Hot Child in the City

Day Twenty-Eight

Friday was not a good day for me. Nothing absolutely terrible happened, but I was just in a bad mood when I woke up, which is never a good sign.

Because it was Elke's last day of class and therefore my last day on my own, I had a slightly larger list of things I wanted to do than I did on other days. Even though I went to bed at my normal hour of 4 am the night before, I chose to get up early - I wanted to be out the door by 11 at the very latest. Miraculously, I managed to do this, but my plans for the day were ruined when I stepped outside and saw that it was POURING out. I had my umbrella, but there was no way I could spend the entire day outside in that crap. So there went my carefully planned day of fun in the city.

Not to be deterred by Mother Nature, I chose to head to The Strand. I still hadn't gotten to browse the entire store, so figured it was a good rainy day activity.

Ooo.. on my way to the subway I saw Kevin Bacon walking his dog in the rain. He didn't look as scary and gaunt as he usually does in movies, thank god. Other than that, he was just wet looking, as was everyone else who had been outside - umbrella or no - for more than 30 seconds. However, I am now a first degree Kevin Bacon, making you all second degrees (aren't you proud?).

I found a couple books at The Strand, most of which were on the dollar rack. I got Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (it was the first erotic novel in the states - VERY controversial), a book of Katharine Hepburn quotes, The Portable Enlightenment Reader, All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek (a joke gift for Garrett) and Um, Like... Om: A Girl Goddess's Guide to Yoga (it's supposed to be for teenage girls but it's actually really funny and far more relevant to my life than any of those serious yoga books).

By the time I was done there it had stopped raining, so I was able to do a bit of my previously-planned meandering. I walked up to 17th Street and walked along that until I reached 8th Avenue, going in stores I found to be interesting. This is another street known for its thrift and vintage shopping. Sadly, it was more of the latter. And what is the difference, you may ask? Well, thrift store owners realize that people wore those clothes before and price them accordingly. Vintage stores, on the other hand, seem to think that, like wine, clothes get better with age, and also price accordingly. This means that a cute sundress that cost $15 in 1970 costs $115 today. Yay!

I didn't really find much more. I bought a couple of old issues of Vogue Knitting and some books. I bought Elke a book called Kosher Sex that we had seen in the Museum of Sex store - it was only 25 cents.

At one point I stumbled upon the first day of the Barney's warehouse sale and made the dire mistake of going in. I always thought tv was exaggerating when it depicted big sales like that as a madhouse frenzy over which women were willing to kill each other. Now I know better. I walked in, spent five minutes there and then quickly left. A place where women fight over a dress from last season marked down to $220 is NOT my idea of fun.

The entire time I was out, men would NOT leave me alone, merely because I was a young woman walking alone. It had nothing to do with the way I actually looked, as I was wearing the same thing I had on the day before, had no make-up on and had spent the first hour of my day soaking wet. It was just really, really obnoxious - much more so than anything I've ever experienced before. I don't understand. Am I supposed to be flattered? I don't THINK so.

By the time I got home I was exhausted, but didn't have time for a nap. Garrett was going to be in town soon, so I had to wait for him to get here before I could really do much. However, as soon as he got here, I had to go to the pharmacy because I was out of allergy medicine and there was no way I'd last an entire day without it at the rate these cats shed. I ended up having to wait an hour for it to be filled, but didn't feel like coming home. Garrett and Elke were both napping, so I was just stuck out in the rain without an umbrella. So I went to McDonald's and got myself a large fry (that's three days in a row for those of you keeping track). Darwin wasn't working for the first time ever, but he did come in while I was there to order food, which I thought was really funny.

I finally got my medicine, came back here, showered (it had been way too long) and then quickly fell asleep for a wonderful, much-needed nap.

By the time we woke up we were all starving, so we went to the Saigon Grill, a Vietnamese restaurant down the street. It was pretty good, but my drink was the best part. I got a cocktail called "Frozen Bananaberry Split." I'm sure you can use your imagination to fill in the details.

Then we went to Hollywood Video to rent some movies. I really wanted to see Sin City again - I saw it in the theatres opening night and LOVED it. Of course, as I was filling out a membership form Garrett and Elke discovered the children's section and we ended up getting both Sin City and a Popples movie. And then guess which movie we did NOT watch when we got home?

So yes, we spent the remainder of the evening non-soberly watching the Popples. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

posted by Megan @ 4:22 PM