The Suite life of New York

It's not often that one gets the chance to sit on luxury's lap when in New York. To tell you the truth, only the lucky and insanely rich get to sit on that lap-- unless one of your clients happen to be a major broadcasting company looking to do an investor day in New York City next year. Cue event planner Dru Ortega. So where do you go in New York City when the client wants the best? A place to rival Bucharest's Palace and National Museum, a place that "Wow"'s attendees and really gives the investor days held abroad a run for their euros. The past two weeks I've been coordinating with some of New York's finest hotels and spaces to find the right venue for this investor day-- the company wants the best--I have expensive taste-- chances are it'll all turn out pretty good.

First stop: The Mandarin Oriental Hotel. For those unfamiliar--it's the quintessential hotel that overlooks Central Park, provides sprawling views of the Manhattan skyline and East River all for one of the city's heftiest price tags. It's no Hilton. The view from the 35th floor is surreal. It's like peering into a diorama of New York or an exhibit of a museum. High above all the hustle of Columbus Circle you stand looking out of enormous wall to wall windows in a 6,000 sq. ft. room. The staff caters to your every desire--- and for a second you feel like a millionaire-- you're planning a excessively opulent investor day, and its a no-holds-bar budget, but lets not get ahead of ourselves...New York has many other beautiful and equally lavish places to make an impression.

Next stop: The Palace Hotel. To put this hotel into context, the day we decided to tour the space they were filmming Gossip Girl out front. Turns out, when I got home that night the show was on and one of the main characters is staying at the hotel. The main entrance was decorated in a Christmas theme with fake snow and all for the show, but the extravagance didn't end there. I'm not entirely sure what these Cater Directors and Event Coordinators expect when they first see me arrive at the hotel after speaking briefly on the phone, but chances are they dont' imagine a 5'4 22-year-old showing up to make arrangements. I'm always keeping an eye out for their reaction when I'm introducing myself-- partly because I find it entertaining and partly because I'm curious if I'm living up to what they pictured. The Palace is quite literally a palace decked out in chandeliers, crown molding, murals, gold accents, fire places, leather club chairs, white gloved bell hops--- basically, picture a palace and that's the hotel. While the ballrooms where I'm looking to hold the events are more or less your typical ballrooms reminiscent of the ones where Homecomings and Proms are held....these offer a much more refined and detailed venue...you know for those who can afford to throw money away on it. I figured while visiting The Palace, how could I pass up checking out the rooms...its not like I'd ever get to see them any other way... so, I got a tour of every sized room in nearly every price range the hotel offers. From "Junior Executive" to "VIP" the rooms were impressive, but hotel rooms none-the-less. Perhaps the most noteable of the rooms is the Triple-plex one situated on each of the four corners of the structure. It's a three story apartment that's a "hotel room" for the VIPs to house their families, hold their private meetings and basically spend absorbent amounts of money on. Of particular interest to me, was the unbelieveable patio area that offered the most incredible view of Manhattan. It was like the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building were an arm stretch away. Again, one of those surreal moments that you kind of stand and look around and realize that you're actually in New York and this is your job...and maybe hoping that one day you can actually spend the night there.

Next Stop: The Lincoln Center situated overlooking Columbus Circle. Here's the best way to put this one into context. If you've ever seen the Ellen DeGeneres show when she comes to New York City...it's the room where they tape the show. It's got that enormous floor to ceiling window that overlooks Central Park and Columbus Circle with upper Manhattan in the background. The window is overwhemling in a good way. You feel like you're looking into a giant fish bowl and Manhattan is the tiny castles the fish swim in and out of...the window is huge! As for the rest of the space, it's your regular auditorium, so really of noting about the space is the massive window...that's it. That's all I've got. Although, depending on who you are...on my way back from the Lincoln Center I happened upon the filmming of the Sex and the City movie in Bryant Park. They had recreated the Fashion Week tent's facade for the characters to pretend they were attending. I didn't stick around to catch a glimpse of any of the actors, but I passed the information along to some co-workers who ran out to snap some photos. It's still pretty cool to see movies being filmmed in areas that I just walk through and have lunch in (for example I was actually sitting where they were filmming the movie yesterday for lunch with a friend...a bit weird).

Along the New York kind of life...Friday night I went out to some uber posh restaurant in Chelsea for KM's birthday. While the atmosphere and crowd was generally you're young, trendy and super image conscious...the restaurant was nothing to write home about --- except of course the ridiculous prices for a not so impressive meal (or should I say dish). The restaurant was SAPA which has been featured in movies and young celebrities are sometimes spotted dining there-- but $60 for a Red Snapper, one cocktail and an appetizer that was split amongst 4 is not cheap. I've had better meals for 15 bucks! Of course, we followed that up with expensive cocktails at my favorite spot PDT, which I hadn't been to in a while and never fails to impress visitors who are in town for the weekend. It's my go-to spot--- when I feel like spending more than I can actually afford.

Also, I'm happy to report that after 6 months of living like -- what I characterize as a hobo with a home -- I've finally coughed up some G's for furniture. Come to think of it-- I'm growing up...I've bought my first bedroom set and couch for my apartment. Wow. That just hit me. It's strange how we all seem to have different definitive lines of "growing up" and mine was that I bought a couch.