Work in Progress: Hosting

Over the last 2 weekends I dabbled in my first attempt to host friends in my studio apartment with no AC in NYC. Hopefully everything went successfully & they enjoyed themselves but while they were here, we crammed as much of NYC in as we could.

Weekend of July 19th

First, I hosted Ashley & Donna (her cousin Donna not to be confused with her mother Donna I don’t you guys to think I am being disrespectful). They came in on Friday night and Saturday morning we decided to spend the day wandering around a bit. We got Pop Up bagel for breakfast, truly these are my new favorite bagels in the city, if you think they are bad argue with the wall.

From there we walked through Central Park to eat & saw Bethesda Terrace and made our way to the Plaza Hotel. Ashley is a major Eloise at the Plaza fan, so this is always a must see for her & Donna had never been so we went into the lobby and made our way to the store to see if they had anything cute for Ashley’s niece.

Once we exited the Plaza, we went to use the bathrooms in Bergdorf Goodman’s (free bathroom in the makeup level in the back corner; they are nice and clean). Slowly, we made our way down 5th Ave and made pitstops throughout that journey like Rockefeller Center, Saint Patricks, and the New York Public Library (another great public restroom location). The 2 major stops into stores we did were the American Girl store which was a walk back in time for both Ashley and me because we grew up playing with them together. We wandered around and saw such cute dolls and accessories. It made me want to buy one, either for a young cousin, niece, or myself (a last resort but it would happen). After that we went into FAO Schwartz and then due to Ashley and Donna being oh so kind, humored me in going into the Lego store.

We spent a solid 30 minutes scanning the collectors F1 boxes so that I can finish my collection. This is my very formal and public thank you to the both of them because we spent most of the time looking for the McLaren and scanned an entire bin trying to find it. Also, hack! You can get a scanner on a website for free to scan to tell you which car is in each box & so thanks to their hard work, we got my remaining 6.

For dinner on Saturday, Ashley was kind enough to a reservation at Din Tai Fung which due to not having Tiktok had never heard of. It was actually quite delicious, worth the hype that I have never heard of. Quite solid and such a cool restaurant set up. After dinner, we just went back to my apartment and started watching Eloise at the Plaza (the movie & Julie Andrews is an international treasure).

Sunday was kind of a long day because we were up early to take pictures, the whole reason for their trip to NYC. For those who don’t know, I finished my Master’s in Sports Business from NYU this past year & never took graduation pictures, which Riri really wanted. So, Ashley was kind enough to pay for Donna to come to the city and take them for me. We went to the Met steps (obviously) and Bethesda for pictures. It started to get so beyond hot, so we went back to my apartment to change, and went to Starbucks Reserve in the Empire State building for a fun air conditioned experience. A solid adventure and it definitely is a cool switch up from the normal cafe experiences.

Finally, to end our day, we went to the Lincoln Center area to have dinner, where we got Old Johns. We really just needed a classic girl after our long days & that is always my go to, so we got Caesar salads and truffle fries. Due to Ashleys stomach issues, she got chicken noodle soup and said she liked it. I went to order my favorite dessert from them, a strawberry shortcake and found they took it off the menu. THEY TOOK IT OFF THE MENU. So, you can imagine, upon being blindsided, I entered into a level 4 crashout in the booth and needed to leave immediately. THEN! I went to get golden oreos as an alternative, my bodega only had golden oreo thins, which upon eating are a A SCAM. Anyway. This weekend was so fun & I love love loved having them visit even for such a short time. ALSO! Mega thanks to Donna for taking the most gorgeous grad pictures, I love them so much!

Weekend of July 26th

This past weekend, I had Abby, David, and Sophia visit me and again, we all crammed into my studio apartment with no AC. Sadly, Kyle who was supposed to come, didn’t make it and we all missed his presence dearly. (He doesn’t read the blog so no one tell him I said that but also everyone yell at him for not reading the blog).

This trip was a chaotic 24 hours and we really jam packed so much into our single full day. We started with Pop Up (obviously), walked into Central Park, and exited down onto 5th Ave. We made our way to Grand Central but first stopped off into Barnes & Noble, where I surprisingly didn’t purchase anything (everyone please be proud). Once we were done meandering around up town, we went downtown for a short time. While we were down there, we hit the Strand (again everyone please be proud I didn’t buy anything) & then hit a comic bookstore where, surprisingly David didn’t buy anything. I took them to Joes, my current favorite slice in the city and it was exactly what we needed to power through the rest of the afternoon.

We ended up walking to the pier to sit by the water, regroup, and allow them to see Lady Liberty from a distance. The breeze while we were sitting was so beyond delicious and revived me. On our way back uptown, we stopped in Times Square (I normally avoid but they are tourists so obviously we went). We met up with Sophia’s family friend & we got Anitas gelato & David got Los Tacos. Both, amazing decisions and received high praise from everyone. You can not go wrong with a pistachio & strawberry combo.

Once we made it back uptown, we laid around for about 2 hours to allow ourselves time to shower and relax before heading back out. We went & got Gnocchi on 9th for dinner. Sophia and I got Gnocchi alla Vodka with burrata & Abby opted for the Pesto gnocchi with burrata. Both 10/10 would recommend. I took them to cute but so chaotic bar called Tikki Chick. We hung out there for awhile and chatted but then made our way to the Lions Head to end our night. Before we went back to my place, we went to the deli across the street for snacks and gatorades to help mitigate whatever we may have felt Sunday morning. I really think this move saved us.

Sunday morning, thank god the F1 race was on a delay so I wasn’t missing too much of it (shout out Josh for recording) but Abby, David, and I went out on an adventure to get us breakfast before their flight and allow Sophia time to revive herself (and fully wake up our nocturnal queen). We ended up popping into the Grand Bazaar where David and I did end up buying things. I ended up with football cards and David bought comics and baseball cards. Really, it was Abbys fault for leaving us alone at that booth.

For breakfast, we got Lenwich’s Chicken Caesar wraps and I got mine with a side of fries. Sophia wanted a sweet bagel so we went to Zabar’s and got her a Cinnamon Raisin bagel. All of it was beyond excellent and necessary to our functioning like normal people the rest of the day. Shortly afterward, they left and headed home. This brought my time hosting to an end.

Again, hopefully my guests enjoyed themselves. I loved having them here and it allowed me to see some of my most favorite people in such a short 2 week period. I am going to force them to come again in the Fall when the weather is so much better for walking around & we can actually enjoy it a bit more.

It has been a long month but July has been oh so amazing to me. Can not wait to recap the whole thing!

Talk soon.