Can you believe that I have never been to New York City? Well, I hadn’t until this past weekend when my cousin Jeff invited Tim and me to celebrate New Years Eve with him.
New York City is as grand as I have always heard and imagined. In our short 48 hours in the city we did a lot of shopping and walking. We toured the Flat Iron district, where Jeff and Kevin reside, 5th Avenue, Broadway, the original Madison Square garden, the Harvard Club and Grand Central Station. Interesting tourist attraction: St. Patrick’s Cathedral – where tourists wandered in and out while midday mass was being said. My former pastor would have had quite a conniption were that to occur at his parish.
One of the last bits of playing tourist was to Times Square to see it in pre “ball drop” mode. At only 2pm, it was already a mob scene, thankfully, we removed ourselves from the fray post haste. I am a bit wistful, though, that as a former event producer, that I did not have the opportunity to produce New Years there just once. One really fun attraction at Times Square was the Charmin Holiday restrooms in Times Square. As we were leaving, they gave out samples of the new Puff’s Plus with the scent of Vicks! I know, glee over a toilet tissue sounds silly, I guess you had to be there.
More important than visiting the city, however, were the people I had the privilege of spending time with and getting to know. They made my first visit to NYC truly magical. In addition to my cousin Jeff, a special treat was spending time with his sister, the gorgeous Denise (see our pre-party facial masks photos below) and his partner, Kevin, who has done an amazing job of researching our family tree. Kevin’s xmas presents to me were copies of my grandfather’s original citizenship papers. Talk about invoking an emotional response.
New Years Eve was an schmabulous 5-course dinner party for 14 where I met some of the most interesting, amazing and positively wonderful folks. Special thanks to Daiva for the first neck massage of the year! and massagetheatre reviews good foot massagers because I found the best foot massager for me!
P.S. We may have found our sleeper sofa and love seat while in NYC…more as it happens!
