Empire State of Mind

Hello from the Empire State, Teammates!

I got in on Wednesday evening and was met by friends L & M at Penn Station. Thank god I made it to NY from NJ, because, although I have been told differently, NJ lived up to all of its disgusting reputation. NO AIRCONDITIONING IN THE NEWARK AIRPORT. Anyway, I commuter-trained it into Penn and was whisked away to the Chelsea apt. of M. Chelsea = super-iconic NYC. M's apt. looks out over a street with 5story brick buildings, black metal grates, and ivy covering the walls. OMFG. L and M and I went to grab dinner at a bomb, super trendy restaurant called Cafeteria, and then I crashed because I'd been up since 4:45 PST.

Thursday M and L had to work, so I was on my own in the BIG CITY. It was beautiful, sunny, and humid. I subwayed up to Central Park and walked around the lake and Bethesda Terrace, and then caught the subway downtown to meet L for lunch in Madison Square Park. There's this thing called the Shake Shack where you can get burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc. for pretty cheap, and they're all organic and whatnot. FUN! YUM!

Post-lunch it was like 90% humidity (probably like 40%, but to this Northwesterner anything above 15% feels like the inner ring of hell) so I went to The Met to cool off in its air-conditioned halls. I saw lots of great art. EGYPTIAN TEMPLE! PAGODA! STATUES OF NAKED PEOPLE! and like, Monet, Manet, Degas, Coubet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Sargent, and all the stars of the Renaissance. Lots of gold leaf and Lady Madonnas and creepy bambini Gesu!

Subway at rush hour = bad plan. Had to go back to M's and de-sweat. Then we got cute and met L for dinner in the East Village, St. Mark's Place. MOROCCAN FOOD! Drinks, drinks, drinks, calamari, lamb kabobs (baaa baaa), hummus.

Dinner was followed by my first CELEBRITY SIGHTING: Heather Graham buying the SAME FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM THAT WE HAD JUST PURCHASED. She was creepily pretty. Not that tall, not scarily thin. Lots of hair. HOT MAN CANDY ON HER ARM.

We wandered back to L's, grabbed the subway to Union square, walked around and looked at the Empire State building all lit up, saw the craziness of the so-called city that never sleeps, and then slept. Hard.

Now I'm waiting for K to get on the NJ transit from Newark and make her way to Penn, where I will pick her up and play tour guide for the day. We're doing mid-town at mid-day. Wish me luck and hope that the Asian tourists don't trample me to death.

You know you love me
XOXO
TEAM LARA