New York Love

Did you know that I have the best husband in the world? Well I do. He makes everything more fun. Although I've been having a great time here in NYC, I've been missing my Brent (and my Blazer, but I'll have to wait 'till I get home to see him!). Being the wonderful husband that he is, Brent planned to come visit me for four nights right in the middle of my stay here. It has been so, so fun to have him here! We have been remiss at taking good pictures, but hopefully what we have will suffice. I'll start with a quick recap of last week: I went to see South Pacific at Lincoln Center with some friends from class. It was fantastic!! I love me a good musical, and this one is so deliciously old fashioned with wonderful songs and a classic Rogers & Hammerstein plot and score. I highly enjoyed myself.This week was also a somewhat difficult week school-wise. We had to write a unit of study for a novel we read together. The project itself was not hard since I write units all the time, but we had to work in a group of four and we had about one day to do it. Luckily, I got a really good group, so we got it knocked out quickly. The final product was no less than forty pages long. If you want it, let me know and I'll be glad to send it to you :-)

Luckily, Brent arrived on Wednesday night, and everything was suddenly OK! Because he is such a nice husband, he got us a hotel room at my favorite NY hotel: On the Ave. It is SO NICE to sleep on a non-plastic mattress!! And to have a TV! Yippee! The first night, we went to my favorite restaurant, La Vela. Yep - I went there last week too. It's the kind of place where you want to be a regular. It is so sweet and quaint and cozy. We shared a bottle of wine, ate delicious pasta, and reconnected. After dinner we walked to our other old standby, Magnolia Bakery. Yum!

The next day, Brent explored on his own and ate lunch at one of Bobby Flay's favorite restaurants, J.G. Melon. He loved it. I met him after school and we went to our OTHER fave restaurant: China Grill. Oh, this place is SO GOOD. We first ate at a China Grill in Vegas. Then, last year, Brent surprised me by meeting me at China Grill in NYC when I thought he was still in Houston and I was meeting a friend. So it is a special place for us. We had lobster pancakes, tuna tartare, and schezuan beef. And I had a mango martini. All in all, it was the absolute perfect date night. Did I mention how much I love Brent?

After China Grill, we walked all the way home by way of the park. We passed Columbus Circle and checked out the beautiful high end mall there. The whole front is glass - this is the view from the third floor.

On Friday I got out of school early because we were just presenting our unit plans to the class. I was exhausted, so we chilled in the hotel room for a bit. So nice. We considered making a trek to the other side of the city for dinner but decided against it. Have I mentioned we're homebodies? Even on vacation! We'd much rather chill in a neighborhood place than fight the tourists in Times Square. We found another super cute, La Vela-esque Italian place called Arte Cafe. It seemed like a very intimate, local place. Quiet, good food, good drinks...yes please.

Today has been HOT and I mean HOT. Like 100 degrees hot. I know - I'm a Texan, I should be able to handle it. But in Texas, we have a little something called AIR CONDITIONING. And cars. But in NY, when you're walking everywhere and on the subway with no A/C far underground with thousands of other sweaty people, well... you get the idea. We ventured out with the intention of exploring SoHo and Greenwich Village. It was fun, but it was like in-danger-of-passing-out hot. Also, it wasn't quite as quaint as we were hoping. Maybe we were in the wrong place? But we had fun walking around, seeing some of NYU, and eating lunch at a place we saw on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" called Five Points.

Side Note: We are obsessed with "Best Thing I Ever Ate". (Brent more so than me.) It's a show on Food Network where all the stars tell you (you guessed it) the BEST thing they ever ate. And they tell you where to get it. So my lovely husband made a spreadsheet of all the NY restaurants that have appeared on the show. So far he has eaten at 3 of them since he's been here :-) We love our food.

In keeping with the "Best Thing I Ever Ate" theme, Brent found this awesome little bakery that was on the show: Levain Bakery. They apparently make the best cookie in the world. After eating one, I heartily concur. WOW they were good.
Thick, chewy, and just a little bit raw in the middle... and they serve them to you fresh out of the oven. I will be back.

So that's the update on my adventures. I'm loving having my best friend here to share it and just to hang out with me. Even though he has to leave tomorrow, I feel like I now have the energy to make it through my last five days of class and come home to my puppy, my house, and (a little less exciting) my first day of school WITH KIDS on Monday August 2nd. yikes... I may need a few more cookies and/or bottles of wine.