Just this past week and weekend, I was reminded of one of the reasons I am so glad I live, work, and play in New York City. Mosquito bites in the summer had become a thing of the past. I had thrown away every bottle of Off spray I had in my bathroom, but did so prematurely. I have spent the past few days outside, and my legs have definitely paid the price. I believe the final count was nine. And I have scratched some of them to the point of scarring. None of them were obtained in the city, and I am so glad to be back so my skin can breathe a sigh of relief.
Every Thursday night I attend a small group Bible study in someone's home with a group of about fifteen-twenty of my closest friends here. Most of the time our hosts live in Harlem or downtown, but this week we decided to branch out to Brooklyn to watch Breakfast at Tiffanys. There are weekly summer movies presented at the Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy, which is located right next to the Brooklyn Bridge. In Nashville, these types of activities have historically always had a massive turnout and New York is no different. There were people everywhere, but our group leader was kind enough to arrive about four hours early to secure a blanketed area right in front of the screen. After strategically and successfully making our way to the group (and managing to step on only one pair of feet) we sat down to our view of the east river, Statue of Liberty and the financial district. It was such a great night of fabulous weather, outstanding company and a spectacular view. My only complaint was that this was my first encounter with these little winged blood sucking monsters. Bites number one and two.
On Friday night, I was invited to attend a charity gala in the Hamptons, Bridgehampton to be exact. The event was to benefit the Soledad O'Brien foundation, which raises money for girls in New Orleans who cannot afford a college education. The event cost $1000 per head, but my friend, who represents the band that was performing, was able to get us in for free. I was able to get off of work two hours early to catch the 4:00 train from Penn Station, in order to arrive by 6:30. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing the location was. It was the 6500 square foot, 6 bedroom 6 bath, somewhere in the neighborhood of ten millions dollars estate of Keith Reinhard. Keith was most recently the CEO of DDB Worldwide, which is a subsidiary of Omnicom, which he had a hand in founding. Among the guest list were Star Jones, Russell Simmons and of course Soledad O'Brien from CNN. It was appropriately planned as a New Orleans themed night, with the ten piece jazz band straight out of N.O., typical cajun cuisine served family style (which gave me heartburn pretty quickly) and dancers and decorations that completed the ensemble. I met politicians, journalists, musicians and designers, and was even invited to one of the designers private shows in the upcoming fashion week. The night was so much fun, that I didn't even mind the three mosquito bites I picked up from being outside in that tent all night.
After only getting four hours of sleep, I woke up early on Saturday to catch a bus with four of my girlfriends to Bloomfield, New Jersey. One of the girls was housesitting in this suburban area, and we decided to spend the day and night out there. Eventually we made the two hour (should've only been one, but thanks to traffic) commute to the Jersey Shore and parked our beach towels on the fabulous Long Branch beach. It was definitely the nicest beach I've seen up here, and the crowd wasn't too "Jersey Shore-ish". There were plenty of families and children to make it pretty low key, which was appreciated. We spent about five hours there (I slept for probably three of them) and then made the trip back to Bloomfield. To say traffic was bad is a definite understatement. I think my favorite part of the weekend was the fact that we all chipped in and made a fabulous grilled dinner together in a real kitchen, with a real dining room, an actual grill and plenty of space. Such a nice change from my airplane galley kitchen. We grilled chicken, hamburgers, corn and made salad, brownies and topped it all off with a watermelon. As we were outside making this wonderful meal, no one was aware that New Jersey (with 63 different species) is sometimes referred to as the Mosquito State. Enter bites six, seven, eight and nine.
It has been such a crazy busy but incredibly exciting few days, and I am looking forward to having absolutely nothing to do for the next few. Thankfully I'll have some time to nurse my wounds!
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