Catching Up

I have been busy, busy, busy and am trying to type this and tweeze my eyebrows and explain Annie to a 7-year-old all at the same time so...apologies if it's a bit disjointed. I've been traveling around a bit and am heading out on a business trip next week so I'm a little "man without a country" right now.

Last weekend, YG and I went to New York for the weekend. He had a trade show, and I just went along for some fun and a day off. We drove down on Sat. to our hotel, Dream, a nice, relatively cheap place we found (relatively cheap being under $300 for a NYC hotel that we looked for at the last minute). It had a pretty swank lobby and some nice bars and really great staff. Plus, the room was uber modern and swanky for a very small space. After checking in, we realized that we needed a "snack" so we walked to Joe's Shanghai for somewhere-on-my-top-25-list-of-favorite-things-in-the-world soup dumplings. And as usual, they were DIVINE. I know I'm a bit obsessive compulsive about the soup dumplings, but I think it's justified. They are perfection. Soup, pork, broth -- what's not to like?

After our snack, we walked up to the Park and were going to have drinks at the Plaza, but I completely forgot that it's closed for renovations. So we did another one of those touristy things that I always wanted to do -- the Pen-top Bar and Terrace. Touristy usually equals expensive, and Pen-top didn't disappoint. We both had cranberry martinis (yes, TWO drinks) and our tab came to $50. Insane! But the view was worth it. It was mid-day and sunny, and there weren't that many people up there to get annoyed by. It was a worth it, but one-time event.

We did some more tooling around and then met my dad for dinner at Lattanzi. I had explained the McManus Family Time Philsophy to YG before, but still giggled when he suggested that I call my dad and tell him that we were going inside to sit down at 8 p.m. See, our reservations were for 8 p.m. Using the MFTP, that means my dad would arrive sometime between 8:30 and 8:45. :-) YG and I went inside and ordered some wine, and then waited for my dad to show up. This is the first time they've met "officially" so I was a tad nervous. Also, my mother has such a strong personality that when everyone is out together, it's very loud and boisterous. When she's not around, we all tend to be much quieter. I was wondering if the three of us would have enough to talk about, even though YG is probably my dad's idea of a dream boyfriend for one of his daughters (clean, Boy Scout, earner, father, nice, i.e. unlike anyone I've ever dated before).

Of course, my worrying was ridiculous. We had a nice meal, with those two asking each other lots of questions. All pleasant and relatively superficial, and then I went to the bathroom and I came back and my dad is in the middle of some tale about a divorced dad he knew from way back that hadn't seen his kid in a year. WTF? I gave him the stink eye and he quickly returned to tales of all kinds of divorced parents he knew who were doing things the "right" way. If it bothered YG, he didn't show it or say it so....all went well. My mother said he got the dad seal of approval, so yay!

After dinner, we went for cheesecake and headed back to the hotel. On Sunday morning, we made a Starbucks run and just hung out in the hotel for a while before heading to Brooklyn to hang out with NN, KL and Wyeth. [I'm trying to post a picture of the cutest baby on Earth, but blogger is fucking with me again. Grrr.....}

Anyway, we had brunch at Stone Park Cafe and I decided, after my heavy Italian meal the night before, to have a nice, "light" omelette with bacon and cheese. Mmmmm....Wyeth was good for a good portion of the brunch -- very impressive for me, the lady who is quick with the stink eye when kids sqawk in restaurants. :-) And I found myself giving the evil glare to this bitch who rolled her eyes when the kid even made a little noise. See, maybe someday I can be nice mommy.

We went back to NN and KL's place and hung out for a few hours. Wyeth is so chubby and cute, and I just want to bite his little things. YG was quite enamored with KL so a good afternoon overall.

On the ride back to the mid-town, we stopped in the Village to get some Magnolia cupcakes. I scored a great parking spot so we had time to walk around and explore, and then waited on line and got count-em, 6! cupcakes. Mmmmm.....so good.

I have to run. Next installment -- why cupcakes and champagne are so, so awesome, why I've been so busy, my new Adult Education class, and the views from lovely Manhasset.