New York, New York

I'm back from new york! It was an exciting five days, and very tiring.

Tuesday:
Tuesday started earlier than I necessarily would have liked, but the ‘performance’ lifestyle, followed by my two weeks of vacation, does not lend itself toward early mornings. My friend M and I drove to Bryn Mar, where she’s currently a graduate student. We met up with her boyfriend and had lunch at Cosi. I had heard of the chain before, but never eaten there. I got the Chicken TBM and it was tasty! I’ll admit, I chose Cosi over other restauraunt possibilities because of the name - say it aloud! Cosi! Cosi cosi cosi! It sounds like cozy. Very friendly! We missed our SEPTA train so we just hung around a bookstore until the next one. I was able to get some knitting done on my sock in the train, so that was nice. We met up with D, the friend we were staying with for the first few nights, at Penn Station, and one wrong train later finally ended up at his house.
Wednesday:
Wednesday M had plans to meet an old professor for lunch outside of the Met, so I was on my own. Where to go? Alice’s Tea Cup! Arthur, a similarly tea obsessed friend of mine from college, went to Alice’s sometime during school and brought back some of the Birthday tea. Delicious! I’ve wanted to go there ever since. I ended up having not just the tea, but high tea! It was delicious – a salmon sandwich, a pumpkin scone, the birthday tea and assorted cookies. I wish I’d purchased some loose leaf from them – M and I had planned to go to another of their locations later, but it didn’t happen; of course, my tea collection is currently overflowing so I didn’t need any more.
Tea was followed by the afternoon at the Met and dinner with M, M’s friend Casper, and D. As I was making my way to dinner, I fell down the last tier of steps at the Met. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of those steps – there are a lot of them! I fell smack down on my ankles, and slid down the remaining steps. Oww! As I’m writing this up, five days later, my right ankle is STILL swollen, and my left leg is still VERY bruised. This did put somewhat of a damper on all the walking we did, but I survived. =]
We went to Hampton Chutney Co for dinner and Rice to Riches for desert. Rice to Riches is a rice pudding bar. I felt majorly under-hip, but the pudding was good. It’s right next to Pinkberry, so I convinced M we should come back later so I could try the Pinkberry I’d read so much about.
Thursday:
Thursday started with meeting D for lunch. Nothing exciting there – just Chipoltle in St.Mark’s Place. I have to say, as far as fast food goes, I’m a big Chipoltle fan. Then it was wondering around SoHo until I found Purl, the yarn store. I was overwhelmed! The selection was modest – at least, more so than my LYS – but it had new exciting yarns I’d never seen before! I bought three skeins of Organilk in Jungle, a lovely greenish brown heather that looks as though the green glows brown somehow, and two cones of Habu yarns, one of the silk and stainless steel and one of a matching mohair. Someone at the shop had knitted the Kusha Kusha scarf and was describing it to another customer. I’m not the biggest fan of that particular shape, but I loved the yarn combination. The steel gives some structure to the fabric. You can crumple it and have subtle folds, almost like paper. I’m very excited to work with this!
After Purl we poked around SoHo some more. I convinced M to go to Pinkberry with me. So delicious! I have to say, I think David Lebovitz’ version tastes almost as good, if not better, but the texture of Pinkberry’s yogurt was superior to my attempts at Lebovitz’ recipe.
We met our friend A for dinner at Crispo, and then he gave us a quick tour of his office – at Google! It was the second time for me visiting him, and all I’ll say is that it was awesome. Part of me still thinks of my future in terms of ‘how will this make it easier for me to work for Google’.
Friday:
Friday was a much more relaxing day, and I was ready for it! M and I went to M’s friend Sarah’s house, and pretty much just watched Firefly all day. I’d never seen it before, despite being a Buffy fan, so it was lots of fun. We went to ColdStone for icecream and they had pumpkin icecream. Yay! As I think I’ve mentioned, I’m a fan of ANYTHING pumpkin, especially deserts. I got graham cracker crust and Heath bar mixins, and the icecream was delicious! We ended the day by watching more Firefly. A nice relaxing day.
Saturday:
The day started with homemade chocolate chip waffles, made by my friend Sarah. What could be a better way to start the day? M and I went back to Manhattan and unloaded our bags at our friend A’s before going to see Pygmalion.

The show let out about half an hour before we expected it to, so I convinced M to go to The Drama Bookshop with me. I bought way more than I should have:
The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart & Tina Landau
A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart
His Dark Materials by Nicholas Wright based on the novels by Philip Pullman (the ‘new’ edition, revised and with an introduction)
Rock ‘N’ Roll by Tom Stoppard
The Fever by Wallace Shawn (a signed copy! I didn’t nottice THAT until just now! Cool!)
Women Beware Women by Thomas Middleton

Dinner was with M, A, Sarah and I at Zen Palate. I had two different kinds of soy protein in my meal, and while I’m not stranger to soy – or to vegetarian food – I wasn’t the biggest fan of the mango entrée I got. M got ‘sweet and sour nuggets’ which were much tastier, and had a more enjoyable texture. After dinner it was off to Penn Station and home! I got some more knitting done on the train home, but then I made friends with my neighbor. Knitting can happen any time – train friends are unique.

Back home:
I’m glad to be back! Living in New York still holds an appeal for me, but I know realistically I wouldn’t be able to afford living anywhere I’d want to live. It was nice visiting friends and seeing art and having new food adventures. I do like travel, and I forget sometimes how much I miss it. It’s nice though, also, to be able to lounge around outside and enjoy the sounds of the birds (I heard our owl!) and of the trees moving. I’m not sure if I’m a city girl or a country girl, but for now, I think a nice mix of both is best.