All Good Things...

In spite of commonly being considered impatient people, New Yorkers, as a rule, are willing to wait in a line--for something good. I remember being astonished, when that little, tiny, cream puff place (and I mean the food--not a gay slur) first opened on the Upper West Side a few years ago--for months on end, summer, winter, spring, didn't matter when, skinny people lined up for a tasty treat.

And then, when Sex in the City let the rest of the world in on the sensation of the Magnolia Bakery (which, though I'm a fan, I must say isn't what it used to be) even tourists got on line for a little happy sugar. I've never, in the last two years, seen the Magnolia Bakery's steamed windows, without at least 20 hungry people staring in, lamenting that there is a 12 cupcake per person limit.

And today, Robert persuaded me to wait in another of the chic New York eatery lines--for something he lacked the ability to describe.

"Is it ice cream?" I asked, assuming that, because of the ninety degree heat, people would only wait in line for something cool.

"Kind of." Robert refused to engage me and looked away, making it clear that I was being impatient (yes, I hate surprises).

"Oh," I said, as if I understood. "It's frozen yogurt."

"Kind of."

I won't bore you with the rest of the conversation, but suffice it to say that Robert was right. We were waiting, in a mid-day blaze, concrete gleaming up at us, in a line of roughly twenty-five people, for something that wasn't frozen yogurt and wasn't ice cream--though it looked like both. And, even after eating my "Pinkberry" with fresh strawberry, kiwi and banana slices on top of it, and appreciating the fact that it was cold and wet, I still didn't know what it was. And, didn't know if I liked it. Which, of course, means that I didn't.

So, being too egotistical to think that I have bad taste, I can only assume that the throng of Pinkberryians clamoring for the cool "treat" (as Robert claimed that they do, assuring me that stars like Lindsey Lohan {oy} are big fans) are really clamoring to be part of the cool set (please pardon the pun). Which brings me to question my own taste and my recollection of all GOOD things past. Were the Beard Papa and Magnolia Bakery moments of yesterday just lapses in my judgement because I'm a much more shallow person than I assumed? Or, was it worth the wait?