NYC for the 4th

There was a part of me that was excited to spend the 4th of July in Miami and see what it was all about but when my work schedule lends itself to travel I have to take advantage.  And when Meghan said she and Sam both had the 4th off it was too good to be true.

I did everything I could have wanted to do yesterday too.  I got coffee from 9th St., followed by sitting in the park with Meghan and chatting/dog watching.

Once Sam woke up we wandered around the city looking for food.  After being turned away from our original destination we ended up at Bread which I had forgotten all about.  I used to eat at Bread almost every day when I worked at Simple around the corner, but I haven't been back since.  The food is just as good as I remember.

After lunch we stopped at whole foods to pick up another of my favorite nyc things;

source

and headed back to one of my favorite places:

for one of my favorite activities:

As the sun started to fade we made our way to the party for the evening.  Suzannah's instructions were, "the doors are open, just come on in" so that's what we did.  But the apt we entered didn't seem to have much of a party going on.

Apparently because it wasn't the apt throwing the party.  That's right, this is just somebody random's apt in NYC that they leave completely open.  We literally walked in off the street without buzzing anybody, got in the elevator, pressed "P" for the penthouse, and walked right in.  Once we realized we were in a strangers apartment Meghan made us leave quickly, but I had to snap a picture before we did.

Having seen the penthouse I was disappointed to not be able to party there.  I figured the apt hosting the party would probably be more modest in comparison.

I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was seriously one of the largest and most unexpectedly luxurious apartments I have ever been in.  We weren't really sure who at the party actually lived in the apt so I was hesitant to take too many pictures, but here are the two most important ones.  This was in the corner of one of the GIANT bedrooms:

Why?!  I want this!  It's so Mariah!!  Ugh, my envy knows no bounds.

And then if that wasn't crazy enough, when I asked where I could go to the bathroom I was directed to their powder room in the front entryway.  I figured it was going to be a modest closet sized bathroom. I was, again, incorrect.  It was really hard to take a picture that really shows how crazy the bathroom is but I did the best I could.

It was floor to ceiling mirrors on all four sides with all black furnishings.  Even the door to the bathroom was mirrored so once you closed it you were in the epicenter of your own infinite army stretching out in every direction.  And when I peed?  Oh it was glorious.  I could watch myself from literally every angle.  And who doesn't want to do that?!

The only downside to the apt was that we didn't have any kind of view of the fireworks.  At first I thought this was our only outside view:

Until Meghan finally invited me up to the roof which had a pretty incredible view of Union Square.

We could hear the fireworks, and even sometimes see them in the reflections of the windows, but it was mostly just a tease.

At least the skyline provides enough twinkling lights to satisfy.  And we even left with enough time to catch a few of the fireworks from the view down 15th St.

Along with all the other stragglers who couldn't find their way to a better view.  We got home and I didn't even realize but Sam ordered a pizza from what I would say is the ideal place to order a pizza from, Lombardi's.  Not only is Lombardi's great because it's delicious and steeped in history, it's also another place that I used to eat at all the time when I worked at Simple.  And there's nothing better after a good buzz than some nostalgic pizza.  Isn't that how the saying goes?

I'm not even sure when we all went to sleep last night but it happened at some point.  And now I must prepare myself for another fun nyc day before I head back south tomorrow morning.  I'm going to go put my walking shoes on now!

rabbit rabbit rabbit

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We made it, we finally made it!  I thought June was never going to end.  I feel like June is a hard month because it determines the rest of your summer.  If you go big in June you can coast the rest of the summer.  Last year it was Lake Lure, this year it was San Francisco.  I'm relieved to have gotten all that out of the way, now I can book my hotel for Meredith's wedding in the fall and then lock myself away for the next three months to save money.

I will only let myself out for pool parties.

Thanks for the invite Stina.  I agree with Sam, it's exactly what you want to be doing in Miami in the summer.  I can go to work today happy with a weekend well done.

Even the detective is happy to have me headed back to work and out of his hair for a few hours.  He would literally rather stare at the wall than spend any amount of time or energy on me.

That's his scratching pad btw.  For some reason he loves to sit on it even though he is clearly too large for it.  Still, he awkwardly balances himself on it and then sits with his face jammed in to the wall for hours.  WHY?!

Oh, and another important question to ask yourselves on this the first day of July;

when did Dan pose for my Barbie calendar?!

Meghan, you can pass that pic along to Andre Leon Talley, I assume he'll be ordering 6.  Three for him and three for Whoopi.

I want this right now

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Meghan's FIANCE Sam was at the Today show this morning assisting one of his chefs from Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria.

That looks really amazing and I love how interested the ladies are when they come on at the end, they can't take their eyes off of him.

I can't take my eyes off that pasta.  Me want now please, thank you.

for Meghan

No visit with Meghan would be complete without a game of scrabble.  Every time we pull out the game board I find this mysterious writing on the back of a score sheet and can't stop laughing.  We're not entirely sure who wrote it either.  All signs point to Sam but Meghan is always at a loss for an explanation as to why he wrote these three names.  I think we always make plans to ask Sam but after the 5th rum and cider it's a challenge for us to remember anything.  Like state capitals.

ME:  Why is it that most state capitals have nothing going on besides politics?  There are only a few, like Nashville has a lot going on besides being the capital of tennessee"

MEGHAN:  Yeah that's true.  Well lets just start naming state capitals and maybe we'll think of another.  Ummm....Pierre North Dakota...or is it South Dakota...I'm not sure.  Hmmm.  What's the capital of Tennessee.

ME:  Ummm...I don't know.  Wait...didn't we just discuss this and I said Nashville?

MEGHAN:  Oh yeah.

At that point we actually weren't drunk, though I could blame the freezing cold for my inability to think.  Meghan convinced me to go with her to Bed Bath and Beyond after giving me a sob story about how it was her last day to have them apply a 20% off coupon to a receipt for things she had purchased some time ago.  Of course once we actually got there and had them apply the 20% she only ended up getting back like $4.00.

But I say it was worth it because without cash we wouldn't have been able to take this picture:

Awwww aren't we just adorable.  Except for in the first one where I look like the joker.

Anyways, thanks for a great weekend Meg.  For those of you I missed I will be back in the city soon and hopefully for longer than a day and a half.

I cried like 8 times over this

Thank you Ariel for sending this to me.

If I were her I would have been a little more excited about meeting Howie Mandel, but I guess I can excuse her for being overwhelmed with the whole scenario.

I wonder what they would have done if she had said no.  Or if she had gotten upset about the girl in the beginning and stormed out.  I guess they just wouldn't have aired it, but I wonder if they have footage of other less fortunate couples that were to be flash mobbed.

I guess they probably try to make sure ahead of time to avoid any awkward scenarios.  Kind of like how I made sure that Meghan would say yes to Sam back in June.  That's right Meghan, you just thought it was another brunch on St. Marks but I was actually doing some investigating while you ate your salad.

I just wish I had known about this show, I would have suggested it to Sam.

so hungry

Upon arriving in nyc I headed straight to the Met, as I usually do.  Meghan walked me past the line to see the McQueen exhibit again but it was far too crowded so we ended up turning around after the cape room.

Meghan then led me through the Greeks and the Romans before dropping me off in the Michael C. Rockefeller wing while she finished her last hour at work.  Even though I hadn't eaten anything all day I decided that I could nourish my soul with art for an hour to tide me over until Meghan and I could go get a bite to eat together.

Cut to 5:30 and I am still waiting at the top of the stairs to the costume institute, pacing back and forth between the open sarcophagus and the prints of hieroglyphs that would have appeared on his tomb.  I was so hungry that when I saw the one above my mouth actually started watering.

I mean that just looks straight up delicious.  What are those, doughnuts at the bottom?  I also like that they are clearly at a bar as you can see the upside down hanging martini glasses lined up at the bottom, as well as the pitchers of...what is that?  Infused vodka?  Sangria?  Either way it looks delicious.

By the time Meghan got out of work we only really had enough time to go downtown so I could watch her and Sam frantically pack for their dream vacation to Hawaii.  So now here I find myself in a nyc with no Meghan and no Dan.  What am I supposed to do with myself all day?

I will definitely be going here at some point to treat myself to lonely dessert for one.  Unless somebody wants to join me?

flavorful

I was drawn to this beer initially because of "unibroue" because frankly, who doesn't enjoy a good unibrow.  When I read the description I was even more interested, something to the affect of, "green apple beer...NOT CIDER...beer".

When I poured the beer in to the glass the aroma of green apple was so strong it made me nervous to even try it.  After having had some bad experiences with green apple-tinis I am very particular about when I can drink green apple flavored things.  Surprisingly though the beer tasted nothing like green apple.  It was very strange, but not unpleasant.  The bartender asked me how I liked it and I told her and she said, "I know right?!" before taking a big sniff of the empty bottle.  That was also strange, yet not unpleasant.

Most of the beers on the list are about the same price give or take a dollar, but there are a few that are dramatically more expensive.  I decided that I should knock one of them off my list while I was feeling adventurous so I ordered this barn owl beer:

It was described as having a toffee flavor (which it did) that sounded delivious (which it was).  I figured toffee must be hard to add to beer or something and that's why it was so expensive until I turned the bottle around and read the back:

First lets discuss how "fuggles" sounds like a word Meghan would play in scrabble and then look at me patronizingly when I doubted its actually being a word.  I'm sure she would just nonchalantly say something like, "Oh I have some leftover fuggles in the fridge from the last batch of beer Sam and I made"

But the point is that suddenly the price of the beer made sense and I felt like I had done something good for the barn owls.  Won't somebody please think of the barn owls?!  Apparently these lushes are.

All in all I was pleased with my beer selection last night.  They satisfied my cravings in exactly the way I didn't even realize they needed to be satisfied.  That's always the best scenario, like when Mariah surprises you with a high note, or when Oprah pretends she's doing a show about sex offenders but then it ends up being her favorite things episode.

I think I'm still drunk.

11:00am

Hanging out with Sam at the apt, still waiting for my phone to finish charging.

I appreciate that these are the only dvds that they have displayed on their bookshelf.  Only the classics really.

They both emphatically told me what a good dvd the cheese one is.

I've been there before

I found this for sale at Target.  I'm not entirely sure what is in this box but it sounds familiar.

It makes me think of this crazy lady (who shall remain nameless but trust me, her name is amazing) from back in my juicing days who told Meghan and Sam that she once fasted for 40 days and at the end of it she had manifested her soul mate.  Wether she manifested a real person or just made a man out of broccoli and sat him at her kitchen table I still don't know, but I do think she's the perfect person to have the ultimate yoga meltdown.