God bless the children and the lunacy of coworkers

I had a touch of restaurant kismet last night.

Some friends were having a party in Tribeca but the crew I was with and I wanted to check out an art opening in Hell’s Kitchen first.

The question, then, was where to eat. The gallery was way west. The restaurant selection on 9th Avenue was one possibility. I looked on Citysearch for further inspiration. Then, voila, there it was.

At the forefront of the Restaurant section there was an article on a place that opened last week and one where I just so happen to know the Executive Chef. He was on Top Chef with a buddy of mine. We were all out a few weeks ago and he was telling me that I had to come by and check the place out. And what’s more, his new restaurant is around the corner from the art gallery.

Fabulous.

In other news, the Christmas season is once again upon us. Ever since I outgrew Barbies - okay maybe Benetton sweaters – I’ve found this time of year to be stressful and borderline depressing.

Thus, with the exception of a few big parties, I plan to hibernate in the next few weeks and focus energies on writing and my Christmas break voyage. In an even more delicious bit of something falling into my lap when I wasn’t looking for it, this particular trip came together over Thanksgiving.

I’m dying to dish but think instead I’ll leave my destination a surprise and blog about it when I return. But ten bucks if you can guess where I’m going …

Work was work this week. Of note was the dialogue in my advanced class where the assignment was to write a conversation between a fictional married couple from a story we'd just completed. In the story the couple is looking for an apartment and having trouble finding a suitable place.

The students were supposed to write about the couple’s first fight, which they have over housing. In one group the argument between the couple escalated and escalated until finally the wife said to the husband that she wanted a divorce and the husband said that was fine, he’d gotten what he wanted on the honeymoon anyway.

Then there was the day that, out of nowhere, there was a medley of heavy metal crooning and name-that-tuning on the part of the teacher from Spain, the quirky dude described previously in November's ‘Everyweek miracles’ and October's ‘Technology in the classroom,’ as well as the pregnant teacher from Staten Island.

And then there was this morning, when I woke up to see the first snow of the season, which is still coming down as I write. It'll be all slushy and grey in a day, but right now, in this moment, it's just about perfect. Sometimes that's all you can ask for.