bluecastle | brought to you via a lunch of potato chips and skittles...

It seems New York City ate my brain...

Just went out to get lunch, ordered it, paid for it ... and discovered when I got back to my office that I abandoned my poor liddle sandwich at the store. One lost turkey sandwich sitting there at Sheetz crying out for me ...

...meanwhile I was at Michaels sourcing big sheets of paper for a journaling project (yes, another one) I'm about to work on.

So. Chips and Skittles.

Saturday in NYC was lovely, really ... just exhausting in the best possible way. Didn't sleep the night before as I needed to leave the house at 4:30 in the morning, and there is NO way I could get my ass out of bed for that. I tried to kip on the couch for a bit, but the cat wasn't having that. He got up on the computer desk and trod on the keyboard making the computer whirrrrr in my ear and I gave up on the sleeping thing.

Then I tried to sleep on the bus for a bit, but that ended when the bus driver SLAMMED on the breaks when he hit/narrowly avoided hitting (stories vary, and I was asleep, okay...) a deer. As it was nearly time for our morning McDonald's breakfast stop this was not so much of a big deal.

Then to lull us into submission, they put "Marley and Me" on in the bus during the second leg of the trip. So as we got close to the city we're all (many of us anyway) sitting there bawling our eyes out at the inevitable conclusion of the film.

But we dried our tears and soon the skyline came into view, and all was right with the world...

There's a fire station on the corner of 8th and 49th I'm getting to know quite well. They've dropped us off near it a couple trips in a row.

My friend who went with me wanted to hit fabric stores to find material for a dress she's making for another friend of ours ... to wear at Dragon*Con actually ... so we headed for the Garment District. I took us down Broadway -- 7th Ave to the giant button ... and then we wandered 40th looking at fabric stores. She found what she wanted in the second one, so she got that cut and I wandered around petting the fabric. Fell in love with this aqua and green velvet, but at forty dollars a yard, it stayed in NY, and I simply took a picture of it.

Grabbed lunch at Guy and Gallard on that block. Was not busy, they were falling all over themselves to be helpful to us, and they had actual Cadbury choccies and HOBNOBS. I should have gotten some, but didn't want to haul them cookies all over the city :)

Spent a good bit of time watching my friend browse in The Drama Book Shop. I picked up Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" as it keeps showing up on lists of good books for creative types to read.

Lessee... what next. Somehow Bryant Park came up, and I took mah friend over to see that, and we stopped in the NYPL to see a maps of the Hudson river exhibit. Most disinterested in security, security guards ever, but there were some wicked cool maps and 400 year old books and whatnot. And the building is just lovely. I suppose that was the cultural portion of the day...

Sat out under the trees in front of the library for a while. I would have been happier to take a longer rest as my feets were getting tuckered out... but my friend wanted to meet up with her friend, so after some furious texting ... and one solicitation from some probably bogus charity ... off we went headed for 9th Ave.

I confess I got us turned around and we lapped the same three blocks a couple of times... going past the same the UNIT clad guys with very serious guns on one corner. Also, an unmarked SUV. Not sure what was going on there, but someone or something was clearly valuable enough to come with its own black clad security team.

Got us to 9th Ave eventually, and up to 45th where there was a Thai place the friend of a friend suggestion.

We got distracted a bit on the way by a street fair on 9th Ave. And a large table of very shiny glass things. Bought a great "Murano" pendant for $4.

Then the friend of friend arrived, and they chatted while I re-hydrated and had my first Pad Thai ever.

Then quick stops at Duane Reade, and Starbucks and we were back on 8th near the fire station waiting for the bus. Bus left city at 7:45 and pulled into bus company here at 12:15. In-flight entertainment... The Devil Wears Prada.

I had to drive my friend home, and then drive myself home. Pulled into my garage at 1 a.m. utterly exhausted.

My feet are still sore, and my muscle still ache... but I miss the city so much. The New Yorkers we met blew that "crabby New Yorker" stereotype out of the water, and were uniformly wonderful. The weather was perfect. Save walking through Times Square we didn't do anything especially touristy, and 9th Ave. felt more local than touristy. The only thing that would have made it a better day was more time in the middle to sit and people watch...

If you want to see what I saw ... simply click here!