January 2020

A dark, cold month, I suppose, because I don’t have a lot of pictures. And I spent the first week of the year having a spectacularly bad flu. But here are some of the pictures I do have from the later part of the month when I wasn’t sick at all.

JANUARY 17: Big Reunion when I get to visit Rob at a show he’s in town for. After catching up and getting the run through of the new collection, I dip into the MoMA for a bit. It’s a lot bigger now and, tbh, not sure how I feel about the renovation.

JANUARY 25: Big, big day: Andy’s Birthday. Party of the year every year. Later, a little bit of an LES walkaround and meeting Baby Yoda.

JANUARY 29: Dinner at the Usual with in-town Quentin, where we successfully predict that the restaurant’s days are numbered. But what can’t be numbered? How many of their amazing cheeseburgers I ate while they were open! (actually it was 8).

JANUARY 31: Oh, just some pictures going to and coming from work that I took.

I’ll be back with a MUCH bigger February post!

And Now, December

Handy to have this social distancing time to get caught up on the old blog. Let’s look at December 2019, a time when people roamed the streets, just doing stuff like it was no big deal.

December 4:
Went to Tara’s fancy party at the Ace Hotel, something you would really think I would have taken more than one photo of but, nope!

December 7: Ryan and Jeff slept over the night before. Went to Gotham West Market with Jeff for Corner Slice, checked on Hudson Yards for a bit, and then went down to see the Yayoi Kusama show as well see a new Richard Serra sculpture and a few other Chelsea gallery shows. Then that night I attended the annual Carols on Columbus concert, always a great Christmas kick-off.

December 14: Had the pleasure of volunteering at the Giving Machines with Chris. Had a few interesting people drop by while we were there to drop some money on charitable giving.

December 15: Rode the old-timey holiday train with Robert and Rebecca after church. May I recommend doing this sometime! You’ll really marvel at how much quieter our subway trains are now.

December 19: Was in pure Star Wars heaven opening night of Rise of Skywalker.

December 21: Home to Chicago! Emily picked me up from the airport and took me straight to Los Barrelitos for those super good tacos al pastor that they’ve got. Then we went out to the Oak Brook mall so I could make an exchange and check on this good old mall. And that evening I was reminded that nothing can bring a family together like sharing a decent meal at a crummy restaurant and complaining about it all the way home.

December 22: Wore the suit I bought from DI in 1995 for $7 to church. Then made the family enfrijoladas and Mom helped me make a dessert we're calling “snake surprise.”

December 23: Picking up Johnnie’s for the family, checking out who has good Johnnie’s line etiquette and who doesn’t, then went back to Oak Brook to enjoy a very nice meal with no complaints on the way home.

December 24: Greg joined us in Chicago and we took a hike walk. Then we ate chicken macaroni casserole for dinner and held our traditional Christmas Eve at home activities and went straight to bed.

December 25: Christmas! Made chilaquiles as part of the Christmas breakfast feast, got a new Scrubby guy, and flew home to New York to get right back to work the next day.

I Am Thankful For My Thanksgiving Trip

November 28th: Thanks to so many coincidences and kindnesses, I found myself taking in these favorite views late Thanksgiving morning.

I cannot put into words the jolly feeling that comes over me when I set foot in Mexico City, but that morning I stood waiting at passport control, looking at everyone else in line, thinking “I hope they all have a great time here in Mexico City.”

Thanks to my visit two years before with Mom, I was feeling like a real pro when it came to getting my Uber into town. Mid-afternoon traffic was a little thick and our route a little circuitous, but my driver kept me quite entertained along the way. When he told me that when his woman left him she took everything, “even the meat in the fridge” I laughed so hard I was afraid I wouldn’t stop. It was good to shake the dust off my speaking Spanish, the driver told me my Spanish was probably pretty good, I just needed to access my hard drive. What a guy!

I settled into the apartment I’d be sharing that weekend (but with whom? If you don’t already know, you’ll be finding out in a few photos!) and soon hit the lovely streets of La Condesa, heading for my Thanksgiving lunch.

Lunch was at Taqueria Orinoco, a place I had been dreaming of trying for I don’t know how long (probably two years, though). And my hosts, Derek and Rebecca and their boys met me there. That’s right! I was sharing a Mexico City apartment with fellow travelers Derek and Rebecca that weekend! Am I lucky or what?

Foodwise, I was in absolute heaven at Orinoco. I was too in love with the food to remember to get more photos of it. But a few bites in I was thinking that if I had flown to Mexico City, eaten at Orinoco, and then flown back home, really that itself would have been a pretty good trip. But lucky me, I didn’t have to go back after lunch! I got to stay for three more days!

After lunch we made friends with some chatty workers and headed through Roma, stopping at stores and parks and the Mexico Scouts headquarters and, yes, I grabbed a Peking duck taco, too.

Then we took a car to El Centro where Rebecca needed to meet with a famous card-presser. We saw some good Centro sites, I helped some guys with their homework, visited Pasteleria Idea, and then we ate dinners at Cocuyos and El Huequito. Honestly, it just doesn’t get better than a plate of campechano tacos from Cocuyos.

November 29: Can you believe this luck: I woke up the next morning and I was STILL in Mexico City! I left the apartment early (but not early enough) to get in line for chilaquiles tortas. I got there at 7:45, I was 15th in line, the stand opened at 8:00 and I had our breakfast sandwiches at 8:45. And it’s not that the workers there don’t hustle! It’s just that the people ahead of me were like ordering 20-30 sandwiches each to take to the office or whatever. And I don’t blame them! These tortas are great!

Now I had things I thought I was going to do that Friday morning, but I got a Facebook message from a friend from my dear precious days as a missionary in Mexico City only 22 years ago telling me his parents (who I understood to have moved out of the city) were workers at the Mexico City Temple during the week and would so glad to see me if I paid them a visit. Imagine my plans for the day a table covered with papers and books and then imagine me swiping them all to the floor because that’s what happened. Hunting down the Peñuelas was mission number one for the day. They didn’t know I was coming and I wasn’t sure exactly where or how to find them at the temple, but the short version of the story (and there’s a very long version I’d be glad to tell you sometime): I found them and the reunion was more than I would have dared dream.

Blessed beyond belief, I bid them farewell after a few hours and Ubered back to the center of the city for a quick visit to the Ciudadela market and a long walk back to the apartment.

The afternoon, evening and night were dedicated to a little culture with a visit to the plaza-sharing Soumaya and Jumex museums. Soumaya had all the good old stuff from before and Jumex had a major James Turrell show (and some dresses).

Someday maybe I’ll spend the better part of the daytime exploring Polanco by daylight, but once more I found myself happily walking to Taqueria Turex at the end of the day. Then I sampled the wares of La Casa al Pastor and a little more Polanco in the dark. I returned to the apartment for a friends’ late night long chat with Derek and Rebecca over some Churreria El Moro takeout, because that’s what it’s all about.

November 30: After a little family time at the apartment I walked to Chapultapec Park to see the pandas because I really can’t imagine passing up the chance to see pandas for free, no lines no waiting no crowd.

Then a little more park walking before I paid a visit to the Tamayo Museum which, well, I would have preferred they told me all the galleries were closed except one before I paid and went in, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Then I walked back to the apartment, grabbing a chile relleno taco at El Pescadito and a carnitas taco at Don Juan across the street. After a little apartment recharge I had some wonderful bites at nearby Molino Pujol, Enrique Olvera’s budget-friendly tortilleria.

Then I took a nice long walk through La Condesa, Roma, and whatever you have to walk through to get back to La Ciudadela again to find my roommates. Along the way I walked through Mexico Park for the first time and it was awesome, saw lots of different Scout Troops, saw another El Moro, saw lots of great deals on Hot Wheels cars and action figures for sale in parks, and ran into a few different sets of park tango dancers.

Meeting back up with the roommates, I learned that there’s a whole huge giant part of Ciudadela that I hadn’t noticed when I went the day before. After business was settled there we walked to El Centro and braved full-tilt, churro-rush hour original El Moro…an endeavor that no one ever said would be easy but is beyond worth it. Oh and also we were celebrating Rebecca’s birthday!

After dinner, a walk through a crowded beyond-belief Centro on our way to (drumroll) an evening of Lucha Libre! They confiscate (wow) your cameras at the door so I don’t have any pictures of the goings on inside but let me say: We had a great time.

December 1: And then the trip was over. Was able to spend enough time at the airport to enjoy a plate of Huevos a la Veracruzana and just marvel in disbelief over the magnificent fortunate that was mind to have visited this wonderful place again. And in such marvelous company! I don’t think trips get any better than this one but I am willing to try again if you want to go.