New York Trip

So one day home and all the family drama is still in full swing. whatever. My dad already has an offer on the house after the first day being on the market. We'll see what pans out. My dad is being a tyrant and totally disrespectful to my brother, kids and sister and spouses. First he badmouths them for not helping. Then he's yelling and screaminig at them while they're trying to help. You can't win. All my childhood memories of that stuff is coming back swiftly. clearly. you're damned if you do.. damned if you don't. whatever.


Copied from my bc babes forum as I told my great friends about my trip :)

My trip to NY was awesome. Lorena broke the news to me that she was newly pregnant, by some fling she had. This is another story. Lorena told me about her new pregnancy on the first day. She's very nauseous and sick all day and night, and very tired within a few hours of doing anything. That was a bit disappointing because I spent most days on my own...and even the mornings I spent with her I found her quite moody and unpredictable, so it was like walking on eggshells a bit. I'm glad I ventured on my own...there was no way I was going to nap in a hotel room at 1 in the afternoon! I was already embarassed to be crashing in bed at 9pm! But that was after walking around for a good 10 hours each day.

macy's was HUGE!!!!! Oh my god I cannot believe how many floors of shoes and clothing......

The city is gorgeous...old buildings, rickety buildings and cobblestones in places. The little grocery stores that are crammed with narrow aisles... the many different ethnic groups everywhere. The locals sitting on the brownstone building steps and laughing and chatting (just like in the movies!) Everything you see in the movies or tv shows...it's just like it!

Central park was super - all the huge tall buildlings surrounding it, and the trees camouflaging the city. People are really really nice there, very polite and friendly. Fast pace, but I didn't meet one negative person. I even had a very clutzy moment in the subway system where my ticket flew across the turnstsyles...the lady picked it up and handed it to me. I got stuck in the turnstyle And then my ticket wouldn't work because I had just swiped it prior to getting stuck in the turnstyle...the same lady saw me having troubles, and came back and swiped her card for me and told me to have a good day...don't worry about it! So cool.

The bagel shop we ate at most mornings was a typical NY deli/Jewish bakery place...the 70 year old man hit on me each day The first morning we arrived he walked right up to me (cross eyes) and told me how beautiful I was and asked me if I wanted to join his naked volleyball team (with his one eye crossed the whole time, so hilarious!). Then he screamed out to his counterpart - - Mike! Call the Rabbi, I'm getting married! I got a daily bantering from those two, and it made for a lot of fun

Shopping was amazing...they had so many shops, but to tell the truth, I came home with two pairs of shoes and that's it. Everything I wanted, they didn't have my size...everything seemed picked over. Shoes - all the 9-10's were gone, and the 12-14's, L-xl's didn't exist from so many people being there, I guess. It was so busy everywhere. DSW had a line up of 47 people when I was there on Monday. It was PACKED everywhere, so part of me not getting alot of goods was the busy-ness just wore me out and put me out of the trying on mood. That and the size thing being not available. But I was happy to just walk around and explore.

Soho was proabably my favourite place it was so beautiful...very expensive elite stores, but really amazing architecture and feel to the neighbourhood. I went to Chelsea (very nice too), Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy (very little) and downtown by ground zero. Uptown and midtown were where I did most exploring and shopping. Union Square... Our hotel was midtown. TimesSquare was a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It was busy busy busy everywhere!

We went and saw a broadway show called Wicked - it was super too. It was basically the story about the wicked witch growing up, and how she became wicked.. Very cool

Chinatown was one of my favourite adventures! Canal Street is where the asian jewelers, pashmina, purses, etc kiosks were. Tons of them. You'd walk by (with the other zillions of people) and the asian vendors were muttering quietly coach coach, tiffany, prada, rolex... and they'd lead you through their little "store" and near the back or side was a hidden door behind a wall of hanging goods, and they'd lead you behind and up some rickety narrow stairs into this closet like display of all the illegal goods. I went to about 3 of these (along with some others...I kind of just followed people so I wasn't alone) and then another lady led me to a van on the street and she had a makeshift operation in her minivan. I faked a nausous/hot feeling in that circumstance as I felt uneasy being in there by myself i nthe back of the van. It was wild! So I fed the illegal industry and bought a coach bag in black (large carly signature bag in black) for $40. Then I appeased my guilt of buying illegally by buying a similar, obvious and legal knockoff one with C's and A's on it, but the pattern was black/silver/zebra/grey's and slightly smaller. It was so much fun, I was starting to get very serious about the purse shopping, I almost bought another 2, and then talked myself out of them as I'm usually a one bag owner anyways. I don't know if I'll even wear the two I bought, but it was just the whole experience of being led somewhere sneaky It was os fun!

Our hotel was great. I would recommend it to anyone. the room was small, yes, but the bathrooms were really clean and the showers were awesome! In the room, there was a sink, mirror etc to do some stuff if you needed, but it was perfect for us. We had bunk beds...and on each bunk you had your own little tv that swung out and you could plug in earphones to listen and watch what you want. It was actually one of my favourite parts of the evening after a long day...I went and bought yummy snacks and drinks and had a little party in my cave while watching the Kardashians marathons each night.

It rained most of the time, we had one gorgeous day though, and one beautiful morning where we went to central park. Then rain the rest of the time, but that was fine. How can you complain about rain when you are in such a great city?