Weekend in NYC

This past weekend I went up to New York City with my good friend, Nicole, for a much needed mini-getaway. I'm glad we were able to pull off the trip, especially with both of our crazy, hectic lives/schedules. Our bus was leaving at 11:15 on Saturday morning, so I headed out early to Target to pick up some snacks and the Breaking Dawn DVD (of course!). We were close to missing the bus, but (with a persuasive tone and a little bit of charm) I got them to wait an extra few minutes for Nicole to show up -- and then off we went!


The ride up was smooth and we, thankfully, didn't hit any traffic. After checking into the hotel, we headed over to Ellen's Stardust Diner for lunch. This is the place where waiters and waitresses sing while they serve. Pretty entertaining, though some of the songs were a bit dull. There was this funny, eccentric, older couple sitting next to us who were sometimes more interesting than the talent, but overall the experience was pretty fun.

We headed over to Times Square where we encountered a flash mob. The cool part was that when it ended, this guy got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. Super cute.

The guy on the left is proposing to the girl with long dark hair

A couple of stores later and we were ready to head back to the hotel where we chilled and watched Breaking Dawn (yay!) before heading out for the nights "main event."

Besides just wanting to get away, the real purpose for this trip was to see Pat McGee play at Joe's Pub. It had been 5 years since I last saw Pat play live, so I was stoked to see him again and to introduce Nicole to his music. The place has a really nice atmosphere, but, man, do they pack in the people! They also charge a fortune for food and drinks -- shrimp cocktail: $12, two cranberry juices: $14. Yikes! Other than that, it was a really fun night. Pat & company sounded so good and I heard lots of my favorite songs, so it was all worth it in the end.

Video of "I Don't Think I'm Listening" by Pat McGee

Video of "Elizabeth" by Pat McGee

Back at the hotel that night, we were focused on all the news programs that were running stories about the death of Whitney Houston. I pulled up some Whitney songs in iTunes on my laptop and we sang until we fell asleep. BEST. BED. EVER. !!! Gosh, that bed was so damn comfy!


The next morning we met my friends Lynsey and Jen for breakfast, coffee/tea, and a trip to The Strand bookstore before checking out of the hotel and heading over to catch the bus home. Go figure, we were sitting in the cab when 1:30pm struck and we knew we were missing our bus. Standing outside in the freezing cold, we waited another hour before we were able to get the next bus. Lots to talk about and never enough time, so I was happy we could sit next to each other and chat (between naps) on the way home.

On our way home! 

One word to describe this weekend?