{"id":129,"date":"2014-08-11T00:49:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T00:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=129"},"modified":"2014-08-11T00:49:22","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T00:49:22","slug":"new-connections-through-an-old-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"New Connections Through An Old Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p>One of the best parts of living in NYC is the abundance of great restaurants. I recently caught up with dear friend Yong at one of my longtime favorites, <a href=\"http:\/\/nycrg.com\/cara-mia\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cara Mia<\/a> in Hell\u2019s Kitchen.\n<div id=\"attachment_128\" style=\"width: 826px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cara_Mia_Header_New_2.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-128\" class=\"wp-image-128 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cara_Mia_Header_New_2.jpg?resize=640%2C243\" alt=\"Cara_Mia_Header_New_2\" width=\"640\" height=\"243\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cara_Mia_Header_New_2.jpg?w=816 816w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cara_Mia_Header_New_2.jpg?resize=300%2C113 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-128\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cara Mia: One of NYC\u2019s best Italian bistros<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The cozy Italian bistro offers attentive service and delicious fare in a relaxed, low key setting. It provided the ideal venue for Yong and I to fill each other in on recent developments. We talked about summer travels, his firstborn heading off to college soon and my excitement over being quoted in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/08\/03\/travel\/zeroing-in-on-the-female-traveler.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a> about a new package for women at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.westinnewyorkgrandcentral.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Westin New York Grand Central<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yong invited me\u00a0 to join him later in the week at a social networking event being hosted by a college friend of his. Upon arriving at Latitude, my first thought was\u2013too crowded and too loud. So I felt truly reassured when one of the attendees at the mixer said the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis reminds me of where I used to go in my college days,\u201d she said as I nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Yong\u2019s friend Marc, who hosted the gathering, shared that he organized it to offset the challenges of broadening your social circle in a fast paced city like NYC. Indeed, even in a metropolis of millions, you have to make an effort to meet new people.<\/p>\n<p>The mixer introduced me to some fascinating locals\u2013a photographer, lawyer and wardrobe stylist among them. It was a reminder that if you want to change something in your life, taking even a small step can make a difference. Especially when you have good friends to take those steps with.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best parts of living in NYC is the abundance of great restaurants. I recently caught up with dear friend Yong at one of my longtime favorites, Cara Mia in Hell\u2019s Kitchen. The cozy Italian bistro&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=129\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New Connections Through An Old Friend  http:\/\/wp.me\/p4J0fq-25","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,11,32],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catching-up-with-old-friends","category-dining-out","category-hells-kitchen","tag-cara-mia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4J0fq-25","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}