The Happy-Ending Birthday...literally

Empire State Building from our room

For Jim's 40th birthday I surprised him with a overnight trip to New York City.  I kidnapped him from work at noon (he had zero idea), organized an overnight babysitter and had everything planed for 24 hours of fun.

First we checked into the hotel where I had Crumbs cupcakes waiting for him.  We had stopped into a Crumbs the last time we were in NYC so I wanted to have something fun waiting for us when we arrived.  The Marriott organized a 12th-floor room overlooking the Empire State Building for his birthday so we decided to take advantage of the quiet, and relaxed in bed before dinner, watching the clouds behind the famous building and catching our breath from an exciting afternoon of cake, cupcakes and kidnappings!

Nobu for dinner

We made our cab ride over to Nobu for dinner.  I have heard so much about Nobu on TV and the radio so I figured it would be a memorable place for dinner.  We ate and then I had Lava Cake and Green Tea ice cream pre-ordered for him, for after dinner.  After eating and a nice cup of coffee we made our way to see Chicago on Broadway.  The show was sexy, long and there were only 6 women's toilets in the entire theater so I am not 100% sure I am a fan of the theater....jury's out, BUT this was our first time at a  Broadway show so for nothing else, it was something new!

After the show we walked to a rooftop bar that was opened up to the 70 degree, unseasonably warm evening and enjoyed a drink (water for me of course).  The music was way to loud for what we were looking for, but the evening and company was wonderful!

B.E.S. for brunch

The next day I had a reservation at B.E.S. (Boutique Eat Shop) and couldn't wait to devour the blueberry pancakes that were shown on their website!  Jim ordered the Cornflake-encrusted-stuffed french toast with caramelized bananas and syrup.  The only problem was, when they brought him extra syrup they brought him HONEY, which he is extremely allergic to, so we had to send it back!  UG!  The brunch was lovely as we were able to talk, drink coffee and enjoy the amazing photography of the naked people all over the restaurant...who knew?

After brunch I had two massages scheduled.  As we made our taxi ride over and exited the taxi I wondered if we were going to do our laundry or get massages?  The photo from the Internet and the impression I had of where we were going, and where we ACTUALLY ended up, were two VERY different places!

As Jim and I carefully made our way into the SALON AND SPA (not!!!), I told the woman behind the counter "two for the 1:00 appointment, please."  She asked Jim to have a seat on the all-but-fold-out-chairs in the "waiting room" and escorted me 3 feet forward.  As I looked down the "hallway" which was made of a wall on one side, and a wall of white sheets on the other side, I saw a man exiting one of the sheet-made rooms.  He was not what I would consider a regular at a Spa but looked more like he was on his lunch break from a construction site.  He had on a baseball cap, jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, work boots and a jean jacket.  As I pealed my eyes from him as I was attempting to size up what exactly I was getting myself into, the woman flung the sheet "wall" back and exposed the table that I would be having my massage on.

My eyes scanned the situation and the fact that each massage "room" was only made up of sheet-walls and that ONE of my walls made up the wall to the waiting room?!  On my massage table was a cell phone and I didn't even allow my eyes to go much further than all of this.  I remained standing where I had been when the sheet was pulled back to reveal my "room" and quickly walked back to Jim.  I mumbled a few words to him as the woman was saying "no you set here in watin room and you come in here wit me."  I looked up at her politely and said "ok, well I need to speak to my husband so can you wait a second?"   Jim looked at me puzzled as I opened the front door of the building.  He followed me out to the sidewalk "what happened?" I was frozen, "I think that was a Happy Ending Massage Parlor and I'm not kidding!  I didn't know from the Internet and I mean who would know this?"  He began to  laugh at me as the woman came out to find us standing on the sidewalk.  She said "you not want massages today?"  I was like, "no we're good, thanks..." and she started laughing at us and walked back inside.

Did all that really just happen?

Jim and I started walking anywhere.  I felt so bad because I really wanted for us to have a nice experience and nice massages for his birthday, but I didn't want him to have THAT good of a massage for his birthday! I mean I am a nice wife, but I am not THAT nice!  As we made our way to a corner park, we laughed about the fact that I should have known from the price, we were getting ourselves into something a little different than we were use to.  Who knew?

I guess I need to be a little more careful about where I book a massage, ya never know what you are going to end up with a little happier birthday than you originally planned...Happy 40th Jim...Just not THAT happy, geeze!

Rooftop bar...thank goodness he loves me...

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