New York City - Part 1 of probably many~

Chelsea Market

New York City is truly iconic.  It is THE place where a lot of the world’s population wants to visit.   How I never visited in the first 49 years of my life is beyond me.  After 4 days visiting all I want to do is go back. 

How I finally was able to visit!  My BFF was debating about going to the Door and Hardware Convention which was being held in NYC and we had many conversations about it.  The day after my BFF and I had been discussing it my boss happened to ask about her.  I shared the dilemma and he said why don’t you go?  Not enough in the budget I said.  It is work related, I need to support you, put a budget together of what you feel it will cost, he said.  Really???  Holy cow I never even thought to ask because like many companies in the building industry afabco is financially conservative right now.  I found direct roundtrip flights on Delta for a very reasonable price.  DHI had negotiated 2008 room rates at The Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Midtown Manhattan, which I would be halving with my BFF.  Finally transportation and food, which is a bit more expensive in NYC than FL, but I felt pretty confident I wouldn’t spend a lot.  I hate to admit this but it took me a week to decide to take my boss up on his generous offer.  I knew I would need to spend personal money for clothes and travel supplies.  Plus I had planter factitious in my right foot how would I get around?  New York City is a walking city and of course there was walking the trade show floor!  Finally I decided this was an incredible gift and I needed to accept it. New York City baby!!

I am not a shopper, especially with such a limited budget, but I shopped and shopped finding the best deals. I insisted on buying clothes that I could wear in Florida too which was no small feat.   Coldwater Creek (online) and Sims (local) had the best finds! Shoes were very important since I had issues already so I paid full price for two pairs of very comfortable Clark’s shoes, one pair of heels and one pair of walking shoes.  What a difference a comfortable shoe makes!  Friends were also a wonderful source of generosity.  One friend let me borrow the perfect jacket – reversible – waterproof with a hood!  I wore that coat a lot!  Another friend had a great black cross body purse that would work wonderfully. 

Another wonderful part of visiting NYC was getting to finally meet a friend I knew from Twitter, Saxon Henry!  Thankfully she was available to have dinner during one of the nights we would be there. 

Like most exciting plans it seem to take forever to get here and then, bam!, it was time to pack!!  I laid out my clothes on the spare bedroom’s futon and put the 4 day wardrobe together.  I wrote each day’s clothes on post it notes so I would remember.  I really wanted to pack smart as I didn’t want to check luggage and after a lot of work ended up only taking two pairs of shoes.  Whoohoo! 

I made reservations for a car to pick me up at 5:30 am to get me to Tampa International Airport and another car to pick up my BFF and I at LaGuardia as that is where we would join up to start this incredible adventure. 

Next:  how much I really hate to fly but do it anyway because it gets me to incredible places like NYC!