Vacationing in Manhattan

Well kids, when it rains it pours. We have been busy this weekend and I want to capture it all before I forget. Not that I'll be able to forget!

Ever wonder how the other half lives? Well, we got to find out this weekend. Our dear landlord, who we'll call "Charlie" helped out with our finding out. A little background: We have the coolest landlord. He lives in Miami, we've never met him, he pays me to show apartments and we have a great friendship. Did I mention that I've never met him? Anyway, he keeps an apartment in midtown but never uses it. He has told me on many occasions that we were welcome to "borrow" it any time.

So, we were invited to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party this past weekend to convene at Madison Square Park. It just so happens that our landlord has an apartment a couple of blocks from Madison Square Park. Everyone see where I'm going with this? I called up Charlie and asked him if it was available this weekend. I told him that it would be really cool to be able to get out of the heat for a while and stay overnight since we were seeing a Broadway show on Sunday. He said "of course"! We were given the address and told to get the keys from the doorman and to pick up the sheets and towels from the valet and to have a great time!

Sam and I met up with Carlos on Saturday afternoon and went to the building. The doorman was really nice and gave us keys and had us sign in. Charlie had forwarded a note with my name (+husband) so there was no problem at all. We took the elevator to the 47th floor and checked out the apartment. It was beautiful! Very new, very spacious and very simple. Great stereo system, big TV, comfy couch and a terrace overlooking downtown Manhattan from the 47th freakin' floor!


The Terrace looking East to Brooklyn

Charlie also told me that there was a roof deck that was accessible to anyone in the building. We would check that out later, but first - BBQ!!

Sam and I were on a mission. We wanted Texas BBQ and representatives from the Salt Lick from Austin would be on hand. We waited in the long-ass line in the 90+ degree heat for what seemed like forever. My super smart husband decided that he needed to wear a Texas Longhorn shirt so we could represent! After about 20-30 minutes in line (on line?) we were tapped on the shoulders and told to "step over that hay bale and have a seat. We're gonna get you some food". I had no idea what was going on. We crossed the hay bale and sat down with some other people from the line who were wearing UT clothes.

This is where the $35,000 University of Texas education finally started paying off. We were given free food, free beer, free drinks and great seats under a shady tree. We were treated to rib samples from other pit masters while we waited as well. We wanted our friends to taste the Salt Lick too and asked our hostess Amy if she would get us two plates if we paid for them. Her response? "If you guys want more plates, I'll get you more plates". When I asked her if I could buy some water, she brought me two Sprites (they were out of water) and told me not to worry about it. When Carlos found us in our little BBQ haven, he was able to cross the hay bale and was treated to Salt Lick sausage and brisket as well. It pays to be a Texan!


Hook 'Em Horns


Mmm, Salt Lick

Following our Salt Lick lunch, we left the block party, stopped to get some beer and headed up to the roof. Holy shit! That's all I could really say. 360 degree views of Manhattan. The Empire State Building was so close it was like you could touch it. We could see the Hudson, the East River, New Jersey, Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan. It was awesome. We were later joined by Pax, Mary, Marissa, Meagan, Blayne and Brian for an evening of picture taking, cigar smoking and beer drinking. It was phenomenal. We watched the sun set over the city. We ordered in Thai food and fell asleep.


View of the Chrysler Building (my mom's favorite)


Sam and I on the roof


Mary in her Pig Ears


Carlos in the Pig Ears


A closer view of the Chrysler Building


We could almost touch the Empire State Building


The Flatiron Building (My Favorite!)


Skyline at Night (not the greatest picture but you can see the GE building (Rockefeller Center)

Today we treated ourselves to a show. Sam usually hates Broadway shows, but there are two that he is willing to see - Avenue Q and Spamalot. We got great tickets for Avenue Q and loved every minute of the matinee. It was great! I highly recommend it. After the show, we went back to the apartment, packed up our things, brought the sheets and towels back to the doorman to drop off to the valet and headed back to our humble apartment in Brooklyn.

I had a hard time looking at the Empire State Building from street level - it's so much cooler from 50 stories up! We got to see how the other half lives and we want more!!!

Anniversaries & Weddings (well engagements)

I thought I would take some time out from my pity party to share some of the fun and exciting things that have happened to us in recent weeks. Where should I start? I'm guessing that the beginning is as good a place as any.

Sam and I have made a decision in regards to our wedding anniversary. This decision: we should celebrate it each year. That may sound obvious and silly, but I think we have forgotten it for the most part over the last three years. Year # 1 was on a Monday and I had just graduated from my masters program and was heading back to my internship that day. We ate our cake that my mom schlepped from Texas and I guess we had some sort of dinner. Year #2 we went to Freeport, Long Island for a gambling cruise where I proceeded to get seasick and we capped the night off at a sleazy motel. Year #3 we had dinner and Sam got me a plant who we named "Shut the Fuck Up Donnie" (Big Lebowsky reference) and is still alive today. We have decided that we will spend our anniversary somewhere different, away from home.

Year #4 we did just what we wanted. The day before our anniversary, we hopped on a plane to Buffalo, NY. If any of you remember our trips that we used to take just to get local food, Buffalo was Sam's choice for wings. We still need to go to Maine for lobster and Vermont for maple syrup - well, you get the idea. Anyway, back to the anniversary. We checked into the Hyatt in Downtown Buffalo and our room wasn't ready and the hotel was undergoing construction, so they upgraded us to a petite suite and we had to use our room key to make the elevator go up to our floor. We're so cool.

We had Buffalo's famous chicken wings at the Anchor Bar and hung out in the room for the day. On Friday (our anniversary), my darling husband surprised me with chocolate-covered strawberries, a bottle of Riesling wine (my favorite) and a bouquet of Gerber Daisies (just like from our wedding) all brought to a very surprised bride via room service. After we indulged in some chocolate and wine, we took a bus to Niagara Falls.


The Anchor Bar


My Wine and Daisies


Horseshoe Falls from Maid of the Mist


Niagara Falls from Canada

We hopped aboard the Maid of the Mist and got a birds-eye view of the falls. We took some great pictures. We defected to Canada via the Rainbow Bridge and ate at a Hard Rock Cafe (which we do in every foreign country) and I gambled a little while Sam went in search of Cuban cigars. We ended the evening at the local NY Casino and then back to our room and back to NYC the next day. It was romantic, relaxing and very refreshing.

Aside from our anniversary, Sam's parents are also celebrating their 40th anniversary tomorrow. As a surprise, Brenda, Eran, Sam and I decided to send them on a vacation in their own town. We set them up at the Houstonian Hotel, paid for room service, set up some spa services and Brenda filled their room with liquor and cigars. They were shocked and excited and seem to be having a great time (at least the bazillion phone calls that we keep getting from them say they are) ;-)

Now onto the wedding, well more like an engagement with a wedding to follow in August. Our friends Jason and Marissa got engaged a few months ago and the planets finally aligned and all of us found room in our schedules to throw them an engagement party. Pax and Mary provided the location and some vittles. Stacey and Carlos provided more food and sparkling cider (Stacey is pregnant and can't drink alcohol but wants to be festive) and Sam and I provided the dessert (cannolis, Italian cheesecake and Italian cookies). The theme was "Stock the Wine Cellar - Bring a Bottle for the Couple and One to Share". We are so awesome at sharing. Every one got a little toasty, there were many "fallen soldiers" (empty bottles) and a good time was had by all. It's so nice to get together with our original "Vacation Club" a little more often. We need to keep getting together so we can all watch Stacey's belly grow.


Pax, Stacey, Sam & Jason


Fallen Soldiers


Sam and I with the happy couple


Me and Stacey (with preggo belly)

Okay, all of my reporting on matrimonial bliss is over. Happy 4th Anniversary to us! Happy 40th Anniversary to the Padres and Good Luck and Best Wishes Jason and Marissa!

I Can't Think of a Good Title...

Life has a natural progression, right? You're born, you grow up, you die. But more importantly, there is a lot of in between stuff that tends to have a natural progression. First you date, then you get engaged. You have a bank-breaking wedding and then you have children. Somewhere in there you may have a career or you may travel, but ultimately once you get married, people expect you to start popping out the kids soon after. As a glass half full, idealistic type of gal, I had a timeline for my life. I wanted to graduate college at 22, get a masters by 24, married at 25, first kid at 26, etc., etc. I have learned to throw timelines out the window. I have learned that my life has definitely not followed a straight line of any sort.

My timeline has gone something like this:

Engaged at 24, broken engagement at 24 (Thank G-d!), met man of my dreams at 25, bought house at 26, got engaged to man of my dreams at 26, graduated from college at 27, got married the next day, masters degree at 28 and then work on career for a couple of years. Does something seem to be missing here? Come on, you know what's missing...you ask about it all of the time?!

Kids!!!

When are we going to have them? Do we even want them? Are we able to have them? I can answer these three questions very simply: don't know, think so, don't know. Was that clear? I thought not.

When you're dating for a long time people ask when you're going to get engaged. When you're engaged the same people ask when you're going to get married. When you get married, everyone wants to know when you're having kids.

We've been very happily married for four years now. Our friends have kids, our cousins have kids, our sisters have kids, but we don't. And we're okay with this. We enjoy being married, we enjoy being together.

For your questioning pleasure, I now give you the top 10 reasons why we don't have kids yet (or what we tell people who ask):

10. We're still young, we have time.
9. We're selfish
8. We don't like kids ;-)
7. I'm trying to focus on my career
6. We're waiting until we have more money
5. We don't want to have kids in NYC
4. We're waiting for our parents to retire so they can be our free childcare
3. But we're still children
2. I gave one dog to my mom and 3 dogs to my in-laws, would you trust me with a kid?
1. We're unable to

I would say that most of these aren't true, in fact only 7, 5 and 1. Especially 1. We've been trying for 2 years, or maybe NOT not trying if that makes any sense. Either way, we don't have kids and we don't know when we'll have some. I will share one thing with those of you who read this: when you ask you break our hearts. Usually there are two reasons that people don't have kids: 1) They don't want to or 2) They can't. We definitely want kids....draw your own conclusions.

Sorry if this seems out of the blue, sarcastic and somewhat glib, it's just that it's been on my mind a great deal lately. We recently found out that a dear friend of ours is pregnant - 17 weeks with a little boy. I'm so excited for her and her husband. When we first found out, Sam's first question to me was: "Are you jealous?" And to be honest - I'm not. I'm enjoying being her friend through the experience. I love watching her belly grow and I can't wait to start crocheting baby blankets for her. Of course I want one of my own, we're just not in that place right now. I love hearing about pregnancies, I love being around babies. I don't get jealous of others having kids. Strange, huh? It's a strong possibility that we won't be able to have kids and I think that I'm okay with that too.

Sometimes it's just fun to stir up ideas and emotions. This is my version of stirring the pot. This is not to make people feel bad, it's not to encourage a pity party or anything like that - I just wanted to put this out there.

That is all.

Now talk among yourselves.