On friday I drove down with Adrian to visit Nicolette for the weekend. I had only met her 24 hours but was very excited to see her again. Adrian dropped me off at Horsefeathers in his hometown of Tarrytown (Sleepy Hollow) (yes, the famous Sleepy Hollow) so I could meet Nicolette, Carolyn and her boyfriend Evans for dinner. The two girls were a little tipsy when I got there so I ordered a large Newcastle and a burger because I was starving. Evans showed up 30 minutes later and we all stuffed ourselves. Adrian suggested I get the New England Clam chowder and as he said, it definitely was one of the best I've ever had. I'm a conneseur of New England Clam Chowda.. I have to have it wherever I go. haha. Adrian met up with us after dinner and we went to J.P. Doyles first for a couple drinks and then made our way to the Setback Inn for beers and Pool. I ordered a rum and coke and it was $5! I guess I'm used to Upstate NY prices. Carolyn and Evans took off before we got to the Set Back Inn. Adrian and I played pool in the back where I ran the table at first until he had a miracle comback and beat me with one ball left on the table! It was about 2am at that point so Nicolette and I went back to her place.
In the morning we woke up and her roomate Liz gave us some of the "Chicken A La Liz King" which was honestly some of the best food I've ever eaten. We then spent the day walking around Greewich and visiting friends of hers. We ended up watching "Walk the Line" at her friends in the afternoon before meeting Carolyn and Evans for dinner at the Sundown Saloon on Greenwich Ave. I had pulled BBQ pork which was fantastic - and of course my now favorite beer - Newcastle Brown Ale. After dinner we went to visit Nicolettes old roomates and then went back to her place to chill out and have some wine. Liz had left two diferent chocolate cakes for us to try so that she could give the best ones to her friend who was going through some hard times. Well.... there were 4 of us, and the boys picked the plain chocolate while the girls picked the coffee bean chocolate... so I doubt if our Tie helped Liz out at all... although I'm sure Nicolettes vote probably counted twice :).
Sunday morning I went to church with Nicolette. Her church service is held in a middle school auditorium because they don't have a building built yet, and because the congregation has grown from about 200 5 years ago to almost 700 today. It was wonderful going to a service without the contraints and rigidness of a church. The stage had 3 giant screens on which pictures and video could be displayed while the paster walked around with a microphone. There was also a live band right in front of the stage which was absolutely amazing. Professional musicians! They even played a clip from Lord of the Rings to emphasize the pastor's serman. For the first time in a long time I felt really comfortable in a church environment. I even sat behind Kathy Lee Gifford and got to shake her hand and meet her during the service. After church was a little awkward for me because I didn't know anyone but everyone I was introduced to seemed like a genuinely wonderful person.
After church we headed out to lunch with a couple of her friends to the Putnam Restaurant on Greenwich Ave. I wasn't that hungry so I just had a bowl of "chicken soup with sphagetti" as the waitress called it (chicken noodle). I really hit it off with Taylor and I hope to sometime hang out with again. He reminded me a lot of my buddy Ned Bair from Bowdoin. After lunch Nicolette and I went back to her place for a quick nap where I tried to hold a pillow in front of her to block the sun from hitting her eyes. We then went and met up with her sister and a friend to go to the Rob Mathis concert a town over at the First Methodist Church. Rob is a world renound composer and has worked with Dave Letterman and many others composing music for movies, famous musicians etc. He's also a really nice funny guy who plays in Nicolette's church band. The concert was amazing and his music was wonderful. It hit me kind of hard because a couple of his slower songs about his grandfather dying reminded me of my fathers illness so I got a little teary trying to hide it from Nicolette. I was also very quiet absorbing it all because I hadn't been around that much religion for a very long time. I hope I didn't offend Nicolette by my silence. Rob had a full band playing with him including the guitarist for the Dave Letterman Band.
After the concert we stopped briefly at Nicolettes and had more of Liz's delicious A La King before driving to meet Adrian again in Sleepy Hollow at his parents place. We were introduced to his parents and after saying goodbye Adrian and I headed home... at 65mph the whole way! hahaha. I didn't say anything because I was in no rush... but 65mph... haha. I didn't have a camera the whole weekend so there are no pictures but I had a really wonderful time and it got me thinking about my own faith and beliefs. I hope Nicolette will be able to make it up here for St. Patty's day with those beautiful green eyes of hers.
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