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Yesterday I went to NYC ...again. I wasn't planning to go at first (after going last week I thought I definitely shouldn't go) but one of my classmates was going to see some friends and I figured I may as well go so we can travel together. I wouldn't have felt so compelled to go to NYC to travel by myself.

We got to NYC at around 12:30. What's that time perfect for? FOOD! My first stop was Bonobo's Restaurant, a recently opened raw food establishment. It wasn't totally done being open yet, but they had some pretty nice stuff: various soups, lots of salad ingredients, puddings, and a zucchini spaghetti entree. I got the spaghetti, which had a spicy soup/sauce on top along with sunflower seeds, and banana-almond pudding for dessert. It was too much food, I found out later, but...mm well. Good pudding. That's what they should eat in Poofyville. RAW FOOD! Hey, the pancakes might even be raw since they come out of a tree...it doesn't make sense, but you know what, it's POOFYVILLE and nothing makes sense. :) Erm...so back to reality. The restaurant is in a pretty big room and it wasn't that busy when I went in, although when I left a line had formed. I'm sure people get interested in what the restaurant has due to the signs on the outside which proclaim the LIVE UNCRAPPY FOOD! Mmmm. And that was some good pudding. :)

After that I took the subway to the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition didn't interest me very much, so I was glad the admission was free (18 and younger, woo!). Their store chock full of books and magazines was more interesting, although I didn't stick around for that long. After that I went to Zakka where, as usual, I bought nothing. There are always interesting things to get, but then I think "Well I can get this stuff for much less on amazon.com." Yeah, there I am supporting my local vendors...okay, not very local. There were a bunch of people in there browsing and such. I saw lots of little toys in boxes, but I wasn't curious enough to buy one. If they had a cute bunny of some sort that would be neat. The t-shirts they have are neat, although they're mainly in men's sizes, and they're really expensive. I mean, they're not that expensive compared to other articles of clothing, but I don't equate a t-shirt with having a high cost. Which leads me to an idea I've been having: would anyone be interested in buying a Poofy-related t-shirt? Because I could design one, or maybe pick a funny panel from a comic and put it on. But I don't know if anyone's interested in that. Well. Let me know. If I got at least 10 orders, I could order them and sell them for maybe $12. Well. Anyhoo.

After Zakka I think I took a subway up to Other Music, where I bought Like Hearts Swelling and picked up a copy of The Onion. I've been to OM a few times, although I never talked to any of the clerks before. One clerk asked me if I needed any help, so I asked if they had any new Barbara Morgenstern albums. They didn't, but he looked around a while to see if they did, which was nice.

I took the subway to Union Square, intending to take the L train to 1st Avenue, but the L train was not in service. POOP. Alright, it's not actually a long walk, but I'm lazy. I went to Live Live and bought too much stuff again. There was another customer in there when I entered and she asked me if I was a raw foodist. I told her I've been doing it since January and she was impressed! I think until I get to the 1-year mark, it hasn't actually been that long, but she remarked that it's almost been a year. Mm..yup, finally! She said I looked good too, which was nice, although most people in NYC do look good. (sigh) Another customer came in later and the woman who runs the store gave us lots of samples of some new raw food treats, like brownie and cookie type things. Hey, I'm not going to refuse a taste test! :) Some things were pretty good and some things were just okay (I wouldn't buy them though). The one that tasted really good (the other customer and I liked it) had hazelnuts in it. Mmm. A while later, Dan, the owner of Quintessence popped in (the restaurant is right next door) and got in on the taste testing. Heehee! It was fun.

After that it was onto Jubbs Longevity where I would eat way, WAY too much. I ate my dinner there and had fun talking to the woman who runs the store, Miranda. She was talking about how nice raw food is and how important it is to keep your body healthy, which I completely agree with, of course. It's interesting to talk to someone who really understands all this stuff, although I'm sure she's more into it than I am. If I were more conscious of my digestive system, I wouldn't eat so late and mix so many bad things. I really think that eating raw food and realizing how important your body is to not drink coffee or alcohol or eat really beyond-dead processed food is a simple concept. Then again, I didn't know this until last year. I know that most people won't have the same idea as me, but...I don't know, it really does get frustrating after a while. It was a nice relief to talk to someone who feels the same way. I told her that I wanted to eat my dinner there, so she told me to watch her make me a raw pizza. What is raw pizza? The base is a big flax seed cracker type thing, on which some tomato sauce and this other sauce is put on along with sunflower seed "cheese". On top of that you pretty much put whatever veggies you like. I had lettuce, onions, tomatoes, avocado, and some seaweed. In the end it was this HUGE thing, and I ate the whole thing somehow. It was tasty, of course. And I think it was only $7 or $7.50, which is a really good price. I knew I shouldn't have eaten dessert, but their cakes/pies are very enticing, so I tried an apple-berry cake. I don't know how they made it, but it was really delicious. I didn't eat all of the crust, but the inside was really nice. I bought a pack of some dehydrated sweet cereal thing before leaving.

Eating all this yummy and processed raw food isn't something I'd do all the time, of course. It's a big, BIG indulgement. When I'm in school I eat mainly whole fruits, sometimes salads, and nuts and dried fruit, or in other words, very basic foods. I just have a knife in case I need to cut off some bruised parts. That's how people on a raw food diet should eat. I would say the occasional "gourmet" raw food dining is okay, just like for regular people occasionally drinking alcohol or something isn't going to kill you if you enjoy it.

I pretty much went back to Grand Central after that to meet up Alison at around 5:45 PM. Then...back home. Bye NYC! HELLO POUGHKEEPSIE!

For some reason when I got back to my dorm, despite already having eaten so much I decided to eat even MORE. A lot more. I ate various raw food junk food I bought online and from Live Live up until 9-something PM, after which I felt like a beached whale. Today I ate until 9 PM too, although I didn't feel as whale-ish.

Oh yeah, what happened today? Well I found out I gained 2 pounds, which is no surprise, but it's still a little alarming. Unlike past Sundays during which I would do nothing and stay in my pjs all day, I decided to go to the gym and exercise a bit. I can't seem to run as far as before...I did 1.25 miles running on the treadmill and 3 miles on the elliptical. Then I tried some of the weight training equipment, which I desperately need to use. Man, I'm weak. Seem like the most I can do on any machine is 30 lbs. I gotta get more buff! (Man, can you even imagine me being buff?)

My roommate Kathryn planned to make a Thanksgiving dinner for some people on our floor and some other floors, so she was busy making food for most of the day. In the end she made four pies, baked a 20-something lb turkey, made a huge vat of mashed potatoes, cooked string beans, and prepared canned stuff like yams and corn. Lots of food, overall. She was afraid there wouldn't be enough, but it was no problem. :) Me being the weird person that I am thought people would like to have salad, so I decided I'd use some of my ACDC points to get lots and lots of salad. I filled up 5 big plastic containers with salad, which was about 3 too many. I put lots of apples in the salad because I thought people liked apples, but...no, not really. Well, not everyone likes apples, I guess. One guy said he took them out, and in the end there was just SO MUCH SALAD LEFTOVER! I'm not going to eat it either because my mum said it would rot in the fridge. Hm well. What a waste. :( Kathryn bought veggies because I thought I'd make the salad myself, so I guess I will eat the veggies. Overalll, the dinner was a big success, besides the salad. Everything looked good, especially the pies. For some reason, three vegetarians (including me...I'm practically a vegetarian) were sitting by the turkey. Bad planning on our part. :D

I can't believe the weekend is over already. I didn't have much homework, thankfully. I have to finish up an English and Anthropology essay, but I hope that won' t be too hard. I'll have photos from NYC later. If you want to see last week's, go here.