New York New York

Those of you who are faithful readers must be wondering what happened to me over the past ten days. Well, I am happy to say that I survived yet ANOTHER annual trip with "the gang" to New York City.

This annual get-away started nine years ago, when my mom asked if I wanted to go to NYC with her and a group of ladies from Shreveport, LA (where I was born and raised). Of course, I jumped at the chance, and a tradition was born. We had an amazing time, all organized by two of my favorite ladies in the world, Cynthia and Minnett, who formed a company, Cynamin, just to organize this yearly production. The next year, my sisters-in-law joined the gang, making for even more mirth and merriment. After THAT, more of my mom's friends started taking their daughters and daughters-in-law, and now we have a merry band of 30 ladies who assault NYC every November for 5 days of musicals, museums, shopping, eating and drinking.

We arrive with tons of luggage, as all well-dressed gangs are wont to do.

We have a minibus owned by our favorite driver, Tommy. (Does someone have a picture of Tommy?? I need one!)

We stay at this place .

Always. It's wonderful to have a "home" in NYC, and the Kimberly is just that. The doormen remember us from year to year (ok, honestly, who could forget a group of well-heeled Southern ladies travelling in a pack?).

More to follow, but I will say that we made it through almost the whole trip before the stagehand's strike began. We only missed seeing David Hyde Pierce in Curtains .

We caught a snack before hitting the streets Thursday afternoon at Ferro's, the restaurant in the Kimberly.

Thursday night, we went to dinner here and it was fabulous. Then we saw "Grease"

which was okay, but I didn't like the way they re-wrote the musical to include the four songs that were written for the movie. I like the pre-movie musical version better. I didn't realize until we got there that the leads won their roles via a reality-tv based competition.

More on New York tomorrow!!