New York is (usually) for Valentines like (not) me...

While my girlfriend and I have been together for a while now (don't ask me exactly how long - over a year by far), I'm still not accustomed to having a girlfriend during Valentine's Day and other holidays. I'm still too accustomed to being alone. So maybe my Valentine's Day for my girlfriend was not all it should have been, but she seemed to enjoy it.

My girlfriend is a big fan of Hell's Kitchen and lived there for a while, so we met at Kennedy's on 57th Street for drinks before going to dinner. We saw John Mahoney, the actor most well known for playing Frasier's father on the show 'Frasier.' Declan, the bartender, pointed out that a recent visitor to Kennedy's included Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume. His picture graced the wall. Kennedy's is a good place for celebrity watching, so long as you don't gawk or act like a fool. My girlfriend, who is still pretty much a regular there even though she moved away from Hell's Kitchen, drank with Lawrence Fishburne on her birthday a few years ago. It's a bit pricey to eat there regularly and the drinks are slightly above regular prices, but it's a good place. It's very nice and clean but not pretentious, and they've got good craic (Irish for celebratory spirit or ambiance, I think).

Then it was on to Ralph's, an Italian restaurant on the corner of 56th St. and 9th Ave. Like all New York restaurants, it was too crowded and there was no waiting area. We were seated pretty quickly though, and the food was very good. The service was pretty good too for such a small and relatively inexpensive place. Thanks again to my awesome girlfriend for picking the place out.

We took a cab home, with the corner of my raincoat caught in the cab door and getting a rough ride up the West Side Highway. My girlfriend got me some very nice gifts.

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Today's Chinese Cookie Wisdom: "An hour with friends is worth more than ten with strangers."