NYC Perspective...

It's funny the perspective a few years will give ya...

This is my roomies and I in front of the hostel we stayed at in NYC in the summer of '06...

Flashback to 2006...we started the weekend in a different hostel a few blocks down the street (and the blocks may or may not have been in the projects). We came back to our first hostel at 2am one morning, to learn that due to a water main break, we no longer had a room there. Luckily they'd called another hostel (this one) and reserved us a room. So 5 girls plus all our newly purchased purses, I HEART NYC garb, and luggage trek through the projects at 2am in search of our new hostel. I might have been a little nervous at my surroundings (I was a sheltered, little 20 year old from small town UT), and at one point, yelled "EVERYONE WILL STAY TOGETHER! WE ARE IN THE PROJECTS!!!" And by yell, I mean I was as mad as I get and pretty nervous that we were going to get shot or kidnapped or robbed-I had/have a wild imagination, and hours and hours of Law and Order reruns don't help my cause! Luckily, everything worked out that night and we lived to tell the tale of our stay in the "projects."

Fast forward to 2009...Tabbi and I take a little trip to NYC. She has a friend living in Manhattan, and our mutual friends, the Riley's, were moving into their NYC apartment this weekend, so we thought we'd come up, help out, and see a show. We roll in late Friday night, hop on the subway and head up to Nate's apartment. Nate's showing us around his neighborhood on our search for Pinkberry and bamm, we run into hostel number 1 then a few blocks later bamm, there's hostel number 2! What a coincidence! Nate's neighborhood was the "projects" I had been so terrified to be in just a few years earlier. This time, I wasn't nervous at all, I saw the fun little street shops, the interesting sidewalk paintings and the cute park with the elephant sculptures...it's funny the perspective a few years in the city will give you.

Anyways, the weekend was a lot of fun...

We went on the moving van tour of Manhattan...

Froze to death in Times Square...but notice the cute purses! Gotta love Canal Street!

We saw Chicago, with Jan from the Office playing the role of Roxie. It was a little risque, but the music was fun...not my fav but still, it's Broadway, you can't go wrong!
I love this pic...Nate was such a good sport! He helped us carry our new purchase around town (Did I mention we started the day with just 1 bag...by the end we each had our own and I may or may not have been carrying a bag in a bag...impressive, I know!)
We did lots and lots of this...eating is one of our favorite pastimes! But don't worry, Tabbi and I share everything we eat, so it's not like we really eat that much!
This little spot is so great...Sarabeth's is perfect for brunch with good friends!


All in all it was a great weekend, it was good to go back and relive my NYC hostel experience, see one of the gals that I shared it with (so glad you and Noah are on our side of the nation again!), be with good friends, and realize how much all the experiences I get to have on the east coast stretch me, make me bolder, more confident and better able to laugh at my naivety. A little NYC perspective is great...