New York, New York

I have a love affair with the city of New York. I've only been there once and that was all the impact that I needed. I love the look, the feel, the smell, the sound, I even love all the walking...and I'm not one to embrace "long walks". "Long walks" may sound romantic, but in reality, the dog is yanking on the leash, the shoes you're wearing are killing you, you have a charlie horse on your left calf muscle, you're dying of thirst and didn't think to bring a bottle of Evian, and you have to pee. Badly. FYI, I already know I'm a whiner, so there's no real need to point it out. That's what I'm embracing instead of "long walks". Being a whiner. And dammit, I'm good at it, too. But anyway, back to what I was saying before I got all self-absorbed, walking in NYC is so much different. It's something in the air, I think, that makes you feel like going a mile has only been 1 block. My love affair with NYC continues even though it's been about 4 years since I've been back. I will watch anything on TV that is set in NYC. Anything. I'll watch 2 episodes of Sex and The City, on 2 different channels, flipping between them for the full 1/2 hour. I'll even sit through a Keanu Reeves* movie, if it's set in NYC. Sometimes I even dream NYC.

The funny thing is, I don't think I could ever live there. I'm so conditioned to my midwestern way of life, I don't think I could survive such a transition. But I can pretend. Instead of transitioning an entire life there, I'd rather visit. Much more frequently than every 4 years.

With that said, my dear sweet husband, knowing full well the details of my love affair, secretly planned a New York get-a-way for our 1st anniversary, coming up next month. Did I marry the right man, or what? We're staying at a hotel 2 blocks from Central Park. We're going to see The Odd Couple on Broadway. I've never seen a Broadway play! And it was St. Pauly Boy's idea! Then we are having dinner, on the eve of our actual anniversary, at Tavern On The Green. It's already reserved and everything. I could not. be. more. excited.

Our original anniversary plans were to spend a night at the hotel where we had our reception, downtown St. Paul. It's by far my favorite hotel in the Twin Cities and they hosted one hell of a beautiful wedding for us. But we live 15 minutes away from said hotel and St. Pauly Boy wanted more distance from our hometown. More of a real vacation and since we can't recreate our honeymoon in Ireland (due to attempts at financial planning and lack of vacation time on my part), he thought this would be the next best thing.

And for me, he hit the nail right on the head.

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*Outside of Speed, I'm fairly anti-Keanu. I know he's pretty and all, but when he opens his mouth, it's like nails on a chalk board to me. Just not right.