Start spreadin' the news...

We're leavin' today

I think we made the best of it (stomp,clap)

New Yor-rk, New York!


We're headin' down south

Where we both belong

We've had about enough of this (stomp, clap)

New Yor-rk, New York!


We came here with cash

And now we have none

You've taken practically all of it (stomp, clap)

New Yor-rk, New York


We're ready for grass

And space to spread out

We want our peace and quiet back (stomp, clap)

New Yor-rk, New York


I loved all your shows

And esp. your park

I'm going to miss your stores and sites (stomp, clap)

New York, New York, NEW YORK


*End song

Ok, today is my last day as a New Yorker. Ryan will be back next week for his last week at this rotation but I will be getting us ready in Atlanta.

My Top 10 NY Lists:

Restaurants (in no particular order):

1. Max Brenner

2. Keen's

3. Merchants

4. Five Points

5. Lombardi's

6. Rossinni's

7. Blue Ribbons

8. Serendipity

9. J.G. Melons

10. Bond 45


Activities (in no particular order):

1. Central Park (walking, people watching, ice skating, following Mary Kate Olsen, etc.)

2. American Museum of Natural History

3. Shopping at Bloomingdale's (or more like walking around and touching everything but not actually buying anything)

4. Rockefeller Center

5. Statue of Liberty

6. Touring the Financial District

7. Broadway Shows!!! (Faves that I've seen in NY: Mary Poppins, Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, and White Christmas)

8. Eating! See above list for wonderful restaurants

9. Walking around as much as possible (you miss so much when riding the subway underground)
10. Sporting events (Yankees & Knicks)


Memories (in no particular order, and a few more than 10):

1. Picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch in Long Island

2. Going to the Knicks/Celtics game where the Knicks barely lost in overtime and Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg were filming a movie

3. Ice skating in Central Park

4. Hanging out in big leather chairs by the fire at The Boathouse in Central Park while Christmas music played on the piano and staring out the windows at the big lake.

5. Viewing the entire city from the spinning restaurant on top of the Marriott in Times Square, The View.

6. Having so many friends and family come visit us (15, to be exact - in less than 10 weeks).

7. Attending the Jimmy Fallon show (Snoop) with friends.

8. Watching a blizzard from our 7th floor apartment window.

9. Getting excited every Wednesday morning when I peeked out and saw the cupcake truck here.

10. Seeing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and our little NY Thanksgiving .

11. Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center (not a great memory, but a memory for sure)

12. Finding out that I passed the CPA exam and am finished studying for it forever!!!


Alright, New York. Thanks for the memories! See you in 2011 for Ryan's graduation at Madison Square Garden!

Merry Christmas, everyone! :) I'll leave you with a picture of my new dog-niece. Adam and Theresa got a Christmas puppy!

Winter Wonderland

Central Park covered in 10.9 inches of snow.

That's a lake

People were sledding on the hill in the top right of the picture.

The Plaza


The guy that took this for us was a little off-centered, but at least you can see the snow in the background.
We were hugging to try to keep warm!

Hope this guy doesn't need to be anywhere any time soon.A view of the blizzard from our apartment window. The fuzziness is the snow falling.

A month full of blessings...

The first weekend in December Ryan's parents came to visit. Then four of my best friends from Jackson (Julie, Emily, Marissa, & Brooke) came...then an old work friend (Katherine) came then Adam Noyes came, and currently I am waiting on Emily & Jeremy's plane to land! What a fun and unforgettable month we've had! It would take me hours to write about all the fun we have had, so just enjoy this slideshow of the Jackson girls. If you would like to see more pics from their visit go to http://mynycvisitors.shutterfly.com/26?startIndex=100

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our New York Thanksgiving

We thought we were DONE with non-Tennessee Thanksgivings. After the past two Thanksgivings in Dominica we thought for sure we would be home this year. No. Such. Luck. Plane tickets the week of Thanksgiving were literally 5x what they are normally. So, we sucked it up and dealt with the fact that for the third year in a row we would not be killing deer or winning big money playing bingo (if you are a stranger who happened upon this blog I am sure that last sentence made us sound like huge rednecks). Anyway, after our brief pouting and pity-party, we decided to make it a memorable experience. We had plans to eat at Brittany's apartment on the Upper East Side (her apt. overlooks the river) and to meet early enough to catch some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. According to the TV, the parade was going to be from 9-noon. Around 10:45 we left Brittany's apartment and started our walk through Central Park to get to the west side. We quickly noticed that the crowd was walking towards us and we were thinking surely the parade was not over already. When we finally got to the parade site all we saw were police men putting traffic lights back up and confetti all over the road. Our plan should not have been to go to the spot where the parade started - we should have gone to where it ended. Oops! My dad had already called 3 times to see where we were and I think he was looking for us on TV. Both my parents were mad when they thought we missed the whole thing and my dad said for us to chase the parade...so we did! We rushed down until we found a subway stop, hopped on and road to 34th street (where Macy's is, where the parade ended). Of course there were tons and tons of people but we wiggled through and got to see a few floats, bands, cheerleaders, and most importantly, Santa! After the parade we walked a ton more, I think we calculated that we walked around 4-5 miles. During all of this walking we pointed out that we would have no guilt about what we ate at Thanksgiving dinner. Three of Brittany and Jones' other friends came over and we had a great meal together. Another Thanksgiving we will always remember!

When we got off the train at 34th street and were frantically chasing the parade this man selling cotton candy was on the escalator with us. We took a quick picture just in case this was the only part of the parade we got to see!

Friends in New York

I had to chose from about 400 pictures (not exaggerating) so here are the ones that sum up our weekend. As always, they are completely out of order.

In Central Park. The boys were playing football and the girls were visiting and playing with the dogs.

Brett, Ryan, Michael, and Dave

At the Knicks/Celtics game

Eating lunch in Central Park

Details on Statue of Liberty. The big room is the room all the immigrants waited in at Ellis Island.

Frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

Dinner at Keen's

The Plaza at the entrance of the park

On the menu at Serendipity - $1,000 sundae

Ice skaters at Rockefeller Center

Grand Central - what Ryan walks through to get to work everyday.

In Greenwich Village

At Lombardi's in Little Italy - I loved this place!

In the park

Cupcakes :)

We have done so many things lately and it would take me forever to blog about them all, so I'll just stick to our friends' visit for now. Paige, Dave, Beth, and Michael got to our apartment around 10:30 on Thursday night. Beth and Michael stayed with us and Paige and Dave stayed at Achelle's apartment on the upper east side. We went to an Irish pub to eat and visit and when I got in bed that night the clock said 3:00! Friday morning I headed over to audition for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I was so excited and I got there 15 minutes before my arrival time on my ticket. When I got there they told me they were already full and that my only option was to come back at 2:30 and I would have to commit to staying through all of the taping (which could last til 7:00) and then audition after the taping was over. I couldn't commit to staying that whole time because our friends were in town and we had plans with them! Plus, I wasn't guaranteed to be a contestant anyway...so I left. I was SO sad! To try to cheer myself up I walked over to the All My Children studio and watched for the actors to show up for work. I got to see Jake Martin, so that really brightened up my day! I've watched AMC for 11 years, so I feel like I'm best friends with all of them - they do not feel the same way about me. Since I didn't win any money on the game show I didn't want to pay for a cab, so I walked 30 blocks to go meet P,D,B, &M. It was a beautiful day and tons of little kids were playing in Central Park. People were riding horses & carriages and the leaves were really pretty, so I enjoyed my long walk. We all went to Soho and then walked to Little Italy and ate at Lombardi's, which is now on my top ten NY restaurant list. After lunch Beth and Michael went to do touristy things downtown and I walked to Greenwich Village with Paige and Dave (Ryan was at work). We went to Magnolia and got cupcakes, which I think that place is way overrated. I like my cupcake truck cupcakes much better! Friday night the six of us had dinner at a wonderful steak restaurant in Midtown called Keen's. Beth and Michael were so sweet and took us to dinner there to thank us for letting them stay in our apartment. We had such a great time and Ryan said it was "the best steak he has ever had". You should know that Ryan does not take statements like that lightly! After dinner P,D,B&M went to see White Christmas and Ryan and I went to Serendipity to meet our med school friends for dessert. We went back to Serendipity with P,D,B&M after their show. We just can't get enough of that place! Saturday we took the ferry to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island to see where all the immigrants went that came to America from 1892-1954. Beth's great-grandparents came from Sweden in the early 1900s, so she was able to see her great-grandmother's boat records! I couldn't look for any of my relatives because I think they were all here before the Civil War. After our little boat trips we went to Central Park and had lunch and the boys played football. Ryan had so much fun and put that on his top 3 NY experiences. :) P,D,B&M went to River Cafe for dinner and since that was an even more expensive restaurant than Keens, Ryan and I had to opt out. Adam and Karen were in town so we met up with them and Rabbi and Lisa in the park and watched people ice skate. Then we walked over to the Plaza and Adam offered the guy at the check-in counter $100 for a room. :) The man was very nice and said that unfortunately they were booked up but they did have a suite available that would cost $3,300 per night! We all went to dinner (med school friends) at Dos Caminos, which is also on my top 10! It was so much fun! After dinner we met back up with P,D,B,&M and went to another restaurant where Brett and Achelle were to just hang out and visit and have some dessert. Of course it turned into another late, but very fun, night. Sunday was the Knicks/Celtics game which was a blast! We thought the Celtics would kill the Knicks, but they ended up only winning by 2 pts in overtime and a last second shot almost sent it into a 2nd overtime. I was screaming and cheering like I had been a fan my whole life. To make things even more exciting, Will Ferrell and Mark Walhberg were at the game filming their new movie The Other Guys! I spent the whole first half just watching them! Other famous people there: Brooke Shields, Rosie Perez, Tracey Morgan, Spike Lee, Jor Girardi, and others that I can't remember their names. One guy (don't remember his name - he is on Law and Order) started the wave and it went around several times with practically everyone in Madison Square Garden participating. So much fun! After the game we met Paige and Dave at J.G. Melons for dinner and that is another place we now love! Ryan said it was the "2nd best burger he's ever had". :) We loved having our friends visit and were really sad when they left. Sad because we miss them but also because they were getting to go back to Nashville and we weren't! We are enjoying it here and experiencing so many fun things - but it is safe to say we are homesick!!!

Blogs to come: Thanksgiving in NYC, Macy's parade, MET, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park Zoo, Ice skating in Central Park

Our time left in NYC (schedule):

12/1 - Ryan's birthday dinner with friends

12/2 - Rockefeller Tree Lighting (7-9)

12/3 - Ryan's parents here

12/4 - Ryan's parents

12/5 - Ryan's parents

12/6 - Ryan's parents

12/7 - Ryan's parents

12/8

12/9

12/10 - My high school friends here (Brooke, Em, Julie, & Marissa)

12/11 - HS friends

12/12 - HS friends

12/13 - HS friends leave - Katherine arrives (hopefully! she hasn't bought her ticket yet)

12/14 - Kat

12/15 - Kat

12/16 - Kat

12/17 - Kat leaves

12/18 - Em & Jeremy arrive

12/19 - Em & Jeremy

12/20 - Em & Jeremy

12/21

12/22

12/23

12/24 - HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!