Different Heights of Brows

Beautiful! Beautiful!

I went to NYC for my 30th birthday. Yes, that's right, I'm the BIG Three Oh!

I decided over a year ago that I wanted to go away and do something special for the occasion. At first I thought that Las Vegas would be perfect. I have never been and it seems like the kind of place I could go crazy with my closest girlfriends on my thirtieth. But the more I looked into planning the trip and the more I thought about it, I realized Las Vegas just would not do. First of all, all the inclusive packages are 4 days/3 nights and I can't take vacation days. I'm on contract, so the days I don't work, I don't get paid. Also, everything's on a tight tight tight deadline, and I'm sorry but it's true, I'm the glue that holds it all together and makes sure everything goes right and everyone is doing whatever I tell them to! So even if I wanted to, I couldn't take the time off. Secondly, the packages start at about $750 CAD for a decent hotel. And finally, as I tell everyone, I choose not to do LV because a) I don't like to gamble (I a-likey a sure thing!) and b) I am not interested in prostitution (not that there anything wrong with that!...Oh, wait, there actually might be....). I know, I know, there's other stuff to do in the newly gentrified Vegas, but I ain't gonna pay hundreds of dollars to go see Celine and Sigfried! Or is it Roy....

So I decided to spend the milestone in my absolutely favourite city. New York, New York. We landed at about 7:30 on Friday and left the city at about 1:30 on Sunday. Man! It was a whirlwind of a trip!

After me and 2 of my Toronto friends checked into the hotel we discovered that SW had popped a blood vessel in her eye! So we met up with Dallas and Brooklyn and headed to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy. The pharmacist said it was common and nothing serious to worry about and suggested Visine to constrict the blood vessels. We headed off for the East Village for dinner at a small, but stylish (v. traditional) Korean restaurant called Temple. The food was just okay. However, I was burping up green onion and portobello mushrooms for the rest of the night. We had a bottle of some really nice black raspberry wine, but I don't recall its name. Then we headed to McSorley's where the bouncer didn't believe we were older than 25 but let us in anyway without asking for ID. Inside we discovered that you can only order pale ale or dark ale. We decided no ale was best and left for d.b.a. Apparently, Brooklyn plays Scrabble there on Sundays. That has nothing to do with the recount of the weekend, but I thought it an interesting fact. d.b.a. has a wide selection of beers from around the world, however, none of us were too wowed by any of the ones we happened to order. We all had just put a hard week's worth of work behind us so we decided to go back to the hotel (Courtyard Marriott in the Financial District - decent) and go to sleep.

I woke up earlier than the other ladies and decided to shop for shoes at Century 21 which was only a couple of blocks away. After I finished getting ready and told JS where I was going, she called me a bitch for not waking her up sooner. After waking up the other 2 (Brooklyn went home the night before) with a couple of more loud "bitches" I waited for JS to get ready and we took off. I bought a cute pair of DKNY ballet flats that are more on the casual/sneaker-ish side then on the fancy side. JS didn't see anything see liked so we went back to the hotel. The other 2 had finished getting ready and packed so we checked out and headed for brunch at Essex. The food is jut so-so but included in the prix fixe is 3 alcoholic beverages. I cannot tell a lie. I only come here for the mimosas! But whereas in the past they used to fill the glasses with champagne and added only a dollop of OJ for colour, they have since evened out the proportions against my favour....We continued on to Bloomies on 2nd Ave. for pedis. It is a inexpensive nail chain, and I wish we'd had time to go one of the Chelsea locations because as we learned this lesson twice now, the East Village location just doesn't compare. I firmly believe the esthetician I got had a personal vendetta against me and aggrevated my plantar fasciitis. We did a couple hours of soft-core shopping where Dallas bought a cute neckless and SW bought a shexshy pair of black and gold lame heels. We said bye to Brooklyn once more because I could only secure a table for 4 at Mario Batali's Babbo. We had a FABULOUS meal, ordering the traditional tasting menu on the recommendation of a co-worker. How right he was! The pappardelle pasta with porcini and Thyme was amazing! I could have had just a bowl full of that! Too bad we ended the perfect meal with the grappa! Ugh! After dinner we checked into, get this, the Four Seasons!!! I can not tell you how beautiful this hotel is. I could live in the washroom, it was so gorgeous! (And it had a tv to boot!) Dallas works for the company and was able to secure the room and told the property that it was my birthday so they had a cake on the coffee table waiting upon our arrival! It had started to rain hard (damn those April Showers) so we started off with a drink in the famous Fifty Seven Fifty Seven Restaurant and Bar inside of the hotel. We continued onto a New York tradition - Siberia - but it was gay night and since we were a group of 5 women, we decided to get our palms read for $10 instead. That was a bunch of bunk and it was crappy weather and I was getting too tired to dance to the beats so we took a cab back to the hotel and stopped off at Tao, a ridculously large themed restaurant that is a place to see and be seen. There was no where to sit so we left and asked the concierge where else was open and close by. He suggested Opia or Au Bar. Since Au Bar had a $45 cover charge, we decided on Opia. After a drink we headed back to the hotel, ordered a pizza and watched Resident Evil on the 32" widescreen LCD television!! (It's always all about tv!) I fell asleep on the couch and we woke up, but not early enough to get a proper sit-down breakfast. So we got a quick sandwich at PAX Whole Foods at 49th and 7th, and then it was back to La Guardia.

So thanks to JS, SW, Dallas and Brooklyn for making my birthday one I definitely will never forget! And thanks to everyone else for your well-wishes and kind thoughts!

Love and Peace,
Highbrow

posted by highbrow @ 11:28 AM