O.
M.
G.
I woke up at 3:45pm today. But after my 9 days in NYC, I am not surprised. Here are some of the things I did:
SUNDAY
Cupcakes at Make My Cake in Harlem. That would be chocolate and strawberry.
And then went to Central Park.
Where I discovered a small garden I never knew existed:
And met a lovely swan:
And then my bestie and I went to Pommes Frites! Where we ate:
(the sauces: Curry Ketchup Especial, Honey Mustard Mayo, Vietnamese Pineapple Mayo, and Parmesan Peppercorn. And a Diet Coke, because I'm a light eater).
16 minutes later:
MONDAY
Lunch with the ever incredible Suzie Townsend. No pictures, because she is a consummate storyteller and I was sitting and RAPTLY listening to her adventures. I miss her so super much.
Then...Soho!
Where I passed the Scholastic building on my way to hunt down a lovely sweater in a lovely color. A delightful surprise!
And then, that evening, there were shenanigans involving a certain kosher restaurant which FLOODED while I was there with a brother and a friend. Trapped between the rising waters of unknown origin inside the restaurant and the pouring rain outside the restaurant, I was balancing on one foot trying to change out of my sparkly flats into my Chucks. It was memorable. And no, I have no pictures.
TUESDAY
I visited Simon & Schuster.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The building is SO COOL. There were books in the LOBBY and I met Editor Courtney and she introduced me to lovely and awesome people. LOVELY AND AWESOME PEOPLE. Seriously, I don't know how that building can CONTAIN so much talent and genius and NICENESS. There must be math involved, I am sure of it.
And then Editor Courtney showed me MOAR BOOKS! Rows and rows. Shelves and shelves. I drooled admired them. Simon & Schuster publishes some of MY FAVORITE AUTHORS. And it occurred to me that some day, in less than a year, my book is going to be on those shelves next to those books and I don't know how I got so lucky. I really don't.
There are no pictures of S&S, either, because I mostly walked around in a blinking, drooling, stupor. Doesn't that sound attractive? It was.
But I WILL have some pictures, some day, of what I did that afternoon. And I can't WAIT to see them and show some of them to you. Of what, you ask? I'm not telling. It will be a SURPRISE.
Author of:
I went with Beth and her lovely husband to one of my favorite restaurants in the East Village. I have no pictures of us, but I have pictures of our food (priorities!):
(squid ink linguini with calamari for her, arugula, roasted beets, and goat cheese salad for me. And gnocchi for me, not pictured).
And then after that, we went to Pommes Frites. Again.
What?
WEDNESDAY
I started the day with another cupcake (coconut):
And then went to visit my bestie at work. She makes costumes for Broadway shows!
Corset Boning: (hee, hee)
The Rockettes tiny outfits. Clearly, they don't eat cupcakes.
Jewels!
Fabric!
Thread!
Shrek gnomes!
And then I went to dinner with S&S folks, including the spectacular, genius Editor Courtney, and the spectacular, genius Agent Diana.
Where I learned about this movie:
which I did not have the chance to watch that evening, but after dinner, I went to The Strand with the agent, and found the novel it was based on:
And promptly read it. It was fabulously sick. Loved it so much.
THURSDAY
Had lunch with my high school play costar. Who introduced me to a place called Jack's World, where you can buy many random things:
And then Thursday night, saw:
(also, is that not the most gorgeous movie poster? *SIGH*)
And then it was back to Harlem.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
Off to Long Island, to relax and visit family. I read this book:
which, HOLY SHNIKES, was AMAZING. Oh man. That book had so many Things I Love. So creepy. So disturbing. So AWESOME.
And then I had cupcakes and pizza for dinner on Friday. Saturday I had cupcakes and candy corn.
What theme?
SUNDAY
Back to Manhattan, sitting next to this guy:
who sang "Apologize" and "Sexyback" to himself. It could have been more pleasant, I won't lie.
Then realized I left my laptop power cable at my aunt's house. Also my jewelry. Oops.
Then met the brother here:
We had a LOT of fun at the planetarium, listening to Whoopi Goldberg (!) tell us about the UNIVERSE and all, and measuring our weights on Mars, the moon, the sun, and various and sundry places.
I saw these tasty morsels, which I hadn't encountered since an elementary school visit to the Kennedy Space Center:
And then we walked over to the Museum of Natural History (which, my brother wants you to notice, has NATURAL, earth tone colored flooring, contrasted with the planetarium's black + sparkly SPACE color tile):
Then we went here:
where we enjoyed this:
at a fabulously pretentious (but tasty) kosher restaurant, where a girl sitting next to us told her waiter to take the lemon on her plate back to the kitchen and send back lemon JUICE. No lie.
MONDAY
Spend most of the day at the bestie's apartment with this little guy. Named, appropriately, GUY:
(he is a North Shore Animal League find--his owners dumped him after they let him get hit by a car. Their loss, because he is the PERFECT DOG. I adore him.)
And then hung out with my lovely editor again, went to The Strand again, and met JJ Jones, who is super, super cool. She also went to NYU, and we had some of the same professors. There was much squee.
Ended the night with the brother, where we ate this:
at a lovely kosher restaurant on the Upper West side called My Most Favorite Food. Highly recommend!
And then it was back to Harlem.
TUESDAY
Goodbye, New York:
Hello, Florida:
(me. On the couch. In stretchy pants. Bliss).
What have you guys been up to?
