a brief hiatus.

so i realize, i haven't posted in a while. i was in NYC from early last thursday morning until late sunday night. and then i've been gasp, working, and trying to play catch up. sigh. that's what i get for taking a vacation.

anyway, this was my first trip to the infamous nyc, and i loved it. it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as i had imagined it would be. as we all know, i suffer from mild paranoia and claustrophobia. just to list out a few of the many obnoxious hypochondriacal traits i've inherited from my mother. thanks mom. and great qualities for a small town southern girl to take with her to nyc for the first time.

THURSDAY
we arrived early mid morning thursday. after taking a cab from laguardia to midtown, we checked into the hotel. it was nice. and small. welcome to new york. home of the 3000$ a month box. so we immediately took off walking around midtown. i saw the rockefeller center, and radio city music hall. ryan walked me by nbc studios, and down and around and back again. then, i discovered my favorite store in the entire world. h&m. (no seriously, we are getting one in atlanta. i can not wait. seriously. my dream store come true. trendy, yet affordable.) after purchasing the entire store, we grabbed some lunch, and as we walked out of the restaurant, my feet were already hurting, and it started pouring rain. nice.

we headed back to the box, i mean hotel, to re-group. we had plans to have drinks with alden, a work friend of ryans, and then dinner at stanton social. (i had been told that paris hilton had dined there less than a month before. as an avid perezhilton reader, the thought of even breathing the same recycled air was exciting. and also, i'd love to actually see that wonk eye up close.) so we headed out. alden, ryan's friend was great. we met at this little place in, i believe, the lower east side. i can't remember the name. what i do remember, is that the wine was good. after drinks, we headed to stanton social. dinner was, um, alright. hit and miss. we ordered several tapas. overall, not impressed. but the wine was good. yes, i have a wine problem. after dinner, we walked around the lower east side, and walked into and out of a few bars. it was like a hipster raincloud had downpoured moments before we got there. hilarious, but i was exhausted, and so was ryan, so we headed back to the box, and called it a night.

FRIDAY
we de-curled entirely too early friday. we had to meet a work friend of ryan's for lunch in the fashion district. lunch was good, but the wine hangover from the night before wasn't really helping. after lunch, we walked around times square a bit, and headed down to the soho area to do some shopping. that's when the most amazing thing ever happened. we stopped by bryant park for a bit, and just happened across the filming crew for the sex and the city movie. what?!?!! i totally freaked. i saw them filming a scene with carrie, big, and miranda. it was amazing. i won't go into detail as it's kind of a spoiler, but if you're interested, let me know, and i'll spill the beans. so we continued on shopping. there are literally stores every five feet, and everyone looks like they just stepped off the cover of harpers bazaar. insane. by this time we were wrapping up, it was late, and we had a show to catch, so we headed back to the hotel, to re-group.

we left, the hotel around 6ish for dinner. we went to this little japanese place called hagi. it was amazing. japanese bar food and cold sake. it really doesn't get much better than that. after dinner, we walked through times square again (btw - it looks WAY cooler at night.) and headed over the the golden theatre to see avenue q. avenue q was hilarious. it's an adult themed, puppeted version of sesame street. now really, how can you go wrong with that?

after avenue q, we headed back to the lower east side to meet up with a few of ryan's co-workers. there was this dude from la there, (in a band, of course), that was so obnoxious, and constantly talked about how big his c*ck was. and yes, by the end of the night, he had whipped it out. IN A BAR!! i was lucky enough, not to see, but not everyone in our group was so lucky. once again, welcome to new york. unbelievable, but the jager bombs were good, and my good friend matt came in from brooklyn to hang out. we drank and drank, and it got late, and we headed back to the box to call it a night.

SATURDAY
somehow the hangover wasn't as bad this morning. we headed down to chinatown because i wanted some fake handbags. and let me tell you, chinatown is amazing. it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. you are walking around this insanely congested area. and suddenly some little woman walks by and whispers, "prada, gucci, coach..." and you say, "yes," and then you're off. one woman said, "ok lady, you no talk to me, just follow, ok?" and i'm like, "ok." so ryan and i walk through crowds of people into alley ways, and through abandoned stores to the back where a wall becomes a door, and opens up to find fake designer purses lining the walls. it. was. like. christmas. and you can talk them down on price, too. so essentially, the 35$ dolce bag i got would normally run me 1000$ or more. i love new york. after running ryan around, in search for the perfect bags for um, about 4 hours, we were exhausted, and headed back to the box.

that night, we had dinner with some of ryan's college friends at this little japanese place in the east village. it was fantastic. afterwards, we went out to this place called first and first in the lower east side. the next thing i knew it was 3:30am, and we caught a cab back to the box, exhausted.

SUNDAY
sunday morning, we woke up to meet ryan's frien eg and his wife for brunch. we went to craft bar, which is tom collichio's restraunt. you know, the main judge from top chef. the hangover was horrible, and the food was um, alright. the bloody was probably the best part, and it wasn't even all that great. tom, i'm dissapointed in you. and then to make matters worse, i went downstairs to the bathroom, and got locked in. a piece of metal had disjarred, and wrapped itself around the inside of the door, blocking it from opening. how this happened, i can never be sure, but for 20 mins, i was trapped in that damned bathroom stall. i called ryan, and eg's wife came down to try to help. unsuccessful, she went to find someone from the restaurant, but in the meantime, i managed to kick my way out in a crazed state of claustrophobia and panic. so after the insane adrenaline rush, my hangover actually felt better, and we headed over to MoMA. MoMA was very cool, and i took lots of great pictures, but by this point, ryan and i were so tired, we could barely stand. we had bags to pack, and a flight to catch so we headed back to the box for the last time.

our flight left at 6pm, which put us at my actual apartment around 10pm sunday night. needless to say, our vacation hadn't been relaxing, but was definitely the most fun i've had in quite a while. i really loved new york, and i always kinda knew that i would, so i'll definitely be visiting again. but despite my newfound love of that place, i missed atlanta so much, and i was really, really glad to sleep a much bigger box sunday night. :-)

Click here to see photos from the trip.

~jet