NYC WEDDING WEEKEND

Posting about last weekend right before this weekend.
Squeaking it in at the wire!
Last weekend we were in New York for a wedding. It was a fairly quick, less than 48 hour turnaround..which I am still partially recovering from.

We flew in Friday morning and had a few hours before the ceremony to say hi to M's friends with whom we were staying, and get ready. Then it was off to the upper west side for the ceremony.
Things I learned:

1. Homeless people may or may not wander into your ceremony and drink the holy water and that's just something you have to embrace. 
2. Even in the middle of spring, right after Easter weekend, black cocktail dresses prevail at a fancy Manhattan wedding. I, with my wholesome sweater and minty green dress, had "midwest" stamped all over me. 
3. My legs are not ready for short-weater yet. ay yi yi. 

After the ceremony we headed to a wine bar for cocktails since there was a gap and we made one epic mistake: we ate food. This was only an epic mistake because I have never seen more food in my life at a wedding, and this is executive-chef-gourmet-level-ish, too we're talking here. 

The appetizers could've served as a meal and were Asian inspired. NOM. 

The dinner itself was 4 courses, which began with a tapas course, salad, entree, and peach cobbler -- wedding cake on top of all of that as well. OOF. I've seriously never been so full. People danced between courses to a 4 piece band. It was fantastic. 

Oh, and did I mention it was RIGHT on the Hudson at the Lighthouse restaurant at Chelsea Piers? So stupidly beautiful. 

The next day, M and I had brunch with our hosts. 

Besides the beautiful wedding, my favorite part was staying with a fellow-foodie,... brunch did NOT disappoint. I had sweet potato french toast with some sort of nuts and whipped mascarpone. 

I usually favor savory brunch over sweet but I definitely made the right call on this one. 

 

After brunch, M and I struck out on our own to be tourists. 

We ventured over to the High Line park by cab where we walked for a while before hopping on the subway to walk around Central Park. 

I could've sat there for hours (and we did, for nearly an hour). It was SUCH a beautiful early afternoon, and there were tons of people out and about. 

We ventured over to Madison Square Park and Eataly, where we had a flatbread snack and some fizzy orange soda. This is when things took a soggy turn and it started to rain. I HAD an umbrella too, but never went back to get it after brunch because it looked so nice out. Rookie mistake. I was woefully underprepared for the impossibility of finding a cab in Manhattan in a drizzle. We ended up walking 6 blocks in the wrong direction saying to ourselves, "maybe this street will be easier to find a cab." before realizing every single cab on the island was inhabited by happy dry tourists. We gave up and walked about 25 blocks across the island back to M's friends place. In the rain. My feet were so sore but I was surprisingly upbeat about the whole situation.

We freshened up and went to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Apartment 13 with a bunch of M's friends from MN who were also in town for the wedding. We headed to a dive bar near M's friends place after, and M and I left to go back to sleep around midnight. The after party ended up coming back to the apartment as well. 10 people in a 500 square foot apartment when your bedroom is the living room floor does not a happy camper make, but it wouldn't have been 1/10 as bad if I hadn't suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I think it may have been the cigar smoke because that delicious dinner at Apartment 13 found itself reversed into the bottom of the toilet. I felt much better after that, but let me tell you: I hate throwing up, and throwing up sober is an even bigger kick in the teeth.

We woke up Sunday, grabbed a cab to LaGuardia and were on our way home.
For unknown reasons, perhaps it was Saturday's illness carrying over, I had some sort of small panic attack/sickness bout on the plane. Super unlike me, I'm NOT a nervous flyer, but I think it was just the perfect storm: sensitive stomach from the night before, flying through perpetual clouds (started to feel a little claustrophobic) but M was a champ at calming me down.

{landing in NYC on Friday}

I was happy to be on solid ground.
Monday was exhausting, but when your husband is offered 1st row Club Level tickets to the Minnesota Wild's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs vs. the Avalanche.. you just don't say no. So we didn't. And we won with 6 minutes left in the 3rd (before cinching a heavier margin with 2 empty netters). It was unreal.

M and I have this conversation on a semi-daily basis: You used to REALLY love sports, what happened?
This is true. I was the girl who knew all the teams in the playoffs, personal-interest stories about each team's players, and would cancel plans to go to the bar or arrange a viewing party for big games. Something shifted, though, and I found myself shying away from sports. This could be because when you only have so much time and energy, something has to give, but I really think it was the mental exhaustion that comes from being a MN sports fan. Don't get me wrong, I never abandoned the teams, I just stopped cheering with such vehemence because it was SO HARD getting so into it, and being crushed. year after year after year. I just didn't have the emotional energy to devote to it.

Going to that game Monday night? The switch flipped back on.
We watched Game 7 Wednesday night from the comfort of our own home.... 2:30 left in the 3rd period and the Wild were down a goal. I was about to fall asleep on the couch (far past my bedtime) and M was in a depressed lump in the corner of the couch when it happened: WE SCORED. I went from near-dead asleep to SHRIEKING and vaulting off the couch, which scared the pants off M.

And then the impossible happened: when it mattered, in OVERTIME of a GAME 7: a Minnesota sports team WON. Of course it also happened in 2003 when the Wild beat the Avalanche in a Game 7 OT [irony: Patrick Roy was the goaltender in that 2003 game 7 and was the coach for the Avs this year].

Game 1 of the series against Chicago starts tonight and we're hosting a mini viewing party at our house after dinner (M's dad and sister are both in town). A part of me hates getting invested again because I'm SO competitive and I HATE losing- even when it's not ME who lost but my representative team. #soreloser. So wish us luck!

This weekend is the MS Walk, too.. and the skies are supposed to FINALLY be clearing for it, which I'm thrilled about. It's been raining or cloudy/cold ALL WEEK,.. miserable MN spring. So, I'll be back Monday with a full report on how that went. :)