New York, New York...and Jerz

Today I ate two lunches. Apparently, I still think I'm on vacation because when Dominic and I are on vacation we always eat approximately six meals a day. So far today I've had four and a half, plus a box of girl scout cookies.

Stop judging me.

Some of you already know that Dominic and I went gallivanting around New York City and New Jersey this past weekend. Here is what I have to say about everyone we met or reunioned with during our trip: You guys are all awesome. You Jersey guys, especially, have a certain aura of awesomeness, and now Dominic has a permanent catch phrase that he will always use when we are in your part of the country, and it has something to do with him being a living legend and giving me a high five and then telling strangers stories about our kitty cat.

Anyway, we flew into Newark on Thursday night, and on Friday we caught the New Jersey transit into the city. Brooke took us to Chinatown first, and I began a behavioral pattern that would become my default mode for the crowded streets and subways and buildings and restaurants of New York, which I will henceforth dub, the Quiet Internal Panic. About 94 percent of the time I was able to keep the Quiet Internal Panic under some amount of restraint, but once I almost lost it in a young designers' market in SOHO, though I scored a cool new hat from that experience so all was not lost.

After a fair amount of walking around on Friday we met up with a friend of mine from high school, John, at his place of work. Inside there were a lot of pet birds in cages. And a lot of pretty paintings. And a man who poured us drinks with mostly vodka in them. And also, I'm pretty sure for a moment we were all unwitting pawns in a Woody Allen movie, because that's how funny and quirky and unexpectedly "New York" the whole experience was. Anyway, John is awesome and still quite photogenic though I failed to get a picture of him, which is too bad because now you guys will never know how photogenic he is. And let me assure you he is quite photogenic. Oh yes he is. And now you will never know. How photogenic his is. ...Right.

Immediately after we left the Arts Club, Julia Roberts walked by Dominic, and then Dominic spazzed out and developed turret's for the rest of our trip, only instead of spewing random profanities at inopportune moments he would randomly yell out, "I saw Julia Roberts!" at people.

For dinner we ate at a Cuban restaurant in Chelsea. My meal was so good I made best friends with it, and before we parted there were tearful goodbyes on behalf of us both, and then I ate it, and I think my eyes misted over a bit. After dinner, we saw this play, which was the best play I've ever seen in all my life. I never even realized that a piece of me had been missing, and I would have never found that missing piece, nor even known to look, but now I can finally say I am a whole person because I have seen the Lieutenant of Inishmore. Oh, woe is you (anyone reading this now who is not Brooke or Dominic) for you have never seen the Lieutenant of Inishmore, and I assure you that a piece of you is missing as well. Good luck with that.

Saturday, we met up with John again (still incredibly photogenic) and he was kind enough to take us to brunch and show us around Greenwich Village and SOHO. Sunday, we met Dominic's friend, Candida, for brunch and she showed us around a bit of the Upper West Side and some of Central Park. Candida was very petite and cute and softspoken and polite and nice. She was also very photogenic, and Dominic managed to score some pictures of her as proof.
Monday we flew home. On our flight bound to Omaha, I tried to order a Bloody Mary, and the flight attendant scoffed at me and told me I looked like I was twelve. I'm not sure how this anecdote rounds out this post enough to end it, but I feel like it's appropriate anyway. So there you go.