New York, To That Tall Skyline I Come

That's the song I started humming to myself as we landed in NYC. It was mostly to ward off that bit of irrational nervousness I felt as we circled the city a few hundred times before touching down. But it was an appropriate tune (except we didn't fly in from London). Although it wasn't the best of occasions to see the family, it is always nice to see them. We gathered this weekend for my grandfather's unveiling. This is where we mark the end of the mourning period, one year after death.

Brooke and I stayed at Grandma's house where we automatically began our ritual closet raiding. Although the stuff hasn't changed since we started our tradition many years ago, that is the first thing we think of when we get to Grandma's. But now Grandma's attic is no longer, replaced by a cold unfurnished room. So sad. But alas, she still has several other closets full of clothes that can now be described as "antique". Brooke took back a dress that Grandma wore to my father's Bar Mitzvah. Let's see, that makes the dress almost 50 years old! I snapped some pictures of the room I stayed in.

This was my Aunt Cheryl's room and has probably stayed the same since she moved out long ago. I accidentally deleted the picture of the bed but the bedspread, curtains, and wallpaper all match identically. I don't think I have seen any other room with this design choice. What I love about Grandma's is that no matter how many times my surroundings change throughout my life, Grandma's always, always stays the same.

On Friday, Brooke and I headed to the city to do some shopping. Here she is at Grand Central Station.

We walked got some food and coffee and walked around a bit before meeting up with Cheryl at Starbucks.

This is where we were having a nice conversation between the three of us when an older gentleman started chatting with us. Turns out he was from Chicago and had a thing for Cheryl.

She's so cheek-squeezing cute

Not sure which NYU building this is, but I had to snap a picture in case Mary Kate or Ashley were hanging out outside.

Our initial plan was to go vintage shopping but decided that we had to find a place where we could eat, drink and play pool. I had to see Brooke's new pool playing skills. We stumbled upon this little pub that had one pool table and had to go in. It turned out to be an interesting a fun afternoon.




Brooke kicked some serious pool ass! We played with a bunch of guys that kept buying us shots of whiskey (I just threw up a little thinking about that whiskey). They weren't creepy guys and were actually pretty entertaining. It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

After that, we met up with Jenni at her apartment and headed for dinner.

We had some good sushi and it was nice to find out that there are other good sushi places in the world aside from Ono Sushi.

After dinner we went for a drink before I had to head back to Grand Central to meet the folks for the train ride back to New Rochelle. Brooke stayed the night in the city and went to a Misfits cover band show.

On Saturday we had lunch at a diner (I think we ate solely at diners the whole weekend). Then Mom, Kathy and I went into Tarrytown, aka Sleepy Hollow, to check out the Halloween festivities.




Sleepy Hallow was a cute little quaint town. We did some shopping and then headed to the mall after it got too cold for us.

Sunday we went to the gravesite. It was sad, as expected. But I won't get too much into the depressing stuff. After that we ate again (because that is what we do best!) and went to Grandma's. The we ate again at Cheryl's.

And then Meredith got her cell phone! She was very excited about that. She was even so nice as to "bling" out my phone with her pink and white gems. That's right, I got my phone pimped.








It was a nice trip...I wish it wasn't such a long travel!