Memorial Day With Brant, Susanne & Junior

I seriously had the craziest May, ever. Holy crap, I overbooked myself big time but, even with all I had going on, I was totally psyched to have Brant and Susanne finish off the month with a Memorial Day visit. They've come to visit me so many times and I'm totally blessed to have friends who make that kind of effort. This trip was especially meaningful for two reasons: 1) Susanne is just about four months pregnant and 2) it might be their last trip to see me while I still live here (holy moly, I can't even think about that!). As soon as they arrived, I just knew Susanne would look absolutely darling and she surely did. Apparently, she and Brant had joked about naming the baby something ridiculous like 'Junior' but now the name has affectionately stuck...and I love it. :)

Since Brant and Susanne have done mostly all of the touristy things here, this visit was far different than all the others. They decided they really wanted to be locals for a weekend and Upper East Side locals, at that. The only request Susanne had was a little shopping for a cute maternity dress or two. That was the only planned thing on our agenda other than a long bike ride I'd already had on the calendar. They'd actually gone to DC a couple of days before coming to NY so they ended up getting in on a pretty late train on Friday night. Come Saturday morning, I was off on the bike super early and they had a nice, relaxed morning in the 'hood. 65 miles and lots of sweat later, I was more than ready for a cold beer and to finally start our visit.

We had the absolute best weekend together and it was by far my favorite visit of theirs. We laughed, reminisced, talked about everything under the sun and really just relaxed. We took them to so many favorite local spots like Cilantro, Libertador, Gina's, Swig, Vero, Cafe D'Alsace...just all the places we love so much and go to on any given day. They got a real taste for life in the city on an average weekend which was so fun! We also had our fair share of shenanigans and I won't even get into explaining that, hahaha. It was just so nice having them here:

We're all quite excited to meet Junior come October and we're pretty psyched that NY has been the first trip he or she has been on. Mine and Brant's relationship has stood the test of time and a great deal of hardship so being where we all are now is such a joy. The years have been kind to us as a whole and we're all truly like family which is quite special. Junior is going to be welcomed into this world with lots of open arms and love, I can tell you that. Thank you for making the trip up yet again, Brant and Susanne; it means the world to me!

Halloween Weekend with Brant and Susanne

First of all, it's November?!?! I'm in serious disbelief. Anyway...

My goodness, October was a busy month for me. It's fitting that I'd round it out with more guests, too. Brant and Susanne came up to visit again and what a nice weekend we had. They've come to see me several times since I moved here which is always so special. This trip was particularly great because we really just laid low. They wanted to be more like locals since they've covered most all the touristy stuff during past visits. I really enjoyed this visit for that reason which I'm sure most people would understand. ;)

We spent Saturday mainly walking all around town. The weather was just so gorgeous all weekend, albeit chilly. I brought them up to see my office and we did some shopping in several different areas of town. It was really nice to simply roam around with no real agenda. Just as a side note, we went into Armani Exchange in Soho and I've never in my life heard such loud music. I contemplated getting a six pack and just hanging out there since it was more of a club in that store than anywhere I've seen in a while. However, I did find a hat I've been wanting forever so yay for that! Anyway, a group of us had dinner at Po (just as tremendous as the first time I went!) and then it was off to Seafood's party. I hadn't gotten a costume this year because I had a race to run on Sunday morning and blah blah. It was supposed to be a low key Halloween but...it wasn't. Thanks to Camille's Halloween stockpile, I became a witch pretty fast so I was "accepted" into the party. :P It was so awesome having Brant and Susanne here to join in the fun:

Isn't she menacing:

Team Camps on the roof, weeee:

Stephanie is so freaking creative. She was a bed bug (and yes, made her shell out of fiberglass!) and Alex was the mattress. Genius:

Seafood did an awesome job with everything and I think Brant and Susanne were thoroughly impressed with his incredible apartment. I kept trying to describe it to them but saying it's a "quadplex" doesn't really do it justice til you see it. We were there for quite a while and then went for a few more beers at Highlands. We all had such a blast and, next thing we all knew, it was 3:30am. Um, I do not stay out until 3:30am. I sure didn't have a problem doing so Saturday, though.

Needless to say, I did not run my race on Sunday morning but I'm actually glad because we had a wonderful time walking through Central Park. The leaves were beautiful:

After that, we walked around the west side and stopped at a little Swedish cafe called Fika that Susanne knew of. It was fun to try some treats that she grew up having. :) How cute is she:

Argh, I do not know what's up with my camera uploading these weird, grrrr! Anyway, last but not least, we did our one big touristy thing of the weekend: Katz's Deli. Brant was set on getting a sandwich from there so we braved the masses and went. I swear, they have some insane operation happening in there. Finally after being squished like sardines in line, Brant got his dream pastrami sandwich and I have to admit...it was freaking delicious. I mean, look at that thing:

It was worth the $15. I'm going back to get one of my own soon.

It was another awesome trip to add to the books. I'm excited because I think I'll be home at Christmas while Susanne's parents are in from Sweden so I'm really looking forward to hopefully meeting them. :) We all know Christmas will be here before we know it, too...

PS -  Is it really November?!?!

Back In The Drrrrty

I couldn't be happier to be back home in Georgia, especially when my flight yesterday was on time AND arrived 20 minutes early. I mean, what a treat for me and my horrible travel luck. Mom and Dad picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Cracker Barrel where, in true Valerie fashion, I killed a disgusting amount of biscuits and gravy. I felt like someone had to roll me outta there. Anyway, it was awesome that Michael and Wynn had already gotten in town because it's been so long since we've had a nice substantial visit with them here. We had such a great day together, I went for a run while they got the tree, and we all decorated it with each other while drinking wine. Of course, we had the Giants on in the background so it was pretty much a perfect night! They won, too!

Brant and Susanne are having me over for dinner tonight while I wait on Allison's flight and I absolutely can't wait to see them! It's really really hard for me sometimes to come home because my heart just hurts knowing I can't see my parents, friends, and dog more often. So much of my heart is here with them and, while I have a tremendous life in NY, I really do long for the day where hopefully I'll be back, maybe even with a husband or family of my own, to enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with being in Georgia. Anyway, it really is a blessing that I have all that I do in this life and I treasure it, fully.

So, off I go to get myself ready for the movies! If only I could slow the week down, already...