Praise Jesus, there is sunshine in NYC! After the 50-60 mph winds on Friday that created “walking-style tail winds” I was in need of some sunshine and warmer temperatures. My weekend has been completely full of yummy food, fabulous company, great entertainment and a fabulous sample sale. Let me just recap a few of the high points. I had two (kinda 3, one’s in utero) lovely visitors, my brother and sister-in-law. They came to stay with me, and I was SO grateful for their company! Our weekend mission: catch up on eachother’s lives, check our unique baby shops and eat at organic, fresh and fabulous restaurants…Trying our best to avoid the typical healthy Auburn options, Panera Bread and Subway. This is pretty easy here. There are speciality restaurant for any and every food allergy, diet or desire. Back home Subway was a great option when you wanted something half way decent for your insides. Well, there is a Subway literally 50 steps from my apartment’s front door here. Guess what? I have been there ONCE, yes ONCE. Now as for Panera, I don’t think we have one. I kinda miss it 
I digress, we ate our dinners here (yes, he won iron chef) and here (my absolute favorite!!) We got snacks here and here. And had a few other tummy fillers here and here. Do not worry, we did WAY more than just eat. We walked miles and miles and miles, and more miles. So I pretty much lost count. We visited the fabulous High Line Park, and soaked up the beautiful weather!! We went in and out of baby stores. Three of my absolute favorite are: Ralph Lauren Baby, Bonpoint (to die for French baby line), and ABC Carpet and Home baby and kids section. At RL Baby we got him a teeny-tiny sweater and matching blanket. And from the layette, this. Oh he is going to be so stinkin’ snuggly! And at ABC, these little hand towels were fabulous! After all the “baby ooo-ing and aww-ing”, we came upon a fabulous RL Home sample sale and scored big time. Prices were like 80-90% off. Furniture, accessories, you name it – straight from the showroom floors! Score 
But honestly I have been saving the best for last, an entertaining and WET night at Fuerza Bruta. It is kind of an indescribable experience. It is an interactive, standing show. It involves walter, running, dancing, music, LOUD music, and well…I will leave the rest for you to expereince for yourself. It goes without saying we got a fare share of “flirting with adventure”.
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I came across these images of Central Park while scouring through my computer files yesterday. They serve to remind me that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And spring will return to NYC, one day that is. It might not be soon enough for my liking, but it will come. With the dark comes the light, and with the cold comes the warm…so I known I will survive. In the meantime, we are weather one of the worst winters on record here in the North East. I our attempts to go about our daily lives, we are jumping snow piles on the street, but only to land in a 6″ puddle of slush. But on the positive side…
We get to sneak a handful of snow from an untouched planter to mold into the perfect snowball only to nail our friend two strides ahead on the sidewalk. And we marvel at the glistening sunshine shimmering on the snowy tree branches. So for now Happy Weekend from the Winter Wonderland!
Readers, do you have any fun weekend plans? I am headed to a friends going away party tonight, then settling in for a cozy Saturday and Sunday. Rest is on the horizon!
Hi my lovely readers. I am completely embarrassed to look up, and look you in the eyes. Why? Well, I have completely deserted you the last month, and have no excuse – except life got busy. Since I last posted, Christmas came and went, and we embarked on a brand new year. A time to start fresh. The slate is wiped clean, and we are given not just a new hour, day, week, or month, but WHOLE NEW YEAR!! However, before I start completely anew, I want to give you a little recap of what has been going on.
I spent a whole week home before Christmas. It was greatly enjoyed, and and desperately needed. I slept in and stayed up late, went to the gym with my sister LOTS, ran errands with Mom, visited with family, baked cookies, assembled Christmas cards, went to movies, saw best friends, got a haircut (last one was in June), drank a glass of Cakebread, treated myself to manis and pedis, ate yummy homemade dinners, ate out @ Amsterdam, Arricia, Panera and Big Blue [some all time favs], laughed hysterically as I watched my brother put together their new bugaboo, sang Christmas songs at the Christmas Eve church service, watched snow fall on Christmas night, and soaked up every single minute of everyday.
As the festivities came to an end, our fun was just beginning because my family was accompanying me back to the City through New Years. Well, Christmas night our flight was cancelled for the following morning. To our dismay we wouldn’t fly out until Tuesday. After a long headache with Delta, we finally got rebooked. Hallelujah! Flying into NYC was a pretty sight.
The flight was a breeze, but we were not sure if the cab ride was going to be so safe. We passed lots of snow covered abandoned cars on the side of the NJ Turnpike. The traffic was insane, and the snow was mucky. As our cab driver jumped lots of curbs, in an effort to avoid the LONG line of traffic entering into the Holland Tunnel, he assured was this is how “New Yorkers” do it. He followed that by, “No worries we are in a brand new 2011 mini-van with 4-wheel drive. Now I don’t know how you feel about that, but I was not completly convinced that was suppose to give me a peace of mind. Good news, we made it…almost! We could not get to the front of my apartment (clean up was and still is a slow and still in the works process), but we trudged 1 block through the sloshy ickiness with our rolling bags. I might add I had on flats. Not a good idea. Needless to say, I lived in my Hunter Boots this past week. There is no hope for looking to stylish in this weather. So you are thinking…snowy and cold, what do you do in the City with weather like that? We had not problem staying throughly entertained. We laughed our way through the snow. It took double the time to walk anywhere because of the mounds of snow and deep puddles of slush blocking our pathway. We managed to make it over to Stan’s (fabulous) new office one evening after dinner at a favorite-The Harrison. His office has a 360 view of Manhattan. On the south-eastern edge there is a fabulous view overlooking Ground Zero, and the construction of the under-construction Freedom Tower. The void in the Cityscape is pretty moving. And the view is absolutely magnificent!
We also stumbled upon another pretty magnificent view in Soho. It was a little smaller scale, and was found on the entrance doors to the Soho Under Armour pop-up store. All I can say is “War Eagle” because Auburn really is “the best players in the game”!
Now to go on a complete ramble. We had fun! We ventured in and our of lots of design showrooms. Where I decorated a dream house. I fell in love with this tile…
and this faucet…
We took the subway to my new office (come next week!). We ventured into fabulous antique stores. I bought a rug a fabulous rug at ABC Carpet & Home. We shopped @ fabulous NYC boutiques. We ate at some of my local favorites: Warren 77, Locanda Verde, Cafe SFA @ Saks, The Hummus Place, and Le Pain Quotidien. And we probably laughed again, and jumped a few more slushy puddles of melting snow. Last night we rang in the New Year on a more local style, completely avoiding the chaos and misery of crowds of midtown (aka Time Square). Sadly this morning, the fam packed up and left me behind. I found myself in tears of sadness. I wanted to rewind the past two weeks, and relive them over and over and over again. I recapped the fun we had over the Christmas holiday, and just wanted that back. Life must go on. Back to the daily grind, but it just reminds me that memories are better than anything money can buy!!
Happy New Year!!
