Sisters Diary NYC Edition – Part 4: Drag Bingo, the Cellar, and the Long Journey Home

Our dad's old neighborhood, a 1am comedy show, and a power outage that turned a 2-hour train ride into 4. The Sisters Diary finale has it all, including the kind of ending nobody plans for.

Our lovely hostesses Linda and Babette

For the final installment of the Sisters’ Diary series, we ventured to our father's old stomping grounds in the village. We've spent a lifetime hearing about his exploits in his younger, more bohemian years, and it was time to see it for ourselves. After a deep and restorative nap, we were ready for whatever the night might throw at us, and with drag bingo and a late-night comedy show on the docket, we were sure to have our fair share of laughs.

Trash and Vaudeville, iconic East Village rock boutique

Classic East Village architecture

Fun find within Trash & Vaudeville. Sam loves The Simpsons so I needed to get a picture.

We started the evening meandering around the East Village, the grungier sibling to the celebrity hot-spot West Village. Barbara wanted to sample another NYC staple, cheesecake, and we were incredibly fortunate to find the enduring Veniero's. Owned and operated continuously by the same family since 1894, the Italian pasticceria is renowned for their cannoli, tiramisu, and…you guessed it…cheesecake.

Veniero’s Pasticceria & Caffe, owned and operated by the same family since 1894

So much Knicks love!

I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake, but this was the lightest, creamiest, most delicious variation I've ever tasted. We sat on a random bench with our pastry boxes and patted ourselves on the back for finding such a gem.

Such a great NYC moment…eating cheesecake from a 100+ year old Italian family bakery directly out of the box on a random bench in the East Village.

It may not look like much but it tasted divine

Soon it was time for the first reservation of the evening. We headed to H&H Cantina where the lovely Linda Simpson hosts drag bingo on the first Saturday of every month. Barbara is quite a bingo enthusiast, but I've never been to an official game like this. I've heard stories of little old ladies who take the game very seriously, totally locked into their cards and their stampers. Lord help you if you get in their way! I followed my sister's lead and bought 6 cards, and then immediately regretted it when Linda and her assistant Babette expressed such shock that we'd be able to keep up.

Somehow out of all of these cards, neither of us won!

We still had a blast though!

I quickly realized though that missing a few stamps and not getting a win wasn't necessarily a bad thing once it was explained that each winner would have their moment walking the catwalk with their prize. I'm far too much of an introvert to be cool with that, and considering the prizes ranged from a plastic shark head to a pair of light-up maracas, I wasn't missing much. I was totally ok with just enjoying the experience of it all.

Babette and Linda

In the end, neither of us won a game of bingo, but we did win the game of Tetris successfully arranging all our cards and food in a way that we could fly through with our stampers like those feisty blue-haired ladies at the senior center. Linda was a truly fabulous emcee, keeping the energy high and laughs flowing all evening. We grabbed a few fun photos with both of our hostesses venturing to our next stop.

Our dad is a huge history buff, so he insisted that we make a stop at McSorley's Ale House, one of the oldest bars in NYC dating back to 1854. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt were amongst the notable patrons. Neither of us are big drinkers so we settled for a quick photo of the exterior, but it was still very cool to see a place that carries so much history. It was time to venture west though, to our final neighborhood of the trip.

McSorley’s can claim Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt as former patrons

The West Village had a more elevated vibe than its sibling to the east, but in both cases, we were surprised to find the streets absolutely crawling with college students. I knew NYU was close by, but I was really feeling my age as it seemed like I was surrounded by toddlers puffing on vapes. We wandered a bit to try to kill some time, passing by Cornelia Street of Taylor Swift song fame (one of my favs). We then came across Stonewall National Monument, a poignant tribute especially given the fact that Pride month had just begun.

“I’ll never walk Cornelia Street again”

We were already losing steam and still had over an hour to go. We made the decision to head back to the hotel for a brief period of peace and quiet, which turned out to be a game changer. I'm not ashamed to admit when I need a break from the stimulation.

It wasn't our first choice to book a comedy show at 12:30am, but I've been dying to see a show at the Cellar for ages, and it finally seemed like the right opportunity to make it happen. I'm a standup comedy nerd and used to spend time at the Improv and Comedy Store when I lived in LA but had never been to any of the NYC clubs. Pete Holmes' show Crashing was one of my favorites a few years ago, and the Cellar featured prominently in the series. It's been high on my list ever since.

So, when I went to go make a reservation a few months ago and found all the earlier shows booked, I was rather disappointed. But then I saw there were still openings for the 12:30am show, and the later shows are often where well-known comics will drop in unexpectedly to work out new material. I thought…could I possibly do this? Me, the person who often struggles to make it past 8:30? With Barbara's encouragement, I decided to embrace the small YOLO side of me and booked the late show, hoping we'd get lucky and see someone we recognized.

When we arrived back on MacDougal Street, we couldn't believe how bustling it still was at 12am. Even the stand-by line for the late show stretched down the block, and we were very thankful that we had our spots secured. We were handed bubble mailers for our phones, and finally (closer to 1am) we were slowly being herded down the stairs into the Cellar.

I couldn’t believe I was finally seeing it in real life!

The place is so tiny, and it's amazing how they cram as many people in there as they do. We were seated at a table close to the stage where the comics had to pass on their way up, which was admittedly a bit terrifying as I wanted absolutely nothing to do with being a part of the show. Thankfully none of them spoke to us.

Ultimately, we just missed out on seeing Dave Attell at the two shows before us, and we didn't recognize any of the comics during our show. But we still had a fantastic lineup with a few standouts, although I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't write down any of their names to be able to give them the credit they're due. We spent the better part of two hours doubled over laughing with a basement full of strangers in the middle of the night, forgetting any cares we had outside of those cellar walls. It's an experience I'll carry with me for a very long time and was well worth the disruption to my REM cycle.

After the show, the only picture we were allowed to take inside

We Ubered back to the hotel, shuffling into the lobby at about 3am. We decided to beg for a late checkout, which made me a bit nervous given my desire to get home early due to a busy upcoming week at work, but I mentally calculated our arrival time at home if we checked out at noon and figured the extra sleep was worth it. When the night-shift employee at the front desk shared that our checkout time was actually 2pm as rewards members, I was both relieved for the buffer and nervous about the possibility of getting home so late. But at that point, all I wanted was bed, and I hoped we would get out the door well before that cutoff.

I don't remember much from that point until when I woke up about 7 hours later, around 11am.

___________________________________

I woke up so disoriented, and unfortunately a bagel and latte did nothing to jolt me awake or get rid of the unease in my stomach. It felt a bit like I was moving through quicksand, and somehow before we knew it almost 3 hours had passed and we were rushing out the door to make the 2pm deadline. At this point, panic was starting to set in on our Uber ride to the station as I continuously recalculated what time I'd be home. I kept mentally removing to dos from my list for the night down to the absolute bare bones in an attempt to reassure myself that I'd still be in bed at my normal time and ready to go for work the next morning. My Monday was filled with senior leadership meetings and a workshop facilitation, so I knew I needed to be on my game.

One final city selfie, totally clueless about what awaited us

When we arrived at Grand Central, we saw several large groups of people just lingering in the main concourse. Not a good sign. Then, I saw it…

Nightmare

"Service Advisory: New Haven Line service is suspended in both directions between Grand Central and Stamford because of an Eversource power outage near Cos Cob. Until Eversource can restore power, seek alternate means of transportation."

Oh no.

In this moment, my mind started running through several options to consider.

1)    Best case scenario - we stay put, and service is restored shortly

2)    Or, we see if there's a train from Penn on another line that's not affected, and Uber back across town

3)    Worst case scenario – it reaches a point that it gets too late to venture home, and we settle in for another night in the city or part of the way back to New Haven

I quickly checked options from Penn and saw that an Amtrak would be leaving shortly, although it would cost twice as much. Fine, whatever. As long as I got home.

We stepped back outside to call the Uber, and that's when I realized that Amtrak was delayed as well. The last thing we wanted was to head back across town to find ourselves in the same situation.

We headed back inside, trying to confirm if the outage hit Amtrak's line too. Every website proved useless, so we went the old-fashioned way of waiting in line to talk with a human. The poor, overworked gentleman at the information booth told us (for what I'm sure was his 100th time at that point) that the power outage affected the Amtrak line as well, so we might as well wait it out.

By some miracle, not 10 minutes later, a garbled announcement came on the loudspeaker. I had no idea what it said, but a horde of people suddenly started streaming toward one of the train platforms, and we felt it was safe to assume they were heading in the same direction as us. Finally, we heard the words of confirmation: service is restored, this is the first train out to New Haven.

I was less than thrilled with the feeling of being shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of people underground as we clamored for a spot on the train, but when we finally stepped on board and settled into our seats, I breathed a massive sigh of relief.

But once I had a moment to settle, I did another mental recalculation of my arrival time at home, and had another sinking feeling about the next day in the office…

The ride home was…jerky…to say the least. It was the equivalent of an extremely turbulent flight, and I still have no idea why. Maybe it was the conductor's first day. Maybe we were just unlucky.

Worse than the frequent slamming of the brakes though was the fact that what should have been a 2-hour trip in the end turned into a 4-hour trip. All the backups caused by the power outage wreaked havoc on the system, and we were caught up in the middle of it.

Ultimately, by the time I walked into my house, it was almost 10pm. I wanted to just collapse fully clothed but forced myself into PJs before settling into bed and falling asleep immediately.

You know how once you reach your 40s, hangovers tend to last multiple days? I didn't drink a drop, and it still took me until Wednesday to finally feel decent again. Thankfully I managed to hide it where it mattered at work.

And although the journey home brought its challenges, I wouldn't change a thing about our weekend together. We stepped into each other's worlds, came away with an arsenal of new inside jokes, and I developed a totally new appreciation for the city of my birth. I'm so grateful to have had this time together, and we agreed to take more sisters trips in the future.

Thank you for following along for this extended family version of The Family Stride, a reprisal of Sisters’ Diary 30+ years later. Soon we return to our hiking content with my boys, but this time from the road as we explore the Green Mountains of Vermont. Stay tuned.