Day 1 – Sunday
At around 9:30 in the morning, I headed to Rivington House to do some volunteering. I have been volunteering here since 2006 and have grown to love/miss a handful of residents. Some have since past and others keep on fighting this awful disease. For the next 2 hours we forgot our problems and just focused on the present, making fun of each other and dancing to our favorite jams. I brought 2 rosaries from Christ the Redeemer (aka famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro) for very special residents and hope/pray it brings any kind of relief. I had the best time 2 hours at Rivington House and was especially touched when I saw the resident jump for joy when they saw me. The last time we spoke, I was off to Brasil and wouldn’t see them until TBD.
It was now noon and Claire and I were off to brunch but with a quick trip to 4th and Bowery. A good friend of mine, Arbi, was letting me crash at his 2nd apt in NYC. It is located in the best part of town, close to LES, SoHo, NoHo, Chinatown, the Village, etc.etc. I know this area very well, as it was the same block I was staying at for 4 weeks earlier this year. Arbi couldn’t join us for some brunch’ing at Dos because he was yet another finance friend of mine that had to work on Sunday. He gave me the keys, had a quick coffee, caught up and said Tchau. Thanks Arbi!
We all slowly started to arrive at Dos Caminos –SoHo and in the end the total count was a fierce 10. Effie/Marlon (ex PwC coworker and coned engineer), Erin (self employed), Kate/Darrick/Unidentified#1 (all MMC employees), Claire, Rebecca/Unidentified#2 (Fashion Week friend and her friend) and a cameo appearance from Ryan (Wharton grad) another finance friend who had to work on Sunday. As with any brunch at Dos Caminos, I had the best time. Good food, great drinks and best time catching up with friends. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life.
After brunch, I was in much need of some R&R, especially since I was still up from the day before traveling and what not. After my nap, I got ready for some much needed Hiro time. I went w/ my #1 club buddy and got home at around 3:30a.m. (only reason I know is unfortunately due to some drunk texting, teehee)
Day 2 – Monday
Got up at 7:00a.m. and went to the Bronx to take care of business (this is the main reason I came to USA). And after about 1hr, it was all over and I was good to go –YAY! I headed to Midtown and sat at Starbucks under 1166 (my ex-employer) and met with all my ex-coworkers while I waited for Maria to take me out to lunch. And boy was it lunch, she asked me where do I want to go and I was thinking pub, nearby café but instead blurted out the first that comes out of my mouth when someone within the midtown area asks, where do you want to go? I yell, Del Frisco’s, followed by but I can’t afford that, but to my surprise she says yes! YAY!!!
We had their famous crab cakes for app’s and I had their biz lunch (includes salad, filet and dessert). It was a heavy lunch, but thankfully was followed by another afternoon nap, teehee. I woke up just in time for Verlaine and headed over to Gerry’s work. We got to Verlaine a lil to early and so I thought what better place to wait than Sweet Sugar Sunshine (some version of this) bakery where they have NYC’s #1 cupcakes (for now at least). I do truly heart this place and their pistachio’s cupcake is – ME LIKEY LONG TIME!.
We headed back to Verlaine and slowly but surely the crew began arriving. Once again, I had the best time drinking, catching up and meeting new friends (mike’s new boo). And once again, I am just truly blessed to have the friends I have.
Day 3 – Tuesday
I woke up relatively early and headed out to Starbucks for some wifi’ing. It was the typical morning and nothing could have prepared me for what’s about to be written. I sat down at my usual spot and the store was relatively empty. One lady and one very young gentleman decided to 2 tables from me. He was definitely overdressed and I knew something wasn’t right (aka they weren’t old friends catching up) cuz he was a baby and she was in her 30’s. The next words out of her mouth were, “WHY MBA AND WHY COLUMBIA” :-O my mouth dropped. I was like, are you F’ING KIDDING ME. I am trying to not think about this and was doing it successfully and out of all the coffeeshops in NYC, you pick this one. So CLEARLY I dropped what I was doing, began fake typing and listened in. 3 main items he mentioned will stick w/ me forever. #1. Laid off in December #2. Was going to apply next year but due to current circumstances, doing it now #3 want to b CFO after graduation. I swear to you, if this lil kid is the reason why I wasn’t accepted then I’m glad the schools rejected me because I would have not had a good experience calling this guy a classmate.
It was time to head to the airport and I decided to go via MASS TRANS. It was going along very well until the A train just decided to stop for 30 minutes in Queens. This lead to me missing my flight in JFK, then taking a cab to LGA and by the grace of God I made the 4:30p.m. flight to MIA. I said grace because I was at the gate about to pick up my boarding pass when another flight to MIA was cancelled and everyone on that flight was transferred to my flight, meaning no way in hell I was getting on. But about 30 minutes prior to departure, the cancelled flight became un-cancelled and I literally took the last seat available. WHEW!
I got to Miami by 8p.m. and went directly to my favorite dive bar next to the airport, which we call the Columbian Restaurant. Another great night of catching up with old friends, family and seriously folks, I am truly blessed. Life may not be perfect and we all go thru our ups/downs but having good quality friends will make life a lil easier. After dive bar, the gays headed to SoBe and had a few rounds at Halo-hollerr.
Day 4 - Wednesday
Now it was time to say good-bye (for now) to USA. I hung out with the family all day and headed out to airport around 8p.m. And thanks to having family that works at airport, got VIP treatment with luggage check-in and met Claire at terminal E6. I decided to buy a JW-Green label to enjoy next week when I find out about Bschool. Good or Bad, I will b drinking quality Walker. At around 11pm, we were off to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment