For those of you who have read our guest blog entry, written by none other than my wonderful mother, you know that I had 2 of my favorites with me in New York this weekend (well, 3 because Miss Puckett is already with me)! A quick apology to Shea and my mother for acting like a total alien and seeming so bewildered by hot water, paved streets, clean sheets, make up, rain, ect.) It was so so soo great to see my mom - she is an amazing and inspiring person and I am SO thankful to have her wonderful self back in fighting shape able to hop on a plane for a quick day in the city. (Shout out to my dad, thanks for acrueing all those air miles Simon! Mwah!) It was so nice to sit and catch up with her - if you know my mom you will agree that she is such a bright positive person and a joy to be around! Can't wait to see my her again in Barcelona and be able to spend a little more quality time with her, hopefully this time without the total downpour. Hey mom, why didn't we take an epic jumping picture for the blog? Talk about a missed opportunity!! Love you tons and tons Plat and thanks a million for making the journey!
I am going to keep my weekend summary pretty short since the majority of consisted of being on a boyfriend high after not seeing Shea for 3 weeks, which has felt like an eternity…sad but true, I am rolling my eyes at myself. I am going to spare all of our blog readers any kind of sappy entry about how happy I am that he came to NYC (very veryy happy, thank you so SO much for coming Shea!! Insert another eye roll here) because let’s be serious, no one cares about that. I will briefly say that my favorite experience that we had together in the big apple was the evening that we explored Time Square and indulged in a healthy meal of cheeseburgers, mac 'n' cheese, and ice cream (he is a fitness buff after all) before wandering around the lit up streets checking out the must sees (which included the M&M factory and mega Toys R Us) while cracking each other up for hours :)
Anyway, take it away Kel!
Time Square
Getting lost on the subway
Kelly's NYC weekend: The Princess and the Pea
The tone for my NYC experience was pretty much set from the moment I left Newark. One of my dad’s very best friends, Joe, had arranged a car to pick me up so I was greeted by a very friendly Indian man in an immaculate black suburban (but we already wrote about this). No sooner had I entered the upper west side, was Joe horrified and disciplining me for my obscene amount of luggage. It was only fair, it really was ridiculous and to make matters worse I had another box of clothes waiting for me in a box here. Feel free to start with the “poor Joe’s” now. He let my smelly self and even smellier load of baggage ransack his perfect apartment, and we caught up over a few “welcome back to America” beers. I opened my package of warmer clothes (thanks mom!) and threw on some more appropriate attire so Joe and I could go out in search of dinner. He introduced me to the doormen and the area, bought me a 7-day metro pass, and we ran into his girlfriend Melinda (an almost unheard of occurrence in the NYC streets of anonymity). The two of us sat down in the front window of Amber, perfect for people watching on my first night in the city, and gorged on sushi and rice. It was such a fun first night back in the states, and to make it even better, Joe let me and my stuff take over his room when we got home and the poor working man crashed on his own couch. Now that is hospitality. I told Joe I could definitely live this life in NYC, which he of course had a hearty laugh over. I do mesh well in the doormen and key card entry apartment lifestyle… sigh. Maybe someday yall.
Curious as to whether or not we would be able to sleep in, I was not surprised to find myself awake at 8am Friday morning. Within moments I had a text from the oh-so-witty Jenny saying “cockadoodledoooo!”. Isn’t she clever? After a fleeting moment of missing Samara, I quickly realized I was a normal temperature, in a pillow top bed, with a hot shower only five CLEAN steps away! HEAVEN! So after a long, hot shower (I realized how accustomed I had come to feeling dirty) I set off into the city I had been anxiously awaiting to return to since I was 18. All that was missing from this perfect morning (I wasn’t even phased yet by the cold gray day) was a venti Starbucks. No worries, it was a hop skip and jump from my oh so sweet doorman. One train ride later, I was downtown meeting all of Joes lovely co-workers at UBS. They pointed me in one important direction, H&M, just a few blocks over. This was a bad idea. Apparently my slightly less vain than normal life the past few weeks, combined with the adrenaline rush of being in the big apple got the best of me at my first shopping stop. I wandered the three floors for a way too long and completely disregarded my travel budget. whoops! I mean, what is better than new dresses? Well maybe...shoes... but that’s beside the point. Luckily, Jenny called and gave me about 15 minutes to meet them at lunch- thank goodness. A few impulse purchases later, me and my large bag headed off towards the restaurant. Being the anti-umbrella enthusiast I am, I didn’t mind the light mist for the few blocks I had to walk. Well it turned out to be like 15 blocks, and halfway through Mother Nature opened up her flood gates. I was mildly embarrassed for a few seconds, until I realized that everyone was completely drenched, umbrellas flying up overhead. So I had that even more embarrassing moment where you laugh out loud by yourself, and took off jogging (while protecting my new items). I found the little cafe and stormed in to find a priceless look on my lunch mates faces, as the water dripped from my nose and hair. So what if my Uggs don’t dry until we get to London? It was worth it to spend some time with Jen, Shea and Platti (thanks again for lunch gorgeous!).
I left those three, hopped on another train, and met Joe & Melinda to go see a Hopper and some other exhibit at the Whitney Museum. We strolled through and gave our fair and completely uneducated opinions on the strange art (Joe was much more a fan than I was being the simplest that he is). On our way home, Joe informed us he had a perfect appetizer to pair with a pre-dinner glass of wine. In we walked to Crumbs the cupcake shop... man oh man are this guy and I on the same page in life? Chocolate and red wine before dinner?! Yes please! We got ready and headed to the Village to a tiny but fantastic little restaurant called Commerce where Jen and Shea met us. We had a divine dinner, food and company before J&M set us off into the city to be wild and crazy 20-something year olds. Yeah, not so much. We headed to the meat packing district where we quickly realized, in our food comas, that one more $13 nightcap just wasn’t worth it. So I put my 2 partners in crime on a train home (or so I thought) and walked another block to catch my own. Side note: There was an older man singing at my subway stop. His voice and vocal capabilities were so gorgeous and full of life; it was my devotional for the day I suppose. For my WV friends- it was my GOD moment. A perfect way to end such a great day.
Saturday morning I had breakfast (round 1 for me, 2 for Joe) at Manhattan Diner. It was a fun experience, after reading about my dad, Jim and Joe’s experience here a couple years back :) Plus it is apparently Joe’s spot, since everyone was calling him things like “boss” and there were lots of fist bumps flying. Needless to say we were fed very quickly... it’s nice to have friends in high places. The rest of the day is in another post, since Jenny, Shea and I spent it together! So we shall skip ahead...
After Sunday brunch, I took a quick power nap (Confession: I also watched an episode of Modern Family on my laptop- I miss it, I can’t lie). As I was heading out, Melinda and Joe came home and decided to join me on a walk through the park and to see the Metropolitan Museum. It was a gorgeous day out and we had a lot of fun! Afterwards, Joe turned over his apartment to me one more time (God bless him). I had to convince him I was more than content with some alone time (Jill P. Says I have always needed a little and always will ha!). I threw on sweats, watched the Oscars, did loads and loads of laundry, and Skyped with friends at home (Addison Grace showed me all her new 3 year old toys and the one in the oven is growinnn’ which made my heart smile). I wish I could describe how glorious it was to just do nothing in a nice apartment. It was such a great way to round out my weekend layover. I crawled back into my luxurious bed for one good last night sleep before..Europe? Oh geez what have we got ourselves into this time...
Monday Jen and I reunited, so let the adventure stories begin again (I’m sure after this rather boring blog entry by yours truly you are thrilled to death to get back to normal). Reducing to one bag was beyond stressful for this packrat, which I procrastinated by watching episodes of The Bachelor (yeah yeah guilty pleasure #2, shush). Joe, aka THE MAN, came to the rescue again though. Which brings me to the last thing I have to mention before I wrap up... Joe (if he ever reads this) was the most incredible host. He spoiled me completely rotten and will be horrified that I am glorifying him on the internet. So all I will say is, if he ever needs anything, I am in debt forever and ever. My love affair with the city of New York is still pretty fiery, and I think it may only take a few warm days there to lure me in for a longer stay. What I had planned on being the world’s longest layover, turned out to be an amazing leg of our trip (mostly thanks to Joe and all the cupcakes). Success!
I was a horrible picture taker in NYC, and regetfully took NO pictures with Joe or Shannon! (Boo on me) But this was a great view from the park!
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