Day 2 of our Long Island trip started with a trip to the bagel store.
In Scott’s house, someone is always missing a cell phone or not answering theirs, so it was a whole run-around to get his dad on the phone to ask which bagel shop. If you’ve ever spent time in the tristate area, it shouldn’t be surprising that there was a huge fuss over which bagel shop had the best bagels. In my hometown, my family was team Bagelicious over Hot Bagels. That morning in Huntington, we drove in the sunshine to Bagel Biz.
The unfriendly Long Island teenager behind the counter told us that a dozen bagels comes with three extra, so we picked out our fifteen bagels gleefully. This dead-eyed kid wasn’t having any of our shit and didn’t seem amused that Scott had so many questions about the whole wheat everything bagel selection.
Back at the house, Scott’s mom had a whole spread set up, with homemade scallion cream cheese, fresh coffee, orange juice, and more at the breakfast bar. I am so glad to be marrying into an Italian family!
I attempted half a whole wheat everything and half a French toast bagel with cream cheese. Both were delicious! Bagels in Austin are obviously crap comparatively (even the best ones don’t add enough salt to their Everythings) and French toast bagels are impossible to find (except at Panera, but they contain hydrogenated oils).
Scott’s mother also gave me the “If you don’t get confused around here, you’re just not trying” mug which was a little too accurate, since seconds later I was heading in the wrong direction, battling dogs and toddlers to find the plain cream cheese. Scott’s younger brother (that makes him sound 10 instead of 34) joined us, and he was stoked that Scott remembered his penchant for egg everything bagels!
After a delicious breakfast with the fam, Scott and I snuck out of there. We went to Sam Ash to look at guitar stuff, because we always do, and headed to Forever 21 so I could get more appropriate clothes for the convent. I brought stylish slim pants and sleeveless tops, which were not going to work. Long skirts and covering, sleeved tops were the suggested uniform for women. My competing thoughts of Handmaiden’s Tale, wanting to look stylish, and not wanting to let everyone down lead me to a mini breakdown in the Huntington Forever 21. Eventually Scott helped me, and we walked away with two outfits that worked perfectly- they made me feel cute, and checked all the boxes.
HUNTINGTON VILLAGE, NY: CLASSIC LUNCH SPOT
We stopped for lunch at an old favorite spot of Scott’s in Huntington Village, which had a great selection of wraps and sauces.
I don’t really like wraps. But this one was supah good. We drove around sharing the European cut fries and chicken caesar wrap, checking out Scott’s high school and telling stories. The European fries were great, and I can’t even remember the last time I had fries. When on vacay, I guess!
When we got back to Scott’s house in the afternoon, his best friend showed up. Scott and Sean have been best friends for just about thirty years. Sean has the personality and charisma of five people, and unfortunately his big personality brought out my introvert side. He kept teasing me about talking too much, since the reality was I forgot to talk. Do any other shy introverts get like this? It took me several hours to loosen up, and after getting out of my comfort zone and talking more and being myself, I won Sean over for good.
Sean and Scott were in a band together for years- like, a real band that actually had some traction. Sean wore one of their band tees to the house! Scott played guitar, and Sean sang. They warmed up outside and we ate more bagels while waiting for recording studios to open up for the day.
LINDENHURST, NY: RECORDING STUDIO
We drove about thirty minutes away to a practice studio the boys had been to before. Scott played producer, and I posted up with a magazine. Sean recorded vocals over some of their old songs that Scott had prepared!
I’ve never been to a recording studio before, and I was pretty excited to see that Pepper, one of my favorite bands from my Hawaii days, had been there and had an autograph on the wall!
back to downtown huntington: open mic night
We headed to the bar Scott frequented throughout his early 20s. I don’t spend a ton of time in bars, and this one was definitely of the quiet, boring variety. Even with open mic night going on, people were mostly just sitting outside smoking cigarettes. Everyone was drinking beer and wearing NY sports team tees. I wasn’t in Austin anymore! The unfriendly bartender didn’t even know how to make a vodka cherry sour and just flatly told me they didn’t have cherry vodka. Ugghhh, that’s not even in my drink. I wish I had a go-to drink like whiskey sour that every single bartender knows how to make. But my drink of choice is always changing- sometimes I like a white cosmo, sangria, frozen margs, or something with champagne and cotton candy lol.
Oh well, maybe one day.
We met up with the first bassist in their band, who is now a hilarious police officer. The guys told stories, and then Scott and Sean went on.
It was such a long day, and we were driving upstate bright and early the next morning. I tried to be a good sport through a lot of “good old days” talk, but between the smoke and my long, exhausting day of tripping around, I was ready to get back to Scott’s childhood bedroom to fall asleep.
Things swung pretty far in the other direction after that- from playing rock music and drinking booze to being surrounded by cloistered nuns, all in 24 hours! Tune in for day three, when we pulled off an epic surprise years in the making!
-Taylor
TAYLOR DOROTHY 