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I just wanted to thank everyone for the calls, emails, and other birthday greetings – it meant a lot to me. (I especially appreciated those of you who sang!) You made my first New York birthday a fabulous one!

Oh, Mandy!

This weekend, two L.A. girls came to visit two former L.A. girls in NYC. And lots of eating, drinking and fun ensued.







P.S. - Tonight, I finally tried the low fat “frozen dessert” that is known as Tasti-D’lite. If you ever watched Sex and the City, you’ve heard of it. I think that I will stick to full fat desserts and get my ass to the gym more often.

Rhythm Nation

As an early birthday present, my sister, who I shall call Frampton, came for a visit all the way from San Diego.

On Frampton’s first day here, we visited the World Trade Center site, and the Trinity Church – St. Paul’s Chapel. Despite its close proximity to the site, the church endured the attacks. This is the view from the church grounds; the open space you see is where the Towers once stood.



We also checked out the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. (Well, sort of. It was absolutely pouring rain, so technically, we checked out a bar in Little Italy. And picked up some (amazing) cannoli to go.)

Other highlights included a view of the Statue of Liberty by way of the Staten Island Ferry, Central Park, Times Square, and lots of dessert. (Apparently I have developed an expertise in where to get sweets in Manhattan.)





What a fabulous gift!

Yo-ho-ho!

Besides being the official kick-off of birthday week, today happens to be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Gar, where is me bottle o’rum?!?

9/11

Since moving to New York, I have heard amazing and moving stories from the people that were here on September 11, 2001. One friend told me about seeing the second plane fly by her office in the Empire State Building. Another friend told me about the confusion and chaos – not being allowed to leave from work, and then the long and somber journey home to the Bronx. But one of the most touching stories was told to me by my friend Tina, and the family member that she lost that day.

Tina has an older sister named Jane. Jane and her boyfriend John had gone on vacation the prior week, and had gotten engaged. They both returned to work on September 11th.

Jane and John were in the habit of talking on the phone every morning before work. That morning, however, Jane was running late and didn’t make her usual call to John, who worked on an upper floor in the Twin Towers. Once she got to work, she had this overwhelming feeling that she should call him.

Jane was on the phone with John when the first plane hit his building, and she heard the crash through the phone line. They had just a few moments before the line went dead. It wasn’t until six months later, in March 2002, that a body part of his was identified and they were finally able to hold his memorial service.

A few months ago, Jane got married to her high school sweetheart. John’s best friends all attended the wedding; they were there to support her, because they knew that John would have wanted it that way.

Rest in peace.

Summer’s End

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in NYC in 1882, and today, 124 years later, I celebrated my first Labor Day in NYC. And what did I do to mark this occasion? No labor, of course!

On Saturday it rained. All. Day. Long. The remnants of Ernesto, which formed in the eastern Caribbean Sea on August 24th, landed in NYC nine days later. Hurricane name fun fact: six lists of names are used and rotated on a yearly basis. “Erika”, you will be pleased to know, is on the Atlantic list, and will be back in contention in 2009. Needless to say, Saturday was a wash. :-)

The sun came out on Sunday, so I started with brunch at the Chelsea Market (www.chelseamarket.com), home of the Food Network (my weekend TV-watching guilty pleasure) and the Fat Witch Bakery (www.fatwitch.com) (a new guilty pleasure). Next up was Chelsea Piers for a little bowling action (where I was dubbed “E-Rod” by the “Zwagster”).



A few hours, one strike and some gutter balls later, we made our way to the West 79th Street Boat Basin Café, an interesting (for lack of a better word) outdoor café on the Hudson River. Brownies, bowling and margaritas – not a bad way to spend the day.

And today I went to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. (The Intrepid is closing down for 18 months for renovations, and since I don’t know if Manhattan will still be my home in 2008, it seemed like a good time to check it out.) Intrepid fun fact: the USS Intrepid served during WWII and Vietnam, and ended her service career in 1974. The planes were cool, as was the enormous carrier itself (though, I admit that I felt a bit claustrophobic in the bridge). I was especially intrigued by the bunk art – the doodles and drawings that the soldiers made on their bunks - personal expressions of the soldiers who called it home.