NYC Days 1 & 2 – October 23rd & 24th

NEW YORK TRIP! It finally worked out and we’re HERE!

I am currently sprawled on a bed in Inwood. Friends of Rie (my roommate/friend/travel companion) who crashed with us one night before heading off to a cruise handed Rie the key to their apartment and told us to stay there while they were gone. Who does that?! Really awesome people.

Really awesome people are really how this trip is working at all. We are crashing with various friends throughout the week who are kindly lending us some floor space for luggage and bags and a place to crash. AND I LOVE YOU ALL.

Last night, we flew into JFK and hopped on the shuttle bus to Grand Central ($15!). There was a LOT of traffic, so plans to try and see a show that night were thrown out the window, which we were actually pretty happy about since sitting in a theatre right after sitting on a plane was seeming less and less appealing.

We finally arrived well after 8pm. We, then, walked over to the hotel a friend works at to say hi and change into something less… plane-worn. Heh. After that, we headed up to City Diner on the Upper West Side – our 24 hour diner of choice when we lived up there – and had dinner. Ordering the same appetizer (potato skins!) and meals (BLT and grilled chicken club, trading half of each with each other) we frequently ordered back in the day. Just like coming home.

It was raining like crazy and I was pretty sick of dragging my luggage up and down subway stairs (Rie left hers at the hotel), so we hopped in a cab to Inwood. The cost of taking a cab has increased significantly. The cabs, themselves, have been upgraded. This one had a touch-screen monitor with GPS and news items and all sorts of crazy impressive things. Wow!

We dropped our stuff off, breathed a relieved sigh to be at our first destination, and went out to find some cheap wine to celebrate with. It was probably the worst Merlot I have ever tasted. But it was nice to kick back with a glass of wine and watch some NY1.

We both started fading pretty quickly after that and, after an episode of Friends, started getting ready for bed.

This morning, we had initially planned to get up early, head to TKTS and try to get shows to a matinee, but Rie’s alarm was NOT welcome. We decided to, instead, bail on the matinee and sleep in.

Now that we’re up, we have been productive. Dinner plans had been made last night with K and now we have lunch plans with J. We are going to try to see a show tonight, not sure what yet. We have tickets to “Next to Normal” on Sunday and the rest will be gotten day of.

It’s so great to be back here. It’s weird that it doesn’t feel weird to be here. It felt completely normal to grab a 2 train uptown from 42nd St. To know that we needed to be toward the back of the train for our stop (and because it’s less crowded there). More on that later. Gotta get dressed for lunch!

Posted: October 24th, 2009 under Fall 2009 NYC Trip, NYC.