It all started with a text message

It all started with a text message, "Just bought 2 tickets to NBA draft... Wanna go?  Center stage 15 rows up..." out of the blue.  I remember sitting at my office when my phone buzzed and the screen flashed the above words.  my first thought was, what the hell is Raman talking about?  I can't go to New York for the NBA draft it's less than 5 weeks away, tickets will be too expensive, I can't take the time off work, and we have so many summer plans there is no way it will work.  Then I started thinking about the positives.  I would be the first one to visit Raman and Christie since their east coast swing to NYC.  When am I ever going to schedule a trip around the NBA draft, for that matter any draft?  He already bought the tickets, screw it, if I can find a plane ticket for a reasonable cost, I am in!  A few Kayak price alerts and searches later, I had bought a ticket for a weekday trip to NYC.  I was pretty excited and I know Christie was excited because now she didn't have to go to the draft.  I couldn't imagine anything more boring for her.  Now I will walk you through some of the events that went down that week:

Tuesday - Decided to take a flight in the morning and "waste" a day flying because I can't sleep on planes and a Red Eye seemed like not a fun way to start off my trip.  A few beers and movies later I arrived at JFK and took a cab to Murray Hill.  Got out of the cab and turned the wrong way, realized I went the wrong way, and then corrected myself.  Raman was out walking Chester.  I must say it was kind of weird at first seeing him on the street there as I have come to associate New York with Danielle's family and friends who we regularly see when we visit.  Checked out their awesome apartment and Christie was nice enough to make dinner for the three of us.  I'll continue with the foodie tradition and describe the meal for you.  Pan seared scallops (I'll put the sear job up against Collicho any day), flank steak, and asparagus. Food was great and company even better. After the meal Raman and I decided to check out a bit of his neighborhood and by neighborhood I mean bars by his house.  We checked out Gingerman, Galway Hooker, and Rattle N Hum.  We were out that night until after midnight.  The thing that always shocks me about NYC is that at any time of the day or night there are always people out doing things.  When leaving the bar, people had just ordered shots, I thought about work the next day and how that would be a mistake. Shots would come back to haunt me.

Wednesday -  Cleared it with my boss before the trip that I would be allowed to work during the whole time in NYC so I didn't have to take anytime off despite not being in the office.  I have some business partners that work in NYC, so I was all setup at a place in the office located in TriBeCa.  The office was pretty sweet I must say.  Wait a second, how could a office building be sweet?  nevermind.  I did hear that the chef from the cafeteria was a former contestant of Top Chef.  I told them I would be the judge of that.  Not much happened other than the fact I was tired and work sucked.  After work I went to this hip (at least I thought it was hip) pizza joint with my friend Jessica.  Place was in the east village and called Motorino.  Foodie trend:  We split the octopus salad, margarita, and anchovy pizza. All the food was very good.  After the meal we went out on the town for a little while and my good friend Brian came and met up with us.  One thing led to another and we were in the East Village until 3 in the morning when I realized I still had to go to work the next day.  Christie was sweet enough to send me a text in the night asking if I was still okay.  I know what you all are thinking, no way I could be out until 3:00 without falling asleep but I promise you I did not.  Somehow made it back to the crib and passed out face first on the air mattress.

Thursday - Somehow I was able to get up, showered, and down to TriBeCa for work by 9:30 AM.  I honestly have very little idea how I set my alarm and actually woke up to when it went off.  Maybe it was because it was Draft Day!  The leading reason for the visit (other than seeing two of my favorite people).  Work was pretty terrible.  Imagine a very drunk night with very little sleep, 80% humidity, 6 million people, and sweat.  Pretty much sums up my work day.  Raman and I met up at the crib before walking over to Penn Station to take NJ transit to the Rock (prudential center).  On our way over we went to a few sporting stores to try and find Raman a Warriors hat.  Somehow, at a footaction, which was a last ditch effort, they had throw back Warriors logo hat that was perfect.  The draft, as previously described in a post, was a super fun event.  Pretty much a geeky NBA fan's type of event that I thought was way more fun that could have been imagined.  On our way back into Manhattan we decided to eat at a very hip pizza joint, perhaps you heard of it, Sbarro?  Pretty much exactly what you imagine.  That night I can't even remember which bars we went to.  Basically we did a makeshift bar crawl down 2nd ave hitting up a bunch of college style bars.  At our final place I decided it would be a good idea to take shots.  I opted for jager and Raman with tequila.  Let me tell you think, at 2:00 AM the last thing you need is shots.  This ended badly for the next day....

Friday - Raman and I both took the day off with hopes of playing basketball, maybe doing sight seeing, hitting up the highline, or some other fun NYC activity.  Because of the shots, none of this happened.  We strolled out of bed sometime past noon to get Carl's Cheesesteaks and head back for another nap.  Finally we went and shot around a basketball court next to his house.  Some random guy showed up and played horse with us for a bit. This basically got Raman pretty gassed so we went back to the house and got ready for our dinner reservations.  We were headed to this super duper hip speakeasy mexican place called La Esquina.  In order to actually get reservations we had to make them at 6:30.  Foodie Time: Fluke Ceviche, Quesadilla de Huitlacoche, Scallops, Octopus (I was really into it at the time) and Steak tartare Tostadas, and some black beans and rice.  The meal was top notch and margaritas very good.  So we decided to go out for the night afterward.  We went to a few bars in the same area but mostly hung out at a New Orleans themed place called the 9th ward.  We drank beers for a few hours while a slow flux of people I knew (basically my buddy Brian and Danielle's friends and family from New York) who live in NYC came to meet up with us at some points.  i thought it was a pretty good way to introduce Raman and and Christie to some new people and let everyone know how great they are.  Bottom line, I made it home at 4:30 AM and almost got a tattoo of a thunderbolt on my bicep.  Let's just say that Danielle's cousin Timmy is quite and original and fun individual.

Saturday - Slept until I had to go to the airport and flew back to SF.

My trip to NYC was great and I lagged more than anyone on putting up my post.  I also visited again in September and had a fun night out for R & C's birthday before their west coast trip but I am sure you all know about that.  Did you ever think I would make a post Raman???