OTAS, you found it

With travel to FL, visitors in from out of town, working on weekend, etc., having a weekend without commitments is something of a rarity, these days: Last weekend was such a weekend.

Friday night I went with my friend Michael to see the Met’s production of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut.” After a relatively long week at work fighting with the boss, I would have been content (even preferred) an evening at a bar with a martini in hand. But we’d planned this for a while and there was no turning back. Man, am I glad I did. The opera, which isn’t often performed, was moving, and the cast was fantastic.

We drifted over to the Mandarin Oriental for a swank cocktail after. Bopping around town, first to Lincoln Center, then to Columbus Circle with my gym bag and laptop (which I rarely take with me) friends were joking that I’d become some sort of mule. Nonetheless I endured. There is a point to this, I promise.

I took a taxi home that night, which is something I don’t do too often. It was about 2am when I was dropped off. I walk up the stairs and realized: I only had one bag on me. Yep, after schlepping that thing around all night, I left it in the cab.

There was nothing I could do except call Taxi and Limo Commission and police to report it lost. Of course, my checkbook was in it too, so I had to place a stop payment on all my checks.

Looking on the bright side, I wouldn’t be able to work, then. So I woke up the next day and took care of dozens of errands, cleaned the bathroom, and went for a jog. It was a wonderful day. I then went to a dinner party where I met up with my old colleague and some of her HBS friends. We had a ball. One guest was a reporter for Fox news that night (we talked about beauty products) the rest were typical of what Mercer analysts go on to do. . . go to graduate school to make gobs of money in Finance, or live the life of an academic. There were a couple of obnoxious egos there, but it was otherwise fine.

The next day was Super Bowl Sunday and I found myself in Queens at a party with potato chips, chili, and baked brie with Shrimp (don’t ask). Not really knowing what I was doing there, I found myself engrossed in the game. By the end I found myself cheering for the Giants and having a ball.

So there you have it. Perhaps the most eclectic weekend imaginable: From opera and the Mandarin to a dinner party with Harvard’s heavy hitters, to cleaning my toilets, to a super bowl party in Queens.

# posted by otas : 10:50 AM