Strayer and The City

As most of you know, my dear friend Strayer came out for a visit a couple of weekends ago. She's getting ready to move across the pond due to her husband's job, so it was especially nice to get some alone time (read: child-free) with her before she leaves. For those needing some background deets, Strayer (first name, Jennifer) and I met many moons ago when we were both working at Abercrombie & Fitch. I will never forget the blindingly green coat she was wearing the first time I saw her--or that I thought she was soooo not the type of person I would be friends with (I was fresh out of my college-hippiedom days and fighting the lure of the prepsters). Talk about a case of not judging a book by it's cover (or a person by their outerwear).......Strayer has been my girl for over 10 years now, and I cannot imagine my life without her. We spent our swinging single days together, gallavanting and prowling the bars of Cincinnati, and ironically enough, we both started dating our hubbys at around the same time. She's the kind of person that will always have your back, and me loves her a whole hell of a lot. We've had so many crazy adventures together, and even though geography has been keeping us apart the past few years, I know we'll be kicking it until we're old and covering our gray with cheapo bottles of Miss Clairol.

She flew in Friday night, we went out w/Scott, yadda yadda. Nothing too exciting--just headed to a local eatery followed by a short visit to a neighboring waterhole. The Jersey boys were out in full effect, and I'm sure Strayer must have felt like she definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore!

Saturday was the BIG day--our day in the city, with no duties or responsibilities, other than enjoying ourselves to the fullest. We barely made the train into Manhattan, and almost went into cardiac arrest sprinting to the station. It was quite a sight, especially since Stray was lugging around a 28lb. suitcase! We truly had one of those days where everything went perfectly--I had a feeling we would since we made the train--I'm a bit of a believer in "signs."

Upon arriving in the city, we headed straight for the TKTS booth to try and snag tix to Rent (which Strayer had never seen). It was really important for us to get tickets since the run is ending soon, so we were a bit worried. Not only did we get our coveted tickets, our seats ended up being on the freaking floor in the fifth row--score freaking score! There's nothing cooler than having rocking seats to a rocking show!

Prior to the show, we met up with Lori (one of Stray's good friends) and her sister Katie. We had a great lunch, and headed over to the theater.

But wait--I skipped something HUGE--our hotel! We went to our hotel before lunch--duh, that's where we met up w/Lori and Katie. We had originally hoped to stay at The W, but couldn't justify spending that kind of dough. We ended up getting a room at, drumroll please, The Best Western........silence, before you judge! Let me just tell you that hotel was seriously one of Manhattan's best kept secrets. Located in the southern most part of Midtown, it looks like a dive from the street. And, since we were only paying $125/night (split 3 ways), we did NOT have high expectations. The gods were smiling on us that day--the front desk dude upgraded us for no additional charge to a 2-bedroom apartment that was seriously bigger than the first floor of my house!! This place was fully loaded and cute as can be! We could have fit a football team in there, or at least their defensive line.........it was crazy.

So, we go see Rent, it was great, not as great as the first time I saw it, but still great. Tamyra Gray from American Idol played Mimi, so that was kind of cool (not that I knew who she was prior to the show starting). The best part of the whole thing was getting to meet some of the cast members after the show. Katie, who lives in the city, is a huge Broadway buff (with a scary obsession w/Xanadu, but that's another story!), and suggested that we not leave the theatre right away. Lo and behold, out walks "Mark" about 5 minutes after the show ends. Being the cheesy tourista that I am, I totally mauled him and we had our pics taken with him. We got to meet some other members of the cast and got more pictures, and it was just so much fun. I felt like I was famous!

It was getting late so off we went to the subway (gross).......it took us a few tries but we eventually made our way to Canal Street, for, what else? Everyone's favorite pastime--shopping for fake designer bags! There is something highly liberating about doing something that makes you feel like you're breaking the law, and it was quite the experience. I bought an adorable imi-Prada (and a matching one for my sis), and Strayer bought an imi-Gucci.

We pre-partied in our hotel room before dinner, and then cabbed it to this Mexican place whose name is escaping me. The food was good, as were the drinks, but I was already a bit, ahem, tipsy. Dinner seemed to go by really fast, but I could be wrong about that.

We found a great little bar by our hotel and spent the rest of our evening there. I'll have to google it or else email Strayer to see if she remembers the name--I know it's something with "pig" in the title. There was a band playing, and for once (keep in mind, I'm an old broad now), the music was not only good, it also was the perfect volume--we were still able to talk without shouting over one another. And, it wasn't crowded so we were able to sit and/or dance whenever we felt the need. We drank, we talked, we laughed, we drank and drank and drank, and danced.........it was a blast!

Our night ended around 3ish in the a.m., and we stumbled back to the hotel. The next day was brutal beyond belief........hangovers are harder to cope with when you're in your thirties. Strayer had to catch an early flight, and I really felt for her when she left--pretty annoying to have to navigate your way to a somewhat unfamiliar airport of virtually no sleep!

All in all, it was a fan-great-astic time and I hope Strayer feels that it was a suitable "sendoff"! I'll miss ya, Stray--but as long as you don't pull a Madonna, you'll always be my girl (sniff, sniff)!

I'll post pictures when I have more time--just wanted to get this down while I had a minute.

Heart hug.