The One About Sarahs...in NYC!

i wish every month was friend month!

(and so far our odds have been looking pretty good)

Sooo November was the month of visitors, and it was da BOMB. Having little pieces of home in NYC was so wonderful, and our teeny living room didn't even mind. At the beginning of November, we got to have Rachel's BFF Allie stay with us - which was a blast & a half - and then the week after, it was my turn. And SARAH GOTCHER came to the big apple! For real!

tada!

Soo Sarah's mom works for an airline, so she gets to travel da globe. for free. and as jealous as that makes me, I'm glad I get the pay off - Sarah in my new hood! ALSO, Sarah had almost never been to new york before, which made this weekend that much more exciting. the world was our oyster! So Sarah's flight got in early while i was still sitting in a show ("Family Furniture" at The Flea Theater - which was a great show. Peter Scolari & Andrew Keenan-Bolger killed it.), so I sped out, met her in the UES & we didn't waste any time in gettin' on dat subway! Then we had a bit of an Alekzas-locked-out-with-no-keys-and-our-phones-are-dead saga, but that saga led us back to Hell's Kitchen over to YUM YUM THAI (surprised?) so we didn't mind. ;) Two bowls of Pad Woonsen & 1 Schmackary's cookie later, Sarah finally got to see our cozy little city apartment!

Even though it now felt like a holiday, I remembered I still had to go to work ;) So while I slaved away at the office, Sarah explored Rockefeller Center, did some shopping, and - oh yeah - got to be in the studio audience that Jimmy Fallon tests his jokes on before his show that evening. (Which, if you're in NYC, you've gotta do it. It's the easiest and most hassle-free way to have hilarious FREE afternoon plans!) We also nommed some pizza from Patzeria for lunch (per Mr. Gotcher's suggestion) and that was a REAL good idea. So I pretty much burst out of the office at 6pm, ran home to grab a hat & a bandaid (& a Rachel), & we all headed over to Madison Square Park for some... SHAKE FLIPPING SHACK.

FINALLY! IT HAD BEEN SO LONG!

(And also it was so fun to be eating dinner with my college roomie & my nyc roomies - so crazy, but so fun.) So after taking down some burgers, fries & shakes, we headed down to Union Square! It was fun - but slightly overwhelming - to decide WHERE you take someone who has practically never experienced NY before, but we did our best. After walking around for awhile, we headed over to Pop Pub & unwound. A little while later we realized how actually tired we were, so Rach & Alekza headed home while Gotch (Sarah Gotcher) & I jetted over to see Times Square at night, and then hit. the. hay.

We slept in a little Saturday morning and then had BIG PLANS to hurry on over to Ess-A-Bagel for some bagels & schmear per everyone's suggestion, and, oh my gosh. People. I'm not even a bagel person (or wasn't, until it became a $1.50 meal...) but when the "schmear" options are cinnamon apple, chocolate chip, and cinnamon raisin, among others, your morning turns out alright, kno what i'm sayin? Also ran into Mrs. Boren - a mom from my old high school who now lives in New York with her ballerina daughter - (so fun!) who apparently gets Ess-A-Bagel every Saturday. And now I know why. And now you'll know why:

apparently a few other people knew about this place too... 

CHOCOLATE CHIP CREAM CHEESE. Like, what.

Then we headed over to Central Park where we planned to spend the better part of our afternoon. And we did. No regretz. We saw the "Imagine" tribute to John Lennon, the (water-less) fountain, the row of wintry trees and the "show-of-your-dreams" street show. And I was just kinda like, "WHY DON'T I COME HERE MORE OFTEN."

Oh & most importantly, we paid a little visit to the bridge that has seen many movie scenes & most excitingly (to us), it has also seen Brandon & Sarah Brooks' engagement! Can't believe that was a year & a half ago! Wish I'd had a blog then, cuz that would've been a pretty amazing planning period/event to blog about. ;) (But you know where you CAN read about it? Mallory - Sarah's sister - wrote a beautiful post about it here: "The Best Engagement Story Ever") Anyway, so we got to see their proposal cabin/shelter/huppa thing! Here, I'll just show you a picture:

There it is! Ah, so beautiful.

if you hate pictures of magical things, then just scroll down quickly til you see more text.

 are you ready for "THE SHOW. OF. YO. DREAMS."

(are you ready to lose "THE NEXT 20 MINUTES. OF. YO. LIFE.")

the ice skating rink of dreams! and of john cusack & kate beckinsale

 in the movie Serendipity! (aka the first date of our dreams)

Then we grabbed a starbucks & pranced around town (also witnessing a possible bike-by theft that was actually a lot more violent and potentially life-threatening than it sounds) before ending up at the meatball shop & yes i'm addicted. i will say i was disappointed that on this particular night washington square park was less than exhilarating, BUT nyc redeemed itself by the fact that Gotch & I were dying to go ice skating & Bryant Park delivered. We were so overcome by holiday cheer and other forms of adrenaline that we even bought a fast pass. LIKE AT SIX FLAGS, YES. And we skated our hearts away & felt just like kate beckinsale, & yes, maybe even the british part too.

don't worry, i gave proper assistance to the small child

wahooooo! (cell phones were illegal & we were under the ice 

patrolman's vocally watchful eye. & by that i mean, Gotch 

probably could've ended up with a date had there been an interest.)

 Then it was Sarah's last full day! Ahh. So we initially departed in hopes of ending up in Greenwich Village, but made a last minute subway decision to go to Soho! We explored in the rain (you know, barber shops, children's apparel, the usual stops), grabbed some coffee, and then made our way over to Wafels & Dinges (holy cow), but on the way over we got ambushed by a giant dog and by that i mean we could not go on until we stalked a dog & his owners all the way into the dog park so sarah could meet him. She will deny this sentence & even now is probably saying, "oh my gosh, that is NOT what happened" BUT IT MOST CERTAINLY IS. Photographed proof to come. (He really was the cutest dog ever/had the coolest "city apt. on the weekends, connecticut home during the week" owners ever.) Then after eating some DANG GOOD waffles, i forced Sarah to relive my first magical day in Greenwich Village involving a glasses store, some random boutiques, but most importantly - Magnolia Bakery. (Which we then decided to box up & wait to eat in front of Rockefeller Center. Despite the existence of another Magnolia Bakery right next to Rockefeller Center.) OK SO PHOTOS:

check out that sweet bond in the top left corner.

wafels & dinges, NOM!

so what if we split a $9 cheesecake just so we could

afford to eat in the cafe that overlooks the rink?

So after one of the best, most action-packed weekends I've had in the city so far, I was devastated that the weekend we'd looked forward to for so long was over. So it was fitting that at the crack of dawn the next morning, Gotch jumped into her taxi on a somber, rainy morn :( I was so glad she came!

Then (skip ahead 2 or 3 weeks) SARAH BROOKS arrived with the rest of the Staats ladies!!!! Well, my silly job kept me from seeing them for their entire first 1.5 days in the city which was crazy, but well worth the sweet, sweet reunion & delish, delish dinner at Cara Mia. (omg. see my blog post from earlier this summer on my top restaurants. and Cara Mia is so there.) And what a blessing it ALWAYS is to spend time with the precious women in that family! They're so full of joy and hilarity and love, and I just love 'em! After an amazing night of catching up and nommin', we obviously made a stop at Schmackary's. (Only the 2nd of 3 Schmackary's stops I made in a 5-day period... I wasn't necessarily embarrassed, but liiiiike a little bit.) I also got to finally show Sarah & her mama my place! They graciously climbed all flights of stairs, & I was so excited to show them the 'hood I've been trying to describe for the past 4 months. Then we strolled around Times Square, bonded, did a little shopping & called it a NIGHT. 

ahhhhh these are my people 

The next day I woke up just in time to catch the tail end of breakfast with them at COSI. Ohhhh, it had been way too long since I ate that oatmeal. Then the Staats introduced me to the most beautiful of all the little Christmas stores - "Christmas Cottage." No I do not have $30 to spend on a pie ornament, but yes I sure do like looking at it. So then we kinda said our final goodbyes as they went off into another full day of snow-filled shopping/shows/food/etc, etc :) (And I had a "First Date" broadway ticket rush to go to! Omg. More on that on a later date.) But after this crazy bowl season at work, this was the perfect Christmas weekend I needed with some of my favorite people in the world! (+ a new favorite - Amy & Austin's soon-to-be-in-this-world baby!) Spending time in NYC is fun, but there's nothing quite like spending time in NYC with the people you'd have the best time with anywhere. And hopefully it's not too painfully long until it happens again :)

 ah, there's nothing quite like watching these two interact. 

i consider it a unique privilege. also, that's not Mother Abbess in 

the photo on the right. that's our very own Diane.

i love her very much

so that was A LOT, i know. but i still feel frantically behind in these posts. so much to say, so little space in this box! (actually the space is essentially limitless, so you can thank me for my remarkable restraint.) next up - Christmas! and 2014! Holy smokes. Get ready, peeps. There's a lot to come & I have a feeling it's gonna be GOOD.

But until then...

HAPPY 7 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!

         that's crazy.