BIG BANG in the BIG APPLE

Thursday night, before leaving for NYC, Tracy, Jenn, Rob and I decided to have a little get together at Vinoteca for some wine and munchies - we LOVE this place! Absolutely yummy food and an amazinzg Mendoza Malbech - 2005 Argentina. We polished that bottle off rather quickly. We decided to stay up since I had to leave at 3am for the airport to catch my flight at 6am - so a little more wine and it was time for me to go! Once on the plane that friday morning, I was out cold! I don't even remember when the other passenger sat down next to me - last I remembered it was empty and when I woke up about 1/2 an hour before landing - she was there! Holy Frijolies! Was I snoring? Did I lean on her shoulder? Who the h*ll knows! Out cold! As soon as the plane landed, I was getting a phone call already from J2 - pearcetoyou (James).

One third of the 3JXPRESS...we (Jillian, James, and I) made sure that we all flew in at the same time, so that we could share a taxi/shuttle in to Manhattan. We thought taking the Super Shuttle would be easier - WTF???? Were we WRONG!!! We must have stopped at every other terminal at the airport before finally leaving and then of course we had to drop off other customers before we could get to our place...At least we were the third stop. But of course our driver was the typical NYC driver I've heard about from movies, etc. I swear she talked to herself had one hand on the wheel, one hand on her cellphone and her cursed like a drunken sailor! OMG!!! Jillian, James and I just looked at each other and hoped that we would make it safely to our destination!

We stayed at the Flatotel in mid town Manhattan off West 52nd street and 5th avenue.

Cool place.  We had a nice room with a King size bed and a Queen size pull out sofa bed! I had sent a message to jaxsully (Steve) previously where we would be staying, so he met us at our room with Patron in one hand for Jillian and Malbech for me in the other! Good guy! What a welcome! We popped open the wine and the Patron as Jillian and I got ready for dinner! James and Steve were ready...and you know us girls it took us some time. James surprised us by bringing us small flower corsages - very sweet of him...this is when Steve and James probably thought the party began. The pinning of the flowers with too much alcohol...let's just say - things got a little sticky... I guess this is when things got started...from Jillian being a "closet shooter" to the two of us laying on the bathroom floor hysterically laughing before even getting to the pre-meet-up gathering. ..it was a sight to be seen! We finished our drinks and headed out to the restaurant that Steve (jaxsully) made reservations for the 5 of us. James (pearcetoyou), Jillian (jillianj), Stephen (dallasintersc), Steve (jaxsully) and me (pvtjoy)...walked a couple of blocks to a small Italian restaurant. I can't remember for the life of me what the restaurants name is, but it was yummy! The wine was excellent as well - you know me and my wine...dry red! The party has just begun! We decided to go back to the Hotel room and finish off our drinks we left there. Stephen (dallasintersc)  joined us and of course more photos were taken while drinking. Alcohol and cameras...a deadly mix. Finally we headed out to the Fat Black Pussy Cat - the site of the pre meet-up (we somehow found a cabbie - are you sure he was a cabbie?) I remember seeing Jeff (jefrois) and Natasha (nycgirl76) first and then Mark (travelman727). Big hugs passed all the way around. Then I remember meeting Jamieson (snydes22), Ruthie (ruttitutti), Warren (OCWarren) and then the night became a blur! It was a night of drinking and dancing and then the next thing I know it was time to go to sleep! Wow, what a night. Happy to meet all of you Travbuddies! It was awesome!

More to be added as the haze lifts from my brain!