October Wind-Down

Last week was crazy in a very fun way. First, I went the NYC for the first time the previous weekend. Yes, it seems ridiculous that I haven't been there yet, even my own mother doubted that was true. At the ripe age of 28, I got to experience the beauty of autumn in New York, which is actually one of the hundred things I wanted to do before I die. There's not an OFFICIAL list, but if there was, that would have been on there. And now I have officially added visit NYC during the holidays, and visit NYC during the Spring as well.

The official reason for going to NYC was for an Women MBA's conference, which was a learning experience in itself. I did feel there was some value in the conference, but it's hard to compare to the size of the other conferences.

After the conference was over, I drove to NYC to see the Emilys! One friend Emily W., is living in NYC doing law school, and the other Emily G., is in North Carolina and came up to visit that weekend as well. As luck would have it, it was the weekend before Emily W's birthday, so she had a party. I think one of the highlights of the weekend was seeing Emily W in her element. The girl never ceases to amaze me, and her friends couldn't have been nicer and more welcoming.

Which brings me to a side note: Who says New Yorkers are rude? I did not encounter one rude New Yorker the whole time we were there! Maybe they're impatient drivers, but I would say the rude-NYers stereotype has been crushed in my brain for good.

Spending a weekend with Emily G was more than I've seen her in a decade combined, so it was nice to spend enough time together to get past the usual catch-up, and really talk about stuff that's going on in our lives. The little stuff, the big stuff, the how we're feeling in our life stuff. I love that. I love that I can spend a whole weekend with these girls, girls who I don't get to see often or speak to as frequently as I would like, and it's back to normal when we get together. It's not awkward, and I get warm and fuzzies just thinking about it. I am really lucky to have the friends I have.

Enough of my sappiness.

The NY schedule of events went something like this:

Friday evening: Emily W and I head to Shake Shack for dinner before Emily G's flight gets in. We take a night walk through Central Park and have a glass of wine at Tavern on the Green. Emily G comes in to town, we visit a quaint Hungarian bakery down the street for dessert and go back to EW's to get ready to go out. Oh yes - New Yorkers do not even think about going out until atleast 10pm. Adjustment for old-crotchety Marysia. We meet with EW's friend and roommate and take a cab down south to Belmont lounge where one of her classmates it having her birthday party. We drink, shake our booties, and be generally merry people until we collapse in bed in the wee morning.



Saturday: We are off to a slow start (mostly because Marysia is slow). First stop is Central Park, where there is a pumpkin festival going on. No better way to put you in the mood for fall! We head to the Lower East side, do a little shopping and parusing around the streets (yeah H&M!) before meeting another high school friend Heidi, for brunch at Balthazar. The only way I can describe the food at Balthazar is OMG. I hate that phrase but it fits here. The Macaroni Au Gratin is pretty much one of my Top 5 Foods I'd like to eat on my deathbed. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and topped it off with ice cream from some famous street vendor who does all natural/organic ice creams. The rain kept us from taking out time outside, we kept having to jet in and out of stores, but we eventually headed back to prep for EW's birthday party that night.



EW's party was a fundraiser for an organization she is involved in - GHEI, and was held at her friend's apartment, who also had an amazing rooftop view of the Manhattan skyline. Everyone had a great time, EW even did her first [pony] keg stand around 4am, when most people had left. At this point, we're all pretty beat, so we crash again in bed around 5am. I am pretty much a zombie until 11am the next day.



Sunday: EW, EG and I decide we need to do some touristy things in NYC, so we head to Times Square. Which is, well, crowded. And big. And Flashy. And kind of like Vegas in a way, but without the boobie-flyers everywhere. Next we decide to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Now it is painfully apparent to me I made poor shoes choices for the weekend of walking. My usually comfortable boots showed the balls of me feet on the concrete no mercy. We take the subway to Chinatown for a snack at a bakery there before EG and I have to catch the M60 bus to the airport. Luckily, for me, my flight went pretty smoothly, but poor EG got delayed and re-routed, and all kinds of unlucky.

Photos from our trip to NYC can be caught here.