New York, New York...I went up to NYC this weekend. It was my first time being there since July. JULY people! That's a long time. Especially given that I was going up every weekend for a while. Taylor (great friend and darling co-worker) had mentioned going up to see her brother and kindly extended an invitation.
I was so in need of this trip. All of last week built up to me feeling like I needed an escape (or break, as you will). Work has been crazy (work is always crazy for everyone I suppose), but last week really was draining on me. Add on that I was in a weird, insecure mood during the mid-week. I think it was a combination of questioning my abilities at work, recently moving and the effects of my trip to Guatemala. All of which culminated in one of those high school "who am I" moments.
I think no matter what age you are, you go through phases where you REALLY ask yourself how you are doing in life and what kind of person have you become. And you have to. It's those moments where you see places you can improve in your life. I realized that I've gotten comfortable in my life and need to push myself more to do things that typically I'd shy away from.
Insert going up to NYC without any plans other than to play around town by myself. I typically am such a people person that potentially spending the day in the city sans plans by myself intimidated me. But it ended up being exactly what I needed. Time to enjoy being by myself and to just think. It was actually a perfect combination of having time in the city by myself and meeting up with people as well. I walked away feeling more grounded and refreshed.
My Saturday first started by going to Midtown to shop and then
SoHo with Taylor and her brother Ryan (who kindly let us stay at his house). I had never been to
SoHo before and like what I saw (given I was only there an hour). For lunch I met up with Seth back in midtown.
Meeting up with your ex for the first time post-breakup can be interesting, but by all standards it went extremely well. Perhaps too well in fact. It was one of those situations (for me at least) where you're painfully aware of why you're not together, but at the same time still so drawn to the person.
That evening Taylor, Ryan, his girlfriend Kimberly and I went to see Xanadu. It's a spoof of the 80's film that had Olivia Newton John. I never saw it, but it's supposedly one of the worst films ever made. So clearly there's a lot of material to make fun of. It was actually really funny. We went and got dessert at Rice to Riches afterwards and met up with dear, dear Jamar, my NY buddy that I met on a trip up here back in February.
Sunday it was off to Taylor's hidden spot in Central Park. Ah, the weather was impeccable. Fall is definitely here. "Autumn in New York" was playing through my mind all weekend and I loved it. We hit up the Manhattan 8
th ward for church (yes, I did in fact just use the phrase "hit up") and then grabbed lunch and were on our way. Thanks to dear Taylor for letting me tag along.
Taylor's
excitement brimming over as we head to catch the bus. Or perhaps that's anxiety as we were running late.
This photo is for you Laura.
Tasti D-Lite it is.
Dear, dear Jamar.
Taylor and I decided we could only take one photo together during our trip. And this one it is.
In the gardens Taylor found there was a path that had states listed, one of which being Georgia. That's what it says in the circle if you can't read it...
