Upper East Side New Year

Yet another holiday has come in New York. This year there will be no Times Square for me! My dear friend Vinnie has invited me to a party on the Upper East Side hosted by his friends from Greece. The party was a dinner party - lots of food and drinks, in a gorgeous apartment at the top of a very nice tall building over looking the East River. I have learned that smashing a pomegranate is a part of the Greek New Year tradition as well as hiding things in the food. Inside the dessert is a coin and whoever gets the dessert that has the coin will be blessed for the coming year.



There were lots of people from Greece at the party and I really enjoyed meeting them and spending the New Year party together.

I was even invited to go to Dim Sum the next day with one of the girls - Christina. I did go to Dim Sum in Chinatown and met even more new people - lots of them. I can tell this is going to be a good year for me.

Umbrella in December

I have no pictures for this post. Today is Christmas. I went to the City to meet up with a friend of mine and see a double feature movie. We saw Cheaper by the Dozen II (snooze), and the Family Stone - much better. On the way home, I was on the train and the guy next to me kept looking over my shoulder at my Ipod and watching the TV show I was watching. Eventually he started talking and it ends up we live in the same neighborhood. We got off at the same stop. It was pouring rain - I had an umbrella, he didnt. We live about two blocks from each other, so I told him I would share my umbrella with him. We walked to our parting point and he got my number. So, we will see what happens.

Christmas Eve New York Style

This year is also the first year that I have not spent Christmas with family. With my job being so year end sensitive, it is hard to get approved for time off. So, here I am in New York, alone. My friend Christine went home to see her family.

I have some friends here at work that also were not able to go home for Christmas and one of them invited me out for Christmas Eve. First stop was the Spice Market restaurant in the Meat Packing District. It is an Asian Fusion restaurant. It seemed like a pretty trendy place when I was there and I liked it. I ordered a beer imported from India. Thought I should try something new!

After that, we went to Pastis- a French Bistro also in the Meatpacking District. We went for dessert. I got one of the worst pick up lines ever. This guy in a US Mailman uniform works his way over to our group and eventually tries to get in on our conversation. I got stuck talking to him. He asks me my name, so I tell him. Then he says that I have a really nice Jewish name. I was laughing so much I think I almost peed my pants.

We left and then headed over to Sushi Samba -a Latino Japanese fusion place. We went for drinks and hung out in the lounge. After a few drinks we started a little dancing right there in the lounge of the restaurant. At that point it was decided that we needed to go dancing.

We ended up at a dance club in the Meat Packing District - I think it was called Movido or Movado or something like that. We danced and partied the night away. What a great Christmas Eve.

LUKEC

Good friends Lukec and Chris came to visit NYC from Los Angeles. I love them so much and we have such an incredible time together. We act stupid together and do silly things which is why we have so much fun.

They wanted to see a broadway show, so we went to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Had a cocktail or two during the kiddie show. Only in New York. Went out to an Irish Pub after that - Lukec and I with our blinking Truly Scrumptious necklaces that Chris bought for us. THANKS CHRIS!



We also went out to St. Marks Place in the village and went to another Irish pub and drank and played pool. I had my fluffy leg warmers on. See pic! and stumbled upon Sing Sing karaoke bar. We rented a private Karaoke booth for an hour........ 4 hours later we were still singing, drinking and dancing in our booth. I think we sang every song we knew. Solos, duets, all three of us. We played scary-oke - choosing songs for each other to sing that we didnt think they would know. This was definitely the best night I have ever had in New York City.



We went to Ferraras one night and had dessert. It is an unbelievably great dessert place in Little Italy. It was so so good- lots of chocolate!

On Sunday, we went to a Green Bay Packers Bar in the village to watch the Green Bay/Bears game. The place was crazy. The fans are crazy. They were playing the fight song and "the bears still suck" song. Everyone in the whole bar was singing along. They were all dressed up in Green Bay outfits. It was the most fun I have ever had watching football.

Lukec & Chris I luv you guys! Come back!