat at a table for 4, with Val sitting across from Vincent (to stare into his eyes) and I to his right. Now came the dilemma of what kind of food to order. He asked if we wanted wine and we both declined. He said it was probably not a great idea with lunch anyway. He hummed alot while we were perusing the menu. He asked us if we were hungry and it hit me I had eaten nothing since our lunch with Mona the day before, I was famished. The waiter came to ask for our drink orders and Vincent had a boat load of questions to ask. What was the side? How was it prepared? It was sorta funny. He was a perfect gentleman and asked if we had any questions, I said no since he had already asked about what I was going to order, and Val asked about the chicken. We ordered our beverages, and Vincent asked if they had Lemonade. I almost burst out laughing to envision this classy place actually having lemonade. He then sorta whined like a kid "AWW I really like lemonade." He then ordered water with a slice of lemon.
Vincent wound up ordering Steak Frites with a Beet salad topped with horseradish. I ordered the Striped Bass, sauteed, a la nicoise, and Val ordered the Organic Free Range Chicken.
I just want to make a few general comments before I move into our lunch discussions. I will probably not go in any kind of order, since our conversations flowed from one conversation to the next. He is an extremely easy person to talk to and makes you feel like you are old friends. He maintained eye contact with both of us and made sure both us were enjoying ourselves the whole time. He is a wonderful storyteller. He made us feel so comfortable that I literally never even thought about eating, which everyone asks, OMG I wouldn't even be able to eat. Once our conversation started, eating was like second nature. He actually offered us bites of his food, and I will say that the beet salad was wonderful. He speaks of many of the topics with passion, most importantly his wife and daughters. When he spoke of his family on any topic, his face just beamed, radiating showing his true love for his family. |
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After he ordered, I teased him about all the questions he asked, and he said you should see my wife. He said she would ask tons of questions and then order something entirely different her way. He mentioned she would never survive on a mission to India, which they would love to do. She doesn't like to try new foods at all and loves, of all things, cafeteria food. She grew up on Luby's, a cafeteria style restaurant in Texas (she is from San Antonio) Her mother is widowed and dating, and the man is a shoo in because he loves Luby's. She even insists on eating hospital food if they visit someone. You could tell the whole time he spoke, she is very endearing to him. |
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Lunch conversation continued |
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