to pick up where i left off and catch up on the rest of my new york trip…
tuesday night i got to spend some time with scott and b, which was great! scott came to meet me at the hotel and we took the subway uptown. we grabbed some dinner at a trendy noodle joint and then walked around for a bit checking out all the costumes. we did get to see someone dressed up as lelu from the fifth element, and we also passed by a couple of incredibly hot chicks dressed as cops (wearing fishnets, boy shorts, and sexy boots) who were talking to an officer on the sidewalk. i should have stopped for a picture, but we just stared instead. and there was v, from v for vendetta, but he was lacking a hot chick with a shaved head.
so after walking around a bit we went up to visit b at uno’s where she was working. she had already been cut, but we had a few drinks there while we waited for the rest of her coworkers to get off work and then we went down the street to chill for a bit at their “after work bar”. when it was almost 2.30am i remembered that i had to wake up for training in the morning and decided it was probably best to get my ass back to the hotel. i think i went to sleep around 3.30am or so. needless to say i wasn’t feeling my best on wednesday, but it’s all good.
wednesday night my boss and i went to lombardi’s, which is supposed to have the best pizza in new york. i really wanted to try it because i’ve heard so many people from new york talk about how new york pizza is the best and you can’t get it anywhere else. well, the crust was definitely different than anything you get around here; it was super thin – so thin you couldn’t even pick it up – and had that kinda burnt flavor on the bottom. it did taste pretty good, but i have to say, it wasn’t all that spectacular. we also tried some pizza from another place on friday for lunch, although i don’t know where it was from since the company ordered it. it was decent, but no different than anything you can get around here. so i definitely wasn’t extremely impressed with the pizza situation, and i still have no idea why new yorkers feel so damned strongly about it.
on thursday doug and i went to dinner with four of the folks that we were training with. the restaurant, i’m glad to say, was my recommendation. when we were on our way to lombardi’s on wednesday night we had passed by this place and i took a quick glance at the menu. so when we were thinking about dinner possibilities on thursday i went on the spring street natural website to check out their menu in full detail. the dishes sounded great and the fact that they had a lot of natural, organic, free-range ingredients without crazy prices was tempting to me. so the six of us went and everybody loved it. i ordered the pumpkin ravioli with smoked duck, zucchini and toasted hazelnuts in brown butter, accompanied by a decent pinot noir. all of us had to try dessert…i had the gelato taster, which consisted of a scoop each of pumpkin, vanilla and cinnamon gelato. i was so full i couldn’t even come close to finishing, but it was absolutely delicious. i think i must have gained at least five pounds just last week with all the good food i was eating. i did get a lot of walking in, but that’s nothing compared to working out at the gym.
i think i only had one bad food experience while i was there, which was early friday evening right before we left. our train was leaving around 6.30 so we took a cab down to penn station after training and thought it would be a good idea to hit shady jake’s bbq and booze for a quick bite. doug said his pulled pork sandwich was decent, but the cornmeal crusted catfish poboy i ordered was disgusting. the fish tasted just like the bathroom smelled, which was pretty bad, and the service was nothing special. it was pretty disappointing, but i wasn’t too brought down considering all the other good experiences we had earlier in the week.
the training was really good. we definitely learned a bunch of stuff that we need to know, and we were treated quite well while we were there. now it’s back to the same ole stuff at work, although i’ve got a couple interesting projects to work on. plus i can’t wait to work more with this new software, but it’s going to take a while to get it all up and running and draw out a plan of action.
