New York

Me and Kristin at her Gatsby party

Last weekend, I took a solo bus up to New York to visit my friend Kristin who I haven’t gotten the chance to spend 3 solo days with since we graduated from college. On my trips to New York in years past, I always used to stay in Brooklyn, because I had a friend that lived there with an actual extra bedroom (so rare in New York), so it always made the most sense to stay with her because why would I inconvenience someone and set up shop on the couch in the middle of their living room when I had a friend with a spare BEDROOM to stay in. So, I would go to Brooklyn, but it’s its own little world there and it was hard to balance Brooklyn-residing friends&logistics with non-Brooklyn-dwelling friends&logistics in 2 short days (because I would always just go up for the weekend), so I never got to get solid one-on-one time with Kristin in Soho because Brooklyn is like its own world and once you’re there you kind of don’t leave (except during the day when we’d walk across the bridge and go shopping and stuff).

This is me and Kristin 2 years ago in New York (the night I had a 24 hour love affair with Jared Leto after he whispered in my ear that he liked my pink shorts– me and Kristin have THE BEST adventures together):

And this is us 7 years ago as baby sophomores in college- I look like SUCH A LOSER (and had dark hair btdubs) and Kristin was and remains the prettiest human I’ve ever seen- is this picture kidding itself? It’s sick.

Junior year Halloween, I was a lame fairy and she was a very hot bee (seriously, HAS A HUMAN EVER BEEN prettier):

And another one, also from sophomore year:

As super troopers:

As french maids:

I adore her. Is she not the cutest human? This picture had me in it but I RUINED IT in comparison to her cuteness:

Kristin and her sister Laura live in the world’s most adorable apartment in the HEART of Nolita/Soho. Where Prince and Mott and Elizabeth all kind of meet.

The first night I was there, the two of them hosted a cute little Gatsby-themed party, where jazz music was played and proseco was had. After the guests left, the 3 of us went to Cafe Select, a supercute little joint in the neighborhood, followed by Le Baron, which…I lack the words for. You’ll just have to go to Le Baron and understand why I lack the words to describe the experience. I felt like I was in a smoky, sceney club in Paris that would have been in the movie Eyes Wide Shut– IN A GOOD WAY. It was surreal. We were out till 4:30 which meant that the other two nights we were in pj’s and in bed at 10 p.m. because that’s how we do.

The next morning we walked the ten feet to Cafe Gitane, which was one of my top 3 favorite spots in the whole city *prior* to one of my best friends moving NEXT DOOR (more or less)–imagine my luck! I always get their world-famous avocado toast, but was feeling something sweet that morning so I got the orange blossom waffle and it was so good that I wake up every day still thinking about it. It was SO. SO. SO. good. It was the most perfect waffle I’ve ever had with the subtlest notes of orange blossom, which, if you’re interested, doesn’t taste like an orange.

From there we basically just wandered around lazily all day, because it was so unfathomably hot. We stopped into her neighborhood bookstore and I picked up the SECOND book in the Shades of Grey series, neither of which I want to talk about. Then we went back to Kristin’s and just lazily read in her air conditioning for a few hours. It was so sweetly peaceful, and she and I always used to do that in college, just read books in the presence of one another. A little later, we went to a quaint little dinner at Bread because I’d been craving Italian food all day….probably some subconscious thing about being near Little Italy, hah. I really wanted ravioli, which I got. I’d always walked by Bread and wanted to try it and it lived up to/surpassed ALL expectations…just so cozy and cute, loved the ambiance and wait staff. After dinner we took a stroll, got Pistacho icebox cake from the Little Cupcake Bakeshop in her neighborhood, and then went home and watched Midnight in Paris. (Apparently, Kristin told me, icebox cake is where you like…make frosting and layer it with cracker-cookies and then put it in the freezer and it turns into this kind of mousy mixture…like flour-less frozen-ish cake…it was delicious).

Saturday morning Kristin took me to two of my most favorite places I’ve EVER been: Colombe Coffee, which RIVALS Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in LA and I N-E-V-E-R thought I’d say that about any place (if you’ve read my posts on LA, you know coffee been/tea leaf is the best coffee on planet earth); and The Fat Raddish, which I could DIE over. I got spicy avocado toast that had sriracha on it- sooo good and the best warm banana bread everrrrr.

Then we wandered, shopped (but passive shopping, didn’t buy one thing, just looked around), and read, and then met our two other Dartmouth friends at the adorable Angelika theater to see Woody Allen’s new film To Rome with Love. WHICH WAS NUTS, because during our afternoon walking, I’d stumbled upon……ALEC BALDWIN’S WEDDING!!!!!!

It was at Saint Patrick’s Basilica which is DIRECTLY across from Cafe Gitane and The Juice Press, where I’d separated from Kristin to go grab a watermelon juice from (watermelon juice is my favorite thing ever and only a few places ever have it because it’s not like…….orange or lemon or something more common); so I was strolling to pick up a watermelon juice and saw a crowd and bunnnnch of paparazzi and asked these nice girls what was going on and FREAKED OUT when they said it was Alec Baldwin’s wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We even saw his brother and mom going in. Sadly though, we had to leave to make our movie– WHICH ALEC BALDWIN WAS A LEAD IN!– and later saw online that Woody Allen had BEEN at the wedding (naturally, since they’d just worked together on the movie I was  watching at that moment) and that all of the guests going in and out of the church– Woody, Tina Fey, etc., had been DIRECTLY WHERE I’D BEEN STANDING/LOOKING.

SEE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE FRONT DOORS OF THE CHURCH!!!!!! I WAS RIGHT THERE!!!!

If only we’d skipped the movie we would have seen them ALL. But I guess you can’t re-arrange your life to see celebrities walking into and out of a church……………………………debatable.

After stopping by a friend’s house for dinner, Kristin then took me to aNOTHER insanely perfect spot, Hudson Clearwater, where we both got the most delicious watermelon salad everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr + a glass of sauvignon blanc. And then my trip was over. I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. for a very early bus home. It was a delightfully calm, slow-paced trip– none of that frenetic energy that usually runs my trips to New York. It was like living the life of someone who actually lives there….getting a drink, going back inside to read for a few hours, eating some ravioli, seeing a movie, grabbing a juice from the local juice press, wandering to the grocery and book store. And seeing a celebrity wedding! Perfect trip : )

My New York Trip Spots:

• Cafe Gitane
• Cafe Select
• Le Baron
• Bread (Nolita)
• Colombe Coffee
• Fat Raddish
• Angelika Film Center
• Hudson Clearwater

Not one of these places will disappoint.