Trip to NYC and Meeting the Blog Queen

As most of you know, I spent this past weekend in New York. My good friend Mrs. B, who I met via the internet about 7 years ago, lives in Queens, and we try to visit each other a few times a year. This trip spawned out of an idea of Mrs. B, that we should camp out and wait for the New Kids On The Block to perform on the Today Show this past Friday. However, as time drew nearer, Mrs. B realized she wouldn't be able take the day off work, and realized that by myself, it would be no fun to camp out. Still, the idea for the trip was in motion, and I'm not currentl working, so I decided what the heck, a trip to New York would do me good.

In the meantime, one of my favorite bloggers ever happen to live right in NYC, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to meet up with her for lunch. So, the trip was on.

I arrived in New York on Thursday evening via GreyHound bus, and Mrs. B met me in Manhattan, where we had a fantastic dinner at an Ethiopian diner. I'd never had Ethiopian food, so I was excited to experiment. I'm happy to tell you that the food was fabulous, but even more fabulous was the Ethiopian Honey Wine we ordered. Mrs. B and I polished off an entire bottle during dinner. YUM.

Friday Morning I decided to head back into Manhattan, but decided against going in super early for the NKOTB concert. The evening before I'd learned that people were already camping out (in the rain no less), and I just knew I wouldn't get anywhere near the concert, so I decided against it. By the time I made it into the city, the show was over, and there were still hundreds of crazy New Kids fans fleeting around. Just walking around a bit and seeing the barricades, the cops, the blocked off doors, etc., I knew I'd made the right call not going in early, I wouldn't have made it anywhere near the show.

Still, I hung out with the crazy fans for a bit, reminiscing about the old days, and in the process, got to see American Idol winner Taylor Hicks as he walked past us and into the Today Show building. Hmm...Taylor Hicks v. Donnie Wahlberg? Okay, not much of consolation prize there. Anyway, I will say this, the camera really does add 10 pounds, at least. Because Taylor Hicks looked much better in person than on the show, bits of which I caught on my Tivo.

As for the New Kids? This is about as close as I got to them:


Ah well, there's always the concert in September.

So, I did a bit of sightseeing, and then it was time to meet up with my blog buddy Frances. Frances, she of a thousand blogs. Okay, not exactly a thousand, but even she doesn't know how many she has, so don't ask me! ;-) Frances, the fearless leader of SheWhoBlogs. Frances has been on of my favorite bloggers since the first time I stumbled upon one of her blogs, so I was certainly excited to finally meet her in person.

Because I was drifting around Times Square, and it was pouring rain out, we met at Applebee's for lunch. Not one of Frances' usual "off the beaten path" haunts, but we've already agreed that in my next trip out, we'll hit that path instead.

I arrived at the restaurant, and we immediately knew each other. From the moment I sat down, it was nonstop conversation, laughter and fun. We got along as fabulouslyas I knew we would have. Two mochatinis and about 3 1/2 hours later we had gone from being blog buddies, to being friends.

I could tell you all the silly things we chatted about, but really, it was 3 1/2 hours of non-stop chatter, and I have to run out in a few minutes. I can, however, tell you we had an absolute blast.

I could show you photos of our meeting, but if you visit any of Frances' blogs you will see that she does not post photos of herself, so I respect that privacy, so there will be no photos of us. However, I do have a photo for you.

See, we had the FUNNEST waiter. His name was Ike, but his coworkers call him "Ikeypoo". And he wears that name proudly on his nametag. You've got to love it, right? Ikeypoo was a fantastic waiter, lots of fun, and we just loved him. And he was kind enough to pose for a photo:


Frances got a close-up of the nametag, so I'm sure she'll share that one with you on one of her blogs. I'm sure there is more I could tell you about my meeting with Frances, but it all escapes me now. I can't wait until the next time I'm in NY and we get to hang out again.

Frances, I had a blast, you are absolutely fantastic!

Isn't the blogosphere wonderful?