Walking on a sine wave

When my husband asked me to join him for a business trip to NYC, as a recovering Type A planner, I said YES without hesitation. Being a smart man that he is, he booked my ticket before I had anytime to even think about it. Lo and behold, we were on a flight 3 days later and I loved every second of going with the flow for the next 3.5 days.

After checking in to our hotel in Chelsea, we took the train to Smogasburg to have lunch as highly recommended by our cousin. What a fun experience! It was a mini world food festival with stalls serving street foods from Brazil, Japan, Venezuela, Korea and so many other countries with the backdrop of Manhattan skyline. We got ourselves pipping hot plates of Coxinhas and Yakisoba. Sat down on a park bench and enjoyed the delicious meal next to the Hudson river. Mentally made a note to bring the kids next time and starting walking back towards the station when I spotted a packed coffee shop named Qahwah. I just had to enter and it turned out to be a Yemeni coffee shop specializing in coffee and tea from Yemen. We later found out that it is one of the most popular coffee shops in Williamsburg. After a pot of their aromatic black tea and Yemeni dessert, we made it back to the hotel to quickly change for our broadway show.

Now if you know me, you know that I am a YUUUUGEEEEE fan of Rachel Brosnahan from Marvelous Mrs Maisal. A day before the trip, I found out that she was the lead in the Broadway play – “The Sign in Sidney Burnstein’s Window”. To top it off, he co-star was Oscar Isaac who has a big fan following in our house. I was able to score the last two seats on the floor and oh my what an experience. She is uber talented and I literally couldn’t believe my eyes while I was watching her live. During intermission, as I was walking back from the ladies’ room, I crossed a woman who looked and sounded like Penny from The Big Bang Theory. One look at my husband and he confirmed it was her. He spoke to her husband while I stayed dazed as I can never talk to celebrities when I run into them. This was an unexpected treat as we watched all seasons of BBT while it ran and are now rewatching it with our kids.

The play was wonderful and the entire cast did a marvelous job (no pun intended). All the characters conveyed the message that in today’s era of “Cancel Culture”, it is important that we address our own biases and the intersectionality of our experiences. We were glad that we were able to watch one of the last few showings before the season wrapped up. The conversation over Tapas later that night was fully dominated by our perspectives of the multiple threads in the play.

After a lazy start on Sunday morning, we went to the Met. This was my first time at this famous museum and I couldn’t remember why I had always skipped it during my many previous visits. 5 hours of art and sculpture from around the world (especially the Monets and Renoirs) later, we made a short trip to Hoboken with a pitstop at the Cake Boss Bakery which we came across while walking from the PATH station to our cousin’s home. Jersey felt so calm and quiet .. almost like a suburb. I finally understood why people live there. One can only handle the energy and noise of NYC for so long.

Dinner that night was one of the best at Illily named one of the 50 best Mediterranean restaurants in the world. I can still taste their Harissa and duck shwarma when I think about that meal. This is now a must stop for me next time I am in the city. We wrapped the night with drinks and gupshup in Chelsea.

Monday was my day to explore the city alone as my husband left at 7.30 am. I met a friend in Tribeca for lunch and during our conversation, he mentioned that they have a Hussain hanging in their office. Well, I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to see the painting and took the train to midtown to see the masterpiece. Turns out, there were two Hussains in that conference room!!! This was the cherry on the icing on the cake of my art experience in NYC :).

Kathi roll and elaichi chai at Thelewala in Soho wrapped up that day. As we walked back through NYU campus back to our hotel, both of us couldn’t stop talking about the amazing experiences over the past 3 days. We both agreed that we loved the city and yet we couldn’t see ourselves living here. Texas is and will always be home. The next morning I was ready to get on the plane to be back with my little munchkins. Of course I had to stop by Brooklyn Bagel to get a dozen of their delicious bagels for them and my parents. Slept through the entire flight back with a content smile on my face (or so I imagine). The New York Minute was over and I can’t wait for the next one.