New York, New York
I spent yesterday in the Big Apple, simultaneously walking my ass off and freezing my ass off. Honestly, we walked something like 85 blocks yesterday-- one stretch consisted of walking from Times Square all the way up to 79th Avenue, and that was only one little adventure. In short, I am way too low on sleep, and my calves ache.
Okay, now that the obligatory whinging is over and feeling has returned to my toes, I spent yesterday in New York! Skyler had a personal errand to run yesterday, and so he, Scott, Sarah and I all went up to make a day out of it. It's a day later, and only now am I able to blink without seeing spots. The visual stimulation of that place is both awe-inducing and a little scary. For starters, Amtrak sucks. It does. There was this huge hassle with the ticket machine not printing out the pre-paid tickets and Skyler got re-charged and blah blah stupidcakes. Still, after leaving on the 6:00am train, we got to NYC around 8:30, bright and early.
We started the day in Times Square, where we visited the biggest Toys R Us I have ever seen. Seriously, it was huge. It was three stories tall, and there was a lit-up ferris wheel inside that was bigger than my house. Not to mention the twenty-foot, fully tricked-out, animatronic T-Rex that kept eyeing me suspiciously. There was a store that sold nothing but Hershey's chocolate, a store that sold nothing but Hello Kitty Products. There was a ginormous steaming cup of noodles. Lestat, the musical. (OMGWTFBBQ?!) Lots of big, distracting glittery things.
And Sephora. Oh, sweet, sweet Sephora. As I am poor, the damage was minimal. One Stila lipglaze in Black Cherry (deep berry), one Urban Decay eyeshadow in Acid Rain (pretty sheer goldy-green). Considering the closest Sephora to me is in DC, I was amazed to run across three Sephoras. I got to see a lot of my things on my wantlist in-person, so that was neat. Philosophy products are not nearly as cool as I thought they'd be. But, on the other hand, there's a whole bunch of Tarte stuff that I now want. But I digress.
We passed the long walks by counting the Starbucks we saw. Starbuckses? Starbuxes? Starbuckii? Who knows? Along the main Broadway drag, we got up to 13. That's purely, utterly insane. I got to see the biggest Whole Foods market I can invision. For christ's sake, they had a takeout sushi bar, and that stuff made me drool. I swear, I have become a full-on sushi fiend as of late. I've had sushi twice in the last week-- I'm developing a taste for wasabi. This is good, because there's a neat little Japanese/Chinese restaurant very close to where I'm moving called Olive and Sesame, and their sushi is both good and well-priced. Again, I digress. I got chocolates from the Whole Foods, including one that's so cute, I don't know if I have the heart to eat it. It's a tiny chocolate cappuccino mug, complete with saucer and fake foam. In short, it's adorable.
I had my very first experience in a LUSH store. Let me just say, I want to work at LUSH. I know most of their products, I'm friendly and helpful, and most of all, I want free LUSH stuff. Okay, so that said. I know I'm custom-ordering through a DC friend, but I had some immediate needs, so I picked up an emergency stash of Ocean Salt, as well as Brazened Honey BioFresh mask. I got samples of a few moisturizers to try, and a few bath bombs to give as gifts. As a side note, I tried Brazened Honey today, and my skin is doing the glowy-goddess thing, so if you live near a LUSH, go pick some of that stuff up! I can't wait to try some of the others, if I get the chance.
We took a cab back to Times Square, where Scott, Sarah, and I waited out dinner at Olive Garden. Skyler had a potential meeting to go to, but it fell through, so he joined up with us, and we had a cordial meal that cost about twice as much as it would have in Maryland. Ah well, the fonducci was good, and I had a second-story view of a very large and breasty Jenna Jameson poster. All was well in my world.
After dinner, we kind of wandered for awhile. The original plan was to see a show, but we wouldn't have had time, considering the train schedules. Instead, we saw the Swarovski-encrusted Christmas tree in the middle of Rockefeller Center. I almost missed it, as my one and only thought at that point was "I have to pee so bad right now, I might explode and die." (It was amazingly reminiscent of "WE DO NOT STOP FOR JESUS!!") Thrilling stuff, really. We poked about a triple-decker H&M, and found myself marvelling at how hideous most of the clothes were. I mean, I like the clothes at the H&Ms here. But in New York, they were all clownish and multicolored and faddish and not very flattering in the slightest.
By the time we were ready to go, almost every single taxi we saw was off duty. We resorted to taking bicycle taxis, at which point, my thoughts bounced back and forth between "how thrilling!" and "oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die." Our cabby was very good at weaving through traffic like a ribbon, and cutting it very close. However, at one point, he ran a red light and was pulled over by a cop, who pointed at us and said he doubted very much we'd like to be hit by a car. I concurred.
The ride back was peaceful. Mostly I dozed, curled up into Skyler's shoulder. When we got home at midnight, I was awake just long enough to wash off my makeup before I plunked down. I think I fell asleep before my head even touched the pillow.
Karyn, I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up. The whole purpose of us going up was to take care of Skyler's business, and so next time, we can hopefully arrange teatime, and a tour of Sephora together. :)
In other news, over half of my moving is complete. All of my stuff is now at Dixie's, with the exception of my furniture and a week's worth of clothes. I have to clean out my closet yet, but really, it's a relief to have the bulk of it done. Everything else gets moved next Saturday, when one of my co-workers brings over his truck to help with the haul. Whew!
Also, I have a new pet. His name is Jacques, and he is a tiny white mouse with brown specks. He's amazingly gentle-- he doesn't bite, and the worst he'll probably do is poo from time to time, for which I will have plenty of anti-bacterial soap on hand. No biggie. He was my sister's mouse, but let's just say he was being repeatedly bullied by the other mouse, Gus Gus. When I came down to check my mail on Saturday morning, I found poor little Jacques bleeding and squeaking. He looks like he'll be allright, but I'm not taking any chances. He's been separated out in his own mini-cage for the time being, and on Saturday, he and Sashimi will be making the move with me.
My fingers are tired. And I'm done.
Okay, now that the obligatory whinging is over and feeling has returned to my toes, I spent yesterday in New York! Skyler had a personal errand to run yesterday, and so he, Scott, Sarah and I all went up to make a day out of it. It's a day later, and only now am I able to blink without seeing spots. The visual stimulation of that place is both awe-inducing and a little scary. For starters, Amtrak sucks. It does. There was this huge hassle with the ticket machine not printing out the pre-paid tickets and Skyler got re-charged and blah blah stupidcakes. Still, after leaving on the 6:00am train, we got to NYC around 8:30, bright and early.
We started the day in Times Square, where we visited the biggest Toys R Us I have ever seen. Seriously, it was huge. It was three stories tall, and there was a lit-up ferris wheel inside that was bigger than my house. Not to mention the twenty-foot, fully tricked-out, animatronic T-Rex that kept eyeing me suspiciously. There was a store that sold nothing but Hershey's chocolate, a store that sold nothing but Hello Kitty Products. There was a ginormous steaming cup of noodles. Lestat, the musical. (OMGWTFBBQ?!) Lots of big, distracting glittery things.
And Sephora. Oh, sweet, sweet Sephora. As I am poor, the damage was minimal. One Stila lipglaze in Black Cherry (deep berry), one Urban Decay eyeshadow in Acid Rain (pretty sheer goldy-green). Considering the closest Sephora to me is in DC, I was amazed to run across three Sephoras. I got to see a lot of my things on my wantlist in-person, so that was neat. Philosophy products are not nearly as cool as I thought they'd be. But, on the other hand, there's a whole bunch of Tarte stuff that I now want. But I digress.
We passed the long walks by counting the Starbucks we saw. Starbuckses? Starbuxes? Starbuckii? Who knows? Along the main Broadway drag, we got up to 13. That's purely, utterly insane. I got to see the biggest Whole Foods market I can invision. For christ's sake, they had a takeout sushi bar, and that stuff made me drool. I swear, I have become a full-on sushi fiend as of late. I've had sushi twice in the last week-- I'm developing a taste for wasabi. This is good, because there's a neat little Japanese/Chinese restaurant very close to where I'm moving called Olive and Sesame, and their sushi is both good and well-priced. Again, I digress. I got chocolates from the Whole Foods, including one that's so cute, I don't know if I have the heart to eat it. It's a tiny chocolate cappuccino mug, complete with saucer and fake foam. In short, it's adorable.
I had my very first experience in a LUSH store. Let me just say, I want to work at LUSH. I know most of their products, I'm friendly and helpful, and most of all, I want free LUSH stuff. Okay, so that said. I know I'm custom-ordering through a DC friend, but I had some immediate needs, so I picked up an emergency stash of Ocean Salt, as well as Brazened Honey BioFresh mask. I got samples of a few moisturizers to try, and a few bath bombs to give as gifts. As a side note, I tried Brazened Honey today, and my skin is doing the glowy-goddess thing, so if you live near a LUSH, go pick some of that stuff up! I can't wait to try some of the others, if I get the chance.
We took a cab back to Times Square, where Scott, Sarah, and I waited out dinner at Olive Garden. Skyler had a potential meeting to go to, but it fell through, so he joined up with us, and we had a cordial meal that cost about twice as much as it would have in Maryland. Ah well, the fonducci was good, and I had a second-story view of a very large and breasty Jenna Jameson poster. All was well in my world.
After dinner, we kind of wandered for awhile. The original plan was to see a show, but we wouldn't have had time, considering the train schedules. Instead, we saw the Swarovski-encrusted Christmas tree in the middle of Rockefeller Center. I almost missed it, as my one and only thought at that point was "I have to pee so bad right now, I might explode and die." (It was amazingly reminiscent of "WE DO NOT STOP FOR JESUS!!") Thrilling stuff, really. We poked about a triple-decker H&M, and found myself marvelling at how hideous most of the clothes were. I mean, I like the clothes at the H&Ms here. But in New York, they were all clownish and multicolored and faddish and not very flattering in the slightest.
By the time we were ready to go, almost every single taxi we saw was off duty. We resorted to taking bicycle taxis, at which point, my thoughts bounced back and forth between "how thrilling!" and "oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die." Our cabby was very good at weaving through traffic like a ribbon, and cutting it very close. However, at one point, he ran a red light and was pulled over by a cop, who pointed at us and said he doubted very much we'd like to be hit by a car. I concurred.
The ride back was peaceful. Mostly I dozed, curled up into Skyler's shoulder. When we got home at midnight, I was awake just long enough to wash off my makeup before I plunked down. I think I fell asleep before my head even touched the pillow.
Karyn, I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up. The whole purpose of us going up was to take care of Skyler's business, and so next time, we can hopefully arrange teatime, and a tour of Sephora together. :)
In other news, over half of my moving is complete. All of my stuff is now at Dixie's, with the exception of my furniture and a week's worth of clothes. I have to clean out my closet yet, but really, it's a relief to have the bulk of it done. Everything else gets moved next Saturday, when one of my co-workers brings over his truck to help with the haul. Whew!
Also, I have a new pet. His name is Jacques, and he is a tiny white mouse with brown specks. He's amazingly gentle-- he doesn't bite, and the worst he'll probably do is poo from time to time, for which I will have plenty of anti-bacterial soap on hand. No biggie. He was my sister's mouse, but let's just say he was being repeatedly bullied by the other mouse, Gus Gus. When I came down to check my mail on Saturday morning, I found poor little Jacques bleeding and squeaking. He looks like he'll be allright, but I'm not taking any chances. He's been separated out in his own mini-cage for the time being, and on Saturday, he and Sashimi will be making the move with me.
My fingers are tired. And I'm done.