Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder

This weekend I was whisked away to the city with some of my school friends to meet up with some of their old college friends. Without going into too much detail of the intricacies of a friend of a friend having more money than is comprehensible to me, I found myself in the middle of a weekend of oddities and excesses, VIP areas and table service. It was weird. The highlight was Saturday night, which found me absolutely floating on Cloud Surreal as I sat down to a specialized tasting menu at Daniel, complete with wine that put my jaw on the floor and an unfathomably old Madeira. This might mean nothing to most people but it is absolute insanity in the best way possible for me. So I was as giddy as can be, clasping my hands together as each course was set in front of me and giggling little squeals as I listened to our host ordering wine. At the end of our meal, we took a tour of the kitchen. So we get down to this beautiful clean kitchen that is being closed up, as it is now 12:30 in the morning and we stand behind the line to take a picture of our whole group. We're talking to the staff and joking around while pictures are flying when suddenly a bunch of the chefs start yelling, "Chef, Chef! Get in the picture!" This little Asian woman comes in and my friend Lou says, "Is that the pastry chef?" I shrug, then realize they are still saying, "Chef, get in the picture."

I look up and see, as if in slow motion, Daniel Boulud rounding the corner and heading to our group.
"Oh my God. This is not happening." Lou whispers behind me with a shrill giggle.
I clasp Lena's friend Anne's hand, almost inaudibly whispering, "OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod..." as Boulud pounces on top of the line to get in the picture. He then climbs off and circles around to shake our hands, do introductions and take more pictures. When he leaves, Lena stares at Anne, who is in grad school for Psychology and shrieks, "ANNE! It's like if you met Freud!!!"
With half of the group having attended culinary school at some point, it's a pretty astounding experience to have. And that was my weekend.