On Sunday Claw and I returned from a long week-end in NYC to celebrate her birthday.

And we did it fancy.

I did the planning. The two main events were seeing La Boheme Friday night, and a Broadway show, Sunset BLVD (starring Nicole Scherzinger) on Saturday night. We stayed at the Empire hotel on 63rd St, right across from the Met. I bought two new suits, some ties and bowties to match Claw’s dress, cufflinks and a fancy looking watch. Ate at a couple fancy restaurants, saw both the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Brunched and shopped in Soho and was massaged in Chinatown. Walked through Central Park, had a final breakfast at Broad Nosh Bagels before driving back to Beantown.

It was a pretty decadent week-end. We needed it. Claw needed it. She works very hard at a challenging job. Getting out and experiencing some culture and fine dining was more than welcome. If we are going to be living in the Ontario forest in a few months, we should take advantage of some of the cultural opportunities a short drive from home while we can.

It’s not lost on me how many people can’t afford a week-end like this. This was in my head as the fancy opera audience watched a story about poor and starving artists. On the way to the play, the cab driver was complaining about being financially squeezed so that he had to work all the time now.

When we were dining out on opera night, Claw ordered a pasta dish that had a sizeable portion of truffle on it. Later when she posted it on Facebook, a friend commented about it being a weird combination, sweet on pasta. They didn’t realize that the truffle wasn’t chocolate. A lot of people in our respective families are just trying to keep their heads above water. I am humbly aware of how fortunate we are.

It felt like the city had some edge. That might just be New York though. The gruff interactions we experienced could just be par for the course. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that society is in the calm tension before the storm. How much more can this capitalist system squeeze out of regular people before things start to break?