Wednesday, February 9, 2011

New York. Yeah Baby.

I just had the most fantastically fun weekend in New York with my girlfriend of over 20 years.


I don't know what is more amazing...that I spent a weekend in New York (that sounds so decadent!) OR that I am old enough to have a best friend for over 20 years.  Has it been that long??

Anyway, the weekend was a complete blast from the crazy weather that ended up putting us on the same flight into the city, to the show we saw on Broadway, to the pizza we ate at a hole-in-the-wall place just before we left.

Fun with a capital F-U-N!

What I'd like to share is what we learned on our trip.  Nothing big, just a few tips that may help the next girls' weekend travelers when they want to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

They are in no particular order.

1.  Only take yellow cabs.

Our first night we walk out of our hotel (a very very nice hotel, I must say) and ask the doorman to get us a cab to our restaurant.  They were chatting up some guy in a white cab and told us that this cab would take us where we wanted to go.
Unsuspecting, we hop in.
What we don't realize is that by getting into the cab we have essentially invited this cab driver to become our escort for the evening.  His escort duties (in his mind) included trying to make us dinner reservations for the next night at any one of the fine eating establishments where he knew "the guy in charge" (Yeah. Right.)
We make it to our destination, buddakan, and the cabbie parks the car, gets out and walks in with us.  Did you hear me? He walks in WITH us.  Like he's WITH us.  The hostess thinks we're a party of 3 (which we are SO not).  The little guy who takes us to our table thinks we're a party of three.  Meanwhile my friend and I are trying with our most polite Southern manners to pay the guy and get him to leave.  The last straw is when our waiter, who happened to be pretty cute, brings an extra place setting to our super awesome table for TWO and tries to add a spot.  Right there I pulled the Steel Magnolia out and said in my most emphatic voice that he most certainly was NOT with us, that we were a party of TWO and that he was leaving.  I paid him and he finally went away.
Dinner was amazing, wonderful, and oh-my-goodness good and we're still dreaming of tuna tar tare and short ribs.

2.  Take rain boots.  Trust me.

3.  Wear makeup.  And cute earrings.  Everyone seemed to have great makeup that stayed on even in the freezing wind and rain.  We were very impressed with its staying power and wondered if it was tattooed on?  Hmm....a topic for another post.

4.  Be sure to empty out your purse before you go to a super trendy bar.

Before the show. Before the cocktails. Before showing my true un-coolness.
We saw La Cage Aux Folles and it was amazing and wonderful and amazing and we decided since we were already out way past bedtime that we'd top the evening off with a cocktail at a trendy bar.  Enter the W Hotel Times Square "Living Room".  Picture the coolest living room with low sofas in white, low light, cool plants and even cooler people (I am not included in that description).  Backlit bar, great tunes...the quintessential NYC night spot.  Now picture yours truly at the bar attempting to pay for our drinks.  Here's the cool part..... as I reach in my wallet to pull out my money, half of my purse comes out too.  We're not talking the random receipt.  No.  We're talking wadded up Snicker's wrapper, a feminine hygiene product, hand sanitizer and any number of other things that, I swear,  jumped out of my purse to make me look like a huge redneck and just screamed "I'M A MOM!!!".  Yes.  That was me you saw raking my purse-escapees back to their dark home while trying to balance two of the biggest and most expensive drinks on record.
Step back, girls.  The southerners are in the house.

5.  They have little grocery stores in NYC.  They sell many of the same things you find at your local store.  There is no need to get excited about the mini-Nutella snack packs with cookie sticks included.  The poor man behind the counter probably had 911 on speed dial for people just like you. I mean, ahem, me.

6.  When walking blocks and blocks to get to a specific store, stop to check if the store will be closed for a tv film crew.


Here is Dylan's Candy Bar.  We walked miles and miles in the rain to get here.  It had closed early for filming of a tv show.
No, I didn't find out what show.  And no, we didn't see anyone famous hanging around.  I'm still a bit bitter about it.
Luckily Bloomingdales was across the street and they were open.  Yea! And they had the heat on AND they gave us bags for our wet umbrellas.
We ((heart)) Bloomies!

7.  Take the carriage ride around Central Park.  I've done it lots and it is still a fun thing to do.



8.  Take lots of self-portraits with cranky tourists in the background. Think I can photoshop her out of  this cute picture of my friend and me by the Wall Street Bull's bootie?



9.  Eat pizza.

10.  Go to New York with your best friend who has never been to New York.  Laugh, talk about high school and college and jobs and life and crazy people around you and the weather and stuff all without being interrupted one time by another person needing something from you.  It's refreshing and rejuvenating and recharging.  It was just what we needed.


And we look just the same as we did in high school....only better.

2 comments:

  1. Oh what a wonderful trip! That's so cool that y'all are still so close and were able to enjoy such an awesome girls weekend in New York! Thanks for all tips--I will definitely only be taking a small trendy purse to the super swank bar the next time I go. LOL, and WHEN will that be? I use to go to NY for work and I haven't been there in ages. Maybe I need to get my girlfriends and start planning a trip. Thanks for sharing!

    PS--you both definitely look as gorgeous as you did in High School!!

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  2. That sounds like such a fun trip! I've never been to NYC but my friend and I both really want to go. We've thought about taking our daughters (they are 14) and making it a Mother-Daughter thing.

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