I’m on the train composing this post (by hand to type later because I’m old school). I’m listening to Paul McCartney on my ’Pod (because, thanks to Miriam and Erin, I’m no longer old school with that) and trying to hold back my tears…but before I get to the show, I’ll start at the beginning of the weekend.

I arrived in NYC on Friday night. Lil met me at Penn Station (thanks, Lil!)—this is the moment when First and Last Weekend began. For those of you who don’t know, Lil is the first cousin and I’m the last cousin on that side of the family. Anyway, after a pit stop at Lil’s apartment, we went to dinner at Cavatappo (Italian for corkscrew; heh?), a cute little wine bar/restaurant with delicious food. For those who are wondering, as I would be if I read someone else’s blog, I had the arugula and goat cheese salad, which was so hugemongus that I couldn’t finish it and the appetizer portion of a special of the night, the eggplant ravioli. Oh, and a glass of malbec, which I’d never had before but thoroughly enjoyed. We split dessert, a pear and almond tart and chocolate semifredo. And as much as I love chocolate, I preferred the tart! I meant to take pictures of all the food, but I forgot to bring the camera that night. While we ate dinner, I faced the window and watched a big storm blow through, grateful that our concert tickets were for the next night.

Saturday morning came quickly, and we headed to our favorite brunch place: Sarabeth’s! A perfect place for First (Lil Beth) and Last (Sara), of course. I do have pictures of this meal.


iced-tea lisa-and-ffft ffft my-omelette


From left: Lil’s pitcher of iced tea; Lil posing with her fat and fluffy french toast;
close-up of the fandfft, and my omelette, English muffin, and coffee.

We hated it.


no-more-ffft no-more-omelette


Terrible food. Just disgusting.

After brunch, we stopped by Lil’s work. I won’t name the place here (for Lil’s privacy, obviously), but I will say that the work they do there is amazing, and it’s a very humbling place to visit. Next up: Union Square, a walk through Chelsea Market (complete with wine tasting!), and a stroll through the Village. It was a gorgeous, relaxing day, despite my excitement; it was only a matter of (what seemed like very long) hours until seeing PAUL!

After going back to Lil’s for a short rest (well, for Lil; I went to get a coffee instead), we started on our trek to Citi Field for the main event.

(More photos from First and Last Weekend to follow after my Paul post.)