New York State of Mind

It is always so hard to drag myself out of my warm, cozy bed on Monday mornings. It was especially hard this particular Monday morning, since this weekend was so crazy and fun-filled (and exhausting). I took Friday afternoon off and flew to New York City, where there was a mini-reunion with my best guy friends. They're so great...really, they are. They are crazy and gross, like all 23 year olds of the male gender who suddenly have the income to live out some of the insane ideas they come up with. They have ridiculous, made-up words to refer to a plethora of things that started as inside jokes years and years ago; they talk about girls and the stuff they do with girls, which is a little disgusting, though I give advice where I can; they fart a lot and drink a lot and eat a LOT...but they are also hilarious and so kind, and even though they just started out as "Alex's friends," over the years we've all been through so much together and I love them. For example, when I spent two months in Pylos, Greece, the summer before senior year and was attacked by some other American student at 2am on a deserted boat in the dockyard because he thought I had been giving him "come-hither" looks all night, it was Andy who listened to my hysterical crying for twenty minutes and calmed me down, eased my nerves, and promised he'd have Alex call as soon as he got home from work. Anyway, these guys are my guys. They are amazing.

Anyway, back to my story of the weekend. I ran into Alex at LaGuardia at almost the same moment that Aaron pulled up to take us back to his apartment in Queens. Mike and Chris were already there and had a head start on drinks, but the rest of us quickly caught up (mmm WINE!).

Aaron, Alex, Mike, and Chris above. I didn't have sunglasses, so I had to take the picture.

Around 11pm, we hopped on the subway and went to see Particle at the Highline Ballroom. It was a really cool venue, and I thought the show was pretty good, despite the fact that they had a guest guitarist (their original one left a few weeks ago due to creative differences, or something...which may or may not be code for REHAB). Alex and the others really love Particle...I mean, almost obsessively. I think they're good, but it's not really the kind of music I'd opt to listen to on my own...it's sort of techno-jam band, where the songs can last like twenty minutes each. You definitely have to be in the mood for that, but I'm always up for live shows of any sort (especially if there is a guy dressed in a gigantic banana costume) so it was a good time. They didn't start playing until 1:30am and went until about 3 o'clock, so by the time we got back to Aaron's it was almost 4 o'clock and it was all I could do to take my contacts out and slip on sweatpants before curling up in Aaron's bed (he was quite chivalrous to let me sleep there, bless his heart).

I vaguely remember Andy arriving around 7 o'clock in the morning, since he had driven down from Maine throughout the night. A little after that, I felt Alex curl up beside me in bed, and the next thing I knew, it was almost time for us to leave and meet Mike and his girlfriend for brunch in Manhattan. We went to the Sunburnt Cow in the East Village, which was delicious! They have incredible brunch specials on the weekends. For $20, you get all the bloody mary's or mimosa's you can drink, plus fries and the biggest hamburger you've ever seen (piled with a fried egg, sliced beet, pineapple, tomato, lettuce, bacon, and some other yummy things I'm forgetting). Sure, it's like a coronary attack on a plate, but hot damn it is GOOD.

After brunch, we were all a little buzzed, so we walked around the city and enjoyed the sights. It kept looking like it was going to rain, and at one point we ducked into the Strand to avoid what we were sure was going to be a hurricane-force storm. I don't think a single drop actually fell, but I could have easily spent another hour (or ten) perusing through isle upon isle of the wonderful books they had there. We felt very posh as we grabbed a drink at the Gramercy Park Hotel (one drink was all we could afford):

Then we ate dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant and took the subway back to Queens. We were still pretty beat from the night before, but we had a couple more drinks and played a rousing game of Uno at Aaron's before hitting the hay.

Alex had to head back to Cleveland early on Sunday morning since his boss had tickets to the Browns game, but the rest of us trekked back into the city for brunch a few hours later. We also watched part of the New York Marathon, which was SO COOL! It was really neat to see all of those people (38,000!!!) making their way through the city. So many of them had t-shirts explaining why they were doing it--whether for a loved one or because they themselves had beat the odds in order to be there--and it was amazing. I have to admit, I got a little teary, and it isn't even that time of the month (when I tend to get blazingly emotional and cry in commercials that have anything to do with jewelry, animals, Disney World, and occasionally insurance [you know those Liberty Mutual ads, where each person helps another and passes it on and it all comes back around to the original person who started it all, while sappy music plays? SOB]). I am sad I apparently missed Katie Holmes, though.

I have never been a big runner, but I sort of got into it this summer after we moved (we live a block away from a beautiful park and it's hard to go to a gym when a great outdoor area is so close). Seeing everyone running the New York Marathon yesterday has inspired me to run a marathon too. Sure, maybe it won't happen in the next year, but at some point in my life I WILL run a marathon. I probably need to conquer, like, a 5K or something first, but I'm adding it to my list of Lifetime Adventures (previously known as Things to Do Before I Die, but that's sort of morbid). The official list is on my laptop at home, but here are some of the other things on there:

-Run a marathon
-Climb Machu Piccu
-Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
-Be kissed on top of the Eiffel Tower
-Hike to the top of Mount Washington (I did my senior research on tourism in New Hampshire, yet I have never actually been to the mountains I studied so hard)
-Go to a real Irish pub, drink Strongbow, dance to live Irish folk music
-Take a gondola ride in Venice
-Have Dad walk me down the aisle
-See the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
-Go ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza
-See the Great Pyramids of Egypt
-Write a book

(Yes, most of these have to do with visiting various locations, but I just can't remember some of the other non-location-related things on the actual list.)

So in end, this weekend was pretty dang great. After watching the marathon, we took the subway back to Queens, packed our suitcases, and Andy dropped me off at the airport on his way back to Portland. I was back home by 10 o'clock and went to bed soon after, but it was still hard to get up this morning.

Why can't every day be Saturday?