NYC the Sequel

Are we gorgeous or what?

Thats me on the top left with assorted sisters and mothers in law at the fanciest french restaurant ever. It was our big dress up night.

New York was.....
it was.....
surreal. fun. exhausting. noisy. intimate. yummy.

It was like the ironman of shopping, eating and fun. We had to power-rest every evening for about 45 minutes to be ready for our Big Nights Out. And I'm telling you - every night was a Big Night Out.

There was the night dancing in a dive full of sailors (oops - we went to NYC during Fleet Week). Another night found me drinking the best darn margarita I've ever tasted. It has little wild strawberries that had been soaked in some italian liqueur. Mmmmm. Slumber parties in the hotel room with fashion shows, dancing and leg admiring. Eating tapas and sangria at a Spanish restaurant with an old friend of the family. Dancing at a Bollywood disco. (as the old friend said, "I figured with those two words together, Bollywood and disco, it couldn't be bad!")

As before, the days were filled mostly with shopping. I managed to find some pretty awesome things with out damaging my wallet too badly. But there were other highlights too.

We took a boat trip of the harbor out to the Statue of Liberty. It was so lovely to just sit on that boat with the wind in our hair and watch the New York skyline whiz by. When we got to the statue, the boat literally tilted to one side, the side with everyone on it taking pictures of Lady Liberty. I hung back, waiting for it to thin out. But when I stepped out to see her I burst into tears. I was totally unprepared for the emotions that gripped me. Reverence. Pride. Loyalty. Appreciation. Gratitude. To live in the greatest country in the world. A country made up of people from all over the world. A country that gets stronger and more vibrant thanks to it's diversity of people. I loved that boat ride.

I loved, loved, loved dancing in the Bollywood disco. It was in a basement, very dark and full of Indians. There were maybe ten white folks. But the coolest thing about it was the dancing. People were there for the beats and the dancing. No meat market. No picking up. Nothing like that. Just boogeying to killer Indian grooves. I love Indian grooves. And they had surreal Bollywood movies flashing on the walls. It was sweet. Our friend said, "You didn't know I was going to whisk you away to a foreign country did you?" It felt like a foreign country.

Getting kicked out of a sheik Japanese bar was curious. Well, we didn't really get kicked out because we were never seated or served. "No room" the hostess said, when there clearly was enough room. But apparently we weren't .... Asian enough. We were whities. It was a racist bar. Only Asians allowed. If only we had known, we would have sent the one Asian member of our group in alone to secure our table. But she was in the bathroom when it all went down. Ce la vie.

Eating the best street food in NYC was cool too. Lamb over rice with pita bread. Aaahhh.

There were lame moments too, but they're not my story to tell. I'll just say food poisoning is super-lame. Or as Orwell would put it doubleplusbad.

A trip like this changes you. My sisters in law and mother in law and I deepened our love and enjoyment of each other. We experienced new, funny, strange, interesting things together. We shared meals and we shared our stories. We got to know each other better than ever. That's worth more than anything. Sisters rule.

I may think of more to write about later. It's all pretty fresh tonight, so I wanted to get it down before my brain gets overloaded with kiddie,family,home things. As I kneeled in front of my freezer today cleaning up spilled homemade popsicle juice I thought, "Was I really in New York just yesterday?"

It almost seems like a dream.