Squeezing it...

Over the weekend we had a bunch of things to do, mostly errands and workout appointments, BJ's family in town, etc. But about a week or so ago I got invited by Frank Sinatra, Jr's wife Cynthia to go see Frank perform at the Blue Note in NYC. Cynthia is a criminal defense attorney and comes on our show at truTV every now and then when she's in the city. Even though we had a busy weekend, we decided we would squeeze in the show too.

We were told to get there early because the tables get filled quickly and even with VIP tickets we weren't guaranteed good seats. So we gave ourselves plenty of time to get there.

However, it is NYC and you are bound to stumble upon one delay or another, as I can attest to on my frantic commute to work every day. Stalled buses, random delays, traffic, derailed trains, you name it. So on our way to the Blue Note we began walking in the direction I had scribbled on a post it after I pulled up where the Blue Note was on hopstop.com. Things were looking good, we had plenty of time.

Until we hit the police barricades and throng of people.

We zigged and zagged past some of the crowd, a crazy amount of NYPD cruisers and secret service cars until I zigged us right smack into a cop. For "security reasons" we had to go around. And by around, he meant we could zig zag our way back to where we started and go down the next block.

Squeezing in and around the excited pedestrians on tiptoes holding out cameras was no easy feat but we managed to head down the next block - where we were greeted by yet another blocked path and police officers. Two more blocks down and still barricades. In fact, an entire section of NYC was blocked off. Eventually we figured it out. The President and Michelle Obama were in town on a date! Everyone was waiting for the motorcade to come by.

As much as we wanted to hang out and try to sneak a peak, time was ticking off the clock and I knew Cynthia was going to be waiting for us, so we kept walking. Getting frustrated and sweaty, I finally stopped in front of another cop. "Okay, HOW do we get THERE." I said pointing in the general vicinity of where my post it map said I needed to be.

The cop pointed to the park across from us. "Go where everyone else is going."

Gotta love NYC cops.

We finally get to where we need to be with ten minutes to show time. Cynthia is there waiting for us and hands us over to the manager. He signals a waitress to help us find two seats and when I turned to follow her I couldn't believe my eyes. Instead of naming the place Blue Note, they should have just named it Fire Hazard. It was packed. And not just packed, but tables pushed against tables with chairs everywhere. People in every direction and every table was full. We realized fairly quickly that we'd be sitting at a table with complete strangers. We finally got shown to a table but in order to get into it, three people had to step out, I had to do a major gut suck and ask four other people at the table behind me to "excuse me" as BJ rambled on loudly about how ridiculous the situation was.

To make a very long story short, the manager came back for us and moved us to another table that was closer to the stage and much better. Still a tight squeeze, but at least we weren't staring at the strangers with us in the last setup.

As we got settled we heard some clapping and rumbling and it was then that we saw Tony Bennett coming in! He walked by us and was shaking hands and high fiving people all the way to his table which was a few feet away from us. I spent half the time looking at him as I did at the stage.

A few minutes later the band started playing and Frank came out. He sang a few of his own songs, but then started singing his father's songs. He told really cool stories about back in the day, how things were done, how some songs came to be. At the end of his last set he said he could probably squeeze in one more song and ended his show, appropriately, with "New York, New York."

After the show we got to go up to the dressing room to say hi to Frank and chat with Cynthia again. Just as we were going in, Tony Bennet was coming out. He seemed really nice. Inside, Cynthia and I talked about work a bit while I also listened to Frank talk to his sax player about technical issues and stage things. Being back in a dressing room is a neat experience since you get to see how things go down in between shows, etc. The sax player poured himself a huge glass of Jack Daniels and left to get ready for the next show at 10:30pm. We took a quick picture with Frank and then left him to prepare for the next show.

Heading home, we came across a Mr. Softee truck.

We decided we'd split something on our walk back to the train station. BJ ordered and the guy handed her the ice cream cone. The cone had a crack down the side of it and ice cream was already oozing out of it.

"My cone is cracked." BJ said to him.

"No it isn't," he said back, all New Yorkee.

"Yeah it is." she said, holding it up to prove her case.

He looked at it, then at her. And as if he had been with us all night, he said in his thick New York City accent,

"So squeeze it."