New York State of Mind

After what has been an exhausting 3 weeks of global client workshops up in New Jersey, I am finally back home in Atlanta.  Plus, no travel next week means I am such a happy gal!  And, icing on the cake, James isn't traveling next week either!!  WOO-HOO!  People take for granted seeing their significant other each day, but in the Sasser household is a pretty rare thing.

In between two of those weeks up in Jersey, James met me in the city for a little weekend get-away.  We kicked off our weekend with a very late dinner at Tao, and enjoyed very yummy sushi rolls, a fortune cookie filled with custard, and our random celebrity sighting (see last post).  We ended the night with a political debate with our friends, where James was the lone Republican but held his own thanks to his freakish knowledge of stats and numbers and the fact that by 3AM he had worn down us crazy liberals.

The next day was a slow start (as staying up to 3AM is so much harder than it used to be), but once we were out and about we decided to head to Brooklyn.  Sapna had recommended Grimaldi's pizza, and warned us of a line outside.  No joke - we got there at 11:45AM for the noon opening, and had to wait an hour before we got a table inside!  I thought the pizza was delicious though, and worth the wait.  (James is still on the fence, but I think he's just scarred from staying hungry for so long.)

After the pizza and a walk around the water, we made the trek back into Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge.  What a fun experience!  It helped that we had the most gorgeous Fall weather.

After meandering around the Financial district, we found ourselves in Chinatown and Little Italy.  Fighting all the other tourists and New Yorkers who were also excited about blue skies and mild temps, James all the sudden said "I'd like to try a canoli".  Shocked, I said "you've never had a CANOLI"?  (Sadly, I had eaten two that week alone, spending so much of my life up in Jersey.)  Thus, we started on the hunt for an Italian bakery, where we finally found one with both regular and chocolate canolis.  Heaven on earth.

By this time it was getting late and we had Saturday night Broadway plans, so we fought our way to an open cab and made it to the hotel in time to see a gorgeous sunset over New Jersey.

That night we had tickets to see American Idiot, a newer Broadway show featuring music by Green Day.  Now, I'm not necessarily a "punk" music fan, but I know enough of their hits.  James had mentioned wanting to see it, and I of course JUMPED at his suggestion because it's not every day that he  says "hey, I'd like to see a musical...."  The show was just fantastic, and I still think their rendition of 21 guns was one of the most moving songs I've heard live.  (If you're curious, check it out on you tube.)

Sunday was spent being lazy and eating and shopping.  After doing some major damage to the Visa card at the world's largest department stores, I had to sadly say goodbye to my honey and head back to Jersey with great memories and the song "hope you had the time of your life" in my head...