dinner, drinks, downtown...

where to start...
hhhmm.
ok.
after arriving here wed. afternoon, and walking the thirty blocks to the wonderful YMCA - i have a dorm/prison cell style room there - i made my way out and found ailsa and fiona walking along the street after completing one of their many adventures - statue of libery, empire state building, etc...we hung for a bit and later that evening had a very nice dinner at a joint called puttanesca with dorothy and tom.

in the mornings here i get up and get my shit together and then head over to where they are staying which is approx. ten blocks from the wonderful Y. the walk is an easy one and i kinda like it. thursday ailsa and fiona and i made our way over to the museum of natural history and attempted to have a look at everyhting but it's so over whelming and you really would need days to see it all so...we did our best (i had been there in the early 90's so i was a little ahead of the curve but not much) and then called it a day. (we actually did a little then met up with everyone for lunch over at a burger joint called the shake shack and then went back to the museum for round two.)

after a short relax at the hotel, not the fabulous Y, we headed to the subway to get ourselves out to the new yankee stadium in the bronx. i had hoped to see a mets game while here but they're outta town so yankees it was - and i was kinda stoked to see the new stadium. fiona got the corn dog she had heard so much about, ailsa and i had some nice italian sausages and beer and peanuts so all was well at yankee stadium. we met the four guys in front of us and they turned out to be great guys - all in the banking or insurance and one of them, john, actually lives near philadelphia and gave me his card and told me to look him up if i wanted to see a phillies game. nice.

friday. yesterday was roaming around central park with gavin, fiona and ailsa and for a little bit dorothy - but she had to leave us to go get her nails done and then have a nice lunch out - fiona had never had a hot dog from a street vendor so fiona and i had hot dogs and ailsa had some sort of meat treat i can't remember...then it was time for some mr. softie ice cream and the zoo...i didn't go in the zoo but instead waited outside and decided to get some shut eye until the park cop told me i couldn't sleep on the bench...you can't smoke in the park either but as he was telling me to not sleep in the park, there were three guys right next to me all hacking butts...

last night was the rehearsal dinner down in soho with michelle's parents, her sister's, brother and all our team - tom, doro, fiona, and gavin. i, sadly, can't remember the name of the joint but it was great. we had a table downstairs in a wine cellar and it was a set menu of (kinda) tapas and everything was great. tom made a speech he was very nervous, in advance, of giving but did very well and should be proud of himself. good work tom.

then it was time for bed - even though i had been told lambchop was playing across the water in brooklyn....dorothy had pointed it out in a magazine for me...if i see them again it will be in seattle..
and now...the big day. later on the girls are all getting their faces on, hair done, dresses set and shoes on. i'll be sporting my suit, such that it is, and we'll be heading to the wedding. it's sounds like a low key affair with the actual ceremony taking ten minutes and then it's drinks and food and dancing and a waffle truck shows up at 9:40 pm...i have to be in bed around 11 pm as i catch a train out of here tomorrow morning for washington, d.c. to see the nationals game at 1:30 pm sunday. nice.
later on today i'll hopefully be eating tacos out of a small window in the back of a mexican grocery on tenth ave - gavin has given me the goods on this and it sounds like my kinda deal so i'm going to seek it out. and if i'm still hungry i'm going to hunt down the fill your hole burger truck as well...go big or go home....or then go home.
ok. coffee time.


have fun.

g. xo