Weekend in NYC

Thursday night, Cindy and I leave for NYC. It is the annual international ophthalmic meeting I have been going to for over 30 years.
We have formed a ritual with my partners the assures a wonderful, fun filled, and somewhat drunken weekend.
Fridays are reserved for the exhibit hall. It is that night the fun really begins. We go to a restaurant I discovered years ago. It is called Sammy's Rummanian Steak House. It is a hole in the wall near the lower East Side. There is a keyboard player, kind of like Adam Sandler in the "Wedding Singer". The first few years it was just a few of us. Now there may be from 15 to 25 people.
This is an old Jewish Eastern European Style Restaurant. On the tables are bottles of Seltzer, the kind with CO2 cartridges ( think of the 3 Stooges). Also the best Jewish style ryebread. They serve a liter bottle of Vodka encased in a block of ice. You pay for what you drink. We have gone through as many as 11 bottles in one night, the record. On more then one occasion more then one of us have been carried home on our shield. Chopped Liver is made right at the table. Each table has a jar of chicken schmultz that is used for the chopped liver (as good as my mother made). It can also be used on the rye bread instead of butter. My grandfather used to do that. There is also stuffed derma. By the time we are finished with these I rarely can eat the main course.
Most people order the Tenderloin. It comes in 3 sizes, the smallest covers the plate and I can never finish it.
The whole time vodka is flowing by the shot out of the bottle encased in the ice. No mixers here.
Desert is rugala and egg creams. The egg creams are made with Mrs. Foxes Chocolate and a little milk and much splashing of the seltzer.
The keyboard player plays broad way tunes and easy listening tunes. It seems every half hour he plays the Hora and we are up dancing and pulling other diner up to dance with us.
One year we invited one of our big contact lens suppliers representative to join us. He had such a wonderful time the next year he brought 3 others from his company. I told him when he walked in the first time his face would fall tio the floor and he would think he made the worst mistake of his life. He had his choice of any restaurant in NYC. He loved it. Since then many others have heard of our fun time and join us.
I have fallen out of the Limo at the hotel on more then one occasion and all are claiming their Jewish heritage by the end of the night.
Cindy and I usually go to a Saturday Matanee. One year I missed due to way to much drinking at Sammy's. This year we will see Billy Elliot. Saturday night is a theater night as well. My partners join us and this year we will see South Pacific, followed by a late night dinner. I hate eating before a show because it can make you drowsy. So everyone goes along with my late nights on Saturday.
Sunday we may meet up with my twin sister who lives in NYC and possibly end up at a deli for brunch.
This is my last show before I retire. I am looking forward to it. I will miss it.
This year I must take in every moment and enjoy it.
I think I will post another blog on monday night and see if I survive this weekend.