A Whirlwind Weekend

One of my bestest buddies was here last weekend from Atlanta and we crammed a whole lotta stuff into 3 short days! Here’s a rundown of our weekend:

Friday:
We met up in a French restaurant with all their windows open for a few glasses of champagne severed to us by a guy that had just moved to NYC from France (which explains why he was working on the Upper East Side). It was a lovely kickoff to a jam packed weekend.

We briefly stopped at my apartment, dropped off her bags and headed to Soho for a wonderful lunch at Delicatessen. They had their big garage doors open onto the streets so we could enjoy the weather and continue drinking. Also the bartender spilled the first drink on her, welcome to NYC!

From there we walked into every store imaginable, Uniqlo, Mango, Top Shop, Zara, small boutiques, big named designers, etc. I was in search of a pair of black leggings and she was looking for unique items to wear in Atlanta which she found in a pair of pants with the crotch at her ankles, and paisley tights and a $170 jeweled pig ring from Nannette Lapore (which she didn’t get), among other things.

Then we took a cab (at the driver change hour of course) to the Chelsea gallery area where we checked out a bunch of galleries and I bought a really cool painting on a record. The picture above is an installation we saw that I took with my iphone.

After that we stopped at the Half King to sit on the patio, munch on sweet potato fries and have some chilled wine.

Afterwards we dragged ourselves to get pedicures and much needed foot rubs! Then we rushed home to change for dinner.

Dinner was at Schiller's Liquor Bar which was packed as usual and we were crammed in a corner table near the bar with people all standing around us waiting for their table. I ‘m glad neither or us are claustrophobic!

After dinner we went to The Back Room and spoke to a few boys from CA moving to NYC that tried to get us to go karaoke with them (which no one wants to hear me do). Then we left to meet my best guy friend at The Magician he’d been at the Mets game so by then none of us were feeling any pain. From there and we headed to 151 where we started drinking vodka and red bull, that’s when the memories start getting a little foggy. We also went to Label Lounge and a couple more places I don’t remember. Luckily we took a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, several of them were of the floor, ½ our faces and people’s backs.

Somehow we all got a cab to a pizza place and then headed to my apartment where we proceeded to accidentally wake my neighbors, have a dance party and pass out.

Saturday:
The next morning we woke up after only 5 hours of sleep and sat around hysterically laughing at the pictures and stories of the previous night and tried to figure out why there were napkins all over the floor and in ever corner of my apartment (I think it was part of “atmosphere” for the dance floor).

Once we got motivated we headed over to Baker’s Street to have brunch and watch some soccer teams play in what my friend insisted was a very important game. The bar was incredibly loud and incredibly crowded so waiting for our order of 4 beverages a peice and food took awhile which made us just a tad grumpy. I actually told small children to shut up. But in my defense there were 5 of them and 1 adult that didn’t seem to notice that they were trying to out scream each other.

Then we went to the Brownstoner's Brooklyn Flea which was really cool. Sadly I was still so hung over and it was so hot out that I was having a hard time enjoying myself. But it was awesome as you can see from the pictures. Some booths are overpriced but most will bargain with you and there are also a lot of handmade items, I highly recommend it.

After the flea market we stopped in a new restaurant No. 7 for a drink. It’s a really cute open place and all the guys that worked there were HOT! I definitely want to go back for dinner sometime.

Then we got back on the subway and headed to The Brooklyn Artists Gym for an art showing. The show was small and a little disappointing but I was really proud of myself for navigating us around Brooklyn so well!

On the way home we sat exhausted on a train across from a Michael Jackson impersonator who was talking to his friend in Michael’s soft voice telling her how excited he was to follow Michael on tour in Europe this summer. We both turned and looked at each other at the same time and burst out laughing!

We were supposed to go to a friends party at 230 Fifth because I really wanted to show her the city views from the rooftop but when friends started calling to say they couldn’t make it we were relieved to have some time to relax for a bit. Then we headed to the meatpacking district for dinner at Buddakan the food and people watching there is amazing, plus they filmed the reception dinner in the Sex in the City movie there! A friend met us and of course our table was 30 min late so it was midnight when we paid our bill. I was prepared to take my friend to some of the other well known bars in the area but when she said she wanted to go home I was thankful after our day.

Sunday:
The next morning we woke up and got ready for our brunch plans at Pastis unfortunately we didn’t get to have bloody mary’s before noon (wevs this isn’t the bible belt) but we made up for it with oysters and eggs and got to sit outside! Then we walked around a bit and I showed her The Spice Market where we’ll have to eat on her next visit and we walked through the Chelsea Market and then headed over to the Wonderland Fashion Flea Market for some designer shopping, it was small but they had free mimosa’s and my friend bought some amazing shoes!

Then we headed to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market where we both spent too much money!

Sufficiently shopped out we got a table outside at Marseille. We sat in the sun and enjoyed an amazing endive and pear salad with a wonderful glass of rioja wine. We saw Andrew McCarthy walk by us with his sons and was accosted by a homeless man until our waitress came and literally shooed him away.

We rushed home in time for my friend to pack her huge haul into her suitcase (I have no idea how it all fit) and jump into a cab to the airport. I think she saw much of what NYC has to offer and I really enjoyed having a friend in town that appreciates so much of the things that I like to do! I wish I had more friends like that in NY. After last weekends whirlwind I have no idea what to plan this weekend to keep myself half that busy!