are you SURE you have friends?

New York was so much fun last week and this weekend, but oddly, I felt a bit down. Although I occasionally miss the shopping and excitement of the city, I believe the time in my life when I so enjoyed living there is over. I left behind many of the perks when I moved to Boston, such as the theatre, dog parks and Saturday strolls through the city, but I gained a sense of peace and equilibrium that I'd been lacking.

Still, I can't deny that the firm's events have been a blast. Thursday night was a 3 hour boat cruise through the Hudson River, followed by a Boston office party at a bar near our hotel. It was hysterical to see the partners doing alcoholic shots, although staying out until 3am really isn't my cup of tea. I am still exhausted! I also saw two of my closest friends on Thursday and Friday, and YG&B stayed at my hotel with me talking until the wee hours of the morning. Friday night I stopped by my MOST FAVORITE dog store and then stayed the night at a dear friend's house before returning to Boston. Again I am reminded, I am sooooo lucky.

I have no comical stories to share about this trip, but I think you might enjoy a tale from my last trip to the city- a far more boring business trip to complete due diligence (read through mind-numbing documents for 12 hours a day) for a portfolio company in which our client wanted to invest.

I had brought Tango and Murray to the city with me and arranged to stay at a dog friendly hotel in Times Square. After a long day of sitting in an interior office reviewing contracts, I took them out for a walk through the streets surrounding Times Square.

As we were crossing the square itself, I noticed the TKTS office, a booth that sells discounted theatre tickets to benefit the artists in these productions. I was excited to see that the night's showing of Rent was discounted and I called two of my friends to see if they would be interested in joining me to see it. They were, so with Tango and Murray in tow, I made my way to the front of the line and while wrestling with the two leashes asked for three tickets to the 8pm show.

The man quickly searched the system and told me he had great seats. "How many again?" "Three," I answered and waited for him to print them out. He leaned over the ticket counter to look at the dogs and said, "you know, dogs can't come to the show." I chuckled and waited for him to hand me the tickets. He didn't, continuing to stare at me, apparently waiting for a response. "Yes, I know," I said, "my friends are meeting me." He nodded and then asked in a very serious tone, "and are your friends here now?" I gave him an incredulous look and assured him that my friends were coming a bit later. But STILL he continued. "But you understand that your dogs cannot come into the show, so if you buy the tickets, they won't let you in, right?"

It literally took me 5 minutes of explaining and convincing him that I did have human friends that were meeting me at the theater. In the end, he laughed and told me that he had to ask because a few months before, a woman had brought her pet cat to see Cats. He said that it might not have been a problem, except that she was narrating the musical FOR HER CAT and was disturbing the other patrons.

See? How could you not love New York?