new york new york

Finally fixed my template issues. yay!

So I went to NY for the long 4th of july weekend. The monday before, I had a brief crisis when I realized I had booked the wrong flight time so that I ended up taking a Thursday noon flight instead of a Thursday night flight. Luckily, I was just able to declare to my manager that I would just have to take Thurs off and everything worked out. Probably even for the better b/c I was able to wake up Friday morning perky and relaxed and hit a spa.

Friday afternoon, J and I picked up free Shakespeare in the park tickets for As You Like it and then wandered aimlessly through the Upper West Side. We were able to while away the hours until the performance time by hitting random stores and then we realized we had no idea what the plot of As You LIke it was about so of course hit B&N to read up on it. We like context.

The performance was pretty cool but then again, it was free so everything free is awesome. Not much to report except that the second half kept me more awake than the first half. Also there was a bunch of singing in the second half and I wasn't sure if that was typical Shakespeare. hmm.

Sat morning, I felt really bad about this but I dragged J's tired fatigued self out of bed at an early hour to go to an ashtanga yoga class. Probably not the best class to take a first time yoga person since it's known as the most physically challenging yoga of them all but it was titled "Ashtanga Basics" so I thought it might be doable for her. Anyhow, we found ourselves in the smallest yoga room that I have ever seen in my life. That's NY for you. Anyhow, along to the sound of traffic and sirens, we did the class except the instructor had us do way more sun salutation A and Bs than is typical in a practice. So it ended up being way more cardio than normal. oops. oh well. pushups are good. We were pretty sore afterwards.

Met up with D for lunch near his hotel and discovered that a bunch of restaurants were closed for the 4th of july weekend so ended up at this chinese restaurant on the east side. chancy but I had read reviews that it would be decent. Turned out to be plenty yummy. We then dragged D to Soho for the shopping extravaganza. Man, he is sure trained well by A. Everytime we entered a clothing store, he made a beeline for the nearest chair and waited patiently. Good job A!

We hit Basta Pasta for dinner near Union Square - an Italian restaurant run by Japanese people hence the diners were like 80% asian and then wandered home. No crazy nightlife for us thank goodness b/c we were beat.

Sunday, I woke up early and went for a run in central park since J conveniently lived right next to it. Central park is so confusing to me - when I enter it, I lose all since of direction sometimes. It was the perfect place to run since there were dirt trails and much shade. I saw plenty of cyclists too though I don't think there is enough mileage in the park to get a good ride in - maybe they go around in circles? People have been commenting that I'm crazy to be waking up early on my vacations to run but I argue that it's really really nice to be outside when it's not crowded and check out the local surroundings before it gets crazy. (with people and with warm weather).

After the run, I dragged J out of bed (I swear I wasn't being intentionally cruel but we did have a schedule to keep to...) and we headed to times square to the ever popular TKTS booth. We picked up tix to the Elvis musical "All Shook Up" based on one guy's comment that it was hilarious. It looked like it would be similar to musicals like Hairspray and Mamma Mia so it was appealing to me. We had to kill a few hours before the show so of course we did what we always do with free time - we went shopping! Our feet were in some major agony after all this endless walking. I don't get how people go shopping in sandals/heels.

Anyhow, it was a jam packed weekend for us. I believe J commented that it felt like bootcamp. Bootcamp can be fun ... right?

So I flew jetblue for the first time and all I have to say is that after watching that much tv, the reality tv phase better end soon. I flipped through a horrible dating show on MTV where the guy went on dates with the girls' mothers and based on that, chose the girl. agh. Also I watched last year's hotdog eating contest on the flight to NY and then this year's contest on the flight back and that really made my stomach turn... Why is it called a sport?