Agaves and Danke Schoens

Forgive me, I'm a little behind and trying to catch up to present day...

Day 48 (5/5) of the T-90 Project:

My cousin GreenThumb flew in for less than 48 hours and he was just in time for Cinco de Mayo. I'm a huge fan of the holiday, despite my having absolutely no Mexican blood in me whatsoever -- the only time I do is when I'm drinking margaritas. TheDude recently teased me at FTDC when he tried a year ago to schedule a dinner on Cinco de Mayo and I frantically pleaded to have the date switched via e-mail, "Can we do it on any other day but Cinco de Mayo?!"

In honor of the Mexicans defeating the French in 1862, Fashionista and BYOWino found an agave tasting event at the Astor Center for a measly $25. I told GreenThumb about it and he was all aboard. Fashionista and BYOWino had gone to Astor's bacon and bourbon expo recently and had a blast so we figured this one was equally as promising.

For $25 it was a great deal. We drank serious booze for about two and a half hours, though the agaves were a little tough on the novice palate and there was not nearly enough food to calm the liver. Agave went straight to our heads and it ended up being a fairly early evening. Below is a snapshot of the only bottles we thought were drinkable (hat tip Fashionista).

NovaCat and her boyfriend were there drink for drink with us until we left in search of food. We stumbled upon a loud, boisterous Mexican place, Pinche Taqueria, with people spilling off into the sidewalk. It was just down the road on Lafayette and when NovaCat looked inside, she winced as if she'd seen the insides of a slaughterhouse and ran the other way. The rest of us were psyched and Fashionista immediately won a free taco for naming (with the help of a smitten drunk DJ) the year Cinco de Mayo originated and that was that. There may or may not have been an extra Corona consumed at home on the couch with my cuz. It was such a great idea at the time.

Day 47:

As this round of ABC cutbacks came to a close, I received dozens of farewell emails from coworkers -- some I've sat next to and some I've never met -- from all corners of the network. One such e-mail appeared in my defunct BlackBerry while I was on vacation in California. It was from one of my beloved bosses D- and her last day was to be Friday, May 7. I tried responding immediately in shock, but couldn't because my stupid inbox was full. I painfully had to wait until I got back to New York to voice my surprise.

We met briefly the day before her last at the office and I'm thrilled I got a few minutes of face time with her. Multiple heads of departments were stopping in all week and holding court. It was impressive to see. I barely recognized half of them. It's tradition at ABC for everyone to go out the eve of someone's departure so Thursday was our scheduled drink night. GreenThumb was going to join me after he had dinner with our uncle.

Below is an amusing snippet from her goodbye email (subject line: "Danke Schoene") sent to the entire network which included memories and flashbacks of her 21 years with ABC:

"Answering the phone my first day at ABC News as a World News Desk Assistant (not having done my homework) and not understanding why the voice on the other end was so agitated when I asked the man to spell his name. I repeated after him: 'R-O-O-N-E A-R-L-E-D-G-E.'"

We all met at my favorite wine bar on the upper west side, Riposo 72. Sadly my friend Aaron doesn't manage it anymore, but it's still a great place for a solo glass of wine, a party or even a date. GreenThumb showed up at around nine o'clock and instead of letting the party fade and allowing us go home to our beds at a decent hour, he became best friends with all my co-workers who were still standing, ordered at least two bottles of wine and all of the sudden we had a raging Thursday on our hands.

D- got a kick out of GreenThumb, as did everyone who met him that evening. She started telling the story of one of her favorite nights out with coworkers -- a night I missed because I got too drunk from margaritas at Santa Fe (a theme of mine). She and about four other people went to Marie's Crisis and sang the night away. As soon as D- mentioned that to GreenThumb it was all over.

"Ohhhh, we're sooo going! Mona, don't even think about getting out of this."

"I dunno..."

"T-90?! Give me a break! We're going..."

Four hours later it was 2:30 p.m. I'd sung my heart out with a piano player named Justin and I had to wake up and be at work by six. But it was worth it.

"I am what I am, I am my own special creation..."

Day 46:

I was struggling to come up with something to do on one of the worst hungover days I've had in the office ever (make that a month). I was supposed to go to The Breslin with FoxyLady, the founder of Hook, Line and Skillet and his wife, but at around 10 a.m. my prayers were answered. Hook's wife was unable to make dinner because of back pain and I felt like the heavens had opened. Instead of struggling to make it past three o'clock, I could go home and fall asleep on the couch while watching television for eight hours.

I forced myself to walk home from work that day, as I often do as a sort of self-punishment, and passed the Natural History Museum. I was drawn inside and when I went to grab my wallet to pay for my admission to the live lizards and snakes exhibit, I realized I'd left my wallet in my pocket in my jacket on my chair. Back to the office it was, all 17 blocks, then back to the museum. At that point the lizards were dunzo so instead I went to go see the live butterfly exhibit.

I thought I'd see nets or cages of live butterflies. But no. You walk into an enclosed, tropical room and butterflies just fly all around you like you're in some sort of fairytale.

I walked in and this was the first thing I saw. My hair stood on end:

It was magical, it was spectacular, it was frightening, it was sad, it was moving. It was one of the most memorable moments I'll ever have in New York City. I stood in awe of the hundreds of butterflies swarming around me as I stood there in plain sight (and yes, I was a little on edge that the nocturnal moth the size of an eagle would land on my head).

Some were as big as sparrows, some were as big as crows. Their beauty made me sad learning that day that they only live to be a few weeks old. How can any life be so short? What's the use in that? Butterflies are whimsical and remind me a lot of my childhood. I loved anything and everything with butterflies on it - still do.

This little guy just would not let go, after he migrated from my navy back to my bare arm:

A docent kept telling me, "Just blow on him, just blow on him and he'll flutter off."

I couldn't bring myself to blow on him so she just grabbed his wings and away he went.

Day 45-Day 44:

I was not in New York City these days -- I had a birthday adventure followed by a Mother's Day Sunday at home in Connecticut. Mom loved her hand-painted piggy bank from Make so I'd call it a success. We even got to have a wonderful dinner at our favorite French spot in Greenwich Le Figaro. They let you bring in your own bottle of wine and there's no corkage fee. What a treat!

Day 43:

Though MaineMan thought this didn't really count towards T-90, I thought it was acceptable. On my walk home from work I picked up a new local wine favorite of mine from the Whole Foods wine store, Macari. I treated myself to one glass now that I'm on a new low/no-carb diet and it was delicious.

In other news, I am less than halfway there...