NYC, y'all

This past weekend, the sisters, Chuckie and I traveled down to NYC. I had a very strict and packed itinerary planned out for us and we followed it pretty well, but unfortunately weren't able to fit EVERYTHING in... There was just too much to do.

Saturday morning started at the World Trade Center Memorial. The weather was gorgeous, so the memorial had a long line and a big crowd inside.

 

 

After the memorial, we headed north to the High Line- a park made from an old, abandoned railroad track. If you're in NYC and looking for a place to just walk and get some good pictures of a different part of town, this is the spot. 

At the High Line, we met up with our cousin Megan and her boyfriend G who drove in from New Jersey to hang out with us. The 6 of us drove from the High Line to our hotel near Central Park for a little pregaming and UofL game watching before our dinner reservations. We played the game Heads Up on the iPhone and laughed a lot.

Dinner that night was at PJ Clarke's- an American restaurant across the street from the Lincoln Center. I'd highly recommend this place to anyone looking for relatively decent dinner prices and a view.

Once dinner was over we cabbed it to Times Square, mostly for photo ops and people watching.

Oh and we had a good time photobombing just about everyone around us for 15-20 minutes. Some people are going to get some nice surprises when they get home and look at their pictures up close. :)

After a lot of photobombing, we made our way to McGee's Irish Pub. It was inspiration for the bar MacLaren's on How I Met Your Mother (one of our favorite shows) and the cast of the show has been known to make appearances from time to time. As an added bonus, the pub is Irish and it was St. Patrick's weekend, and also the bar was 3 blocks from our hotel. Sadly, we didn't run into Neil Patrick Harris, but we did rack up a large bill and played more Heads Up and laughed a LOT more. (Yes we played a game at a table in the middle of the bar and yes people stared at us and no we did not care.)

Sunday morning we were all miraculously feeling great, (I said it was a birthday miracle!) so after some showers and checking out of the hotel, we got Starbucks and walked around Central Park.

Next we were back in a cab heading south to meet some other cousins for brunch at Baracca's. The food was delicious, the Bottomless Sangria brunch deal was fun, and our company was great.

After brunch we headed to the Met- Sami's one and only wish for our NYC to-do list. We basically ran from gallery to gallery and decided the Met needs a whole weekend to itself to properly see everything and in a way you're not just running past it. But what we did see was awesome. Who isn't impressed by standing a foot in front of an actual Monet?

After the Met we went on a hunt for ice cream, which proved impossible as it was after 5 pm on Sunday and apparently no one serves ice cream (at least not where we were) after 5pm. So we decided to start the drive back to Boston and look for ice cream on the way home. After 2 hours of driving and no ice cream, we caved and stopped at a McDonald's for some McFlurries and milkshakes. It wasn't quite what we had in mind but, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Monday was St. Patrick's Day. We slept in a little, watched some TV, and left the house in time to have lunch at Border Cafe in Harvard Square. Yep, we had Mexican food on an Irish holiday. Then we spent the afternoon shopping in Harvard Square, playing Scrabble in a Starbucks (because why not?) and mostly just chilling. We redeemed ourselves later that night and made our Irish ancestors proud- we had drinks at an Irish restaurant followed by dinner. Oh and we had birthday cupcakes.

That night we watched The Departed and then just like that the trip was over. :( I think we made the most of our time in NYC and we especially loved getting to spend some time with cousins we don't get to see a whole lot.

Highlights of the trip (besides all the sight-seeing and food):
-  Laura, Sami, Megan and G got into a cab behind mine and Chuckie's and Laura got to say the line "Follow that car!" just like she wanted to.
- We watched Newsies Friday night before NYC which gave us some really good taglines for the weekend like "Headlines don't sell papes" and "Awww, Crutchy."
- I kept calling the Empire State Building the Eiffel Tower
- Playing Heads Up in the bar but especially when we had to act out "Losing Keys" and G threw his actual keys halfway across the bar.
- We took a birthday shot called a chocolate covered pretzel and it changed our lives.
- Laura and Sami took some of the cupcakes home to Louisville with them and live tweeted the journey with the hashtag #travelingcupcakes.


Happy belated 21st birthday, Sami and happy early 30th birthday, Laura!

Next week is Chuckie's Spring Break and my huge project at work is finished and turned in, so we are taking the week to get out of town and relax. Chuckie's sis invited us down to Virginia Beach for the week and since D.C. is on the way, we decided to stop and spend the weekend there before ending up in VA Beach. I haven't been to D.C. since I was 14 and Chuck hasn't been since he was 21, so we are excited to explore the city together and have a nice little vacation week.

Highs and Lows

In high school, my favorite part of youth group every week was at the end of the night when we went around the circle and shared our "highs and lows" or "glads and sads" from the week with each other. It gave us a few minutes to celebrate the happy things with each other and sympathize with each other on the not-so-happy things. Last week was the ultimate week of highs and lows, and since I obviously don't go to youth group anymore, I will share them here.

I don't want to recap the "lows" in too much detail because I don't want to relive all of it right now, or in the future either really. Last week, my Grandma passed away. She was one of the greatest people I've ever known and she was the best Grandma. My sisters and I were lucky to grow up 15 minutes away from our Grandparents and got to spend virtually every holiday and birthday with them, spend the night at their house often and go over for brunch after church or dinners on the weekends. You know all the good Grandma-like things that Grandmas do, like let you have an extra piece of candy after your parents said no, or take you shopping with them and spoil you? Well she did them all, plus more. Not only did she treat us like royalty, she was also funny as heck and a fiesty little woman. She loved all of her family fiercely, especially my Grandpa (and her 6 daughters, 16 grandkids, 25 great-grandkids, and 2 great-great grandkids!) and we all loved her back just as much. So Chuck and I cancelled everything in Boston and bought last minute plane tickets home to be with family for the memorial service.

When we arrived at my parent's house, we found out that our family dog, Lucy, was sick. After a few days of medication and no improvement, we took her back to the vet the morning before the memorial service. My dad got a call right after it ended saying that Lucy was not going to get better and it was recommended we put her to sleep. So, my parents, sisters, Austin (Sami's boyfriend), Chuckie and I went to say goodbye to her at the vet, immediately after saying goodbye to my Grandma.  It was pretty much the worst. We got Lucy when I was 15 and we all had our own special relationships with her. She liked to drive Dad crazy by running through his newly raked leaf piles in the Fall. She liked to give Mom "hugs." She liked to crawl on Sami on the couch. She liked to sleep at the end of Laura's bed. She liked to flop down in front of me and force me to rub her belly, a trick I accidentally taught her that she never forgot after the very first time. Lucy loved everything about her life and her family. She was a good dog.

Lucy and I still kept in touch even when I was in Boston.

If all of that, plus lack of sleep plus stress wasn't enough already, Thursday night when we had only 3 hours to sleep before we had to head to the airport, Chuckie got violently ill and stayed that way, even while we were traveling through airports all day. I've never seen him this sick in all the time we've been together. It was like a nightmare that wouldn't end. 

Friday afternoon we got back to Boston, along with my sisters who have had plane tickets to come up and see us for months. We had a whole weekend planned in New York City to celebrate all of our birthdays- specifically Sami's recent 21st birthday and Laura's quickly approaching 30th birthday. The weekend just also happened to be my actual birthday so we celebrated that too. Friday We used Friday as a day of rest so we could actually try to enjoy our weekend in New York. We slept most of the day, showered, went to the grocery and bought all kinds of food and then went home and ate it while we watched Newsies. It wasn't quite the day we had planned for months but, it was necessary down time.

The "highs" of the week came Saturday and Sunday when we were in NYC. There is something so energizing, no matter what state of mind you are in, about being in THE big city. There's just nothing else like it. Our cousin and her boyfriend met up with us Saturday and we did some sight-seeing, had dinner and went out. I can't remember the last time I (personally) had as much fun as we did on Saturday night. Sunday we met up with more cousins for brunch (at a place with bottomless sangria...yum) before some more sight-seeing. The weekend was busy, funny and a great way to celebrate our birthdays. I have a lot of pictures so I will post them in a separate post soon.

Again like I said earlier- we had some of the lowest lows and highest highs all in the same week. Thank you to everyone who was there for our family last week and has reached out to me or them. It means the world. And thank you to New York City, for giving us one of the best weekends ever, when we needed it most.

Letters to Boston

As the reality of leaving Boston creeps closer and closer, I've reflected on some things/people/places I like and dislike in Boston and written some short letters to them. Enjoy.

Dear Pepper Sky,
I am so sad that it took us until January 2013 to discover you. I regret those 7 months we were in Boston and failed to recognize your greatness. Your Pad Thai is one of the best things I've ever eaten and I'm afraid I will never find another like it. Whether it's in the restaurant or take-out, it's always perfection. I will hold every future Pad Thai to your standards.
With Love,
Your number one fan and customer

Dear Boston Pedestrian Crosswalks,
I love the power you have over cars, buses, bikes, and taxis. You are the most powerful crosswalks I have ever witnessed in my life. I love the power I feel when I walk across a large, main road during rush hour. Because you are there, I have the power to stop buses full of people and it feels amazing. It's the closest I will ever get to having a superpower. I wish crosswalks in other cities would take note.
Love,
An Adoring Fan


Dear Upstairs Neighbor,
You are the loudest walker I've ever heard. You wake up earlier than us and go to bed later than us. And you stomp the whole time. You also move furniture a lot, vacuum suspiciously frequently, and run some kind of machine that also makes noise. What are you doing up there? We're not sure if you are a Dexter, a Walter White, or maybe just a hairdresser or work-out enthusiast. But whatever you are, it's loud. I want to leave you a note asking you to be quiet but I'm not a grouchy 79 year old woman so I won't. Also, Chuckie won't let me.
Not with love,
Your annoyed neighbor


Dear T,
I love you and hate you so much. I love that I can easily travel around the city without sitting in traffic. I hate that people invade my personal space when it's overcrowded in the mornings. I love that Chuck and I never have to decide who will be DD because we can just take the T home. I hate that you are sometimes ridiculously delayed which makes me late to work. Once we're gone, I will simultaneously miss you and be happy to be rid of you forever.
Sincerely,
Sometimes happy/sometimes grumpy T rider


Dear Hi-Fi Pizza,
The only reason I am slightly ok with visiting you is because I found out Matt Damon and Ben Affleck used to get their late night pizza there when they lived in Cambridge back in the day. I think you are kinda gross but Chuckie loves you. You've brought him so much joy. When he's ready for the 4th meal at 2 in the morning, you've provided it. You may have the greasiest pizza I've ever seen but I guess that's all there is to eat at 2 am.  One thing I know for sure is your to-go bags (aka the pizza on a paper plate shoved into a brown paper lunch sack) are second to none.
Fondly,
Rachel on behalf of Chuck


Dear Really Old Yellow Lab in our Apartment building,
You are so old and so cute and you make my day every time I see you in our hallways. I didn't know dogs were allowed in our building and I see a lot of your hair collecting on the stairs, but it doesn't bother me because you are adorable. I wish you lived with me.
Love,
Dog Whisperer


Dear Snow,
NOBODY LIKES YOU.
Sincerely,
Rachel and 98% of all people ever