Miss Gulley in Manhattan: Good Times and Bad Times

Being a waitress/barista is not glamorous by any means and Saturday was no exception. I was so tired from working Wednesday through Friday and I volunteered to pick up a shift on Saturday. Saturday is the busiest day of the week so there is no time to stop or eat. There were four of us working and all four of us were running around like crazy taking care of tables and making sure everyone was okay.  I dropped things so many times, broke two glasses and then this is killer... I lost a credit card slip. When it was time for me to cash out for the day I went to the credit card machine and accidentally settled all the credit card accounts before another waitress, Hannah, had settled her tips. Because I pressed the wrong button looking for my credit card slip Hannah was not going to be able to put in her tips. Basically she wasn't getting paid for all of her hard work that day.  Of course, I had no idea I did anything wrong until Mina saw the slip of paper and said in the calmest, quietest voice with her french accent "Oh no..who did this? Someone settled all the accounts!" I just went about my business because I had no idea who did it. Then I finally looked back and saw the piece of paper and said "Oh Mina, I'm sorry it's my fault. I did that." She said "well, why?" I said "I pressed the wrong button and had no idea what it was." So then she was still very calm and said "well because you did this Hannah won't get her tips." So I said "okay I'll give her mine." Of course there is more to the dialogue because at this point I'm feeling so awful and really sorry that I'm so not with it sometimes. Mina said "Okay Hannah calculate your tips." So Hannah calculated her tips and I'm thinking "well crap I just made a ton of money and now I'm gonna have to give all of my tips to her. But that's what happens when you make a mistake I've gotta make it right." So Hannah told me how much she would have made and it was $40.00 so I gave her $40 and she said "I'm not gonna take this I feel so bad." I said "Hannah don't be crazy. If you don't take it then you just worked for nothing. "  So that was my day. I cried a few tears because I was just ready to eat and get out of there and my friend Noel came to visit me and I wanted to visit with him.  I finally clocked out at like 4:45 and I was supposed to get off at 4:00. Mina and I hugged it out and everything was all better.
I was finally able to sit with Noel to eat for the first time all day and visit. Noel's friend Jonathan came in to visit so all three of us sat in Cranky's and talked for a while. Jonathan is CRAZY but so hilarious. He's an actor in the city and grew up in South Carolina and is a true southern gentleman. You can't find those around these parts anymore so it was refreshing to be treated like a lady.
After the visit with those two crazy boys at Cranky's we all headed down to Nolita and ate a this cute and super yummy pizza place. I have no idea what the name of it was but if I saw it again I would know it. After dinner we went to a frozen yogurt place called Pinkberry and enjoyed dessert.
I had to leave after that because Sandra was coming to visit!!!! I still needed to clean my place and get everything in order. It was okay though because she didn't arrive till about 10 PM.
I came home real fast (but keep in mind real fast anywhere here is like 30-45 min or longer) cleaned up my place a little bit, called some friends and then Sandra was finally here! YAY!!!!! We talked for a bit and then walked down a ways to get Sandra some food and then went to sleep because we had busy days ahead of us.
Sunday Sandra and I slept in and grabbed brunch at this cute place on 112th street called Community Food and Juice. It's right by Columbia University and St. John the Divine Cathedral so it was a really cute area. The food was also quite tasty.  I have to say that if I didn't walk almost everywhere and trek up and down six flights of stairs I would be soooo fat! I eat like a queen here. It's almost ridiculous. Anyway, after our Brunch we walked to the Cathedral so we could look inside. This Cathedral is the one I stumbled upon my first few days here. After taking pictures we went down to SoHo for a day of fun shopping. We spent tons of time in H&M and then went down to Spring Street for an afternoon snack at Rice to Riches, a rice pudding place. After our snack we headed to Union Square for church at Hillsong NYC. This is my new favorite place. We had to wait in line to get in and there was still only standing room.
The service at Hillsong was amazing! There was no sermon although they planned on one. Instead it was a night of praise and worship through song with several encouraging words from scripture thrown in. It was exactly what my heart needed and I just loved it. My favorite quote was "Let go and let God." It's so cliche but so true and such confirmation from the Lord about handing my dreams over to him.  Jeremiah 33:2-3 was the scripture focus for the night and it says "This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it-the Lord is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' It was perfect! That's what I needed to hear and the songs just spoke to my heart. I kinda love Hillsong NYC.
After church Sandra and I met up with Jonathan from South Carolina at Brother Jimmy's BBQ for a night of Karaoke. Oh man! This was a crazy, hilarious and awesomely fun place. Jonathan is a regular there and he knew everyone in the place. The Dj was hilarious and since it was a bar, there were girls dancing on tables and crazy things happening all over the place. Sandra and I were laughing all night long. The evening of karaoke ended around 1AMish with Bohemian Rhapsoday led by a hilarious couple and sung by the whole restaraunt.  Such a fun time!
Monday Sandra and I were so tired but we got up around 9am and made it to Cranky's for a nice brunch. I just love Cranky's! After that we went to the park in Long Island City and then headed to Grand Central Station. We wandered around Grand Central for a while window shopping and enjoying the AC. We had originally planned to go to the art exhibit of Linda McCartney's photos she took of the Beatles and other bands but while we were at Cranky's the website said they were closed on Mondays so we really just roamed around all day until finally we decided to call and see if they were open and YAY they were! So we went to the Bonni Benrubi or something like that and looked a the photo exhibit in a tiny art gallery. It was really pretty cool and we both loved it. After that we went to the TKTS booth and bought tickets to go see the longest running Off- Broadway show ,The Fantasticks. We of course had to have a fancy dinner before we went so we decided on Trattoria Dopo Teatro which happened to be right by my favorite New Years Eve place Cafe Un Deux Trois. The food at Trattoria was sooooo good and a perfect meal before the show.
The Fantasticks was really precious. All of the actors were so good and Luisa could not have been more perfect. She was so adorable and her voice was really nice.    As always, I love shows and think they are the best ever but I really enjoyed this one.   After the show Sandra and I had to have dessert so we went to Junior's for some chocolate swirl cheescake. I definitley think Junior's rivals Carnegi Deli's cheescake.
Tuesday was Sandra's last day in town but we had time to do some other things before we left. We went to one of the cutest breakfast places ever called Good Enough to Eat. Oh man, this place was again, so good. The bacon was probably some of the best bacon I've ever had in my life. The waiter even said the bacon is the reason they have a line out the door on Saturday mornings. I believe it. They cook and cure it themselves at the place and it was amazing. After that we strolled through Central Park because wether you've never been to NYC or you've been a million times it's just something you do. We loved it and it the weather was so nice in the shade. After about an hour or so we headed back to my apartment so she could finish packing and catch the train to the airport. Of course it was sad to see her go but we had a great fun weekend.