New York (2003)

Over the years, I have been to New York more times than I can remember.  With at least two girlfriends living there at any given point in time I always had an excuse to go (some good, some bad and some terrible)… I have gone to: attempt to break up an engagement, attend the wedding of said engagement, commemorate the divorce of said marriage and celebrate a second wedding.  I have gone for work and for holidays.  And I have also gone just to have a fun girl’s weekend, taking the red eye out Friday night after work, napping until noon on Saturday and then partying, eating and shopping until my flight left Sunday afternoon.

But of all my trips to New York, the most memorable was by far the first time I ever set foot in Manhattan.  In 2003, instead of the traditional Memorial Day weekend spent drunk on a boat on a lake (which was standard for our college years), Neff, Anj and I opted for a weekend of culture, class and experience in NYC. 

We might have been all class once we landed, but our college antics followed us to the airport… with our flight out of Orange County, we drove down to Neff’s parent’s house the night before and Erin came down with us (for reasons we can’t quite remember).  Our flight wasn’t until the evening so we spent most of the day drinking wine with Neff’s mom Ann and convincing Erin she should skip her weekend plans and come with us to New York… We had her fully on board, up to the point where she was willing to pay $300 for a last minute flight at the airport to go (to fully appreciate this you have to realize that she didn’t have any luggage, was wearing Ann’s “mom” shorts and sweatshirt due to a spillage of red wine and she was about to hop on a flight to the East Coast where the weather still required lots of layers).  The flight ended up costing $320 and unable to do the math to realize that if each of us girls chipped in another $7 she would join, Erin went back home with Ann and Neff, Anj and I headed to the airport bar. 

We landed in New York at 6am Friday morning hungover, Anj with a cookie stuck to her ass and slightly concerned that we had gotten on the wrong flight (JFK was under serious construction and the luggage claim area felt like a different world / country).  We wandered through the terminal in a haze, grabbing our luggage and, against all advice and warnings, got into an unsolicited limo to take us to Anj’s cousin Beva’s apartment where we were to spend the weekend.  The classy factor was on the rise. Even better, Beva was a model and married to a photographer, so we were definitely going to experience all that NYC had to offer. 

Over the weekend we checked out the museums, saw the musical Rent, went to a trendy unknown bar for caipirinhas in Williamsburg (I only later realized it was Williamsburg, after the neighborhood became super trendy) and sipped a glass of wine that cost $2,000 (no exaggeration Beva knew the sommelier at a fancy restaurant.  We had an early seating before our musical and he let us try a few different wines). 

The trip ended on Monday with us not going to sleep until 4am, an early cab to the airport and a slow transition back to our old ways… with Neff puking in the back of the cab in a shopping bag.