Invasion of the Pooh

I'm getting old. I've been sitting here trying to remember what I did last week before Mr Pooh arrived, and all I could remember was "trivia". So let's start with that.

And then, as soon as I typed that line, I remembered. Woo. Freaking. Hoo.

Okay, so last Monday was quite excellent as I met up with one of my BFF's from SF. She and I worked together for many years, before I took off for NYC and she took off for south bay. We still meet up every single time I go back to SF, but it was cool that she was in NYC. I met up with her and her boyfriend for lunch, we headed up the street to a cuban restaurant and had a blast. Got all caught up on each other's lives, wasn't at the office, etc. I think it was the longest break I've ever taken midday (coming from someone who thought nothing of 2 hour coffee breaks when I lived in SF).

Tuesday I left work early again, this time to get my roots re-done. I had like 3 inches of dark brown hair, and then 1.5 feet of blonde hair - can I tell you, this doesn't look good on anyone. I walked into my salon, and my hair dresser was all "oh honey. No." So now I'm full-on blonde again, and loving it.

Wednesday was an all-morning offsite, which I about slept all the way through. Then a coworker and mine went to a late lunch, putting us back to the office around 2 pm. Got caught up on email, and then the day was basically over.

As I'm typing this, I realize how much last week rocked.

And Thursday was my last day for the week - I started it off by going to lunch with another coworker, and then heading out for a goodbye drink at the end of the day for yet another coworker. And then I trotted my way back over to my hood, and met up with my friends for some T.R.I.V.I.A. I'm pleased to report that team "Yo Momma's Tan" took 2nd place, earning us a $20 gift certificate to the pub.

After the trivia, I stopped off at Baskin Robbins and picked up an ice cream cake for the Blonde One and then my friends and I headed over to our local bar for many drinks to end the evening.

Then it was Friday - and it was time for Mr Pooh to get here! A solid hour of cleaning on Friday morning led to a pretty nice looking apartment, and then Blondie and I sat on our patio (beautiful weather) waiting for Mr Pooh to arrive. He showed up around 10:30 am, and we sat and talked for awhile, before heading out for food.

We hit up a cajun restaurant (1 hurricane, 1 beer) before taking our party to the land of the bulldog (frozen pink vodka lemonade topped with baby corona). Then it was back down the street to Poison Bar, where we were joined by my bar friend. 30 beers later, it was over to our local pub to end the night (many beers, 3 shots).

Then it was Saturday - AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BLONDE ONE!!!!!

Saturday morning was "the suck". I threw up all morning long (37! I'm 37! I'm NOT 21!), whereas Blondie and Mr Pooh were doing a little better than me. We met up with our bar friends around 1 pm, for (ugh) another round of partying. We hit up Pony Bar for beers and food, and then to Landsdowne Road for more beers and food, and then to our local for a last round of beer, and then finally home, to order in a ton of pizza and stuff ourselves silly.

Sunday, Blondie was having stomach problems, so Mr Pooh and I took off to do some exploring. We went down to the tip of the island to see Freedom Tower (and to talk about how terrified of heights we are), and then wandered over to Zuccotti Park. Afterwards, a trip past Trinity Church, a stop for soft serve ice cream, a meander past the bull on Wall Street, before ending up in Battery Park - we watched a group of guys do dance/gymnastics type moves for awhile, and then headed back to Freedom Tower to tour the 911 Memorial.

The 911 Memorial was very moving and very powerful. The pools were beautiful, and it was a little breathtaking to realize how big the base of the towers were. I'm glad we got to go do it (apparently the memorial sells out very quickly and we got our tickets last minute), but I think it would be hard to go back again.

After the memorial, Mr Pooh and I were sweating like it was our jobs, so we headed back to the subway (air conditioning biznitches!) and caught a ride back up to our hood. We stopped at poison bar one more time to meet up with Blondie who was finally feeling better. Then it was over to JT's restaurant "Southern Hospitality" for an early dinner. After dinner, we headed back to our hood to one last bar, and met up with my bar friends (who BTW, LOVE LOVE LOVE Mr Pooh - one of my friends said that his sides killed him all weekend from how hard he laughed around Mr Pooh).

Then it was time to say goodbye as we put Mr Pooh in a cab back to the airport. Le sigh. I met back up with bar friends after saying goodbye and we drank into the evening. I get emotional when I leave family, and since I hadn't seen anyone in my family for a year, it was especially hard this time - so I did what I do best and drank my feelings away.

Monday started awful, but ended well - the day was long, but then I met up with my bar friends at the end of the day - one of my bar friends does cabaret/burlesque, and the piano player in her show's was doing his own show. So we headed up to see that - but it turned out they were sold out (awesome for him!). So instead we just hung out at our local pub for the evening.

Tonight we'll be packing up to get ready for some NOLA action this weekend! I'm so excited to see Slick and PIII, and drink some hurricanes, and eat crawfish until I turn into a crawfish. We leave tomorrow evening, and I'm already counting down minutes.

--K