Avon Walk Weekend....I think the biggest shocker of all is that Suse didn't have to break out her sewing k
it so Mary could perform surgery on our battered toes and tootsies...and she didn't have to break out her ice packs and foot baths and Epsom salt...and we didn't limp to a cab after the night came to a close -- in fact we walked back to our hotel...and we didn't drift to a restless sleep fully expecting that we would have to be rescued the next morning by FDNY and a slew of EMT's because we couldn't get out of bed. None of that...instead, we are healthy and filled with joy and there is a spring in our (kind of creaky and sore) step... What was not a surprise at all this time around, was that we were inspired and uplifted and thrilled to be together, thrilled as a team and as friends -- all of the Jugheads, past and present, led by Kath -- thrilled to be united in this effort...and to celebrate it with one another...as I always say, we are truly blessed and lucky...and thankful.
it so Mary could perform surgery on our battered toes and tootsies...and she didn't have to break out her ice packs and foot baths and Epsom salt...and we didn't limp to a cab after the night came to a close -- in fact we walked back to our hotel...and we didn't drift to a restless sleep fully expecting that we would have to be rescued the next morning by FDNY and a slew of EMT's because we couldn't get out of bed. None of that...instead, we are healthy and filled with joy and there is a spring in our (kind of creaky and sore) step... What was not a surprise at all this time around, was that we were inspired and uplifted and thrilled to be together, thrilled as a team and as friends -- all of the Jugheads, past and present, led by Kath -- thrilled to be united in this effort...and to celebrate it with one another...as I always say, we are truly blessed and lucky...and thankful.But I am getting ahead of myself...of course, the weekend was not 
without its moments -- silly and confusing and odd and confounding and embarrassing...but mostly just memorable. So Suse and Mary and Helen and I were roomies at that Marriott over by Smith & Wollensky and after check-in, where we tried to scare one another with fake bedbug sightings...and after we hit the Avon registration site at that Sheraton on 7th Avenue, where my Blackberry kept buzzing and telling me I was receiving more donations by the second -- the final from a Tim Driscoll, who I could not place as a friend or acquaintance and in a panic I started texting my sisters and college and high school friends asking if I was blanking on someone that I should know...the name was familiar enough...who was this Tim Driscoll and his last minute $100 donation?? Turns out Sandy had placed my link on his Facebook page and Tim was a grammar school pal of his...a grammar school pal of Sandy's just gave me $100...a guy he hadn't seen in a few years...how amazing and so generous and I was beyond touched...so thanks, Timmy D....I should make you dinner...
without its moments -- silly and confusing and odd and confounding and embarrassing...but mostly just memorable. So Suse and Mary and Helen and I were roomies at that Marriott over by Smith & Wollensky and after check-in, where we tried to scare one another with fake bedbug sightings...and after we hit the Avon registration site at that Sheraton on 7th Avenue, where my Blackberry kept buzzing and telling me I was receiving more donations by the second -- the final from a Tim Driscoll, who I could not place as a friend or acquaintance and in a panic I started texting my sisters and college and high school friends asking if I was blanking on someone that I should know...the name was familiar enough...who was this Tim Driscoll and his last minute $100 donation?? Turns out Sandy had placed my link on his Facebook page and Tim was a grammar school pal of his...a grammar school pal of Sandy's just gave me $100...a guy he hadn't seen in a few years...how amazing and so generous and I was beyond touched...so thanks, Timmy D....I should make you dinner...So after all that, and after a detour to Helen's parents' 
pad with the most flawless view of St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rock Center and The Empire State Building and the cleaning lady who didn't understand our attempts to communicate in her native Spanish, we girls refreshed and spruced up and headed to dinner at Tao. So, if I am being honest, I think Tao is kind of like some cosmopolitan P.F. Chang's...all theme-y and family-friendly. Despite its once chic past, the joint was jamming with city families with young children and grannies...and we sat among them with the little buzzer the hostess gave us in hand and ordered our pseudo exotic Asian-themed drinks -- a Saketini (Mary), a Ruby Red Dragon (Suse), a Tiger Lily (Helen) and a TAO-jito (moi...). My choice of beverage was made based on my inability to metabolize the ubiquitous vodka without turning into the b**tard love child of Lindsay Lohan and Cruella DeVil's meaner sister...and also the by-the-glass price of the 
Moet rose champagne, which I prefer and can pound and might have put me in the poor house at $21 per flute...
pad with the most flawless view of St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rock Center and The Empire State Building and the cleaning lady who didn't understand our attempts to communicate in her native Spanish, we girls refreshed and spruced up and headed to dinner at Tao. So, if I am being honest, I think Tao is kind of like some cosmopolitan P.F. Chang's...all theme-y and family-friendly. Despite its once chic past, the joint was jamming with city families with young children and grannies...and we sat among them with the little buzzer the hostess gave us in hand and ordered our pseudo exotic Asian-themed drinks -- a Saketini (Mary), a Ruby Red Dragon (Suse), a Tiger Lily (Helen) and a TAO-jito (moi...). My choice of beverage was made based on my inability to metabolize the ubiquitous vodka without turning into the b**tard love child of Lindsay Lohan and Cruella DeVil's meaner sister...and also the by-the-glass price of the 
Moet rose champagne, which I prefer and can pound and might have put me in the poor house at $21 per flute...So...after drinks in the bar, paid for with a generous gift from our Lisa, the other Beard Sister...our absent Jughead sister...and my SisterG....then we hit the loud and dimly-lit dining room. We reviewed the menu and chose the delicacies we wanted to sample...pork potstickers and dragontail spare ribs and chicken satay and fried rice and orange chicken...and I gave my seafood-allergic/anaphylaxis speech to the server, a little lovely pixie named Jenni or Traci or Kelli with a shaggier version of that Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby haircut...and Jenni/Traci/Kelli assured me that I would be fine with all our selections, but she'd double-check with the chef. Not 90 seconds later, Jenni/Traci/Kelli reappeared and informed me that absolutely every dish we ordered other than the dragontail spare ribs contained some form of seafood in its ingredients...and then she told me that on the entire menu, only the grilled filet mignon and soba noodles had no seafood included or were not prepared in direct contact. So my friends were taking note of the discussion and concern grew around me and I was mortified again and politely brushed the pixie away and asked her to bring me whatever they 
had...and THEN the manager appeared and corrected their assertions once again -- only the soba noodles were safe. Chr*st! what a buzzkill! I wanted to crawl under the table...Ok, whatever...I am happy with the TAO-jitos all by themselves, quite frankly... The food came, I picked at some ho-hum noodles and sucked back another TAO-jito while the girls sampled the various deliciousness...and we finished up just as we received a text from Kathy, who was with Teri and Wendy and PJ...they had checked-in and were hanging at P.J. Clarke's Sidecar...much more our scene, right?... We paid and thanked Jenni/Traci/Kelli, ditched Tao and headed over to meet our girls... And together we toasted and laughed and closed the night, excited for the early morning kick-off...
had...and THEN the manager appeared and corrected their assertions once again -- only the soba noodles were safe. Chr*st! what a buzzkill! I wanted to crawl under the table...Ok, whatever...I am happy with the TAO-jitos all by themselves, quite frankly... The food came, I picked at some ho-hum noodles and sucked back another TAO-jito while the girls sampled the various deliciousness...and we finished up just as we received a text from Kathy, who was with Teri and Wendy and PJ...they had checked-in and were hanging at P.J. Clarke's Sidecar...much more our scene, right?... We paid and thanked Jenni/Traci/Kelli, ditched Tao and headed over to meet our girls... And together we toasted and laughed and closed the night, excited for the early morning kick-off...So let me just backtrack again for a minute and admit that for weeks Suse and I had been strategizing our approach to the Walk this ye
ar...we planned to position ourselves so that we would start at the head of the masses, and agreed that we would bust through every pit stop and bathroom break until we absolutely had to stop, not even to grab one of those graham cracker peanut butter snacky things...ok, well maybe for a picture with the team, GWB in back...but that's it. So...when we arrived at the 12th Avenue start line a little late and the opening ceremonies were already in progress, we took the opportunity to skip right in there at the head of the crowd...and that is where we were when the starting bell rang...and we were off. Sticking to the plan, we were cooking all the way...Mary setting the (mighty quick) pace...the Jughead posse surrounding us, all of us chatting and sharing stories about our children and families and our secrets and dreams and enjoying the gorgeous morning air on the River and the beautiful pink sky of sunrise, pink just for us...and the beautiful vistas of this amazing City...bridge and brownstone and foliage and points of interest.
ar...we planned to position ourselves so that we would start at the head of the masses, and agreed that we would bust through every pit stop and bathroom break until we absolutely had to stop, not even to grab one of those graham cracker peanut butter snacky things...ok, well maybe for a picture with the team, GWB in back...but that's it. So...when we arrived at the 12th Avenue start line a little late and the opening ceremonies were already in progress, we took the opportunity to skip right in there at the head of the crowd...and that is where we were when the starting bell rang...and we were off. Sticking to the plan, we were cooking all the way...Mary setting the (mighty quick) pace...the Jughead posse surrounding us, all of us chatting and sharing stories about our children and families and our secrets and dreams and enjoying the gorgeous morning air on the River and the beautiful pink sky of sunrise, pink just for us...and the beautiful vistas of this amazing City...bridge and brownstone and foliage and points of interest. And we walked this way together until the eighth mile where Helen and I broke off and grabbed an iced latte from Starbucks...catching up with Suse again at 9.6...the lunch s
top...it was 10:00 a.m...way ahead of schedule. Still, no lunch for us....just like we planned. We kept going but stopped a few blocks later and grabbed cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (maybe we were a little hungry after all...or maybe we can't resist a cupcake tour of the big city...), which is where Mary found us after having jogged ahead of Kath, Teri, Wendy, Kerri and PJ, whom we then lost again in the shuffle along Amsterdam. Soon we were off again...the four of us, roommates and Jughead besties, walking together all the way from Natural History to Lincoln Center (where Mary donated our extra Magnolia cupcake to a homeless dude with a prosthetic leg lying next to him) to Hell's Kitchen to Chelsea (where I spotted, not only a bona fide celeb in Matthew Modine, but an old neighbor of ours from Morton Street whom I haven't seen in 11 years...)...through Meatpacking to Greenwich Village, my old neighborhood...and lump in my throat as we arrived... And it was there, down Bleecker Street that we came to Mile 14...the point along the route where, days ago, we planned to stop and meet the extended Jughead sisterhood for a mid-Walk toast at the Downtown Galway Hooker. It was 11:40 a.m....we were the first Jugheads to hit the midway point.
top...it was 10:00 a.m...way ahead of schedule. Still, no lunch for us....just like we planned. We kept going but stopped a few blocks later and grabbed cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (maybe we were a little hungry after all...or maybe we can't resist a cupcake tour of the big city...), which is where Mary found us after having jogged ahead of Kath, Teri, Wendy, Kerri and PJ, whom we then lost again in the shuffle along Amsterdam. Soon we were off again...the four of us, roommates and Jughead besties, walking together all the way from Natural History to Lincoln Center (where Mary donated our extra Magnolia cupcake to a homeless dude with a prosthetic leg lying next to him) to Hell's Kitchen to Chelsea (where I spotted, not only a bona fide celeb in Matthew Modine, but an old neighbor of ours from Morton Street whom I haven't seen in 11 years...)...through Meatpacking to Greenwich Village, my old neighborhood...and lump in my throat as we arrived... And it was there, down Bleecker Street that we came to Mile 14...the point along the route where, days ago, we planned to stop and meet the extended Jughead sisterhood for a mid-Walk toast at the Downtown Galway Hooker. It was 11:40 a.m....we were the first Jugheads to hit the midway point.So we walked off course to 7th Avenue...we entered the joint, which was empty...the staff was just getting ready for the afternoon service...we staked out tables by the windows looking out on 7th Avenue and the passersby and across to the folks being seated outdoors at Agave and the guys picking up flowers at the Korean market...and we ordered a couple of Corona Lights and waited for the others to roll in...
Photos:
1. Jugheads 2010 on a sanctioned 20 second pit stop...GWB and our homes off in the near distance...
2. Marriott roomies and bedbug-phobics (clockwise), me, Mary, Helen and Suse...
3. In the foyer at Helen's family pad...Mary and Suse devising a plan to stay there night for the instead...cleaning lady underfoot...
4. Me and Helen hanging in the family-filled bar, taking Tao by storm with our seafood allergies and signature cocktails...
5. More Jugheads congregate at P.J. Clarke's Sidecar on Avon Walk-Eve...(left to right), Me, Mary, Wendy, PJ, Kathy, Teri, Suse and Helen...
6. Mary and Helen against the pink sky just past Mile 1....
7. Helen, Me, Mary and Suse...no sweat...no pain...no problems at all at Mile 11...
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