Yesterday was one of those perfect days where I didn’t think anything could go wrong.

After enjoying a delicious birthday dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab and a few birthday drinks at Twist and Score, two gay clubs in Miami, with my co-worker and manager, both of whom are gay, I slept until 8am, ready to conquer the day.

Marc, my co-worker, and I were able to catch earlier flights to New York City which meant that we only enjoyed breakfast and a few hours of work before arriving at Miami International for our flights.

Due to my Delta status, I was able to change flights within 3 hours of flight time, for no charge!

I grabbed a quick lunch before boarding the plane in an emergency row, ready for 3 hours of reading and relaxation.

  By Miami, it was fun but I’m ready to see my friends and husband in New York City!

In between reading, I enjoyed a delicious Quizno’s salad, Sun Chips, and a mini bag of peanut M&Ms.

216 pages later, I finally figured out why so many people love the book, Girl With A Dragon Tattoo!

The weather was clear and cool when we landed at JFK, thirty minutes ahead of our planned arrival time.

Since the painters weren’t supposed to finish in our apartment until around 6pm, I headed to Equinox for a quick workout to kill time. I rode on the spin bike for 45 minutes and enjoyed a 15 minute run on the treadmill to burn off some of the previous night’s drinks and food. Since it was only 5:30 when I finished I had the perfect excuse to treat myself to a pedicure. I mean what else could I do to kill time?

Since my normal nail salon, QQ Nails, had a 30 minute wait, I tried a new neighborhood spa, Blooming Nails at 20th and Park Avenue in Gramercy. There were about 15 patrons in there when I arrived but since most of them were having manicures, they were able to usher me back for a pedicure immediately. The space is beautiful and very spa like, unlike many small New York City nail spas.

Forty five minutes later I had very happy feet and calves that felt like butter after the 10 minute deep tissue massage, included with the pedicure.

But, upon meeting Bo at home, we were met with the bad that finally came during this better than expected day. Our painters had left us high and dry, without any explanation on why our house was still in disarray. The painting company we used, Cheap Painters NYC, had great reviews on Craigslist and was fully bonded and insured. Therefore, upon meeting them and signing the contract, we had no worries that they would finish in the promised 3 days for the quoted price which was $500 less than any other painters we contacted.

Three days later, our apartment was only 2/3 done and none of the furniture, paintings, or hardware has been replaced. In fact, we don’t have one completely finished room. Therefore, our plans of decorating the house for Christmas and starting on our holiday cooking in preparation for next weeks annual Christmas party, is history. We definitely learned our lesson in that when trusting laborers in your home, it’s best to go with someone is personally recommended by friends or family. Trying to save money on things like painting and construction isn’t the best route. I guess sometimes bad things happen to good people!

We spent the evening venting on the phone with our parents and drowning our sorrows in some delicious wine and Chipotle. As my dad pointed out, the good news is that we love the two colors our interior designer chose, Camelback and Oyster Bay.

Luckily, we woke up this morning to a phone call from the painter, promising to finish the job Monday since our building doesn’t allow any painters or construction on the weekends. While that’s great, it is definitely a day late and a dollar short. They will not be receiving full payment when the job is done!

Instead of sulking around the house, I headed to Equinox for a six mile treadmill run before an hour training session. The run went better than normal due to lots of ESPN Game Day, which is live from Atlanta for my alma mater’s SEC Championship appearance this afternoon! 

After a quick salad lunch, Bo and I decided to make the best of the day and the nice weather with a relaxing walk through the city and some Christmas shopping before my birthday dinner tonight at the Hurricane Club.