Claw of Attraction

And so, another birthday has come and gone.

I turned 62 Good-Jumping-Jesus-Years-Old on Friday and it’s time for some reflection.

This is a period when I ponder the important questions of life.

Why am I here? What is my purpose? And who threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s chowder?

Then again, I could always say “fuck that noise” and go out and have a rip-snorting good time instead.

Well, I decided to choose Option B this year and I must confess Birthday No. 62 was a trip.

For some reason I was in a good mood this year and I resisted any and all attempts to deconstruct my senseless joy in the face of unstoppable decrepitude.

I decided to draw strength from a timeless source of wisdom: a fortune cookie from my local Chinese restaurant that contained a simple message: “The older the crab, the tougher his claw.”

Now who could possibly argue with such brilliance? People keep telling me how crabby I am. Hell, I'm the crustacean sensation and I am going to skip sideways through life and claw my way to happiness.

I behaved like an absolute child on Friday, shamelessly telling everyone I met “It’s my birthday!”—including one of my sources in London whom I’ve never met in the real world. No matter: my birthday should unite the entire world

My most wonderful sister Joan took me out to dinner at a local Japanese restaurant and our dear buddy Maria joined us for a night of food, wine, and more wine.

On Saturday, me, sister, and auntie met up with my cousin and her husband for a trip to the Hudson Yards.

Crab & Go

I had been wanting to get over to this overhauled section of Manhattan which includes a shopping mall—big surprise--and the Vessel, this odd-looking monument with 154 interconnecting flights of stairs and 80 landings.

I should mention that I worked in this area in the early Eighties and again in the late Nineties and, as always, I’m stunned at how formerly deserted, seemingly forgotten parts of this city are reclaimed and revitalized.

The area and the nearby Highline were packed with people on Saturday, largely due to the holiday weekend and bolstered by the fact there are now actually things to see and do around there.

My cousin had gotten tickets to climb the Vessel and I confess that I was a little apprehensive as I have slight issue with heights. And when I say “slight issue,” naturally I mean a blinding, indescribable terror that defies all logic and sanity.

But I recently saw a couple of memes on Instagram that are worth repeating.

One says “everything you want is on the other side of fear,” while the other says “most of the stuff you’re worrying about won’t happen.”

Both of these little ditties came into play on Saturday. I quickly found that there was nothing to fear on the Vessel, as long as I didn’t look straight down. I’m glad I didn’t give into my fear and miss out on this experience.

Our luck held out when we were looking for a place to eat and stumbled across a great little Italian place called Tavola, where the gracious host seated us even though we didn’t have a reservation. This a real Italian restaurant with fabulous food in a great old timey setting.

The host was a real character who confessed that the reason he seated us was because he could tell my auntie was from Calabria--and our side of the family actually is from this part of Italy. How he could tell this about my auntie, who was born in America, I have no idea.

“You say ‘no’ to a Calabrese woman,” he said, blessing himself dramatically, “God help you!”

Now I’m taking it easy today. I’ve got the usual holiday weekend “To-Do” list, of course, but I think I’ll go to the park and enjoy the sun.

Even a crab needs some fun.