Things that make perfect sense in the middle of the night
Lying in bed last night at three a.m., trying not to let our bodies touch at all, trying to lie perfectly still so maybe we could actually feel the ceiling fan in spite of the stifling heat in the room, Billy and I fantasized about living in a place where one could hop in a car in the middle of the night (in this scenario we actually would own one) and crank up the AC or roll all the windows down and drive along some highway to an all-night pancake house.
Yep. We were overheated and sweaty and absolutely wide awake and all we could think about were pancakes. Pancakes and waffles. And then we were going to go from the pancake place to a diner with those little individual jukeboxes on each table and the jukebox at our table would actually work and we’d play it and eat cheese fries.
New York has many things to recommend it, but it doesn’t have the three a.m. riding down the highway in the middle of summer with the radio cranked up and all the windows down and just you and your friends on the highway thing. It doesn’t have that late night Jersey roadside diner and cheese fries thing.
Anyway, we finally gave up and moved the AC from my office window to the bedroom. Yeah. Probably would have been a good thing to do before 3:30 a.m. We cooled off and fell asleep around four. The alarm clock went off much too soon after that.
Of course we both woke up with a craving for waffles.
MMMMM……Reminds me of a couple weeks ago. The traditional midwest-all-everyone-does-is-go-to-pancake-houses-on-the-weekends breakfast with my family. I had pancakes. And I probably won’t have them again until I go back. Because I’m too lazy to make them myself, and I would overheat in the process of making them. But fantasizing is good.
Posted by: john
MMMMM……Reminds me of a couple weeks ago. The traditional midwest-all-everyone-does-is-go-to-pancake-houses-on-the-weekends breakfast with my family. I had pancakes. And I probably won’t have them again until I go back. Because I’m too lazy to make them myself, and I would overheat in the process of making them. But fantasizing is good.
Posted by: john
it isnt quite the same thing, but you can always hop on the jersey transit to princeton and hit pj’s pancakes 🙂
when you become rich and famous from your book, maybe you can put in some central ac?
Posted by: rebecca
Cari..I am sitting here smiling after reading your thoughts. The other day my son, who is in college and home for the summer, told me of the fun he and his friends had the other night..driving down Sunrise Highway, OAR (fav. band) blaring from the I-Pod and having grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese fries at 3AM at a diner! Doesnt get any better than that!
Some good diner’s on Long Island..just a LIRR train ride away!!! Stay cool and keep that AC in the bedroom window..its another scorcher!!!
Posted by: delia
total heat delirium! 🙂
Posted by: carolyn
I know central air is one thing i will definitely miss if/when we head back home to NY. And yes, maybe even the car.
Posted by: serena
I used to spend a lot of time in your borough and i’ve had a few middle-of-the-night meals that were quite good. if you have access to a car, you could always go out to miller’s in borough park (amazing old diner car, good eats) or the vegas diner in bensonhurst, which are both open 24/7.
if you ever find yourself in harlem, i suggest you try to stop by amy ruth’s on 116th street and get the waffles. yum. (a little food obsessed, regina?).
Posted by: regina
Puts me in the mood for some Roscoe’s Fried Chicken and Waffles. DAMN GOOD!
Posted by: Christie
So did you at least get the waffles today?
Posted by: jackie
it isnt quite the same thing, but you can always hop on the jersey transit to princeton and hit pj’s pancakes 🙂
when you become rich and famous from your book, maybe you can put in some central ac?
Posted by: rebecca
Cari..I am sitting here smiling after reading your thoughts. The other day my son, who is in college and home for the summer, told me of the fun he and his friends had the other night..driving down Sunrise Highway, OAR (fav. band) blaring from the I-Pod and having grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese fries at 3AM at a diner! Doesnt get any better than that!
Some good diner’s on Long Island..just a LIRR train ride away!!! Stay cool and keep that AC in the bedroom window..its another scorcher!!!
Posted by: delia
total heat delirium! 🙂
Posted by: carolyn
I know central air is one thing i will definitely miss if/when we head back home to NY. And yes, maybe even the car.
Posted by: serena
I used to spend a lot of time in your borough and i’ve had a few middle-of-the-night meals that were quite good. if you have access to a car, you could always go out to miller’s in borough park (amazing old diner car, good eats) or the vegas diner in bensonhurst, which are both open 24/7.
if you ever find yourself in harlem, i suggest you try to stop by amy ruth’s on 116th street and get the waffles. yum. (a little food obsessed, regina?).
Posted by: regina
Puts me in the mood for some Roscoe’s Fried Chicken and Waffles. DAMN GOOD!
Posted by: Christie
So did you at least get the waffles today?
Posted by: jackie
Hi there. Random surfer, but I really enjoyed looking through your blog. 🙂 Bookmarked, thanks!
Posted by: Kimmie
Cheese fries? Are these a distant cousin to French-Canadian Poutine?
My DH and I went to a movie last night and when we got home I made him sit in the car with me for a while so that I could reminisce. I miss living in my small hometown… where you could drive out to some deserted country lane or backwoods area for a make out session with your boyfriend. It was always so quiet that all you could hear was the sound of birds settling in for the night, the hum of a wretched mosquito that somehow snuck into the car and the occasional slurp of teenage kissing. Those were the days…
Posted by: Stephanie VW
There have been times when Smith and I, unable to sleep, have made pancakes at 4:00a.m. It does make one tired the next day but it is worth doing.
Posted by: margene
Waffles, with half-melted butter and real VT maple syrup. Mmmmm. I’m with ya, babe.
Posted by: claudia
The thing I miss the most in NY are hashbrowns. I love hashbrowns and no one seems to serve them there. It’s always home fries. We’ll have to go on a quest for good 3 am pancakes and hashbrowns.
Posted by: Jenn
Come on out to Wyoming where I’m pretty sure if you’re driving around at 3:00 in the morning, you’ll be the only car on the road. Although we only have a Village Inn, no IHOP, not sure if that’s good enough. 🙂
Posted by: Stephanie
The one summer that I lived in NY (well just over the boarder barely in Dutchess County) we found out our apartment had misadvertised itself. We had to nail sheets into the wall since we did not know we would not get blinds and the central air that was advertised was a little box on the wall on the opposite side of the apartment. I remember some hot nights around this time of year when we lay on the matress we brougth up unable to sleep, not daring to touch because the heat was that extreme and there was NO circulation in the bedroom whatsoever.
I think we ended up just sleeping on the floor infront of that little box.
Not that it has anything to do with NY really, but your entry made me think of the last time I was that hot at night!
Posted by: Anita
Hi there. Random surfer, but I really enjoyed looking through your blog. 🙂 Bookmarked, thanks!
Posted by: Kimmie
Cheese fries? Are these a distant cousin to French-Canadian Poutine?
My DH and I went to a movie last night and when we got home I made him sit in the car with me for a while so that I could reminisce. I miss living in my small hometown… where you could drive out to some deserted country lane or backwoods area for a make out session with your boyfriend. It was always so quiet that all you could hear was the sound of birds settling in for the night, the hum of a wretched mosquito that somehow snuck into the car and the occasional slurp of teenage kissing. Those were the days…
Posted by: Stephanie VW
There have been times when Smith and I, unable to sleep, have made pancakes at 4:00a.m. It does make one tired the next day but it is worth doing.
Posted by: margene
Waffles, with half-melted butter and real VT maple syrup. Mmmmm. I’m with ya, babe.
Posted by: claudia
The thing I miss the most in NY are hashbrowns. I love hashbrowns and no one seems to serve them there. It’s always home fries. We’ll have to go on a quest for good 3 am pancakes and hashbrowns.
Posted by: Jenn
Come on out to Wyoming where I’m pretty sure if you’re driving around at 3:00 in the morning, you’ll be the only car on the road. Although we only have a Village Inn, no IHOP, not sure if that’s good enough. 🙂
Posted by: Stephanie
The one summer that I lived in NY (well just over the boarder barely in Dutchess County) we found out our apartment had misadvertised itself. We had to nail sheets into the wall since we did not know we would not get blinds and the central air that was advertised was a little box on the wall on the opposite side of the apartment. I remember some hot nights around this time of year when we lay on the matress we brougth up unable to sleep, not daring to touch because the heat was that extreme and there was NO circulation in the bedroom whatsoever.
I think we ended up just sleeping on the floor infront of that little box.
Not that it has anything to do with NY really, but your entry made me think of the last time I was that hot at night!
Posted by: Anita
The one summer that I lived in NY (well just over the boarder barely in Dutchess County) we found out our apartment had misadvertised itself. We had to nail sheets into the wall since we did not know we would not get blinds and the central air that was advertised was a little box on the wall on the opposite side of the apartment. I remember some hot nights around this time of year when we lay on the matress we brougth up unable to sleep, not daring to touch because the heat was that extreme and there was NO circulation in the bedroom whatsoever.
I think we ended up just sleeping on the floor infront of that little box.
Not that it has anything to do with NY (since it gets that hot here too) really, but your entry made me think of the last time I was that hot at night!
Posted by: Anita
Gosh darn it! Now I’m craving waffles and IHOP is on the other side of town!
Posted by: Dani
I don’t think that I have ever heard of such an imaginative oasis! May your life be someday fulfilled with a late night, air conditioned, pancake house with working jukeboxes!!!
Posted by: Knit-Elation
I keep reading how hot it is on all these US knitting blogs. I admit being stifling hot at 3 in the morning sucks, but it’s been pouring with rain here in Blighty, and I slept with my winter duvet last night. You can send some of The Warm our way, if you’d like!
Posted by: Noo
Mmmmmm waffles, with fried bananas and apples in caramel sauce.
With a/c.
mmmmmm
Posted by: Steph
We’ll be down in NJ in a few weeks for the Sterling Ren Faire, (not sure if you’d be interested…) and I can’t wait for the diner. It’s one of the best things about visiting mi MIL, aside from the paramus park ikea right next to her house…
Posted by: Amber
I pretty much always want pancakes.
Posted by: pippy
The one summer that I lived in NY (well just over the boarder barely in Dutchess County) we found out our apartment had misadvertised itself. We had to nail sheets into the wall since we did not know we would not get blinds and the central air that was advertised was a little box on the wall on the opposite side of the apartment. I remember some hot nights around this time of year when we lay on the matress we brougth up unable to sleep, not daring to touch because the heat was that extreme and there was NO circulation in the bedroom whatsoever.
I think we ended up just sleeping on the floor infront of that little box.
Not that it has anything to do with NY (since it gets that hot here too) really, but your entry made me think of the last time I was that hot at night!
Posted by: Anita
Gosh darn it! Now I’m craving waffles and IHOP is on the other side of town!
Posted by: Dani
I don’t think that I have ever heard of such an imaginative oasis! May your life be someday fulfilled with a late night, air conditioned, pancake house with working jukeboxes!!!
Posted by: Knit-Elation
I keep reading how hot it is on all these US knitting blogs. I admit being stifling hot at 3 in the morning sucks, but it’s been pouring with rain here in Blighty, and I slept with my winter duvet last night. You can send some of The Warm our way, if you’d like!
Posted by: Noo
Mmmmmm waffles, with fried bananas and apples in caramel sauce.
With a/c.
mmmmmm
Posted by: Steph
We’ll be down in NJ in a few weeks for the Sterling Ren Faire, (not sure if you’d be interested…) and I can’t wait for the diner. It’s one of the best things about visiting mi MIL, aside from the paramus park ikea right next to her house…
Posted by: Amber
I pretty much always want pancakes.
Posted by: pippy
It was a HOT one here last night. My husband and I are staying at our cottage in the woods on the shore of Lake Huron where it was 97 degrees LAST NIGHT. Never before has it been sooooo hot at night. Next time as we lay there trying not to touch one another, hoping for a little cool–repeat cool, not swelting hot–breeze, I’m going to suggest that we drive the 15 minutes into town to look for a pancake place or any place that has AC. Good idea . . . so was moving the AC however, we have no AC so it does us less help than the first idea 😉
Posted by: Brenda
you make me miss midnight runs to Waffle Mouse (er House) might be the deffiniton of a greasy spoon, but smothered and covered hasbrowns,cheesy eggs and rasin toast!! YUM!! but now I have baby, and can’t go galvanting in the middle of the night (sob)
Posted by: Teresa
It was a HOT one here last night. My husband and I are staying at our cottage in the woods on the shore of Lake Huron where it was 97 degrees LAST NIGHT. Never before has it been sooooo hot at night. Next time as we lay there trying not to touch one another, hoping for a little cool–repeat cool, not swelting hot–breeze, I’m going to suggest that we drive the 15 minutes into town to look for a pancake place or any place that has AC. Good idea . . . so was moving the AC however, we have no AC so it does us less help than the first idea 😉
Posted by: Brenda
you make me miss midnight runs to Waffle Mouse (er House) might be the deffiniton of a greasy spoon, but smothered and covered hasbrowns,cheesy eggs and rasin toast!! YUM!! but now I have baby, and can’t go galvanting in the middle of the night (sob)
Posted by: Teresa