Little ole me in NYC

For Will's 10 year reunion for business school two of my dearest friends were not able to come out to California for the gathering.  We decided then to make plans to get together on the east coast since they both live out there.  We picked Father's Day weekend in New York City.  Ashley lives there with her four darling children.  Anne came down from Boston and we made a weekend of it!  

I had been looking forward to this weekend as soon as we planned it.  I don't schedule a lot of time away from my family.  It is hard to leave my kids and even harder to ask some one else to do all of the running around for five kids while I go.  Will has a demanding job and it is hard for me to get away.  Anyway, he helped me make this trip a priority, giving up Father's Day and his birthday so I could go.  

I arrived late Thursday night.  Ashley and I got to visit together for a few hours while we waited for Anne to get down to the city.  We caught up on our life and times from the last ten years.  When Ashley left California, she was pregnant with her first baby...now she has four kids!  

Good friends and wifi

Anne arrived on a bus from Boston and we were so happy to be together!  We visited for a while and went to bed.  

Our first day together was Friday and Ashley had a few "real life" things to take care of while playing hostess.  We tried to help her out.

First, Ashley is Super Woman.  Just look at her hauling her kid (stroller and all) down the subway steps.  She wins parenthood!

Super Woman

We did a super quick tour of the MET with Ashley as our guide.  She showed us her favorite view of the city sky line from the roof top of the MET.

We had a scream at the Psycho house (or a scale model from the movie set)?

AND we saw this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G fashion as art installation.  It was room after room of designer gowns, creative materials, and interesting themes.  It was wild!

I could pull this off...right?

Part of Ashley's real world responsiblities for the day included decorating and helping to host the end of the year party for the 4th and 5th graders at school.  We spent the afternoon meeting her friends and decorating the cafeteria for the party.  Then we danced and chatted while the kids partied.  It was great.

As we were walking through Harlem to Ashley's apartment I looked in the window of a barber shop.  I saw a guy shaving a design into the side of a customer's head.  I thought: "That guy could probably give me a great undercut."  Then I thought, "Hey, I can get my hair cut here!"  So I turned around and walked inside.  The whole place was full of dudes.  I asked the guy I had seen in the window if he could clean up my hair.  He called out to another guy in the back in Spanish.  After a little exchange the guy in the back motioned be down the isle of chairs.  I think I got plenty of strange looks from the other guys in the their chairs and waiting on the benches.  Anne and Ashley came in with me and while we waited we scrolled through pinterest for undercut ideas.  

When it was my turn in the chair I showed the guy two choices.  He said "very pretty" to both and I picked the two triangle/lines design.  He went straight to work buzzing down my undercut and cleaning it up.  Then, he pulled out a straight-Sweeny-Todd style razor.  I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out.  He used the razor to cut the lines in my design in really cleanly...and he did not slit my throat.  I am certain this is the best looking undercut I've ever had.  I love it!  It looks so good!  It was fun to walk into a barber shop and come out with a great cut...for 13 dollars.  Worth every penny!

Sweet!