Carrie has had her first book published and is so excited. Carrie’s publisher calls her and tells her that based on their research her largest fan base outside of New York in the US is Seattle. They want her to do a book tour to Seattle all expenses paid! Carrie has never been to Seattle.
After the disastrous train ride to California with Samantha, Carrie isn’t sure she wants to do any more book tours. The date with Mr. Big in California worked out in the end but made her rethink her relationships. Carrie has vowed the next man will be one who is in touch with his emotion and can talk about them rather than emotionally unreachable like Mr. Big. Anyway, Carrie has watched Sleepless and Seattle at least four times and wonders what like the actual city is like.
Carrie learned her lesson after the train ride to California and travel in style on an airplane. She arrives late at night. The alarm rings and she gets ready. A local agent drives her to the bookstore. Unlike her book signing in California there are tons of young gals in what she thinks is Goth or grunge or some combination of the two styles. Not a pair of Prada shoes in the bunch. She’s sees more tattoos in four hours in the bookstore than in a week in New York and wonders if maybe she’s old fashioned and if a small tattoo placed tastefully were no one can see it might be fun but then wonder if the process is painful and decides that she is not a tattoo sort of gal.
A tall man with a square face and blond hair in a perfect Brook Brothers suit sits down to get his book signed. She can’t help notice that he is extremely well groomed compared to all the grungy, bearded, mustachioed men that have approached before. She was wondering if a black T-shirt with a flannel shirt was some sort of Seattle uniform. When he pulls out a Mont Blanc pen she perks up a bit. When the Mont Blanc pen turns out to be a fountain pen she is a bit surprised. He puts out his hand confidently to shaker hers and introduces himself as Frasier.
Carrie: I can’t help but notice that is a fountain pen. I didn’t know anyone still used fountain pens.
Frasier: Normally I don’t but I think a book signing is a special event and deserves a special pen. This is my book signing pen. The pen itself is part of a special limited edition set. Notice the azure finish that offsets the silver trim, that’s real silver by the way.
Frasier raises his pen to his eyes and looks at the finish and then at her eyes.
Frasier: Actually you have azure eyes yourself. Azure is my favorite color and I don’t think I have ever met a women with eyes quite the color of yours, not to mention the rest of you is quite fetching.
Carrie is taken aback and pleased at the same time. Unless they are gay, Carries experience is that most men don’t know the difference between blue and azure. She briefly wonders if Frasier is gay but no he is definitely flirting with her. After having spent time in California with a man that was sparing in his praise of her, this Frasier fellow is a welcome change. She reflects a bit and decides it’s not the praise itself but how Frasier says the praise in a sincere genuine, warm tone rather than the ironic, kidding tone, Mr. Big half uses 24/7 that she used to find endearing but she suddenly realizes now irritates her even as she reflects on Mr. Big’s voice.
Sometimes when Big raises his eyebrows in a Groucho Marx manner, with his trademark sexy smile, Carrie just wants to slap him since this assumes a familiarity he has betrayed and the worst part is that he doesn’t he even know what he has done to her by moving to California.
Carrie thinks: Why is it those habits we first loved in our loved one, in the long run become those things we hate the most? Are we doomed to hate what we used to love?
Frasier: You know I am a giant fan of yours I think your insight into relationships while humorous and also quite deep. I have thought of writing a review of your book from a psychological point for the next Seattle conference of marriage counselors and psychologists.
Carrie: You are a psychologist? You dress and act more like someone in another profession.
Frasier: And what profession would that be?
Carrie: I don’t know but when I think psychiatrist I think Freud and when I think Freud I think beard and you are in the city with more men with beards per capita than anywhere but a lumber jack camp.
Frasier: Well actually in Seattle the civilians wear beards and the psychiatrists don’t in order to stand out.
Carrie: Well in New York a psychiatrist has to wear ratty tweed jacket or something else that shows you have poor fashion sense.
Frasier: Hmm, you must have met my first wife.
Carrie: What?
Frasier: Nothing, nothing, let’s not spoil our festive introduction with memories of bitter vicissitudes of the past. Look here’s my card. Why don’t we get together tonight for a drink, consider me the President of the Carrie Bradshaw club, the Seattle chapter.
Carrie: Well President, Carrie Bradshaw wants to make a spot inspection and see if the fan club if following the national regulations.
Frasier: What regulations are those?
Carrie: That’s for me to know and for you to find out.
Frasier: A woman of both mystery and beauty quiet my beating heart.
The two arrange to meet at the lobby of her hotel later in the evening. Carrie gets ready for the date. Is it a date? She wonders? She also wonders what dating a psychiatrist will be like. Her Seattle contact from the publishing company recognized the name on his card instantly and said Frasier was a bit of a local celebrity because of his radio talk show. Well she wanted a man who was emotionally available and could talk about his emotions, and certainly a psychologist fits these criteria, if anyone does.
Frasier walks her to a new restaurant that is about two blocks away from the hotel.
Frasier: The restaurant is a new French/Japanese fusion restaurant called Michaud’s. Apparently the Chef has a mother from Montreal and a father from Japan that had met in Seoul where he grew up. The father cooked on the weekends and the mother cooked during the week so he grew up trilingual, French, Japanese and Korean and biculinary, French and Japanese.
Carrie: Biculinary? Is that legal? Man that sounds like one National Geographic personal history.
Frasier: No kidding, I guess if you don’t have parents from at least two countries and are raised in a third country then you are hopelessly provincial. I once met this Peruvian American at Gifted and Talented summer camp at Michigan State University when I was in Middle School and back then he was the height of exoticism but I guess nowadays he’s practically a WASP. Well anyway, he does this lovely set of sushi dishes that include a truffle garnish, pâté and a Frenchified soy sauce that is to die for.
Carrie: How do you Frenchify soy sauce?
Frasier: Apparently you read the bottles of soy sauce Sartre in order to make them more cultured.
Carrie: You know I once tried to read Being and Nothingness and didn’t get it at all.
Frasier: The key to understanding Being and Nothingness is that it’s a lot of BS about nothing.
Carrie thinks: Wow! Funny and intellectual! Carry is very impressed by the dinner and thinks that maybe New York is not the only city in the world with great, cutting edge restaurants. Frasier’s phone rings and as soon as Frasier hears the voice on the other end his face drops and he is visibly upset.
Frasier: Dad why are you calling me? I told you I was on a date and didn’t want to be disturbed. Eddie is sick? This is supposed to be a bad thing? No, no I’m sorry that’s uncalled for. Well what am I supposed to do? I am not a vet. You think it’s a psychological problem? Have you tried calling Niles? No luck, hmmm, I see ok I will see what I can do.
Carrie: What’s wrong?
Frasier: my father thinks Eddie, his dog, is suffering from psychological shock due to a TV show.
Carrie: What sort of show causes psychological shock to dogs?
Frasier: Well aside from I Love New York the TV show, not the campaign, that causes anyone with an IQ of over 60 shock, and Eddie has an IQ of 62, there was cartoon special titled “Hello Kitty vs. Snoopy” and apparently Snoopy lost. Eddie identifies strongly with Snoopy..
Carrie: But I Love New York. Dogs don’t watch TV. Are you sure Eddie is a dog and not some figment of your imagination?
Frasier: Oh I wish Eddie was a figment of my imagination but I am afraid he is all too real. Look I hate to cut our date short but I need to get home and help my father out. I don’t see how I can help since I am not a licensed dog psychiatrist. Who knows what sort of squirrels and gerbils are running around the brain of a canine?
Carrie: I have an idea why don’t I come over and help you out. I have some experience with a dog called Petey and if I can handle a dog with diarrhea in the middle of Manhattan then I certainly can help you with a dog with mere mental problems.
Frasier: Are you sure my father is very…let’s just say, we are very different.
Carrie: Different?
Frasier: Dr Jekyll was a soul mate of Mr. Hyde compared to me and my father. Bruce Banner is practically a doppelganger of the Hulk compared to me and my father.
Carrie thinks: Who the heck is Bruce Banner but keeps her mouth shut since her affair with comic book guy taught her to never, ever ask guys about comic books since they might actually answer your question.
Carrie: I am sure you are exaggerating.
Secretly Carrie welcomes this opportunity to see Frasier in his home environment and also wants to see how he handles an emergency even if the emergency is a rather lame one. In the past she has wasted time on endless dates before finding out that the man she was dating had some secret or oddity that made the relationship impossible.
Carrie thinks: Get right to the house on the first date and start opening up those closets right away! That’s my new philosophy.
STAY TUNED FOR:
What if? Date 5: Carrie of “Sex and the City” dates Frasier.
-Carrie meets, Frasier’s father, Martin!
-Carrie meets Eddie!
-Carrie meets Niles!
-Carrie meets Daphne!
-And Carrie meets a surprise guest that will leave you speechless!
Remember anything is possible on the “What if” channel.
WereVerse Universe Baby!
Dr. Hugh Fox III 