NYC 2009- The Sagging and Dragging Tour

[cabenson]

I think it was about 4 or 5 months ago when a bunch of us LJers decided to meet up in NYC over the Columbus Day holiday weekend. The weekend happened to coincide with the GL and Crystal Chappell fan luncheons, so not only did I get a chance to meet my LJ friends, I met a ton of really cool purple peeps as well. I was without the wife for most of the weekend, and surpisingly, I was pretty well behaved...or at least I think I was. So, without further adieu



Warning: I took a lot of pics with my phone, so they are not all crystal clear (damn shaky hands!)


Salad that I had at BB Kings Blues joint. I had just flown in, alone, and I needed a beer STAT!, so after finding eclecticfan, darandkerry, and grumpybear1031, we went in search of food and drink.

That night, we met up with ralst, zennie and inspectorboxer and had a lovely dinner at Glass House Tavern.


I had the grilled NY strip with merlot braised mushrooms and charred grape tomatoes,with a side of parmesan mashed potatoes,


Ralst and maybe a couple others had the free range chicken,


Zennie had the grilled hanger steak with smashed taters,carmelized shallots and red wine,

A couple others had seafood and pasta and I remember that IB had a filet, cause I almost jumped the table to get it. It was beautiful!


Dessert involved warm chocolate cake with a raspberry sauce,


and apple streudel-it was delicious!

We went back to Ralst's hotel and its swanky lounge (waitresses in short skirts!!) and had a drink or two before I wussed out and headed back to my hotel.

Friday morning I got up pretty early and took in Times Square:






I love this little set up. A nice place to rest your feet, drink some java and people watch.


Does this chair make my butt look small?


Preaching to the choir

We went to The Pink Tea Cup for brunch where I finally got to meet fewthistle, tremblingmoon (who graciously acted as our tour guide) and seftiri

I also got some good old comfort food:

BLT and Mac and Cheese...which I tried to keep as far from Ralst as not to offend her delicate nature and overall hatred of cheese.

We walked around for a while and wound up in Washington Square Park:





The Arc de Many Movies


Independence Day, anyone?


Chessboard up close and personal

Then over to Sheridan Square where we saw the George Segal sculptures:




and had the great fortune of running into theholyinnocent while she was working:



Being the weak ass that I am, I headed back to the hotel for a nap (Gimpybear went back and watched "Shrek"lol) and on our trip back, I saw my very first NYC rat!


I then prepared for drinks and dinner with maroukian, GB and the afore mentioned, theholyinnocent. Eclectic fan joined us for pre-dinner drinks before her group met for dinner and Wicked.

We went to Osteria al Doge and spent an hour at the bar having cocktails before dinner.


Interesting bar food

The food was SO delicious, the company SO divine, and the Romanian waitress SO fucking cute I forgot to get pics of the food. I will say that when I left my doggie-bag behind, the waitress ran out after us, and we thanked her by offering up hugs. And she hugged us. And it was awesome! SO fucking cute and dimply!!!

Ok, where was I . Yes, GB and I headed to Otalia-palooza while the others headed off to see Wicked.


Who's that struttin' mutha fucka?


Tamelle and her friends


Nut meggers and a friend...I know who this is but my memory seriously sucks balls


Trubl!


A hottie and a pimp


Meggers and Drunk Girl

It was cool meeting all those purple peeps. Best thing ever was when the Wicked crew came by for drinks after the show and we were able to introduce some of your best FF writers/graphics peeps to THEIR fans. I got serious boobie hugs for introducing peeps to Ralst and THI!Thank you, bitches!

Again, I left under my own power and very fucking early the next morning, Mrs CB arrived for the day. I believe my response to her when she knocked was ,"You are so NOT the hooker I ordered."

We got me up and moving and met a few of the gals at

for brunch.


NYC breakky plus Mrs CB's rack


mmm...making me very hungry!

It was a misty, dreary kind of day, but we all walked down to the Empire State Building. Mrs CB, DK and I sat on a bench outside while the others went up the ESB. I really wanted to go, but I would have need oxygen before I was three flights up.



Up close

After the ESB Mrs CB and I headed back for my afternoon nap (don't judge!) and then we went for a nice light meal at the Capital Grille. We ate in the bar (football!) and had tomato/mozza salad, lobster/crab cakes, proscuitto wrapped scallops and grilled vegies...that were grilled in the steak juice, yum! Oh..


Pineapple martinis too!

Then we looked for a cab to take us to Brooklyn where the whole lot of us were meething at THI's place for wine and fancy talk. Our first cabbie gave us a hard time so we ditched him and replaced him with the lovely Edwin Montenegro. Best cabbie in NYC evah! He took us out of the way of traffic and we were able to see the Intrepid, Chelsea Pier, Ground Zero and The Statue of Liberty. Along the way, we discussed him writing a book about how to get free or reduced price things in NYC, string theory, pros and cons of H1N1 vaccinations, food, and about a million other things. That man got a sweet tip.

We had a blast at THI's drinking wine, noshing on cheeses and pate, talking about EVERYTHING and listening to the occasional show tune courtesy of my sangria drunken-fruit eating better half. :)

Next day, Mrs CB and I headed out to Central Park and just took in the view:











We met everyone at Tavern on the Green for brunch:


That is King Kong in the middle


This is a close up of his topiary'd butt

We had a lovely brunch, but I needed a nap and Mrs CB need to catch her flight home. She barely made it due to our mutual inablility to correctly read a fucking itinerary. But home she went and I rested while the other peeps hit The Met. After a little while, I ventured over to the 8th ave street fair where I got myself a little snack:


Arepas with mozzarella...yummeetastygoodness!!

Quite a few peeps had to leave Sunday night, so the leftovers (lol) had one final dinner together at Ruby Tuesdays. One of the best meals I ever had and I am not just talking about the food. Although the desserts did get a pic or two:





We said farewell to Maroukian, and then walked back through Times Square:







I said my goodbyes to everyone then trudged back to my hotel to pack for my morning flight home.

I gotta say, I was really nervous about meeting everyone, but once I did, it was like I'd known them for my entire life. What a great group of women and what a fanfuckingtastic time we had. At that last dinner together, I asked them what their favorite part of the weekend had been and eveyone answered the same: just getting to meet and talk with each other and hang out. No special feature, no particular tourist attraction, just a group of fabulous women invading the Apple and having a blast. Thank you all for such a wonderful trip!

Comments

[maroukian.livejournal.com]

My gosh, I didn't think it would have this effect on me... but reading this and seeing the pics made me happy and a little sentimental at the same time! What a fantastic weekend we had, eh?

downright fantastic weekend...

[eclecticfan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, CB!

It was a most awesome trip!!

~k

[stargazer1960.livejournal.com]

Great pics of Central Park! That was such a beautiful morning. All the pictures are great.

[darandkerry.livejournal.com]

Memories, like the corners of my mind. Misty water-colored memories... of the way we were. Hey, where's Mrs. CB? I need help! *g*

Great shots and great memories. I'm with maroukian, these pics made me positively giddy.

[theholyinnocent.livejournal.com]

Great, Ann, now I'm gonna have that fucking song in my head all day!

[mantaraggio.livejournal.com]

Wow! You guys hit more New York restaurants than I managed to try in 27 years! I am so jealous!!

Ruby Tuesdays...? Like the chain restaurant? That food looks so good! When I was a kid, Ruby Tuesdays was like the much crappier kid brother of TGIFridays. I guess they got some new blood into their kitchen.

Hm, Washington Square Park looks like it had some work done. What's with all that shrubbery? Maybe that was the compromise from NYU's insane plan to dig up the fountain and move it two feet to the left so it would be "centered." ::shakes head::

Whee! What fun! Thanks for posting about your trip!

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

This was a foodwhore trip for me. And Ruby Tuesdays was remarkably better than the franchise we have here in Cowtown.

WSP did have some work done and they are still working on it. Looked gorgeous amidst the mess.

[theholyinnocent.livejournal.com]

Great photos (particularly of Mrs CB, who looks so happy and un-hungover), great food, great fun! And thank you for rescuing me from the park bench that afternoon. I had no idea what to expect when you invited me back to your hotel room, but reenacting Otalia scenes with sock puppets is one of less kinkier things I've done in my long career.

We should have kidnapped that adorable waitress....

[snuffnyc.livejournal.com]

oh my god, number one, so great to finally meet you. i think we two peas in a sexy pod.

loved all the pics, and sounds like you had a GREAT trip all in all. i really think whether its BPD or LJ peeps or whatever, this should happen every fall. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

It was great to meet you too! I agree with an anual femslash meet up...get on it!