{"id":213,"date":"2014-11-09T02:17:23","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T02:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=213"},"modified":"2014-11-09T02:17:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T02:17:23","slug":"in-celebration-of-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=213","title":{"rendered":"In Celebration Of New Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p>Friday, I enjoyed an epic girls night out with my cousin Alexandra. We met up at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gratanyc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Grata<\/a>, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Midtown East.\n<div id=\"attachment_216\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216\" class=\"wp-image-216 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg?resize=640%2C208\" alt=\"Grata\" width=\"640\" height=\"208\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg?resize=1024%2C332 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg?resize=300%2C97 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg?w=1541 1541w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Grata1.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-216\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grata Restaurant (photo courtesy: gratanyc.com)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Attentive service, an enticing menu and cozy atmosphere make Grata a delightful experience every time. We enjoyed mouth watering burrata salad, spaghetti in a light lemon cream sauce and chocolate mousse for dessert. I also discovered the pleasures of French martinis. Mmm.<\/p>\n<p>Alex and I had a lot to catch up on. I told her about my exciting new chapter at work \u2014 adding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.westinny.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Westin New York at Times Square<\/a> to my Marketing Manager duties. She filled me in on what\u2019s new with her and hubby. During our soul soothing four-hour plus conversation, we also covered a lot of emotional ground \u2014 reflecting on family, romantic relationships and letting go of the past to make room for new beginnings.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been working a lot on the latter lately, especially when it comes to my late, beloved parents. For far too long now, I\u2019ve been holding on too tightly to their memory, and surrounding myself with physical reminders of them. After ten years in my home, I am at long last starting the journey of making it a reflection of me now.<\/p>\n<p>Though I will forever and always miss Mom and Dad, grieving daughter is no longer the label I want to have define me. It\u2019s time for a fresh start and looking forward.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s to new beginnings \u2014 at work, home and most of all, in the heart.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, I enjoyed an epic girls night out with my cousin Alexandra. We met up at Grata, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Midtown East. Attentive service, an enticing menu and cozy atmosphere make Grata a delightful&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/?p=213\">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 Blog Post: In Celebration Of New Beginnings http:\/\/wp.me\/p4J0fq-3r","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":[47,10],"tags":[72,134],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-girls-night-out","category-midtown-nyc","tag-grata-restaurant","tag-the-westin-new-york-at-times-square"],"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-3r","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","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=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}