Champagne and street meat

Three of the four people in our hotel room are in varying stages of sickness. Anne has been sick all week, I started coming down with something Friday, and on Saturday Maren said her throat was scratchy. This is probably the reason we all accidentally slept until 11:15 am. Oops.

The plan for Saturday was pretty simple. Drink. Do a little shopping. And probably eat. Then more drinking. Em and Bill (Em's husband) have a delightful restaurant in their neighborhood that serves unlimited mimosa brunch for $6 ($6!!!!) so we decided to go there, since this fantastic bit of heaven was available all the way until 3:30 pm. It was 70 degrees outside and we took our time walking to the subway and then to the restaurant where we spent a solid 2.5-3 hours guzzling alcohol and eating delicious eggs. Why don’t they have stuff like this in Cincinnati? I guess serving unlimited cocktails and then sending people out to drive (no subway in the Queen City) is asking for a lawsuit? Hmm.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Manhattan drunk, occasionally stopping at places like fabric stores and H&M. Several hours later the buzz had worn off so we all headed back to Em and Bill’s for organic pizza before venturing out to a lounge in the Flatiron District. In Cincinnati, the word “lounge” would indicate a dive bar that is probably attached to either a bowling alley or perhaps a factory. In New York, lounges are fancy deals, so we actually cleaned ourselves up and put on nice clothes to go out. :-)

Bill had set the whole thing up and made reservations in advance, which meant we got cushy seats at a table in the VIP room. The décor was kind of 70’s but was still pretty cool, the cocktail list was killer (so were the prices :-), and I got to talk to some of Emily’s New York runner friends who are coming to run the Pig in May. Good times.


Swanky flight of rum

Maren, Malia, Anne and I decided to take the subway home and what goes better with a 2 am (actually 3 am) subway ride than...street meat! We had the most amazing hot dogs - ketchup, mustard, and pork by-products. Mmmm. For some reason this put me in the mood to sing Electric Light Orchestra tunes all the way back to 40th street.


Will I see you tonight...on a downtown train?

We were giggling like 13-year olds when we got to the hotel and laid in bed talking utter nonsense for a while before we all passed out. I love my girls. :-)

New York, New York

So, I got to Penn Station pretty late last night and dragged my uncle (who let me crash with him) out for cocktails and a semi-swanky dinner in Hell’s Kitchen. One of the things I love about New York is that no matter what time of day it is, you can always find a good restaurant and a nice glass of Chivas. Ha.

I went to bed kinda buzzed and woke up this morning to a killer view from the 19th floor. I had the best intentions to get some work done and then go to Times Square for a quick store check, but ended up laying around in my pajamas until about 1:30. Then I met my friend Jenifer for a long, leisurely lunch in Bryant Park involving smoked salmon and more Scotch. I just love vacation.

Around 5 pm my Cincinnati crew – Maren, Malia, Anne, and Sarah – arrived at the hotel and we hit the subway to go surprise Emily at her apartment on the Upper West Side. We have been keeping this trip a secret since, I don’t know, last August, and we were all relieved to finally let the cat out of the bag. It was awesome too - Em was completely shocked to find us in her lobby but recovered nicely over a bottle of red wine.


Pre-drinking at Chez Mason (Em and Bill's apartment)

Dinner was at a super hip French restaurant in/near Soho and a couple people in our group ordered steak tartar. I’ve never seen this as an entrée before and was completely intrigued with the process of mixing bunches of sauces together, then combining them with raw meat right at the table. The end result looked something like an uncooked meatloaf. I’m not sure I could have gotten down more than a bite of it (I didn’t even try).


The Gang (why do I always smirk in pictures???)

Afterwards we were a little tipsy and wandered around the streets singing “I’m Proud to Be An American” (no idea why) and finally landed on the patio of some local bar that had Yuengling on draft. Cheers to that! A giant group of twenty-somethings started smoking marijuana and one of the bartenders came out and said “The weed smells nice but can you please stop that?” Ha, ha only in New York.


Silly girls...

Getting there is...educational

It’s been an interesting day. I started out in Eastern PA for a client meeting and then rode an Amtrak to NYC for my friend Emily’s surprise 30th birthday party. I’ve never been on an Amtrak before and I’ve learned a few things on this trip that I probably should have already known. For instance, you don’t want to be in the bathroom when the train starts moving. And...don’t drink the water. Even if there are cups, a spigot, a brass plate that says “Water” and no signage or any other indication that the water is vile. Also, a friend of mine warned me not to put anything on the floor of the train unless I don't mind having my luggage peed on. I have so much stuff for work that I threw caution to the wind on this one and fully utilized my 12 inches of floor space, but I guess I got lucky...everything looks dry...

Out the train window, I saw parts of the country that I’ve only read about prior to now. There is some serious money in Eastern PA and some sprawling, palatial estates to go with it. Just a few miles away are some of the poorest neighborhoods I think I’ve ever seen. Perhaps the most disturbing thing of all was the quintessential farmhouse scene I saw: silo, big red barn, cows, sheep, etc. with the steaming towers of Three Mile Island in the background.

Funny, I wasn’t expecting a last-minute Amtrak ride to turn into such thought-provoking travel.