Day Thirty-Three
Wednesday I decided to let myself sleep in, and it was lovely. It's so nice to wake up without the awful jangling sound of an alarm. I think I finally got out of bed around 1.00.
The last time we were in SoHo we didn't get to finish all our of shopping there, so we decided to head down there to finish it up. I got some earrings to match the really cool necklace Garrett bought me in Philadelphia, but that's about it. It's really frustrating because so much of what we do is shopping and after a while, everything starts to look the same. It's even worse in SoHo because a lot of the stores carry the same brands with only slightly different prices.
After a bit Garrett called to let us know he was at Penn Station. Wednesday was his last day at work, and so he decided to come to the city one more time before heading back to Baltimore to spend some time with his family before school starts. We met up with him and headed back home to hang out for a bit before going to dinner.
For dinner we decided to revisit Kenka, the insane Japanese restaurant we went to our first week here. We gorged ourselves and drank ourselves silly, as is custom at Kenka. It was great fun. We spent a couple of hours there and then we headed back here, as Garrett was very tired and Elke and I aren't too big on bars.
Day Thirty-Two
The weather here was supposed to be beautiful all week, so I figured I'd spend some time in the park Tuesday morning. So I got up before Elke and packed up all my stuff and headed to my usual spot over by
Belvedere Castle. When I left it was 75* and sunny, so when I got there I saw TONS of people lying out and felt completely comfortable doing the same. I did a practice LSAT while I tanned.
I stopped by the apartment to pick drop off my backpack and meet up with Elke, who was up by the time I got home. We headed out to the East Village to see what
Howl Fest was all about and check out some vintage stores. It turned out that Howl Fest didn't really exist beyond the nightly performances (there was supposed to be a ton of street art) and the vintage stores were all ridiculously overpriced, which I guess was to be expected. Why can't these people understand that these are USED clothes - and most of them don't even have any fashion value beyond a costume party.
Then we went to St. Mark's Place to find somewhere to eat. We decided on the
Dojo Restaurant because it was both cheap and tasty looking. Plus you could create your own smoothie and the bartender was really hot. Of course, we ended up getting stuck in a corner and the food was AWFUL. It was some of the worst stuff I'd ever eaten. My grilled cheese was cold and made on pita bread - I had to send it back. Then my fries tasted like they got them at McDonald's three days ago and then left them on the counter. As for my rice, well, it tasted TERRIBLE and looked (and felt like maggots). They very well could have been. The good news is it was cheap.
Oh, this table of idiot girls sat down near us while we were there. One of them was Asian, and another girl asked her what town her dad was born in and the girl goes, "I don't know - he's Shanghainese - All I know is he's Shanghainese!" Believe me, it was hilarious.
After dinner we decided to head over to Union Square to check out
Forever 21 and have another look at
Filene's Basement. On our way there we saw a man selling decorated sea shells on the street. We stopped when he said "they're real leaves" as we passed by. They had pressed pot leaves glued to them and they were painted and had a hook. They're really really cool and not expensive at all - I got a smaller one for $3, and Elke got bigger ones for $12 - one for her and one for her friend's birthday. I want to make mine into a Christmas tree ornament and I might even put it up if we get our own little Christmas trees.
Shopping proved relatively fruitful - I got a shirt for $12 at Forever 21 and another one for $10 from Filene's Basement. And they're both
very cute - I didn't even buy them for the sake of finally buying
something since I'd been failing at it all day. After that we hung out in the square a bit, and then we decided to head home - we needed something in our stomachs that wasn't from Dojo.
Day Thirty-One
We were up late Sunday night, so Monday we got a bit of a late start. Our original plan was to go to the West Village or Canal Street, but by the time we were ready to go, it seemed too late to go down there - many things would have been close to closing.
So instead, we headed to Fifth Avenue. Elke hadn't had a chance to go yet and I wanted to revisit the
New York Public Library Store so I could buy
their planner and a book journal. I want to start keeping one - you write down the title, author, date read, feelings while reading it and quotes you liked from it. Very cool.
Oooh, but before we left the nice postman brought me
my beautiful new shoes. They were even better than I thought they would be. I had no idea my feet could look so pretty.
Sadly, when we got there, we found out that the library is CLOSED on Mondays. Closed. Every single Monday. I was very sad. I know I can buy those things other places, but I wanted to support the library, even though the main branch kind of sucks. So much for that.
But we continued up the street toward
Bloomingdale's, which was our final destination. Elke had some really good memories of it involving her dad spending lots of money on her, so she wanted to check it out. Of course, we stopped in other places on our way, one of which was (surprise, surprise)
H & M. We spent a TON of time there, as we both love everything they make. I ended up getting a BEAUTIFUL trench coat that was on sale for $50. It falls just below my knees, is made from a cool-looking, almost wooly/denimish in appearance textured tan material and has two rows of big buttons down the middle with a matching belt and a HUGE collar. It's very classic, very Audrey Hepburn. I was a bit apprehensive about getting it because I already have a lightweight coat and I really need a winter coat, and it just isn't warm enough for that. But I figure with the right scarf and hat, I can wear it well into November at least. Plus, it's beautiful.
We went to a few other places, but $50 is my daily budget, so I didn't really want to spend anymore money unless I saw something I absolutely "needed."
By the time we left Bloomingdale's, my new shoes were making my feet hurt - they're really comfortable, but not for 5 hours of walking. They're too pretty for things like that. However, I did spend most of the day running into things because I was staring at my pretty, pretty feet. Something tells me we have just seen the birth of a shoe fetish.
When we got back we went and got some pizza down the street and then came back and watched the new episode of
Weeds, with which we are both obsessed.
Day Thirty
Sunday was great fun. Because we got out of here so late on Saturday, we arranged to be up and gone at a reasonable hour. Under the influence of some stuff, we all agreed to be up and ready to go by 11.00 a.m. in order to make it to the
MOMA early.
When we actually woke up, Garrett decided that the MOMA was much too pretentious for him and he wanted to go to the
Guggenheim instead, even though we got up so early for the sole purpose of having enough time for the MOMA, which is MUCH bigger than the Guggenheim. However, both were on our list of places Elke and I wanted to go before leaving, so we didn't really care, and off to the Guggenheim we went.
It was actually pretty cool. I didn't realize that very few (if any) of the exhibits are permanent - the majority of the museum was revolving exhibits by not very well known artists. And the building is every bit as awesome as people say it is. I think we ended up spending about two hours there.
Because we'd gotten up so early, it wasn't even 3.00 by the time we finally left the museum. We had plans for the evening, but not until a little bit later. So we walked a little bit around the Upper East Side until we finally reached the
Central Park Zoo. We bought admission tickets and visited the very small, kinda crap-tastic, infamous Central Park Zoo. It was really small and didn't have very many animals. And the few that they did have were very inactive because it was so hot out. The Rainforest was virtually unbearable.
After that we were exhausted, and so we headed home. We only had an hour and a half to kill before leaving for the evening, so I didn't really get a chance to take a nap. But Elke did, and so we didn't get out of here until a little after 7.00, but it was a little bit too late.
Our intention was to see the Sunday show of the
Upright Citizen's Brigade, but the 7.30 show was sold out and the 9.30 show was free, and so we had to get there early to get tickets. We sat on the sidewalk waiting for about 45 minutes. I called before to find out how many tickets they had (about 160) and only counted about 100 people in line before us, so I figured we would be fine.
I was wrong. It turned out that they saved 50something tickets for standby, even though we got in line two hours before the damn show even started. We ended up being 10 people behind the last person to get a ticket. Then they told us we could wait in line until right before the show (which was, at this point, an hour away). None of us cared enough to wait in line that long, so we decided to do something else.
Since we were in the area, we stopped by Elke's friend Sarah's apartment. We hung out there for a little bit, but we hadn't eaten dinner, so we were all starving. Sarah and her boyfriend were going to some vegetarian restaurant, but Garret and I didn't find that idea to be at all appealing. So Sarah recommended a Mexican place nearby, but when we got there it was closed. Instead we ended up at this Indian restaurant where Garrett and I shared a two-person platter that included all sorts of appetizers and entrees and desserts and such. It was, ABSOLUTELY, delicous. We might have gorged ourselves just a wee bit.
From the Indian place we headed back home. Elke went to bed soon after we got back to the apartment, but Garrett and I stayed up to watch
Edward Scissorhands, which we had borrowed from Sarah. I hadn't seen it since it first came out on video, so except for a few snippets it was all new to me. I LOVED it. Johnny Depp is a genius.
Day Twenty-Nine
Saturday was a busy day for us. We didn't get out of here until 3.00 because Elke had to do laundry before we could leave. But as soon as she was dressed we headed off to the
Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.
The museum turned out to be a lot cooler than any of us thought it would be. The first floor had an exhibit about the evolution of video games, which was basically a free arcade. They had Pacman and Ms. Pacman and Dance Dance Revolution and Half-Life and Donkey Konga Drummer and NBA Jam and Asteroids and all sorts of things. It was so fun. I wish we had gotten there earlier - I could have spent all day in there. But eventually it was time to move onto the rest of the museum.
There was other cool stuff in the rest of the museum - the Yoda puppet, Chewbacca's head, some Cosby sweaters, old cameras and TVs, old campaign ads. The whole place was really cool. They also had interactive exhibits in which you could add music to a scene or create an animated cartoon South Park style (think construction paper).
After we were done there, we were all starving. None of us had eaten much yet that day. We went to a Greek pizza place in Astoria. It wasn't very good, but it was cheap and it was food, so we didn't really mind much.
There was only one other thing I wanted to see in Queens, and that was the
Socrates Sculpture Park. But when we got there there was a group of hippies having a picnic and all the sculptures were locked behind a gate half-finished and rusty. I guess it's a collaborative artistic thing and we caught it at a bad time or something.
We didn't want to stay in Queens, but we didn't want to go home either, so we just hopped on the train and got off near Union Square. We actually ended up in the East Village, so we headed to
Karma and smoked a hookah and had a drink or two. Then we tried to visit Shannon at Snitch, but she was really busy because 311 was playing that night. So then we called Sarah, a girl Elke met in one of her classes. She lived right near where we were, so we went to her apartment to hang out.
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out there. Garrett and I went down the street and got some beer and they drank their beer and we all had a jolly good time. Before we knew it, it was 3.00 in the morning and we were stuck somewhere in Chelsea. So we waited for a bit for the train to come and came home and went straight to bed.
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.
Day Twenty-Seven
Dammit.. I had this thing half done when my computer shut itself down. It tends to overheat because the fan's slightly clogged from all the shit it collects when my dumb ass tries to actually use my laptop on my lap.
Moving on.
I was a bit sick of seeing all the same things in all the different stores, so I decided it was time to do my favorite kind of shopping - thrift store shopping. I read in a couple places that 23rd Street is a great place for such things, so I hopped on the train to Gramercy.
It turned out whoever wrote all those nice things about 23rd Street was right. The first block alone had four thrift stores, one of which was a
Salvation Army. They were pretty picked over in the fasionable clothes department (no surprise there), but I found a white t-shirt that says "Slut for Art" across the front in big black letters. It's WAY too big, but that's nothing a pair of scissors and a sewing machine can't fix.
At the next store, however, I found something EVEN cooler - a rhinestone-studded Harry Potter jean jacket. It's a size or two too small, but I figured it's ridiculous enough that no one's going to bother noticing that the sleeves are half an inch too short. The same store had a really cute Betsey Johnson suit for $45, but it wasn't my size. Sad.
I didn't buy anything else, but I did have great amounts of fun browsing all the racks of vintage clothing. There's something so much more satisfying about it than regular shopping. It's all about the hunt, I guess.
Elke and I just hung out at home for a bit. We went to McDonald's for the second day in a row to get fries from Darwin, the nice boy who takes our order every single time we go in there (which is more than I'm willing to actually admit).
Then we went to the 11.15 showing of
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The IMAX Experience, bringing our grand total of times seen in the theatre to three. I know, I know, we're crazy, but it was completely worth it. I cannot explain to you how entrancing it was to watch this trippy-ass movie on a HUGE HUGE HUGE screen. Drugs were not even needed to fully appreciate it.
The only problem was, we got there a little late, so we didn't have time to stop and get some candy at the concession stand. This meant that we had to sit through the entire movie with NO CANDY. It was torture and I'm not even that big of a candy person - I much prefer things containing salt and butter and cheese. So of course we had to stop at Duane Reade on the way home and pick up some snacks.
