Last call - Escape Home to NYC Day #4

Magnet #1163 - HERE ZOMBIE

This magnet my friend brought back from the Romantic Times convention best represents how I feel right now.

After three days of running around town like a girl with a hall pass, it would seem that NYC has kicked my ass.

As I write, I'm running a low-grade fever, all aches and sniffles...putting off packing for Houston because I don't really want to get up off the bed. OIY. There went my Explore Brooklyn Day plans, along with my back-ups of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Festival, and even the antique show I wanted to check out.

I did pretty good though, despite myself, brunching on the UWS and watching Fast Five. Yep, only #prettyboys and #fastcars could have made me break my self-imposed NYC movie theatres ban. (But, well worth the effort, because it was one of the better of the franchise - the twist at the end more than made up for its silly Ocean's 11 slant.)

Anyway, so this is how my escape home to NYC trip ends, with a sneeze and a sniffle, rather than a Tom Collins w/ a splash of cran to celebrate tomorrow's birthday. No matter, at least I won't be hungover for the Houston flight in the morning. So there's that.

Thanks, NYC, for the fun four days here at home - I squeezed in enough good times and food to last me through the next couple of months.

And then hopefully, I'll be coming home to stay.

To marry a prince - Escape Home to NYC Day #3

Magnet #1162 - Keep Calm

Could not resist this perfect magnet my sister sent.

As I type this, it's 4:50am, and I've just settled into the aforementioned couch in Queens...wondering how long we have to wait before breaking out the stereotypical scones and clotted cream.

Congratulations, cutecouple I've never met before!

So funny how the world has invested so much in the happy couple - it's like we're all reading from the same romance book! And truly, they're everywhere - I've been away for a while, so it was just yesterday that I saw the Congratulations William & Catherine! taxi-top ads from MSNBC with complete with flag and engagement picture.

Uh, ya'll know they're not our royal family, right? That we fought a whole war of Independence a few years ago to get away from 'em?

Eh, no matter.

Today, we are all royal.

Wait. We're not?

Forbidden fruit - Escape Home to NYC Day #2

Magnet #1160 - Forbidden Planet

Day #2:

- breakfast strawberry crepes at Alice's Tea Cup
- NYPL to get some work done
- lunch with friends at Bill's Bar & Burgers
- Vosges for a Rooster
- Met & MoMA in three hours.

Ya'll. I am lovin' speed-dating my town! How much of this stuff do we just take for granted living here?

Anyway, by way of explanation, ya'll know all that shopping I did yesterday?

If you know me at all, you know I don't go crazy and spend a boatload on couture or hell, even clothes. Totes not me. (Don't get me wrong, drop me in an Outlet and I'll do a fair amount of damage, but NYC is not an Outlet.)

Instead, with a little money in my pocket, I end up buying silly stuff. And usually from silly places. It's all that forbidden gifty stuff that people keep telling me not to buy within a month of my birthday, so they can buy it for me.

Like my trip yesterday to Forbidden Planet.

This is not my demo, folks. I don't really know what my demo is at this point, but FP is not it. I mean, whenever I walk in, I still feel about a million years old, and way too corporate to be darkening their doorstep. (Especially as I'm wedged in between nerdy cuteboys grabbing their week's worth of comics.)

I don't even read comics or manga - ya'll know that! I've said it a million times! Nor do I play with action figures (mind, I own them, but they never get played with or whatever). And, I don't even wear all those graphic Ts they sell. (Today's Doctor Who Gallifrey Road T-shirt doesn't count, as I didn't buy it there. And yeah, I was totes gonna Tweet a pic of it on me, but then realized I had just taken, and was about to Tweet, a picture of my boobs. Uh, NO.)

Anyway, so yeah. Ya'll have no idea how much crap I ended up buying there. AND OMG, I found my stuffed Adipose (I was devastated when I lost mine on my last trip to the BBC and was SO happy to pay for it - again.) Shut. It.

I also ended up buying a boatload of stuff at Reminiscence, a fave novelty store a friend introduced me to several years ago, down on 23rd off of 6th. Slightly kitschy stuff, slightly dirrty stuff, and I must confess I've never actually made it to the back of the store. No kidding.

But I love spending time wandering through the store. SO much fun. I mean, I'm totally the biggest kitschy gift person ever - I mean, what's the point of presents if you get someone something they'd give themselves?

And of course, if you know me, you know it's almost impossible for me to leave a bookstore without a book in hand. (I may not actually read it, but owning it is half the battle, dammit!) So of course, I had to buy the books of all three authors at last night's book launch.

Sure, I could have scored free copies of them, easy. But I love, love, love giving those few cents to the author's sales numbers. Plus, how can you not help Independent booksellers like Word Brooklyn out?

So yeah - not a pile of new clothes, just a new pile of dustcatchers...for me, but mostly for others. Hah. Just like half the things in my life, my version of shopping is nowhere near anyone else's version of shopping.

Think 12-year-old.

Or hell, it's quite possible that maybe I'm really turning 5 on Sunday.

Crazy as Joy - Escape Home to NYC Day #1

Magnet #1160 - Crazy as a Loon

Hahaha - one day in the City, and I totally forgot to do yesterday's magnet. Oh, how quickly they forget.

Mind you, I didn't get home until midnight this morning, and I woke up at 5 yesterday, so I totally get a pass.

Yeah, you can definitely tell I'm back in New York, because I'm running around town, nonstop since then, crazy as a loon. (See what I did there?)

I can't help it! I didn't want to miss a single second of my first day back in town - so of course, I didn't.

Diner breakfast with my diner coffee - Check.

Lunch and fab dessert (what idiot turns down dessert, I ask you?) at Union Square Cafe with a good friend - Check.

Checking out the digs for a possible place of employment - Check.

Shopping - Check.

Wait. More shopping - Check.

A little more shopping - Check.

Ice cream from the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Truck - Check.

Still more shopping - Check.

Acquired nine magnets - Check. (Including this Rangeley Lakes, Maine, magnet my lunch friend brought back for me from Maine! Supercool! And quite fitting, thanks!)

Drinks with good friends to bitch about old place of work - Check.

A quintessentially NYC, evening book launch event in Brooklyn - Check.

Discover really great restaurant for dinner in Brooklyn - Check. (Haven't a clue what the name of the place was...and not entirely sure I could find it again, but whatever.)

Traveling on as many as five different train lines in an hour - Check.

Ready to start the next day?

Oh, hells yes.

On the docket?

Alice's Tea Cup for scones. The Met. The MoMA. Lunch/Dinner/Drinks with friends and coworkers. Heading out to Queens for the Royal Wedding.

And, oh yeah, possibly some shopping.

Texas, for...five years

Magnet #1159 - Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose!

Been holding on to this magnet for a while now, waiting for the inevitable bitter end. And, much as I was loathe to, I ended up finishing up the last four episodes of Friday Night Lights today on the train.

I'm so very, very sad that it's over. Let's face it though - when the show first started five years ago, no one thought it was gonna last.

Sure, critics loved it, fans loved it, but no one thought it was gonna come back. So technically, each season has been such a wonderful gift, we can't really be greedy, methinks. Still. I will miss this show ever so much.

Anyway, since the woman beside me here on this train didn't realize I was watching the very. last. episode. ever. and was subsequently spoiled (like crazy), I'm feeling especially sensitive to not loading this post up with any spoilers. So I won't.

But, here's what I will say that IS spoilery.



Stop reading now if you DO NOT WANT to be spoiled.



This is your last warning.



I mean it. I'm warning you.



Really. Stop now.



Did you stop?



Be sure now.



Ok. Here goes.


I didn't think it was possible for Kyle Chandler to look hotter than when he wore his Dillon Panthers Blue golf shirt and hat out on the field. He was so darned pretty in that color.

Then he donned the East Dillon Lions Red and Black. And he was even hotter in black that golf shirt out on the field.

And by goodness, ya'll, I honestly didn't think he could get hotter.

Until he put on that Pioneer Green.

Holy freakin' cow does that green bring out the color in his eyes.

What?

Erotica, that's what SHE said

Magnet #1158 - Wasteland

Hee. My friends went to the Romantic Times convention in LA last week - for work and for fun. And I got lotsa magnets! Yay!

Of course, most of them have nekkid boys and girls on them, so now I'm left with figuring out how to use them without inviting every bot and spammer known to man.

I do love this pretty magnet...even as the website on it is particularly giggle-worthy for me. I shan't link to it, for fear of NSFW content, even though I don't really know if it is, or not.

And that's pretty indicative of today's marketplace.

It wasn't all that long ago that that the Erotica sections at book stores were stand-alone, and off to the side. Indeed, my friend who had to read/buy Erotica (for work) would go off down the aisle to browse, leaving me in the regular romance section.

Nowadays, for better or worse, the Erotica lives right next to and in some cases, within the shelves of regular romance - steamy hot covers of hard-bodied warriors and strong fonts mixed in with pretty lacy dresses and curlicue fonts.

For better, because it legitimizes a genre that's long been unrecognized, even as their numbers bear out a dedicated and buying audience.

For worse, because for those who aren't looking for all that ahem, adventure, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the two genres.

I'll admit, I'm in the latter category - I've never read an Erotica title, nor am I likely to. I don't judge or begrudge their existence, but it's just not my cup of tea.

The magnets are pretty hot, though. Nope, I don't mind that.

At all.

Poor little Catholic girl

Magnet #1157 - Unleash your joy

I wanted something non-denominational for this Easter Sunday, and figured this Kelly Rae Roberts inspirational magnet fits the bill.

Unleash your joy
Embrace your truth
Pick more wild flowers
Leap fearlessly
Collect moments of kindness

Lovely.

So, today, I learned something about Easter.

Last night, I saw so many Tweets about parents getting drunk and hiding Easter eggs for their kids, and was totally confused.

Ya'll, I kid you not that until this morning, when several friends posted FB pictures of their kids finding the eggs, I didn't realize that parents actually hid Easter eggs around their own house for their kids to find on Easter morning.

I've never done an Easter egg hunt at my house. Ever. In fact, I don't think my parents have ever bought those plastic eggs. Besides that, a friend pointed that that it might be we do public hunts down here, that maybe it's just a Southern thing - that our hunts are generally held in parks or churches.

I wouldn't know, really - I mean, I can seriously count on one hand how many egg hunts I've been on. And that's counting taking my baby cousins to Central Park for their egg pick-up hunt just a few years ago.

It's crazy, I know. I mean, I always knew about the Easter baskets and I've had pictures taken with the Easter bunny, but I've never known about the morning egg hunts around the house.

For as long as I can remember, though, I've always been superjealous of kids with their Easter baskets and eggs and chocolate bunnies. Once when I was little, I made the mistake of asking why I didn't get a basket or candy.

Totally got the religious lecture about Easter, and that they would never understand the tradition of bunnies and candy, and that therefore, no, we would not have baskets or candy in our house. Ever. I was crushed.

One visit to the Philippines during Easter week proved how serious they take this holiday, with procession after procession, men carrying actual crosses in the streets and being whipped, men getting tied to crosses, a giant Judas being burned in effigy to the jeers of large crowds, kissing of someone's feet (note: I did not go to this, so I dunno if it was real feet, or a statue), novena after novena, stations after stations of the cross, mass after mass. After mass after mass.

It was non-stop.

So yeah, no basket or candy for me. Ever.

Poor little Catholic girl, I know.

Oiy. Thank goodness they never had a problem with Santa.


eta:
Update. Would you look at that. Still absolutely no remorse from my mommy for not giving me baskets and candy over the years.

eta2:
Clarification. I should mention that it really was just my parents - there are plenty of lucky Filipino kids whose parents embraced the bunny and all his accouterments. Sigh. But this post notwithstanding, no, I'm not bitter at all.