• Barred

    Rippers

    October 31, 2017

    When: Friday, 2:11pm

    I came face to face with my evil twin seated at a picnic table at Rippers on a summer Friday during my annual trek to a New York beach. We were both wearing sunglasses, and I always think people are staring at me when I’m stoned, so maybe it was my imagination that this woman was locking eyes intently with me. She definitely was mouthing what I thought were songs playing, not actually singing aloud, though maybe she was trying to communicate with me. We were roughly the same age, height, body type, though she was blonde and I’m a graying brunette. She had a small faded Snoopy tattoo on her upper arm where I have a small faded Hello Kitty (that I re-energized and elaborated on the year before last). She was extremely tan with red sunburnt patches and I am pale. She was drinking wine out of a plastic cup while mine was filled with beer. She was a dog person based on her tote bag. I like cats.

    Summer 2016 I got in a not-quite-fight on my annual beach trip and later ended up puking all over garbage bags on the sidewalk. I never talked to that friend again. So, beach trip 2017 sparked less drama, which had held true for the entire year to date.

    Age appropriate? Most NYC beaches are, though the Rockaways are the most millennial-friendly.

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  • Middle Ages

    Don’t Age!

    October 22, 2017
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    I’m not that comfortable with aging. I always thought that, not being such an obvious beauty, that it would be easy for me to age. You know, when you don’t have your looks that disappear. But I had something else. I realized that I had youth, for a long, long time. And now it’s gone. You don’t want to be reminded that you’re not 30 anymore. I don’t enjoy it.

    I appreciate Charlotte Gainsbourg’s honest response to a question regarding something she said about possibly giving up acting. Maybe that’s her reality at 46. Yet somehow I was bothered more by the super-French response to how she “stays so beautiful and glamorous and skinny.”

     

    [Laughs.]

    Well, skinny is easy. Don’t eat!  

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  • Barred

    Chase Sapphire Lounge

    October 13, 2017

    When: Monday, 7:30pm

    My points and miles mania only struck in middle-age and now I’m a proud member of a Chase Sapphire Reserve card (and Amex Platinum, which is way too much) so I thought it would be fitting to extend this dorky hobby and have a drink at the temporary Chase Sapphire Lounge at the Seaport despite the location not being convenient in the least.

    It turned out that it was the opposite of exclusive and anyone could order a plastic cup filled with frosé. Also, the initial bartender was kind of a dick (he gave us a look when we asked for a menu and said there wasn’t one, though there was). But there was a blue bowl of free chapstick with the Chase logo, so it all balanced out.

    Was I carded? No, neither based on age nor Chase Sapphire card-holder status.

    Age appropriate? Corporately sponsored open-air bars in tourist zones aren’t exactly the province of the young. I spied one grown woman singing along with the ‘80s tunes that ran the gamut from Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” to Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way.”

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