greetings from manhattan {2.5 weeks later}.

Do not let anyone ever tell you that I do not love New York. They would be lying.

Oh, my husband. You are hereby allowed to run the New York City marathon every single year, if you like. Better yet, why don't we just move there?

No?

*sigh* I tried.

After years away, it was bliss to be in NYC again. Re-acclimating myself to the subway system was a bit comical, but other than that, I slipped right back into the groove and panic of Manhattan. Uh, sort of.

It helped that we were only there for 3.2 days. Anything more and I would have REALLY made a fool of myself. But!

1. I wore a green pea coat and walked with confidence.
2. I was asked for directions.

Ego sufficiently boosted. Until next time.

Highlights include:

WAR HORSE. Oh my gosh. Please sit in the second row on the aisle at a show like this at least once in your life. Eerily lifelike horse puppets. Over my head. Actors. Three feet away {maybe less?}. And then, you know, it was amazing and stuff.

Tears on my face the whole time. Because! a} What a beautiful story, and b} Oh my lands, one of the most impressive things I've ever seen on stage {if not THE most}. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to wait at the stage door {*sob*}, because we had to hurry across town to get to this place:

DIRT CANDY. Vegetarian episode of Iron Chef America + challenger from a veg restaurant in NY = we are going there. And we did. We met Amanda Cohen and told her we saw her on TV, and she giggled {love!}. Not surprisingly, the food was outofthisworld.

The next day, there was a marathon. Husband survived with flying colors, and then this went down:

Blogger party at Madison Square Park!

Bess and Elisabeth, hunkering down over this weird short girl in between them.

 {That is a tiny to-go espresso cup in my hand. It was, in the way of Ramona Quimby, DELISHUS.}

Of course, now I want to go back. I always want to go back. We did a lot of other fun things, like stumble upon a neat little restaurant/bakery called Kitchenette, and explore the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park. So cool.

And we saw Ground Zero, which is a whole different animal now than it was four years ago. Note to anyone about to visit New York: you have to get your pass to see the 9/11 stuff before you show up and try to stand in line. Oops. {Honestly, I wasn't all that let down. I look forward [in a weird way] to telling my future children about it, but until then? I'm not too keen on reliving the nightmare. This is a new and strange development for me. Maybe related to traumas I've experienced since? Who knows. Moving on.}

In short, I miss it. I miss the buzz and fury and life of New York. I don't know why. I don't really LOVE cities. I mean, I've enjoyed visiting Chicago and Boston and DC the last handful of years, but I don't dream about them when I leave. I don't want to spread out my arms and spin in circles when I get there. I do love DC {I could live there, easy}, but even that doesn't compare to the oomph and yes and home I feel for New York. Is it the theatre thing? The writing thing? The bigness and importance and quintessentially-American thing? The memories of going there with my mom? Perhaps it's a little of all of that. I can't wait to go back (in April! YAY!). Now if I can just convince my husband that Central Park counts as "outdoors"...

In the meantime, I'll watch War Horse videos on youtube and stalk New Yorkers on twitter and talk to my friends who live there. A vicarious experience is better than none at all.

Cheers!

{For real, you guys. I don't even want to see the movie. 

I just want to hold the stage production in my heart, forever.}