To the T-day Parade, and beyond!

San Francisco was a blast the second time around. And also, apparently whenever I decide to visit the city, the city decides to have the most beautiful weather ever in return. I told my friends that I have to be careful, because when people start talking to me about SF, they'll be like "oh, and the weather? Cold and foggy right?" And what I'll remember is sunny and high 70's with no clouds, and be like "COMPLETELY wrong".

So I landed on Sunday and headed to my hotel. My room wasn't ready so I did a quick wash-up in the lobby bathroom before heading out to enjoy the day. I took the train to my old hood, and got myself a sandwich from Say Cheese - the best sandwich shop around, and home to the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life - the mozzarella, basil, tomato, prosciutto on ciabatta. OMG. Heaven on bread. I took the sandwich to the dog park and people/dog watched while chatting with my mom. After my sandwich, I headed into my old bar for a few while watching football. All too soon it was off to Pac Heights to meet up with Ma Peng for brunch (haha - 2 meals!) I got to meet her bambino and it was soooo good seeing her.

After our brunch, I headed over to North Beach to catch up with Sweetie J - we headed off to a bar with a patio and had several frosties before doing some shopping in Union Square. Then the 2 of us met up with KT for some vietnamese food before KT and I headed to a bar to spend the evening. I was back to my hotel around 11 pm (2 am ET) completely exhausted, but completely happy.

Monday I was off to the gym for a workout - the gym in my hotel was pretty nice, but very hot - it was like working out in a sauna. I headed off to work to enjoy my day (no meetings), and got to get coffee with several people along with lunch with a coworker. The night was going to be my off night but the delightful S&HK called and I got to meet up with them instead. It was a really good night - I hadn't got to see them last time I was in town, and in the meantime, they've gotten engaged, so it was good hearing wedding plans, and seeing them in general.

Tuesday it was back to the gym and then back to work. I did have meetings on Tuesday so it was a little more hectic than Monday but it was also over before it started. I had drinks with my tech lead on Tuesday before heading back to North Beach for tacos and Glee at Sweetie J's house.

Side note: Is Glee not the best show on TV? If not the best show ever? I love how they are handling the bullying situation, and Kurt's character in general. Everytime I see this show (along with anything on Broadway), my heart hurts that I can't sing or dance. Or act.

Okay, so many beers at Sweetie J's leads to waking up Wednesday with a sore throat and stuffy nose. I decided that sweating it out would be appropriate so headed to the gym. It was not a good decision. I sweated nothing out, but sent my heart rate soaring, and felt like ass afterwards. Work was about the same as Tuesday in terms of meetings.

On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go for dinner with my project team. I went for drinks with one of my BFF's from work first, and then when it was time to leave, couldn't find a cab anywhere (typical of downtown SF). I ended up meeting with another tech lead and contractor instead for many drinks late into the evening. I skipped dinner b/c I was full from lunch *and* still feeling like ass.

Thurs morning, I woke up in misery. This cold/sinus/flu/whatever had settled in deeply and I was hacking my lungs out and sneezing. My nose was raw, and my throat was on fire. I felt better after I had a shower, but knew the day was going to be a bad one. I got through work without infecting anyone, and then I tried to go to a coworkers going-away party. I lasted one drink before calling it a night and heading over to meet Shelbs and Bbbb for some sushi. I had a few beers with them before they took me to the airport.

The overnight flight is generally my favorite one to take back to the east coast - but it turned out awful this time. Everything went on time, and the people around me where quiet, but I felt so bad/sick that it turned out feeling like a 40 hour flight. I got back to the apartment on Friday, said hello to Blondie, took both cats into the bedroom and konked out hard.

And good for me, got Blondie sick in the meantime. Saturday and Sunday were spent miserable - both of us have this crud and just wasn't good. Monday I still felt like shit but had so much stuff to catch up on with my projects and being in SF that I headed into work anyway. Tuesday I did feel a little better so that was okay.

And Wednesday was a half-day. We are both sort of on the mend, so on Wednesday, we decided to catch the matinee showing of "Lombardi" on Broadway. This stars the dad from Wonder Years as Vince, and Angela from Who's the Boss as Marie (Vince's wife). It was a theater in the round, and we were right at the stage - the play was funny and moving, and all about football. The employees at the theater rocked (when I was getting a beer at the concession stand, and mentioned someting about having to have a beer while watching football, I got whole-heartedly agreed with by the person selling me my beer).

After the play, we headed up to the UWS. We stopped in at a wood-fired pizza place and split a bottle of wine and a pizza and salad, before heading over to join the ginormous line of people watching the balloons get inflated for the Macys T-Day parade. That was an incredible experience. I know the balloons are big, totally know that, but to actually see it in person - it really put it in context just quite how big they are. Some of the balloons were easy to tell what they were (Shrek), some I had no idea (Diary of a Wimpy Kid). After the balloon inflating, we headed back to our bar and caught up with everyone for the evening.

Thursday was spent with our bartender and his family - we headed up to the parade, and used our bartender's connections to get awesome spots along the route. It was so amazing, I watched in awe while thinking "OMG, we *live* here". We saw Kanye West, and someone in our section started chanting "Taylor Swift" which the whole section picked up on. And made me laugh my ass off. We saw Jessica Simpson, Mrs Pooh's favorite person in the world. We saw Jimmy Fallon, who even on his float was laughing hysterically (which makes me wonder that maybe he wasn't goofing around on SNL on purpose, maybe he just is in a perpetually good mood). We saw all the balloons we had watched getting inflated. And we saw Santa.

After the parade, we left our friends and headed to the bar, where we had a few drinks before heading home and crashing out. I ate all day long and now feel like a giant blimp - especially because I haven't been well enough to work out for the past week. I seriously feel like I've gained 10 lbs in the past week. I'm trying to talk myself into a workout today, but woke up again hacking and sneezing.

Our plans for the weekend include nothing today - maybe heading to our bar but that's it - it's cold and raining outside. We do want to see the new Harry Potter this weekend (well, Blondie wants to see it anyway), and maybe Elf (the musical on Broadway). No shopping for either of us, b/c that's insane this weekend.

Hope everyone had a great turkey day. And a happy birthday to the Sheriff, my mom, and BFF in the world TT.

--K

I've been busy....

No excuses for lack of posting, just been busy. And when I get home at night, the last thing I want to think about is updating the blog. BUT, I'm here now (yay for you! :) and I'm ready to fill everyone in on the last 2 weeks.

First on deck, the Jets game! WE HAD A BLAST! We took the trains out to the new stadium, and had pretty easy time getting over to Jersey beforehand. The new stadium is butt-ass ugly on the outside. Our train was pulling up and Blondie was like "um, that's awful". I'll be posting pics on the NY blog later on today so be on the lookout for a prime example of "WTF architecture".

We got to the stadium about 3 hours before game time and met up with our bartender and group of friends from the bar for some tailgating fun. It was one of the best times we've had since moving to the city. There was so much food and booze, it was mind boggling. And everyone was so friendly - I knew about 80% of the people from the bar, but the other 20% made me feel like I had known them for years as opposed to hours.

The game itself was kind of a blow - our tickets rocked, we were 10 rows off the end zone and felt like we were in the game itself b/c of how close we were. The game sucked though - there wasn't a single touchdown scored, and it ended with Packers 9, Jets 0. Just boring. And then the train ride back was horrid. Blondie cut us in line for the train which was a good thing, because even cutting in line it took us 2 hours to get home (the stadium is literally right across the Hudson from NYC). If we hadn't cut, we would've been there another hour at least.

Okay, so that was Halloween. My birthday was 2 days later - and true to form, we got trashy trashed. My friends from work took me out for Indian for lunch (soooo good), and then Blondie met me early for margaritas and chorizo, before we hit up our bar for plenty of beers and shots. The day after that, my friend Little Dragon met me and Blondie for some more mexican food (WOOT) and margaritas to complete the celebration.

Then on Thursday of that week, I got a chance to reconnect with an old boss of mine in the city. She had been my VP at my SF job for almost the entire time I was there - she had taken a years LOA to travel the world with her boyfriend (OMG - how fabulous?), but is now back. She has taken a lesser position which made it a lot more comfortable to get drinks with her. I didn't have to worry about what I was saying, or temper my conversation in anyway. Which can be really hard for me to do - especially if I get some drinks in me.

Last weekend was spent recuperating. My body is tired. We ended up spending most of the weekend at home, watching the NYC marathon on TV. It inspired us to go for long runs as we tried to feel better that 45000 people were running 26.2 miles while we watched them from the comfort of our home.

The weekend was needed last weekend, because this week my project kicked in. A group from the SF office arrived in the NYC offices to officially kick everything off. A work week has never gone so fast for me as it did this past week. From meetings all day every day, to getting everything planned and coordinated... It was a whirlwind week that felt like it was Friday before I even got through Monday.

On top of the actual work, I had a busy week too - my good friend from the SF office was part of the group out, so we took Tuesday evening and went to see "The Addams Family" on Broadway - it starred Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth and we were dead center of the venue, 4 rows back from stage. It. Was. Amazing. It was a comedy and a musical, and I've never laughed so hard at a play in my life. At one point, Grandma said to Pugsley "What's up stud?" and I about gave myself an asthma attack from laughing. You had to be there - the wigs and clothes that they put on the Pugsley character made him look like a weasel, not a stud. So when Grandma said that... OMG. And the set was killer also - the money they must put into these sets, I can't even fathom. If you are in the area, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this play. Also, holy shit, Bebe Neuwirth? Looked fantastic. She was gorgeous and sexy and flawless. She's in her 50's, but looked like her 30's (I looked her age up afterwards because I couldn't even guess).

Okay, Wednesday this past week, I had set up a huge drinks event at one of the local bars. Everyone from the SF office came out that was in town, and the NYC office joined up too to celebrate the start of the project. My second goal for the night was to get everyone comfortable with each other as we are going to be relying on each other *heavily* to get this project done. And I think it worked. People got to chat and find out about each other from a personal perspective, which will help when it comes time to figure out how to work with teams in India, SF, and NYC. That was a late night that ended with 2 of my girlfriends from work and me as the last ones there, drinking and laughing the night away.

Then came Thursday - when we went with my friend Little Dragon and her husband and friends to MSG to see the Rangers vs the Sabres. Little Dragon's social circle is so much fun, and I hope we get added to it permanently. It was a good night, and the Rangers WON! Making it our first time watching a NYC team play where they actually won!!!! (We've seen 2 Rangers game, 1 Knicks game, 1 Jets game, 2 Yankees games, and 1 Mets game - all except for the 1 Rangers game have lost).

Last night was a trip back to our bar for dinner and drinks, before coming home and crashing out in front of the TV. I had stopped on the way home from work and bought a loaf of pumpkin bread from our local pie shop, and we ended up eating the entire thing last night. I'm supposed to go for a long run today but might give my body a break. I have a long ass flight tomorrow to head back to SF for work for my project. I'm pretty sure this is going to be standard for me now - 3-4 weeks in NYC office, a week in SF office going forward. Which actually for me is the best of both worlds.

Today will be spent packing up, getting everything ready before my alarm goes off at 4 am tomorrow. I have plans for all day Sunday, Tues night, Wed night, and Thurs night before I have to catch a red-eye back on Thurs next week. I'm hoping Monday night stays free so that I can order some room service, and watch TV to my hearts content.

--K