From the Beginning

Before I had this blog thing set up I was keeping a handwritten account of my trip from day 1. So just to get everything covered from the start I'm going to transcribe a summary of what was written starting from:

Friday January 2nd 2009
Somewhere over the midwest 4:14PST 7:14 PST
SFO-JFK United Flight #870

As the hours accelerate in my slow descent to NYC, I am starting the new year off with a nice little adventure. I couldn't have asked for anything better than to spend my first week of 2009 in NY with some of my darling friends : )
I'm completely blind to what is in store for me over these next few weeks/months/years. Unlike some, nothing excites me more than change and running into the unexpected. Do I have any plans for this week in Manhattan?? Nope, not one. Well, actually one: get to Julians apartment from the airport. Usually, I stress myself with lists of people I need to see and places I have to stop by...but I only have one week and it's not like won't be back soon. I just hope for good food, nice weather, and a dancefloor.
~exit

TriBeCa
80 Warren Street (chez Potulicki) 10:30pm EST

Setting up my temporary living quarters with Tony on the second floor. Andre just dropped me off from the airport and I'm already getting incessant texts from Julian to run across the street to Niccolo's apartment. I'm meeting up with them and Carly for drinks...

...1st-->Bubble Lounge: same as the one in SF but I feel like its waaay pricier here.
..2nd-->1 Oak: club/lounge on the west side. Amazing artwork inside, superb ambient lighting haha. Danced for three hours straight minus one potty break...the music was too good to be true. Definitely the best night out I'd had in months...stopped at the delicious Morgans Deli at around 4am then bedtime...

1/3/09
After waking up around 3pm, Carly and I jumped on the 2 train bound for BK to meet her good friend Ben for Champagne and bread (our breakfast)...
Stopped by Gretchen's new apartment in SoHo before leaving for dinner with her bf and two friends at Gemma's Italian restaurant in Bowery Hotel on the East Side...after, walked across the street to Antique for drinks where we were met by Jenna (yay!), Carly, Jules, Peter, Alex, Andre, Niccolo...etc...Home by 5am.

1/4/09
Brunch with Gretchen (reminder: try Shorty's for brunch between 11-3pm), met Matt in Union Square, jumped on the train heading to BK- Prospect Heights, making yesterday and today the most amount of times I'd ever been in Brooklyn...including when I was living here last year.....later went back to the island and met my cousin Alex for Italian food up by 33rd and 3rd. On the train over there Matt and me came across a lost white pigeon who was chillin under the seat in front of us and probably since we didn't get cell service underground, assumed that he/she didn't get navigation abilities underground either and was lost (right?)....went to my new favorite hideaway Smith & Mills for desert and drinks with Matt, followed by a messy night at Sway with Jules and Eric (Matt got us free drinks for the night-he works there). In bed early by 3!!

1/5/ 09

Introduced Jenna to Smith & Mills, accompanied by Jules and Eric...all + Nicc headed to BK -Clinton Hill to chill at Erics and see his new artwork (amazing)..

1/6/09
Nice day with the fam...breakfast with Tony and Jules at Gee Whiz, and then dinner at the house with everyone i.e. the lost boys, and Farida and Tony. Had tea and a two hour chat with Allison in the West Village where we kept getting distracted by the guy next to us who refused his extra chair to everyone 'cause he was "waiting for someone," while he danced in his chair completely decked out in a red Adidas jumpsuit...met up with Matt at Corner Bistro (cheap drinks, yummy greasy food) before heading to Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel...more free drinks and tons of oogling at original pieces by Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Keith Harring all over the walls. Later to Happy Endings in the LES. Home by 6am...

1/7/09
Hung out at Gretchens place, who was sick and working from home, lucky for me 'cause I got to watch her work on the designs for the MDLR accessories line. I especially loved the "Gretchen" and the "Sabrina," bags...she introduced me to Mad Men...later met my roommate, in town from SF, for drinks with Jules and Eric...drove in an actual car (VW cabriolet to be exact) with the top down in the rain...then a boring night at Sway...home early.

1/8/09
BFast at Le Pain Quotidien on Jules' corner..totally overrated (Yogurt and oatmeal $10??? WTF) Walked around Lower Manhattan ALL day...ended up at One Little West 12th street, super nice lounge, good music, danced with Jenna, Jules and Eric....free drinks and one too many dirty martinis later ended up in the LES at a bar where I vaguely remember an arguement between Jules, Eric, and me about the color of my infamous "blue suede shoes," I thought they were Cerulean, Eric thought, they were___(I can't remember) and Jules said Cobalt. Iphone to the rescue!! With the help of google images and a color match: Cobalt..point for Jules.

1/9/09
First headache of the week!! TGIF I only have one more day of exuberance. Prepared for my big trip, took care of a bunch of errands...ran around the city to the places I least like to visit i.e. Canal street and Times Square to try and exchange my money to pesos...Apparently no one carries pesos cause its worth nothing..JK...but really...frustrated and in a sea of a million tourists from the midwest, Gretchen was just getting off work a couple of blocks away at the de La Renta offices (thats Oscar DLR btw) and took off to her place...met Jenna for a pedicure in SoHo...found out my flight to BA was canceled the next day aahh!!!! drama ensues back on the west coast at casa de Rosales-Wyman, where my parents repeatedly called me from assuming I wouldn't "take care of it," but I did! I switched my flight to the day after, what's one more day in NY?? BUT of course a storm was coming and if I didn't leave earlier, I wasn't gonna get out at all....soo changed it to an earlier time, but in no way did it deter me from going out. Allison and I met G at 1 Oak, which was dead save for some underwear clad bottle servers who were the attention of the only two guys in there and were most likely from Jersey. After about an hour the place is packed and we are on top of the booth dancing...Allison slept over and went to bed...4ish..

BYE NY