86th Floor

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a relaxing weekend.

My weekend went by far too quickly. Friday at work was pretty slow so the day kind of dragged on and on. I attempted to get a head start on some projects and that’s about all I got…a head start…at least it’s something! Everyone in the office ended up leaving a little bit early since it was so slow, which was nice considering I wanted to get home to eat dinner before heading off to a show with my husband and brother-in-law.

The other day they headed over to the half price tickets booth while I was at work and scored tickets to Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo starring Robin Williams. We ended up in the center of the theater, fourth row! I didn’t read the description of the show in advance so I went into it completely open. It was totally fun to see Robin Williams that close up and of course, he was fabulous. I thought the show was really great and thought all of the actors did an amazing job. It was definitely more of a dark comedy (read, very dark), but a very interesting story. Turns out the people behind us were missionaries and at intermission we heard them talking about how they had “no idea” the show was going to contain so much foul language and touchy story lines. They ended up calling a manager over who proceeded to offer them tickets to any Broadway show they wanted. Obviously they did not stay for the second half of the show…which is a good thing considering the story line got even more intense.

After the show we headed to our old standby, the Shake Shack, for a little evening treat. I got the flavor of the day (Mudslide) which was pretty good, but didn’t really WOW me. We didn’t get home until about 11:15 and I was immediately packing up my bag and heading to bed so that I could wake up to my alarm at 4:50 am the next morning.

Luckily I heard my alarm on Saturday morning, hopped out of bed and got the rest of my stuff together to make the drive to Washington, DC with a co-worker for my friend’s husband’s funeral service. We made it to DC in a quick four hours, stopped by a Starbucks to change into our dresses and heels and then immediately made our way to the service. As soon as I saw the front of the program (a photo of my co-workers husband on their wedding day) I started to cry. I tried to contain myself since the service hadn’t even started yet, but it was so hard to see the face of someone who was so young and someone I knew wasn’t coming back to be there with my friend.

The service started around 11am and my friend was as put together as one would be upon losing their husband. The eulogies were wonderful and the speakers did a great job of re-telling some amazing stories and even getting the group to laugh a little bit. The theme that was obvious though, was that my friend made his life even more meaningful and even more full of joy than anyone could have ever imagined. I couldn’t help but cry when I heard her weep at the front of the church. I still can’t imagine what that must feel like.

After the church service we made our way over to her in-laws home to greet the family. We talked for a few minutes and then unfortunately, had to be on our way since my co-worker had only rented the car for one day. We high-tailed it to the car and got back on the road, arriving back in New York City around 6:00 pm. It was a long and draining day, but totally worth it to be there for my friend. I’m just hoping I can be of some help to her in the coming months - my co-worker and I have already planned an evening to take her out for dinner and I have some other things in mind that I will do for her as well.

Once I arrived home I hopped in the shower and headed off with my husband and brother-in-law for a nice dinner out. We went to one of our favorite seafood restaurants, which was AMAZING after that long day. I was in definite need of that glass of wine. After stuffing myself with delicious food we made our way to the Empire State Building to ride their elevator to the 86th floor observatory deck. I haven’t ever been to the top of the Empire State Building even with the many, many times that I’ve visited with my family and even lived here one summer.

Let me just say – I know it’s a “touristy” thing to do, but it was SO cool to see the entire city from the top of the EPSB! It was a chilly and misty evening so when we finally made it onto the deck it was like we were standing in a cloud, but everything was still visible. SO NEAT! We attempted to take some photos, but unfortunately it’s hard to get a great photo of the night-lights while also trying to see people’s faces! Turns out my husband’s iPhone took the best photos…for now you’ll have to be OK with my blurry and semi-ghost looking photos! Believe me though – it was awesome! Once we were finished oohing and ahhing over the city views we headed back to the apartment and I quickly crashed. As I was drifting into my deep sleep I remember talking absolute nonsense words to my husband...That was a LONG day!

Yesterday it was SO NICE to sleep in. We rolled out of bed around 10:30 and headed off to pick up the best Sunday treat ever…a doughnut of course! We headed to the Doughnut Plant where I indulged in a Crème Brulee doughnut – AMAZING. I was bummed because the portion was so small, but the flavor was so awesome. We took Thatcher with us on our waybecause we thought it would be nice for him to get in a long walk before we took off for the afternoon. It was rainy and gross when we walked and by the time we reached the doughnut store, he was completely drenched! He had a bath two seconds after we stepped back into our apartment. Wet dog smell is just not so nice!

After getting Thatcher set up in his crate area we headed off to the MET for the afternoon. My favorite of course was looking at all of the beautiful paintings. I couldn’t take my eyes off of these two. I think by Monet. I fell in love with the seafoam green floral piece and plan to recreate it for our apartment. That is of course, as soon as I get myself to an art supply store to pick up a new canvas and the proper paint colors. We finished off the evening with a little delivery and some frozen yogurt.

Sitting at my desk now I feel absolutely exhausted, but that also could partly be from the 5.5 miles I ran this morning at 5:30 am. :)
How was your weekend?!