During my blog break, I went to New York. In fact, although it was not a part of the original plan, I started the blog break with a trip to New York and ended with a trip to Florida, but more about that later. In short I was busier than I anticipated and I am still catching up.
I was meeting my friend Liana, who was flying in from Nebraska. We had managed to schedule our flights so we would arrive at LGA at approximately the same time. But the weather intervened. We were both delayed by 3 hours or more; in fact Liana's flight was cancelled and she ended up on another flight, bound for Newark instead of LGA. I thought I had been so clever: I didn't fly at the crack of dawn, and I was originally scheduled to arrive well before rush hour. HA! Mother Nature intervened.
By the time I did land I was simply tired and ready to get to the hotel. It had been raining. The sky was mostly gray but shaded with the rosy hues of the approaching sunset as we headed west into Manhattan. The photo was snapped quickly through my cab window and is none to clear, but somehow it perfectly captured my mood at my reintroduction to New York.
We stayed in the garment district, at the Archer Hotel, which was perfectly lovely. The room was small, it was NYC after all, but really rather cleverly and furnished and decorated to the effect that I found it more comfortable and efficient than many larger hotels.
We had hoped to go to the Met that night, but we landed late, and were tired. We opted for a drink at the bar instead, where there was a lovely view of the Empire State Building, just one of the lovely features of this small hotel, to which I would happily return.
Although we had planned to go out to dinner, we ended up staying in, moving ourselves downstairs to the restaurant. Even then we opted for nibbling and noshing while we talked and laughed and generally unwound. It proved to be a good start to a lovely short visit. A few events never materialized. A friend we hoped to meet was stuck in another city, unable to return home, probably due to the same weather systems that delayed our arrival. We never made it to the Met, the one performance we both wanted to see was sold out, with no last minute seating options, and I had managed to talk Liana out of trying for tickets the previous night.
But we wandered around the garment district, explored fabric stores, and yes, went back for fabric. We walked and talked and laughed a lot. It was good to spend time with someone I can talk about clothes and fashion and fabric, with a friend who appreciates my rather frivolous and shallow side. In fact it was good to just be lighthearted and silly. We went down to Chinatown, and up to the Upper East Side. We ate and drank and flirted with waiters. In fact, I was rather surprised to find myself being engaged, and engaging in, lighthearted flirtation on a few occasions. It is quite nice to have found joy again, to release that flighty self from the closet she was locked away in during those years when I became too serious for my own good. A little bubble and sparkle is always a good thing.
