Day 2 - More Adventures

So more firsts on my 2nd day. So much fun to be had here!

I subway-ed down to Times Square and saw all the flashy lights for the first time.
Crazy tourist stop that place! Then I met up with my good friend Christine (at Port Authority) to spend the day together - I'm so glad she came to the city to hang out with me! I haven't seen her in almost a year :-). So she LOVES theater and we went over to the TKTS booth to check out discount Broadway matinee tickets - and got tickets to Company! Craziness. We grabbed some Italian lunch (I got veal with eggplant), then headed to the show. It was a good show. So the story was cute - a guy turns 35 and all his friends are married couples trying (some better than others) to convince him he needs to settle down and find a wife. It was very cleverly done - a musical. But no dancing. However, they had no orchestra - the actors played all the instruments as part of the scenes - it was so impressive! At times they walked around singing and playing their instruments. Other times they were in the background playing while a few characters were in the front acting or singing. Some fun songs. We really were impressed with the actors switching instruments and all! So the story was fun - and set in Manhattan so I liked those plot elements. And some parts were downright funny. But Christine and I agreed we really didn't understand the whole 2nd half. We were confused by the ending entirely!

So after that - more sojourning around the city. We ran into a random street fair - my favorite! Very random, though - they had booths with sunglasses, reggae music, African art, sheets, t-shirts, scarfs, jewelry, and all manor of randomness. But our favorites were the nice smells coming from the food booths - gyros and smoothie and sweet corn and lemonade, and where we stopped - crepes! We both got a crepe with some fruit in it - very tasty :-). Fun.

So we walked some more - went up to Central Park because Christine had never seen it. Then back down 5th Ave hitting some "places of interest" - Trump Tower, beautiful Gothic Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Plaza, NY Public Library, and then the Empire State Building. It was fun to just hang out with Christine and walk and talk and be amazed about being in New York together! And amazed about the city itself :-). The play we saw implied that you should live in Manhattan while young, and then eventually grow up and move out and have a family. Interesting idea. Oh and walking around streets on the weekend - not only are there tons of people, but also street vendors with art and stuff for sale - sorta cool. And of course the street musicians :-). Fun to listen. So today I did let myself be a tourist and I photo-documented most of the adventure! Maybe I'll post a link to the pictures when I download them later...

So I dropped Christine back of at the bus station after our great day together. Headed home to change, and went back out with friend Tara and her girlfriends in town. I met them in the Lower East side for a 11pm dinner reservation - can you believe that?! Only in NY. We had tapas which were tasty, and cocktails. After wandering around for awhile we found a fun bar that they wanted to go to - they were celebrating a 30th birthday. It was just great to be out and feel the beat of the city and think anything is possible here, and no one ever sleeps, and by the way does money flow quickly! The city is beautiful at night, and you can go hang out in almost any neighborhood - just pick what's most "you". The girls I was out with were really fun - I was glad to experience the scene with fun girls who were also not New Yorkers but could appreciate it :-).

Home late, but very satisfied with another New York day. The city is slowly getting to me! Now I'm trying to recooperate for my Sunday before I start at IBM tomorrow! Might go to some blues and jazz in the park this afternoon, and maybe a free Shakespeare play too! Endless possibilities here...