New York State of Mind

* Love the new Jay Z song btw.

So far this has been one of those weeks that I'm like, "I love NYC?" at least some times. It started with a fabulous fall weekend, free of humidity and heavy on the sun, with that perfect 78 degree temp that is warm without leading to perspiration. Amazing.

I got in two bike rides and also made it onto a BOAT! Not a Kayak this time...I finally got my first and last ride on fishsticks (the SAE boat)...actually it wasn't a ride since the engine broke about 2 months ago and is not reparable for less than the cost of the boat *purchased for 7k. How much fun could a docked boat, be you say? Well, turns out, a lot. My favorite bar in manhattan is the Frying Pan, so basically this is a private Frying Pan, docked in Jersey with a view of the city-- we pick the music, the crowd and the drinks. So, we spent Saturday basking in the sun, drinking Prosecco in pirate, captain and sailor hats, and smoking cigars next to the waving SAE flag. You can take the boy out of the frat house....

Sunday was a rather rough start as I sat in bar-closing time traffic at 4am as I rode to the upper east to catch a bus ride to queens with about 5k of my fellow crazy NYC roadrunners. While taking a bus rather than the subway in the morning sounded like a good idea, getting to the race 2 hours before the 7am start was not. So I sat shivering in the cold on a playground in queens in the dark, with nothing but 13 miles to look forward to. Awesome. After running my past two half marathons in Rio and in Sonoma, Queens was a bit disappointing in terms of scenery....but whateva, I ran 13 miles and consequently have justified thousands of nutrition-less calories since. Which is pretty much the end goal of running these things anyway, right?

To celebrate, I went out last night to The Box for a Peace One Day event. The Box is where Blair does her striptease for those of you that watch Gossip Girl. I felt almost as cool as the Queen B herself (at least until I cut off Jude Law on the staircase) since it was hosted by Ben and Jerry (the founders) and had several celebs in attendance. Unfortunately there was no burlesque show, but there was a performance but a drunk brazilian singer, which was almost as good. Pause, not. I was overserved. That goes for the free Vodka AND the free Ben and Jerry's. Monday Funday. Tuesday morning, not so fun.

Spirits were lifted though since tonight was the second monthly Theater Night with Alex. We saw In The Heights which is pretty much THE VERY BEST SHOW EVER. Like, ever. I mean, I laughed, I cried, there was music and dance and spanish and rapping and we were in the 4th row. It is kinda like a hip hop-era, but the lyrics make sense, unlike the famous Trapped in the Closet. Man it was great. I can't wait to go back with everyone I know. We spotted 2 of the actors in the subway and much to Alex's embarrassment, I insisted on gushing to them about how amaaaaaazing they were. (and they really were). Wow, I wish I could sing and dance.


I was feeling so full of Broadway and NYC love when the play let out tonight I bought these glasses on the street (note: I refrained from wearing them in the subway as I knew I would lose my theater night partner if I did):


Could the week get better? Actually maybe, tomorrow I'm going to the U2 concert and Friday I'm going to Vegas with Daphne and Paul (don't be jealous, those are my parents).