NYC 2

Usually, when I travel for work, I freak out before going to sleep, because I'm so worried that the alarm clock won't go off, and that I'll make a terrible impression on who I'm about to meet by showing up late. Well, I freaked out, as usual. However, unlike most times, when I overcompensate by shooting out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off in the morning, I just kept hitting snooze today, as though I was at home. It wasn't like I was relaxed--it's that, MY GOD, I was drowsy.

So I got up, showered, dressed, realized that all the walking yesterday had worn a hole in my heel, and went downstairs. I bought some bandaids (actually, a travel-size first aid kit) and taped up my heel for another walking-heavy day.

We walked down the street to a Starbucks, then walked to the office, found our conference room, shook some hands, and got some danishes and fruit for breakfast. We then sat, and sat, and sat. The first half of the day was actually fascinating, and we were all anxious to hear the interesting preso information. The problem was, as soon as I sat down, my body remembered that it was only 5:00AM in my home timezone. OMG, I kept having the overwhelming urge to excuse myself, so that I could go find a quiet room where I could lay down for a nap. So, even though I'm mostly anti-caffeine, I decided to have some coffee, which perked me up.

At the end of the day, we decided to excuse ourselves from dinner, which was planned for a chain restaurant, so that we could meander around the city and find something more interesting to do. We caught a cab and went from midtown down to Greenwich Village. We walked around, back and down for a while.. then we decided to get a slice of Famous Ray's pizza.
Delish! I took a picture, because I knew that Bug would want evidence. =)

After that, we walked around a bunch, knowing full well that the Famous Ray's was just an appetizer. We were on the hunt for anything that looked interesting, and we wanted to stop somewhere for happy hour, too. So we walked around, stopped into a Souvenir shop, where I proceeded to spend $60 on NYC-themed clothing. Then we found a funky bar with loud live music, so we stopped in for a drink. It was SO HOT that I had to ask the bartender to put more ice in my drink. I'm telling you, the ice was the best part of that drink. The bartender was this awesome 40+ year-old Irish guy with bushy salt-and-pepper hair, tons of tattoos, and a seriously bad temper. He had a lot of charmisma, but he was literally yelling at this guy at the bar, telling him that some band should've come in and asked him face-to-face if they could book a gig at his bar, instead of calling on the phone. "Who the FOKE to they think they are?! FOKE THEM. FOKE 'EM ALL." It was so hysterical.

When we came out of there, it was still light out, and we were on our way to Little Italy, to find some delicious NYC Italian food, when we found a store called UNI QLO. We were so intrigued, because there was this enormous glass case in the front of the store, with spinning mannequins showing off the new line of clothing... it was all bright fluorescent lights, all white and glass.. we had to go in. My co-worker asked what the store was, and the clerk explained that it's sort of like a Japanese Old Navy. Most of the prices were extremely reasonable. I walked around that store for about an hour. I would've bought more, but I was worried that I'd have buyer's remorse, with no opportunity to return anything.. but it was fun nonetheless!

After that, we decided we were too hungry and tired to wait 'til we got to Little Italy, so we stopped at the first place that sounded good, Gatsby's.
I didn't expect much from this pub. When I think of pubs, I have two basic memory groups: casual, yummy, hot, stick-to-your-ribs food in Cambridge, England. OR really bland, awful trying-to-be-exciting-but-nowhere-near-succeeding disappointing food in California's SF Bay Area. Soooo, I ordered my cider, as usual, and decided to order onion rings for an appetizer, to soak up the cider and to provide a base, in case I didn't like my dinner. I ordered the chicken pot pie, thinking that I might as well give the place a shot.. and oh my GOD, it was delicious! I would order that again in a heartbeat, and I heartily recommend it to you. =) Yum. Good service, too. And I discovered that the best sauce for onion rings is ketchup mixed with hot sauce. Wow, that was a good dinner. My co-worker ordered the Cottage Pie, which was sort of like a shepherd's pie, but it was not very good. It tasted way too sweet, and it had curry powder in it. Just weird.

After that, we went back and forth as to whether we would get some dessert and coffee. After all, everything had been so good, and we had walked for miles, so we deserved it, right? No, no, no, we decided that we were waaaay too full, so we just caught a cab back to the hotel. Of course, in order to get to a busy intersection where we could catch a cab, we had to pass by kiosks of cheap jewelry and purses. I bought a $10 silver ring for $5, which I'm very proud of. My co-worker told me that the secret to negotiating is walking away, and it totally worked. I'm a pro now! =) I wish I would've tried that at the t-shirt shop... =(

Oh well! All in all, a great day in NYC. I'm thinking that it would be nice to take a vacation here, see s'more stuff, like the MoMA and the Natural History Museum. Hopefully, I can get my hubby to come back here with me. =) Maybe I can bait him with some Famous Ray's pizza.