Susan Senator

I’m off to New York City this morning, to spend the weekend with my sister! She and I have gotten closer in the last year, and we decided to try to have some real time together, in one of the best places on earth! We have so many memories of New York, having grown up in a Connecticut suburb right outside. It seemed like every Saturday our parents — huge culture mavens — took us in to a museum or something. (Snore! You can bet I will stay far away from museums today!) Then, when we were in high school, we began making trips with friends, on the train. We were not allowed to go into Central Park! So, being such a good girl, I did not, until I began dating Ned, (and I stopped being a good girl). Ned grew up in Manhattan. Then he showed me the wonders of love, and New York. (In fact, the three major cities in my life were discovered while I was first in love with Ned: Philadelphia, of course, where we went to school; New York; and then Boston, where he lived when we were 19. He worked at a video game company in Kendall Square, Cambridge, and I periodically took the train up, when I could get a weekend off from my hoity-toity waitressing job at Woodway Country Club in Stamford.)

Laura and I will probably walk from midtown to the Village, shopping and talking and eating the whole way. No Atkins for us today! Lattes and shoes. As a concession to my knee and hip, I am going to wear my more comfortable, but still stylish, boots and my new skinny jeans. I told Laura to dress hip but she said, “I don’t own anything hip!” (She lives in rural New Jersey and is the polar opposite of me fashionwise.) Maybe I’ll get her to buy something in NY but she is pretty frugal. I’m also hoping to stop in at Bliss Spa for some kind of amazing treatment (they actually have something called the “hair-do,” which is a hair massage!).

I found a great Moroccan restaurant with a bellydance show; she’s never seen one, other than mine! And I, of course, cannot wait!