home sweet home

we got back from new york yesterday afternoon. the weekend flew by but i was happy to come

home to familiarity. new york city is great and fun, but i don't know how people live there. 

i'll let you in on some of the details of our trip. (our group consisted of me, my sister michelle (fellow blogger), my cousin renee (first blogger of the family), cousin farah (the commenter) and our friend nickole.)

we got in on friday evening. nickole started out the trip by getting yelled at by some disgruntled airport worker. what a jerk. we split up and got into our respective cabs to get to our hotel, the paramount, near times square. our cabbie was awesome. he was from senegal and spoke english, arabic, german and french. he studied finance in paris and goes back to france every year. michelle and i spoke to him a little in arabic and he was impressed. we spoke of the never ending war and he seemed genuinely distraught over all the violence everywhere in the world. when we got to the hotel, he helped us w/ the bags and i gave him a hug and said, "have a good life!" 

when we got to our room, we had to laugh. it was TINY. seriously. our bags took up half the room and we took up the other half. we joked that we should ask the front desk if they had any rope so we could fashion swinging tarzan thingamajigs to get around. oh and it was SO DARK in the room. it was supposed to set a mood, but the only mood going around was one of depression. it was making us tired and pissed off. farah decided to cheer us all up by making shadow puppets on the frighteningly stark white walls. 

haha...anyway, so we got ourselves together and walked to a restaurant nearby called bella vita where we enjoyed DELICIOUS calamari and paninis. then we paid for our delicious meal and realized this trip was not going to be cheap.

that night we met up my friend omar in soho at a bar called naked lunch. it was packed and we were being pushed from side to side, but it was fun anyway. michelle and nickole had fun, that's for sure. ; ) so we didn't leave the bar until it closed, at 4 a.m.! which is nice once in a while..bars here close at 2, but usually i'm ready to leave well before that. 

saturday was shopping day. first we rode the subway (and got lost quite a few times) to the world trade center site. on the way there, i met jim, a weathered looking man probably in his sixties. he was sitting next to me on the subway and was on his way to work at ground zero. he's one of the guys that mans the huge digging machines. he told me that he was there on september 11th, working nearby. he saw the second plane crash through the building. he said he stayed there for two days helping the firefighters and police officers but he had to go home after that because it was too much. he said there was dust everywhere and no signs of any life before the tragedy. he took us to the site and then he was on his way to work. thanks, jim. :)

it was sad to see pictures again from that day. there was a little temporary memorial w/ names and pictures. michelle started crying and then laughed a little and said, "i don't know why i'm crying"..well, i do. this is what ground zero looks like:

sigh.

afterwards, we went shopping at century 21 (awesome deals, annoying place to shop) and then in soho. there were so many cool shops and lots of unaffordable merchandise. my friend julia met us up for twenty minutes. she works in soho and was on her break. it was nice to see her! we went into some asian/indian shop that sold things like pretty chopsticks, beaded jewelry and woven treasures from foreign lands. they also sold this hilarious poster (that wasn't supposed to be hilarious) that illustrated all the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. this was one of my favorite dangers:

we continued on our shopping journey. oh did i mention it was freakin' cold? if you were dressed well, you were a little less cold, but you were still cold! i think the entire time i was there, i was dreaming of sweating under the hot sun in a bikini in vegas. i need to make that happen soon. okay sorry, got sidetracked there. here's a picture from a shop called mystique boutique. i was half expecting this mannequin to blink her eyes and snatch my camera from my hands. 

after shopping, we went to eat at a place called joshua tree on restaurant row. we were starving and upon walking into the restaurant, i caught sight of someone's lobster dish being served. it looked SO good, so i ordered it. when it was in front of me, i didn't know what to do. i didn't realize it was an entire lobster, legs, eyes and all. i felt really really bad and i secretly wanted to cry. michelle ended up preparing it for me like i was five years old, but i was appreciative. i ate a little lobster, but i ended up eating my baked potato and corn and pretending i didn't have room for the rest of the lobster. seriously, i'm sorry to the poor crustacean that ended up on my plate. :( 

that night we ended up staying in cuz nickole felt sick and the rest of us were exhausted, except for michelle. she was pissed. she ended up "working out." hahaa ;)

oh, i didn't mention that we switched rooms twice while on this three night stay. the first time was because it was seriously too small, so we moved to a suite. the second time was thanks to michelle. i will not go into detail. haha! also, there was a mirror on every floor in front of the elevator that told you the weather outside. this is what it said the ENTIRE time we were there:

the elevators themselves were pretty cool. each one was lit a different color. it's amazing what a little lighting can do:

sunday was especially cold but the sun came out for a little and warmed the tips of our noses. we split up for a little. nickole and farah wanted to see the statue of liberty and st. patrick's cathedral. renee, michelle and i went to greenwich village on a quest to find the ink pad. on our way, we stopped at a couple places. 

finding the ink pad was a bitch. hey new york, ever heard of a grid plan?? when we finally did find it, it was the size of my walk in closet. the place was jam packed with stamps and other scrapbooking materials, hence, renee was in heaven. i let her do her thing and walked around and surprisingly did not get lost. 

later we met up with farah and nickole at the metropolitan museum of art. (we got lost on the way and ended up taking a cab.) i LOOOVE the feeling i get from being at a museum. it's like i'm a crack fiend, only i'm addicted to ridiculously old and expensive things. i spent most of my time in the modern galleries.

here are some of my favorites pieces:

rene magritte "this is the color of my dreams"

salvador dali "madonna"

francis bacon "self portait"

balthus "therese dreaming"

mark rothko (unsure of title)

*seeing a rothko in a picture versus the real thing is very different.

when i have seen his work in person, i have always loved and appreciated it even though it may look like a block of paint on canvas. his paintings evoke so much feeling that i'm starting to sound like a hippie. but, take my word for it. :)

that evening, we decided to have dinner in little italy. we took the subway and got off on canal street which is in chinatown. oh man...everyone was selling everything! as i ducked into one of the booths to look at something closer, the woman working there started to whisper to renee and me. she said, "i have purses, look" and she opened a door that magically appeared behind her. we looked and saw a slummy looking steep stairway. renee said, "i'm NOT going up there!" i knew she wanted a purse so i said, "let's go, it'll be an adventure." as we climbed halfway up the stairs, another door opened and we were escorted by a pregnant chinese woman to a room that looked like it had vomited leather. there were purses EVERYWHERE. i felt like a criminal being there even though i wasn't there to buy anything. it was so strange, though. this empty stairwell all of a sudden was full of life and doors kept opening and all we could see were purses. purses purses everywhere! all i kept thinking was how disappointed dolce and gabbana would be. 

we eventually made it to our destination which was angelo's. it turned out to be this cute italian restaurant that's been there since 1902. all the cooks and waitstaff were speaking in italian. it was very authentic and we were very happy with the food! but, it was at dinner where i started to feel ill. i tried to wish it away but it wouldn't work. i just wanted to eat all my food, but couldn't! we made it back to the hotel with only a half hour to get ready for that night. i contemplated not going, but i wanted to see the comedy show we had tickets for at the laugh factory. i'm glad i ended up going because the comedians were so funny and definitely worth seeing. as we were leaving, two of the funnier comedians started talking to us and found out we were trying to find a bar to go to. they walked us to 8th avenue in hell's kitchen to a place called kevin st. james. we left them and went inside where we were the focus of the bar since we were the only girls. of course, renee and farah left and went back to the hotel. we ended up hanging out with a few guys who turned out to be stage hands for nbc. one of them said that he could arrange for me to sit behind conan's desk and i answered that i want to sit on conan's lap. :) jk. sorta. 

anyway, nickole fell in love with bartender mark (super cute and super nice) and michelle fell in love with stage hand brian. i fell in love with the idea of going back to the hotel and sleeping, but we were meeting up with omar again. we hung out w/ omar for a little but then i really really wasn't feeling well and so i was dropped off at the hotel. michelle and nickole continued partying like it was 1999. back at the hotel, i wore my pajamas, a sweater, my knit pippi longstocking hat and uggs and was still shivering under the covers. i tried to sleep but could not because of a monster truck outside of my window. seriously, it had to be a monster truck smashing cars and people cuz that's what it sounded like. i prayed to god saying, "please, please don't let me be sick for the plane ride, please. let me get better and then if you want to, you can make me sick again after." so, god listened. i was fine for the plane ride home and now i'm feeling sick again. my prayers were answered.

here are some more pictures from the trip: 

me on the subway

michelle fulfilling her life's dream of bartending

nickole and renee on the subway

waiting for our train

here it comes..

...fast!

@ the met

asking the snooty lady at the met for directions

trying to find our way to angelo's

canal street

this is what chinatown smells like

mmm..cherries!