Leaving Paradise

The weather the last few days has been exquisite.  January in Miami is typically the most beautiful weather month, and today is a prime example...brilliant sunshine, almost comically blue skies, temperature in the high 60s, and a lovely cooler night coming.  Someone would have to be crazy to leave this to travel to gray and freezing NYC, or they would have to, like me, have a daughter there they adore.

So on Thursday, Wifey, D1, and I will jet up to LGA.  I don't really mind the cold -- D1 and Wifey do.  D1 has been calling her sister daily for weather updates, and Wifey has already been setting out her North Face (tm) Arctic-level coat.  As if she would forget to take it!

On Friday, my baby daughter turns 25, and we're going up to celebrate.  D1 has our restaurant list all picked out -- with a small assist for me.  Thursday we're going to Pietro's -- I just read an article about them in the Times.  They're the last remaining Mad Men era Midtown steakhouse.  The Palm is there, of course, but it's now a chain.  The other classic places, where three martini lunches and NY Strips were readily served, are gone.  But Pietro's remains, and we're headed there.  I hope D2's man Jonathan can get off work early enough to join us.  Right now, it looks iffy...

D2 is taking off Friday -- something she NEVER does.  We plan to have brunch at Sadelle's, and then play tourist -- maybe see the observation platform at the new Freedom Tower, and the cool new train station -- maybe the Whitney Museum, which D2 can get us to free, as a Macy's executive.  I guess we'll see how it goes.  Friday night we have reservations at a sushi place in what is now called NYC's Little Japan.  Who knew?  Apparently this is a thing there, now, and we'll go check it out.

Saturday night is the big event -- we're hosting about 20 friends of D2's at Sammy's Romanian, on the Lower East Side.  I took D2 to Sammy's a few years back, with Jonathan, and it became a favorite.  The food is ok -- skirt steaks, chopped liver, kreplach...and they serve Stoli bottles in blocks of ice.  But the real fun is the DJ -- an enormous Israeli with Borscht Belt humor, who keeps everyone dancing and laughing.  Sammy's is essentially the best bar mitzvah party anyone has ever attended, and that's how D2 plans to mark her first century on the planet.  I admire her style and taste -- my Dad would have, too.

By Sunday we should all be in a food coma, and recovering from the weekend.  We then get to return to paradise -- not a bad gig at all.

The years truly have flown.  It seems far less than 23 years ago that I'd return home from work,  and Wifey would greet me at the door with our gorgeous baby in her arms -- and D2 would push Wifey away to get to me.  She was a Daddy's girl from the beginning -- Wifey would laugh, and ask if she were just a mean nanny or something.

And then D2 would be off to annoy her Marcia Brady-like sister -- ruining D1's perfectly set play stages, or interrupting D1's dance performances.  Now the two are best friends, something Wifey and I encouraged greatly.  Mission accomplished.

So we will fly to the cold for the warmest of warmth -- the love of D2, as she celebrates a milestone.  Bring on the cold weather!