Yesterday I spent the day in Manhattan with my mum, mainly around Nolita, Soho and the East Village. I wanted to go because of The Market NYC, which I've wanted to go to for months but was always too lazy to do so (how not-surprising!). I used to go around that area quite a lot with Diana just for fun, but this time I saw loads of stores I hadn't seen before.
First stop was The Market NYC. It was easy to find and was situated in a church gymnasium (see a photo collage I made here. It was filled with the works of "young designers" (my mum said "I guess if you're old you'd have a hard time selling anything,") in the form of jewely, clothing, and handbags. The first clothing line we checked out was Sampleline, and while I liked the designs I think my mum liked them even more. Luckily, we can share clothes, so she got a skirt and a pair of pants. I tried on a very short skirt (probably for the first time in my life) and I liked it, but then I couldn't think of too many situations that I'd wear it in. Another vendor was selling screen-printed shirts and tank tops that I liked a lot, so I got one of those. My mum got an interesting denim jacket from this guy and two very nice bags with drawstrings (although not necessarily drawstring bags...does that make sense?) from this designer. She also got a nice silver bracelet with semiprecious stones in it, and while I like jewely too, I mainly like to look at it. I mean, I don't mind looking at it...it's not like I find looking at jewely a very time consuming activity that I can find joy in. Actually, now that I think of it, my mum used to go to the jewelry department at Nordstom ALL the time because she had a friend that worked there (and she really liked buying jewelry) and I found it very boring. So. My point is, I'm not very into jewely. At least that may have been what I wanted to say a few miles back...
Another place I wanted to go was the Camper store because I needed to get new shoes. Did my life depend on it? Probably not, but my mum said the shoes I have right now are probably soaked with bodily fluids and god knows what else. I look at them and see shoes; she looks at them and sees a hot bed of bacterial infestation. I've had the same pair of Camper sneakers for about 2 and a half years, so I guess I am entitled to a new pair before the other one becomes totally ingested by microscopic beasties. The layout of the store was very cute and simple; no racks, just a raised platform on one side with all the shoes strewn out on it, with huge, wide brimp lamps hanging overheard to light them. On the other side of the store is where you can sit to try on the shoes, basically a long ledge with air-filled cushions (they felt like sitting on balloons...squish-ploop!) to rest your bum on. Everything was on sale and I managed to get the last pair of some nice red sneakers. I've never had red shoes before, but...well, now I do. RED SNEAKERS OH BOOOY! Oh yeah, when my mum was paying for the shoes, the cashier folded up her receipt and put it in a little plastic pouch about the size of a business card. I've never see that done before! Is it more sanitary to put the receipt in plastic or something? How big is the "receipt poncho" market anyway? "Are your receipts always getting wet and grimy? Protect your receipts from the harshness of the outside world with RECEIPT PONCHOS!"
Some other stores we went to were Lunettes Et Chocolat (a store that sells sunglasses and...chocolates? My mum bought a box...well at least she won't have any competition from me), Karikter, Kate's Paperie, Scholastic Store, and Stackhouse. Stackhouse is a pricey place that has lots of nice designed t-shirts and stuff like that, but the main thing I noticed were some crocheted caps they were selling for...a lot. I don't remember how much, but I was thinking it would be truly crazy to pay that much for something that was probably made with less than $5 of yarn in addition to not being that hard to make. Lunettes et Chocolat also sold some crocheted hats that costed a lot. Jeez, I can crochets hats and caps, and they're really easy, although they may take a few hours. I don't mind shelling out a large amount of dough for unique designs and visible effort, but sometimes I see things and just don't understand why they cost so much.
We walked from the area around Prince Street to Quintessence, which is at 10th Street near First Avenue. When you look at a map it doesn't seem that close, but walking around there is easy. One of the reasons I initially wanted to live in Manhattan was because I thought I could do with the incidental exercise that comes with having to walk wherever you want to go, but it doesn't make up for the awful air quality. Still, going to Manhattan from the suburbs, one of the first things you notice is how much slimmer everyone is. In this sense it's a much nicer place for my mum and I to go clothing shopping at than the mall, but I feel kinda pudgy walking around Manhattan. I need more exercise, YES. We could have taken an annoying subway route to Quintessence but it was much nicer to look and whatever was on the street. St. Mark's Place reminded my mum and of Taiwanese night markets (except Taiwanese night markets are dirtier and...um, scarier) and there were lots of vintage stores. One store was selling LOADS of t-shirts, really, just...mountains of stuff. If I had any idea what I could do with the shirts, I wouldn't have minded looking at them, but there were already loads of people around there. When we started walking in Cooper Square, I saw a guy wearing a Stink-O-Man t-shirt (and I'd like that one, now that it's on sale)! STINK-O-MAAAN! Come to think of it, it may be surprising that that was the only homestarrunner clothed person I saw...
Oh yeah, back to Quintessence. I love Quintessence since they've just got such yummy food, and since everything's raw I can try anything I want. While I've been there two times before, my mum had never gone and wasn't really into the idea of eating there since she doesn't think eating raw food imitaing cooked food makes sense. I had to keep telling her it was good and delicious and it's not really like the raw dishes are trying to emulate cooked food, but the cooked food serves as an example of something you could make without haaving to cook anything. The raw counterparts don't really taste like the cooked ones; they're completely separate! That kinda makes sense,right? Anyway, she ended up really liking the food! :) We started off with a sampler appetizer and for my entree I had "spaghetti" that was really squash cut into long, thin strips with diced tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, and olives on top. My mum had an entree that sampled a bunch of the other entrees on the menu and had falafels, hummus, a nori roll, and some "ravavioli" made of thinly sliced turnip. Mmmmmmm. I also ordered a coconut shake, which is coconut and coconut water blended together. It's SO SO SO good...coconuts in general are just so yummy. Of course we couldn't go without eating dessert, so we each got a different pie; I got fruit cheese and she got three layer fudge. Man, that stuff is so, so, so yummy...so it's probably a good thing that we don't live that close or else we would eat there too much. Take a look for yourself; here's a photo of some of the stuff we ate!
I managed to finish a bag I've been crocheting for the past few days. I didn't use very good yarn though, so I have to keep a note to myself that cotton yarn is good for bags, and acrylic is ...not as good. It looks pretty greenish but the yarn is actually a whole bunch of colors wrapped together. I guess green stands out the most though.
Since today is Sunday, I've just been lazying around doing laundry and some website junk. I'm also working on another crocheted bag, using a pattern for the first time and actually understanding it (it's exciting)! My brother was away in Washington DC for the past few days but he just got back home today and some of his friends are over too. It was pretty nice just having my mum and I in the house for a while...
I recently got the new issue of 1-Up Zine and came across the heading in the letters section "Pong Slumber Party". I thought, "Haha, that sounds like me!" Then I read it and thought "Haha, that sounds like me!" And then I realized "Oh no, that is me!" Because I wrote a silly e-mail ...here's a photo. And I must have signed my e-mail with Rob, doh! Hopefully people will figure out that I'm a girl, or else it may sound funny that I talk about girls having sleepovers.
I got an e-mail from my old friend from Taiwan, Krystin, who now lives in Greece! She has a website of photos (warning: it plays music) from ages ago. You can probably figure out which one I am in the 4 year old+ photos from her 14th birthday party. Glasses and a beret...I dunno what I was thinking.
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Hey Allie, I know just what you mean about going blah when something stinks...my BROTHER stinks, and I gotta live with him. Haha! I guess it's mean for me to always tell him "Dude, you smell," so I've stopped doing that. Kinda. He really has pretty bad BO though.
Man, I wouldn't want to be a doctor or a lawyer either. Anyone who's lifelong dream is to do either of those is...kinda crazy. Not that it wouldn't be useful to learn to be a doctor or a lawyer, but to actually be one? Ah...nah, not for me! Right now I'm planning to study anthropology, but I really don't know how far I'll go with that. I know what I'm definitely not doing...anything related to math. I think. :)