Good times in NYC

I had a fabulous weekend visiting friends in New York. The combination of hotel hopping each night and seeing multiple friends per day made the 3 night, 2 day weekend seem a lot longer (in a good way) than it was. Brea and I both got to the first hotel after midnight on Friday, so we just got ready for bed and a big day ahead of us. We stayed at the Club Quarters right at Rockefeller Center and around the corner from Times Square (I got to see both from the cab).

On Saturday morning, we got ready, checked out, and carted our suitcases to the next hotel, also in Midtown - the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station (thank you India points!). We were able to check in early, drop our bags, and arrange for our complimentary cocktails to arrive at 6pm that evening. The hotel is very nice and we were on a club level (with free breakfast the next morning). But, we were also starving and it was already noon, so we took the subway down to Soho and walked past the Banana Republics, the Pradas, and the other name brand stores just looking for a place to get some food. Heading towards Greenwich Village, we eventually came across a French bistro called Bistro Les Amis that looked reasonable and had open windows/seating on the sidewalk. We ordered brunch, and after our blood sugar level was back to normal, we were talkative again and ready for some shopping!

Not too much damage on the credit card - just a few purcahses at Bliss, H&M, and Sephora. We also stopped by Staples to get the materials to make our friend Aydin a "yearbook". The main reason we came to NY this weekend was to go to his good-bye party and see him off to Wharton. Brea photocopied all his yearbook pictures from 7th-12th grade, we pasted them into a small notebook, and brought it out that night for everyone to sign. Now that I'm back in SF I'm going to add the pictures from the weekend to the back pages, and mail it to him in Philadelphia.

Saturday afternoon we also went to a BBQ at Aydin's. It was really neat to see his funky split level garden apartment, and to meet his roommates and friends before heading out with them that night. We had to leave around 5pm though, because we had to get back to our hotel to get ready for the evening. Besides, we had cocktails arriving at 6pm!

We showered, changed, and were ready for the evening in record time, still making our 7pm dinner reservation at Artisinal Fromagerie with my friend Kayzad from India. He's back living in the States to go to grad school, so it was great that it worked out well to see him. The cheese fondue was fantastic, as were the comped glasses of champagne by our waiter! We headed back out to Aydin's and then over to "Bed" lounge to meet up with the crew.

Several flights of stairs later, we were at the rooftop level bar/lounge and the group had a "bed" reserved with bottle service. We had a big group, and an Irvine reunion with Matt and Nina Biscaro (friends from elementary school and junior high that I haven't seen since then!). I also made some new Brit friends who I will look up in London. I'm sad to say that we didn't take advantage of New York's late closing time, and instead we headed back to the hotel around the "usual" 1:30am timeframe. We had already had a big day and were ready to call it quits.

Sunday morning we slept in, went to the club level brunch, and then back to the room to lounge around some more. I finally called up all my friends I was planning to see on Sunday, and lined up lunch, dinner, and evening plans with 3 different people. Brea and I took the subway downtown; she headed over to catch her Chinatown bus back to Boston (a steal at $30 round trip) and I headed over to the meat packing district (it's nicer than it sounds) for lunch at the trendy Patsis french brasserie with an EY friend. He's one of my friends who travels more than I do, so we talked a lot about traveling, how we have a hard time relating to people who don't travel, and he gave me tips on going to Morocco, which is definitely on my list of places to go in the near future.

I head back up to midtown around 4pm to meet up with another EY-er who has a plush pad on the river. After relaxing in the AC for a bit, we decided it was happy hour and went out for a few beers at a Spanish tapas restaurant which was coincidentally right across the street from Cosette, the French restaurant Brea, Aydin, and I went to 2.5 years ago before seeing a Broadway show. We had a homestyle dinner at the Barking Dog, and then I realized it was time to get my bags from the hotel and head uptown to see another (former) EY-er on the Upper East Side.

I spent awhile chatting with my third former coworker of the day, and enjoyed seeing yet another NYC apartment. He graciously let me sleep in the bedroom (he was up all night anyway online - I think he's nocturnal), so that when I came out of the room ready to go to the airport at 4:30am he was in the same spot on the couch with his laptop I had left him 4 hours earlier. I opted for the budget airport transportation, involving two subway lines and the airtran at the low price of $7 (but it took 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes as we estimated, so I barely made my flight, running through the security lines and terminal to the gate). The combination of my lack of sleep and morning workout allowed me to sleep the entire 5 hour flight, just waking up about once an hour when they came round with the drink cart to get my O.J.

Back at work today, I'm unphased by the time change, and amazed at how much I accomplished this weekend, catching up with 7 old friends, enjoying meals out (incidentally, all French except for one), and seeing another tiny slice of NYC. Tonight I have dinner plans in the city at Medjool with friends out visiting from DC, and tomorrow night I'm seeing RENT in SF, so this week is off to a busy start!