nyc: {day.01}

Where to begin? I feel like the last five days went by in, pardon the pun, a New York minute. I guess time does fly when you’re having entirely too much insane fun. Which is exactly what we set out to do, and accomplished.

The reason for the trip was a laundry list of too good to be true chain of events: Well, there was the Kirtsy Book party, one in a series of parties I’ve been helping Kirtsy throw all over the country to celebrate Kirtsy Takes a Bow; Then there was Maggie’s 26th birthday, not to mention how Maggie and I first met, at her 21st birthday, which was reason #3, our five year friendiversary. And icing on the cake? Stef has been in Jersey for the last month helping out her mom, so we couldn’t wait to see her in her ‘hood. If that wasn’t enough, Maggie and I just needed a good getaway. And boy did we get it.

the jane hotel

We flew in Wednesday afternoon and met up with Kirtsy gals Laura and Laurie at our hotel, the absolutely adorable Jane Hotel {113 Jane St.} in the West Village. Thanks to Phillip Marshal for the fantastic recommendation. If you’ve ever decided on a hotel strictly on the inventiveness of their website, you’re my kinda people.

We headed for Soho to setup for the party. The event was being held at an amazing space called Meet {101 Crosby St.}, owned by (as I held my star struck tongue) the founders of the Wooster Collective, Sarah and Mark Schiller. I’ve been a fan of the WC website for years (thanks to Brent), and I was certainly shocked when during the party, a man approached me and remarked, “Is this you?”, shoved an

Meet, Soho

iPhone in my face, pointed to a tweet I had made days earlier about the Wooster Collective, and I, a bit reluctant replied, “yes?” He stuck out his hand and said, “Hey! I’m Mark Schiller!” It was one of those moments that you are praying that your effusiveness isn’t seeping through your pores. We talked for a while about the Wooster Collective and, what else but, Twitter! It was by far one of my favorite moments of the trip, meeting and talking to Sarah and Mark, standing in a beautiful space in Soho. There was plenty of pinching myself happening. Hourly. (p.s. they are working on a new WC book to be released soon!)

The party was fantastic. Lots of great people! I met lots of Kirtsy book contributors, and had a fantastic conversation with Redbook Magazine editor Stacy Morrison, about how social media is transforming publications and magazines.  The Tide folks were on hand to give out awesome Tide To-Go pens and talk about their handy new “stain brain” iPhone app.

puck fair

I got to catch up with my Houstonian-turned-New Yorker friends, ex-Boo Towner Julie Gomez, ex-Houstonist fellow contributor Chester Soria, and Nesta Mayo, who you may remember as the sweet soul who nursed me throughout the stomach flu during the trip to Laura’s wedding this summer. Chester and Julie ended up having mutual friends in NYC, and we all planned to hang out later during weekend. More pinching of myself, as I thought to myself what amazing opportunities I have been given this year. And a ton of them thanks to Kirtsy. I’m forever grateful for those gals.

After the party wrapped, Sarah sent us down the street to Puck Fair {298 Lafayette St}, an Irish Pub she and Mark often frequent. We grabbed the remaining Tide gift bags, rounded up the troops, and headed down the street. We were quite the hit of the bar, if you can imagine 3 Texas girls barging into an Irish pub in Soho handing out Tide-to-go Pens. People. Love. Tide. No joke. We had people coming up to us asking if we had more. I think Laurie has some great pics of this, I’ll have to hunt them down.

me, stef, mags at puck fair

After our goodie bags were exhausted, we got comfortable at the bar and chatted it up with just about anyone who ridiculed us for saying y’all. Which was pretty much the whole bar. We made fast friends with resident bartender and Irishman, John Francis O’Brien, yes, actually his name. Little did we know at the time, we’d be seeing lots more of John, and of Puck Fair. It continued to serve as our home base throughout the trip. Highly recommended if you are visiting. Ask for John. Tell him Texas sent ya.

As 3am rolled around, we found ourselves already dreading leaving on Sunday. However, we had just arrived, and had much more to cover in the next 4 days. I’ve split this post up into 5 posts. I just can’t handle it all in one.

Coming up: Rod Stewart sighting, shopping, Cake Boss! shopping, Cory Chisel up close and personal, some shopping, Texas BBQ in NYC, The New Museum, MoMA, and tons and tons of dive bars.  Check back tomorrow for nyc: day 02. God, I miss it already.

Tags: kirtsy, new york city, nyc, puck fair, tide, travel, wooster collective