Last week I got to go down to New York for work. We had training with one of the vendors that I work with a lot, so Ryan and I headed out Monday afternoon to get checked in and settled for the first session early Tuesday morning. We took the train out of New Haven down to Grand Central Station (my first time visiting it, and my first state-side train ride!)
The train ride is about an hour and 45 minutes, but pretty picturesque for the most part. Unfortunately there are too many starts and stops for me to read without getting sick, so I chatted with Ryan a bit and enjoyed the scenery. We got there and took a cab to our hotel - the Tribeca Grand. The hotel was awesome (our boss got us a great deal on Priceline!) and it was in a great location. We checked in and headed out to find food. While Ryan was Yelping, we happened to see Harvey Weinstein walking out and pausing for the paparazzi right in front of us - apparently the screening for Sinister was being held at our hotel! (Not that we knew who he was then... we had to look it up later. lol.) Anyway, we found a great Italian place just up the street - da Mikele. The whole meal was divine, but the appetizer we ordered was probably one of the best things we ate all week.
We saw these salumi platters on menus everywhere we went. Trendy? Whatever it was, it was simple but amazing. And something I can do at home when I have people over. Yum! Seriously... the honey is what made it. So good.
Our first day of training was good... a LOT of information and great stuff to take back with us. We finished about 4 and walked from their office in Soho back to our hotel to drop our stuff and change clothes, and then we set out to see some sights. We walked over to the World Trade Center since I hadn't been to NYC since way before 9/11 and I wanted to see the memorial and the new towers. We got there too late to go into the memorial (another time!) but it was cool to see the progress on the new site.
We wandered from there over to Battery Park and saw The Sphere...
and a few other sights.
Then we went through the financial district and down Wall Street (another first for me) and then went back near our hotel to a restaurant I'd found on Foodspotting - Bread Tribeca. That was another totally delicious meal!
Wednesday on the way to our second day of training, we passed quite a crowd - we never did figure out what it was, but there was some filming at a building we passed - you can see the actor harnessed up on the window ledge with some of the crew and equipment around him.
That was a super long training day. Good, lots of information, but LONG. After we finished, Ryan rested up and I went out to wander a bit in the shops on Broadway. I managed to keep from buying anything, but it was fun! Then I met Ryan and we had dinner at the hotel restaurant (great reviews on Foodspotting, and a good menu!) Another awesome meal, topped off with this:
That's a salted caramel and chocolate tart with gold leaf on top. Ryan was afraid to eat it, so I endulged. You couldn't taste it, but it felt decadent! And boy was it delicious! We shared, but definitely couldn't finish.
Thursday was the last day - we checked out and hauled our bags 1/2 mile to the office where we had our last few hours of training (including a quick trip out to the street to get some fresh air and sample a cupcake from the street carts - delicious!) We finished up in the early afternoon and headed back to Grand Central for our train home.
In all, great trip. Learned a lot, saw great stuff, had some fun and ate really, really well. In the past I've never really liked visiting New York, but I think going back after 10-15 years and doing stuff that was less touristy and more *me* really made a difference. I'm looking forward to going back again... this weekend, as a matter of fact! This time to see a few shows with Mom and Nicole and hang out around Times Square instead of Soho / Tribeca. Should be fun!
In the meantime, I started a layout with some pictures from my trip down to Virginia a few weeks ago and finally managed to finish it tonight. Most everything is from the October Studio Calico kit. (Again with the blurry! I just can't get these full layout shots to work!)
I had everything done days ago except the title and journaling - those just weren't coming. I like how the title turned out, but I'm not thrilled with how the journaling looks on the page. But it's there, it's done, and it's not too horrible, so I'm letting it go and moving on.
I do really like all the decorative details. I got back a little bit to the kinds of pages I used to do. Lots of fussy little details. I also challenged myself to use my Silhouette Cameo on this one. Love the circles! And for once, I decided not to stint on the Thickers. It's not like I'm in any danger of running out any time in the next 10 years!
Love the texture from the wood veneer stars (I need like 20 packs of those as backup for when they don't make them anymore!) and the liquid pearls.
So there you go. And hopefully... maybe? On to some more Project Life? I seem to say that a lot lately, so we'll see. I won't be around the next few days, so I guess another week will go by. But whatever... I refuse to stress!
I'm out!
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