nyc - day 3 (sunday)

So...Sunday funday. We went to Chinatown to try and find a place that had Shanghai style soup dumplings. We had seen them on an episode of No Reservations and they looked so freakin good, so we searched and conquered. The restaurant, Joe's Shanghai, was really neat. It was a hole-in-the-wall with communal tables, complimentary tea and a long wait. Totally worth it.
After that we shopped in some little stores and got some fun Chinese stuff including a bonzai tree that was a big ball of fun to take back on the plane.
Later we did dessert in Little Italy. Yum.
Dinner that night was at Craft. Quite an experience...one we'll probably never get to do again. But at least they got the dessert right this time. Mmm...souffle with vanilla cream... After dinner, we realized that it was our last night in town. So, what else would we do but drown our sorrows. We hit one of my old haunts, the Russian Vodka Room (where I'm pretty sure there was some sort of illegal mail-order bride thing going on) and had some serious vodka drinks. They infuse their own there and most of the patrons (all Russian immigrants that speak to eachother in the mother tongue) drink it straight. I think I looked like a total wuss when I asked for a splash of sprite. Oh well.
Next we headed to Divine Bar (another round of wine flights), 5Ninth in the Meatpacking District and finally, The Hog Pit which looked like a BBQ place from the outside, but ended up being a blast. We befriended a chef from the Soho House (some snooty, members only place) at the bar, which had its perks. Got to hear some funny celeb stories and drink free shots all night. The culmination of all this was me not remembering the cab ride home or the 2 slices of pizza until I saw the evidence at noon the next day, which was after checkout time. Oops.
One thing that did stick in my memory was turning on the TV at 4:30 AM and being shocked and saddened at the death of George Carlin. What a horrible loss...

nyc - night 2 (saturday)

Boy, I'm really behind once again. Dinner Saturday night was d-lish. We went to a place called Artisanal that was famous for its cheese. It even had its own cheese cave. I heart cheese. We did a cheese flight with wine pairings, which was really nice becuase we each did different ones so we could try the maximum amount of cheese.
Then we had a traditional fondue (mmm) and split steak frites (double mmm). Oh and I made a total ass out of myself when I ordered a glass of wine with dinner and said the number (b/c I couldn't pronounce the name) and was told, "ma'm, that's the price." Oops. I was drunk, give me a break. So I had told the reservations person that it was Adam's b-day but I guess they got it wrong b/c the little dessert deal came out with my name. Ha.
After dinner we did the Village and went to the Comedy Cellar for a 12:45 AM show. Good lordy. Needless to say I was ready to crash once that was done.

nyc - day 2

So...I got a little off schedule posting on the trip. Oops. Here's a quick recap of our Saturday in NYC.
A little background - as I was driving to work a few weeks ago listeing to my Sirius radio, I heard that one of our favorite musicians, Alejandro Escovedo, was going to be performing in NYC the same weekend we were there. He was doing Conan, the Today show, etc., but also doing a live private performance in the Sirius studios for 10 people and their guests. I figured we had no shot at winning but I signed us up anyway, and low and behold, we were one of the 10 picked! Whoohoo! So the first picture shows the 2 hour performance we got to see of Alejandro doing his entire new album live for us.

Sirius rocks - they're located on the 36th floor of a huge building in the Rockefeller Center area. The lobby walls are covered in plexiglass where all the performers sign when they visit. I found my favorite boys and snapped a pic.

Next we did Grand Central Station and had cheesecake at Junior's (yum!) and saw a dude propose in the grand hall area. It was adorable.

Later in the afternoon we did the obligatory Central Park carriage ride, which SUCKED. $40 for what we were told would be 20 minutes. It was more like 8. The guy took our picture afterward, and I didn't realize until just now what my finger was doing. Unintentional but so appropriate!


The rest of Saturday coming soon.

27 candles on the cake

A big happy birthday to my favorite guy in the world. This is your "golden birthday" so maybe it'll be a good year. Looks like this one was. Love you.

nyc day 1 - friday

We got in around 7 and did the whole $30 cab ride from Queens to the city.

Our hotel was in Murray Hill and was a fantastic deal. I'd recommend it to anyone who can't afford $300+ per night for a vacation.

We headed to the Lower East Side for a drink at Satsko before dinner at Apizz. I tried a saketini made with lychee and pomegranate juice and...yep, I still don't like sake. Or lychee.

Dinner was AWESOME. Their bread was served with fresh ricotta and tomato sauce instead of butter. YUM. Adam tried wild boar lasagna and I had gnocchi. D-lish.

After that we walked around the LES, then went over to Emily's apartment in the West Village. It was such a neat place...wish I had taken a picture. They have an actual patio - with room for tables, chairs, grills, etc. For those of you who understand Manhattan living, you get how uncommon that is. Another friend from school, Anne, was there, along with Emily's boyfriend, Gurion, her sister and sister's friend. Around 3 AM we realized a big day was upon us so we should probably call it a night.
Saturday details coming soon!

nyc...

Oh there's just so much to post but I will try to do it in spurts so as not to bore you all with details of our whirlwind weekend!

I think the best part of our trip was that we really had no obligations or expectations. We didn't have a list of places we just HAD to see or anything like that. So you'll notice some random places on here but that's just how it was and I loved every minute of it.

I'll do a post for each day of the trip and see how that goes.

i should be sleeping

But instead, here I am, wide awake, with just shy of 6 hours until my alarm goes off.
Sweet.
I'm in need of some expert advice on falling asleep when you can't make your mind shut-up methods. It's not that I'm not tired. I am. I keep yawning, and I'm obviously in need of some shut-eye. So what do you do?
I've read (even the most boring thing ever, my assigned readings for Ethics). I've watched 2 episodes of Gossip Girl. I've played solitaire on my phone (three versions, mind you. Chinese, scorpion and spider).
No dice.
Taking Tylenol PM at this point is no good since I need a full 8 hrs to sleep them off or tomorrow will feel like the aftermath of 10 vodka sodas.
Ugh.
By the way, I heart Gossip Girl. The CW has brought a whole new life to my DVR. I'm also shamefully addicted to Farmer Wants a Wife.
The funny part about that show is one of my friends, Karen, is from Portage des Sioux where it was filmed, so it's fun to hear her commentary.

OK, I'm going to play some online poker. If that doesn't do it, I give up.
Good night.