New York City is the new awesome

You know when you wake up one day and decide it’s time to do something awesome and crazy? When the opportunity to go to NYC for the first time in my whole life presented itself I decided it was time. Cheap plane ticket, best host, and hello, it’s New York. I’m almost embarrassed I’ve not been there yet. So I bought a ticket and before I knew it I was on my way.

Rebecca and Cameron drove me to the airport last Wednesday night.


I was a little bit nervous because how can something bad not happen on a flight that is nearly 5 hours long?


To a girl who flies almost exclusively from SF to SLC, a quick 1.5 hour jaunt, flying to NYC makes me feel like the probability of death is high. So I took off at 10pm in California and luckily touched down safe and sound at 5:15am in NYC.


Do I take a $55 cab ride into the city or be tough and take public transit? I took transit. I guess everyone else took cabs.


I took the A subway line that, as promised, dropped me off conveniently 4 blocks from Brigham's apartment in the West Village. I told the doorman (fancy) I was visiting 15B and he let me pass. I knew this trip was going to be the best trip ever when this sign greeted me.
And then once I got inside not only did I have my very own bed made and ready for me to catch some zzz’s, I also had towels in the bathroom ready for me to use when I felt like a shower.


Brigham had class on Thursday so he left me well equipped with instructions and maps and ideas of what do do so I headed out and walked to Washington Square Park.
Awesome…but talk about freezing. I will never again complain about San Francisco being cold (lie). This is me under my umbrella that is protecting me from the freezing rain at Washington Square Park. I'm trying to be tough and not cry even though I’m so cold I feel like my ears are going to fall off. I'm crying on the inside.

I had a delicious lunch at a Thai place called Peep in SoHo (use the bathroom regardless of need) then met back up w/Brigham at NYU where he is studying how to be a rich lawyer. He needed some food too so we stopped at a local pizza joint where he ate pizza and we discussed the best way to attack NYC over the next few days.

Next we walked and walked and walked…stopping at awesome custom sneaker shops, hidden boutiques, friend's jewelry stores and we even checked up on this. Next was Indian food for dinner! The décor was tasteful and the food was tasty.

Just when I thought I couldn’t fit anymore awesome into one day we went to Times Square to catch a sold out Belle & Sebastian show at the Nokia theater.

On the way we ran into Michael Musto and inside the show we ran into Brigham’s friend Demetri Martin. What a nice young man. Sidenote…this was my first time in Times Square so I was happy and excited about it.


Friday was all about seeing views and securing tickets to see Rent on Broadway (thank heavens Brigham loves musicals as much as I do). We secured discounted tickets downtown then headed to this lovely mall on the water that provided a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and also some other bridges.

New York likes to build lots of bridges all in the same place.


Other great things at the mall were the Chinese food at the food court.

And the best, most necessary store ever.



Then we walked again but this time on Park Avenue. We went to the Whitney Biennial so I could practice being good at art (I give my self a B- at art) then we walked along Central Park to get to one of Brigham’s favorite destinations in New York.


Then it was time to head home and get ready for dinner…oh delicious sushi.




Finally. Rent. Which was great except the guy who played Roger was not right. His hair was not blonde. His voice sounded like a grizzly bear and I wanted to punch him in the ugly nose almost the whole time. But other than that it was awesome.


By Saturday my host needed to catch up on his studies since he had been spending lots of time helping me be a successful tourist. So while he got smart I went out and got an Authentic NYC bagel for breakfast, hung out with the ladies at the local yarn shop, chatted about cable knitting and hit the infamous Filene’s basement that I had only heard about in urban legends.

For lunch we headed to a neighborhood called Nolita.


We ate the most delicious Cuban sandwich and corn of all time. So so so good.


Then wouldn’t you know it, I ran into a bunch of people I know from the internet!




Saturday night we ventured out into Brigham’s hood…the West Village…we braved the scary diagonal streets and ran into none other than Di Cannon and company eating Mexican food for dinner but with only one dinner left for me in NYC I knew there was only one place to go…the hidden treasure of the swanky Le Parker Meridien hotel.

The Burger Joint is one of the secret hidden places that I would never know to go to were it not for my host. I was so excited for the burger I was about to eat.

Brigham was like whatever, I eat here all the time.

After dinner I got a lesson from the master in how to wait for a subway train like a local.

I call this picture "quick study."


A few other noteworthy activities were nap time (due to excessive walking), craft time (how to draw cats), story time (pirates), movie time (the baxter), grocery store time (tp).

Sunday was packing…church in NYC…and then a little bit of sad that my trip is all over.
And just like that I'm getting picked up in Oakland CA at 2am by none other than Jeffery Cross.


Bye New York! Thanks for having me! Hope to see you soon!
(I love you San Francisco)
Seriously awesome.