Pre-Halloween with Charlotte and Tim in Bed-Stuy

Fun at Charlotte and Tim's

Anyone who knows me knows I don't go to Brooklyn often. I have nothing against that borough except that it's out of the way from anywhere I usually go. The only borough more out of the way for me is Staten Island. So I was prepared to say no to Charlotte's pre-Halloween party at the row house she share's with her husband, but when someone said she'd drive, I said ok.

Grant me this: between Brooklyn and places north of Brooklyn, on a weekend, driving is the most reliable way of going. The alternative for me would've been to drive to a train station, take a commuter train into the city, then a subway to Long Island City and then transfer to another subway line, the infamous G, to get me to Bedford Stuyvesant.

Driving from Westchester on a Saturday evening is equally fraught. There was traffic on the Hutchinson River Pkwy, there was traffic getting onto the Whitestone Bridge, there was traffic on both the Long Island and Brooklyn Queens Expressways. I'm glad I wasn't driving.

At least there was parking on the street. We brought a couple of bottles of Finger Lakes dry Rieslings and made our way to the row house, where several people were playing with props from an opera for which Charlotte was the librettist - "The Enchanted Organ." Did I mention that Charlotte's a librettist and Tim's a graphics and web designer? Well, they are.

We had a good time. It was like "Cabaret": "Life is beautiful … the girls are beautiful . . . Even the orchestra is beautiful!" Yes, even we were beautiful so we chatted with lots of people, ate good food and drank enough.

As for getting back to Westchester: there was an accident on the BQE - which figures - but once we got past that, it was a smooth ride all the way home.

Enjoy the pix.