The Neatest Day

So I had the coolest day on Tuesday. Seriously. Friends and I were invited to be a part of a recording for Equity Cares - it's a Christmas cd that they sell after Broadway shows. And our friend needed to flesh out the strings and invited us to play along. It was just the essence of coolness.

So we embarked out for Manhattan's theater district Tuesday morning, making great time and finding parking easily. We walk to the recording studio (which was sandwiched between a great looking restaurant and a strip club) and take the elevator up to the 10th floor. We find where we're supposed to be and chill in the "green room" (which was more of an area than a room) and relax. The "real" musicians from the pit for Legally Blonde trickle in and hang out. They were incredibly laid back and just fun. We had a great time just hanging out. So we wait and wait and wait. Finally the strings are called in and we troop in and set up. We run through the piece once and record twice. That's it. We're done. So we troop out and head down. We invite this one cellist Jessie to have lunch with us. We head over to the Burger Joint - a secret little burger place in the fancy-schmancy Parker Meridien (yes, the same company shown on Bravo's The Parker). It's a little dive of a place where you have to fight for a seat and know exactly what you want before you get to the front of a line. Not that there's much to choose from - there's burgers and fries and that's it. You can get a beer with your burger though. Or a milkshake or a brownie. But it was delicious. And the fries were up there with crisp, fresh McDonald's fries. But the best part was just shooting the breeze with Jessie - who plays with.....JayZ and Kanye West. How freakin' cool is that?? It was just so much fun to talk to her and hear about the "real" music world.

After lunch we say our goodbyes to Jessie and head over to peruse the sheet music haven that is Patelson's, which we've all ordered music from. A disappointing cello selection though - not many albums of favorites where I could pull from for lessons. So I just parked my preggo butt and looked through other stuff. Steph and Jill make out well though, finding a slew of violin stuff. So we head off from there, a little weary and stop at Fluffy's Cafe for some water and brownies. Mmmm...chocolate. It was a cute little place that had tons of goodies in the case. I could have stared for hours.

So after that we head over to Manny's Music - a NY landmark where Jill and Steph grab tuner/metronomes and I drool over effects pedals and amps. Then we meet up again with Matt who brings us to a Portuguese tapas restaurant: Tintol. Mmmm...how I've never had tapas before is beyond me. We ordered about 5 or 6 dishes: chorizo, blood sausage, lamb ke-bob, lamb meatballs, lamb loin and some grilled mushrooms. The chorizo they brought to the table, doused in alcohol and flambed right in front of us. The blood sausage - as scary as it sounds tasted like a curry-infused meatloaf - tender and spicy with a moist texture to it. The lamb loin was like eating a tiny bit of a tender chop. The lamb meatball was tasty and the lamb ke-bob was good too. The mushrooms gave a needed break from the carniverous activity. So we stuffed ourselves, chit chatted and had a nice meal. Then home again, tired but having had such a great day.