I Love this City

With the arrival of Monday, Erin unfortunately had to go back to work (her one week holiday from work had to end sometime I suppose) and Joanna and I (and then just me) were left to navigate the city alone. And after the full day with Joanna, and two remaining days with just myself, I fell in love with NYC all over again.

There is just something so empowering about walking outside, hailing down a taxi and meeting up with friends for dinner or drinks. Or even better, walking down the stairs to the subway and being able to manage the whole city without a map. The diversity and livelihood of the city can be found everywhere: and on any given day or night there is plenty to see and do.

Over the course of the two weeks I ate Ethiopian, Thai, Sushi, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Greek, Spanish Tapas and Italian (enjoyed at the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy). I saw the Counting Crows play in Central Park, an 80’s cover band in SoHo and rocked out like I was Whitney Houston at karaoke. Plus I accidentally ran into Dr. Phil (the real one) on the first stop of his tour across America, caught a glimpse of Bill Clinton and his entire entourage (and just missed Obama) and stumbled across the set of the new Sex and the City movie, where I saw the crew, cameras and lights and Joanna may or may not have seen SJP herself.

We enjoyed long lunches, with sometimes too many cocktails, brunches mid week and spent every day shopping in one way or another. I even broke my cardinal rule and went into DSW aka Designed Shoe Warehouse based on hopes at snagging a cheap pair of Jimmy Choo’s . However, based on past experience, this time around I limited myself to 10 minutes tops and one hot lap to avoid the dreaded DSW effect – after too much time looking at ugly shoes, the least ugly pair tends to start looking incredibly cute and you end up buying a pair of purple polka dotted Charles David heels which could only be worn on a tacky yacht in…well I really don’t know where, hence the problem (this is all hypothetically speaking of course) – to me, this theory also applies to guys in small towns and bars.

But even with all of the celebrity sightings and countless events…my favorite memories from the two weeks include the time I got to spend with my friends who live in NY. Two solid weeks with Erin and one with Joanna, dinner with Katya and the girls on Monday, celebrating Boozeday Tuesday like old times with Lindsay, and drinks with Kim and the old co-workers on Wednesday (although technically Kim doesn’t live in NY, she was just there for business).

The two week holiday was officially over on Thursday…I thought it ended too soon…but I am sure my liver, finances and Erin would probably disagree. Did I mention I was staying with Erin during those two whole weeks in her studio apartment… Yeah, we are good friends, but no one is really THAT close. Love you Erin.