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My First Pair of Valentinos
2008-04-30 01:38:00
The news of the rare, by-invitation-only sale in Valentino's corporate office in our building spread like wildfire. However, when I learned that the sale featured 50-80% discounts on items retailing from $600 to $85,000 - including the actual dress that Cameron Diaz wore to the 2007 Golden Globes, I decided to remain at my desk. As my coworkers raced for their wallets and the elevators, my boss pulled me aside, slipped me her credit card and told me to go pick something out for myself. I could not believe it. Finally, she said, "If you ask me a fourth time if I'm serious, I'm going to revoke my offer."Without another word, I quietly accepted her credit card and followed the pilgrimage of women to Valentino. Of course, I looked for the cheapest thing I could find. Though I am sure I could have chosen a slightly more expensive clutch or a gorgeous jacket that caught my eye at 80% off of $2200, I just could not bring myself to do it. In the end, I selected a pair of shoes with a ret...
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Phone Photo Ops - Valentino
2008-04-30 01:29:00
Entering Valentino for the by-invitation-only saleMy first [and only] pair of ValentinosThe dress hanging among $2,000-$35,000 dressesYes, I typed the zeros correctly ... $35,000I have never seen an $85,000 price tag in my entire life
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What Do Guacamole, Brisé volé, and Hookah Have in Common?
2008-04-29 01:18:00
My first time experiencing the New York City Ballet at a sneak preview for their Spring Gala program - following dinner at Picante and preceded by a girlfriend's birthday party at Kush Lounge - can be summed up with one of my cliché moments last Saturday night.In the front seat of a cab racing down Madison Avenue, I turned around and said to my three friends in the back, "Aren't our lives fabulous? Where else can you have a night out with your girlfriends that includes awesome Mexican food, a performance by the New York City Ballet, and a private party at a Hookah bar?"
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City Walk #18 - DUMBO
2008-04-28 02:07:00
Card no. 50 - photos"Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" is Brooklyn's "newest" new neighborhood.Begin at the north end of Brooklyn Heights Esplanade (Walk 48).For most of the 19th century, the main portal to Brooklyn lay at the foot of what is now Cadman Plaza West (Old Fulton Street), where steam ferries from Manhattan discharged passenger onto Fulton Landing. The little hub grew in importance, only to decline after the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. Follow the curving ramp to Columbia Heights, turn left, and walk downhill to Cadman Plaza West. To your left are two neighborhood institutions - Bargemusic, a live music spot located on Fulton Ferry landing, and the River Cafe (1 Water), beloved by romantics for its view and its food. Follow Water Street under the bridge past such new landmarks as St. Ann's performance space (#38) and Jacques Torres, a chocolate shop that seems sto have been airlifted straight from the Boulevard's St. Germain. Continue up Water to Main, wher...
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Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #18
2008-04-28 01:57:00
Today's route: DUMBOThe Financial District across the East River beyondFulton Landing, Bargemusic and Brooklyn Ice Cream FactoryClick here for a 360 degree viewThe Brooklyn Bridge dwarfs the Empire State Buildingon the midtown skylineThe River Café ...... in the shadow of the Brooklyn BridgeSt. Ann's WarehouseJacques Torres... where I selected three amazing chocolates to samplealong my walk1915 Clocktower BuildingThe intersection of Water and MainThe Manhattan Bridge from Washington StreetFulton Ferry Empire State ParkThe Manhattan BridgeLots of furniture stores hereReturning to Cadman Plaza WestCadman Plaza
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Phone Photo Ops - After Brunch in Brooklyn
2008-04-28 01:33:00
Walking from brunch at the Dean Street apartment of friends, who live a block from Michelle Williams. Their son is even a playmate of Heath Ledger and Williams' daughter Matilda, but I decided not to take a camera phone photo of her home ...Tree-lined streets and bicycle lanesThis is a CVSBrooklyn brownstonesFlowering walkways
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Eyes Wide Shut or Mind Limitedly Open?
2008-04-26 02:04:00
For someone who is the byproduct of an interracial marriage and who is currently in her own interracial relationship, my mind is not as open as I like to think it is. I astonished myself today when I was slightly amazed that a publisher for several of our major publications is in an interracial marriage and has a gorgeous mixed daughter.It's not that I am at all shocked that a successful White woman would be married to a Black man. Quite the opposite actually. But have you ever just assumed that certain women or men - whether White, Black or otherwise - just would not be involved with a member of a different race? And it's not even really a conscious assumption. You've just never thought to associate or disassociate someone in particular with an interracial relationship. And when you learn that he or she is ... you are slightly amazed. And depending on your perspective or personal experience, you may be either pleasantly surprised or genuinely annoyed.I was neither pleasantly sur...
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Quote of Whenever - Manhattan Real Estate and Teflon
2008-04-25 14:47:00
"The price of Manhattan real estate is kind of like teflon."- Joya Dass, ABC 7 EyeWitness NewsDass went on to report that a hedge fund manager paid over $800,000 for a storage room in the basement of The Dakota on West 72nd Street and Central Park West: "The room's buyer, hedge fund manager John Angelo, said the price was reasonable, considering what he's getting: 800 square feet with 20-foot-high ceilings and two windows, bigger than many apartments in cramped Manhattan, where a studio can be as small as 300 square feet and the median price for an apartment is more than $850,000."Read moreP.S. David B. Caruso (Associated Press Writer), Manhattan studios can be smaller than 300 square feet.Not a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.
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"Things I Love" Thursdays - Audible Subway Announcements
2008-04-25 04:48:00
Seventy percent of the time, on most subway lines, announcements by conductors are completely inaudible. Twenty-two percent of the time, they're clear and concise or merely decipherable. Five percent of the time, they're bold-faced lies (e.g. "If you cannot fit on this train, there is another one directly behind this one."). And the other 3% of the time, they are surprisingly amusing.*On a downtown no. 1 train for a blogger girls brunch two Sundays ago, the recalled transcript of the best subway conductor in New York City:"I welcome all my weekend customers on my train. But for all of you weekenders who don't take the train during the week, there are rules to follow. First, be advised that this is a train. It consists of separate cars all connected to each other and going to the same place at the same time. There are three doors per car, 10 cars per train, and 30 doors total. Please use all available doors to enter and exit the train."*Percentages are approximate and based solely...
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Phone Photo Ops - Evening Views
2008-04-25 04:16:00
New Yorkers in Bryant Park ...They're competing.They're reading.They're working.They're lounging.They're drinking.All phone photo ops featured in this post were taken between sips of Ketel One and Soda.
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Phone Photo Ops - Morning Views
2008-04-25 03:59:00
Upper West Side - Blooms on BroadwayAll phone photo ops featured in this post were taken between follow-up doctor's appointments.
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First NYC Emergency Room Visit
2008-04-23 01:15:00
A recent nonfatal, noncontagious but painful medical condition landed me in the emergency room on Monday morning. My boss cancelled all of her morning meetings and took me in a cab herself after I doubled-over in agony at my desk and then vomited in the bathroom. How great is she? My parents are sending her flowers.A CT scan revealed the cause of my discomfort over the past week and a half (resulting in four sick days last week and two in this one), and now that I have been assured that I am not dying, I'm concentrating on recovery.My first NYC ER experience was fairly comfortable at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. I particularly enjoyed being run back and forth through the giant donut while the mysterious voice on an intercom commanded over and over, "Take a deep breath in and hold it ... You may breathe normally."I also have to thank BNR - our Brooklyn-based blogger buddy/registered nurse, from whom I often seek informal medical advice - for his comforting text messages throughou...
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Weekend in Suburbia
2008-04-21 03:49:00
"What is this weird gushy feeling I get whenever I see our friends' babies?" I asked Tokii over Saturday brunch of pecan pancakes, french toast, hash brown souffle and scrambled eggs with cheese at a Cracker Barrel outside of New Haven (per Tokii's request; you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl)."That would be called your biological clock," she replied between bites of sausage."I don't know why I start to feel like I want one of these when I see them," I said, nodding toward the miniature human at in the highchair at the end of our table. "Can't I hit a snooze button?"Debasha and I arrived in Connecticut via the Metro-North the evening before to see Tokii perform in "The Bluest Eye", in which she was terrific as Claudia, just as The New York Times had said she was. Cassie and her best friend joined us for brunch, and in between hilariously inappropriate for family-style restaurants conversation, we were all oohing and aahing over h...
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Phone Photo Op - From East Rock
2008-04-21 03:16:00
Overlooking New Haven
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Phone Photo Ops - From East Rock & Below
2008-04-21 03:15:00
Overlooking New Haven from East Rock A flowering tree outside of Yale's amazing libraryDebasha & Cassie stroll along white picket fencesBetween gorgeous old New England homesNew Haven storefrontsTree-lined streetsA bar comparison to mushroom caps and acorns
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Quote of Whenever - Over Brunch in New Haven
2008-04-21 03:01:00
Quote of the Girls' Weekend in New Haven :"When he sat down, it looked like a mushroom cap on top of two acorns."- A Native New HaveniteNot a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.
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City Walk #17 - Grand Central Station
2008-04-21 01:57:00
Card no. 23 - photosThis mostly indoor walk through New York's Grand Central Station conjures the city's romantic past and its gift for continual reinvention.Begin at Lexington Avenue and East 42nd Street (M104 or M42 bus to 42nd Street and Park Avenue, or 4, 5, 6 or 7 train to Grand Central Station ).Anyone longing to play New Yorker for a day could do worse than to turn up at Grand Central Station some steamy summer weekday morning dressed in a suit and girded for battle with briefcase and rolled-up Wall Street Journal. Completed in 1913, the monumental depot remains one of the world's greatest interior spaces. The breathtaking main concourse, modeled in part on the Roman baths, is 470 feet long, 160 feet wide, and 150 feet high; across its vaulted blue ceiling are painted constellations of the winter night sky. The concourse has probably seen more foot traffic than any public space in the city. At its peak, when the Twentieth-Century Limited took off for Chicago every afternoon...
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Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #17
2008-04-21 01:40:00
Today's route: Grand Central StationEast 42nd Street view of Grand Central TerminalPershing SquareInscription above the door reads: To all those who with head, heart and hand toiled in the construction of this monument to the public service this is inscribed.View from the 42nd Street entranceLooking west toward Vanderbilt AvenueInformation KioskMTA Metro-North TicketsLooking east toward Lexington AvenueConstellations of the winter night skyShopping above; informal food court stations belowDining ConcourseOyster Bar & RestaurantThese women are whispering toward the wall to communicate ...... with their friend on the diagonal across the vaulted ceiling.Vanderbilt HallGrand Central Market
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Dear Younger Self
2008-04-18 16:26:00
Working in digital advertising, I generally know that most publisher sweepstakes are motivated by sponsorship opportunities, advertising partnerships and increased website pageviews. However, finding myself inspired by Marie Claire's "Letters to Your Younger Self" Sweepstakes, I combined thoughts I've expressed in my blog over the past year and a half in a letter to myself last month.The first draft greatly exceeded the 500-word maximum, and I work diligently to condense it per their rules. With a tendency to be verbose, writing within a maximum constraint has typically been harder for me than reaching a minimum, especially when I'm motivated by a topic. Perhaps I'll post the unrevised draft another time.Unfortunately, due to my recent health condition, I forgot about the sweepstakes this week and only realized this morning that entries were due by 11:59pm yesterday. Bummer. On a personal level - since I did take this letter to my younger self quite seriously - it's more approp...

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Random Acts of New Yorker Kindness
2008-04-17 21:47:00
My best friend sent me a text message today from 42nd and Eighth:"Just witnessed a heart warming NY moment-this high society looking old white lady just tripped over the curb and this gritty, obviously manual labor type young black dude was the first to rush to her rescue. Looked like he was making sure she was ok for a while too. Good stuff."It reminded me of this and made me proud to be living among the best people in the world."Things I Love " Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).
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Reminders That You Are One in 8 Million
2008-04-16 04:22:00
The great thing about living in New York City is that you can feel like you are one in a million. And the shitty thing about living in New York City is being reminded that you are one in a million. Just like the city doesn't care when you're on top of the world. It doesn't care when you're down and out either.It reminds you of that when you're walking along the sidewalk, holding your side in pain but trying not to look obviously distressed, and pedestrians bump into you left and right because wherever they are rushing to go is too important to step a foot out of the way. I can't judge; I'm guilty of it, too.It reminds you of that when you leave the doctor's office, forget your book in Duane Reade on 34th and Park while waiting for prescription medicine and realize it when you get to Grand Central, return to get your book only to have your Unlimited MetroCard still flash "Just Used" in the turnstile, and the mean Asian/Polynesian/Indian (he could be anything, just like me) MT...
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Out Sick
2008-04-16 00:14:00
New York City is a miserable place to be sick (e.g. subway cars and station platforms to and from doctor's appointments). Dealing with the MTA is a raw way to size up reality after the doctor gives you bad news. At least I didn't end up being that sick passenger, whose health condition gets announced to the entire subway line when delaying train traffic.Why didn't I just take a cab? Oh, that's right. I gave my cab money to my landlord last week.
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Tonight & Every Monday Night
2008-04-14 06:01:00
Tonight:The East Village Idiot will be showing the NCAA game and asking college-level questions. Don't miss a fun night of useless/ful facts and tantalizing competition, 2-for-1 drinks till 9pm, and anyone who has been there the past two weeks can assure you that it has been a good time. Plus, the winning team gets a bar tab. Can't beat that.And every Monday night:Triviotic with the East Village Idiot8pm at Arrow, 85 Avenue A, between 5th & 6th
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Drunk Brunch with DrunkBrunch & Co.
2008-04-14 00:28:00
Highlights from brunch with other New York City blogger girls at Roberto Passon in Hell's Kitchen (City Wendy, Charmingly Sarcastic Since 1982, Drunk Brunch , Misguided Misadventures in NYC, No Stop Til Brooklyn, Under-Employed Girl, Vulgar Truths):- $8 All-You-Can-Drink Champagne, Bellinis, Bloody Marys & Mimosas- Waking up in different neighborhoods- Sex on a [new, clean] bathroom floor in a bar- Real estate depression leading to near-suicidal thoughts- Roommates who date convicted yet reformed murderers- Stripper pros and cons- Making out across from Carrie's "Sex and the City" stoop- White boys rapping at East Village Idiot's Triviotic- Sharing photos from all my stops through Brooklyn- Bringing your kids to bars (ahem, Park Slope) not recommended [we all know the little ones can't hold their liquor]Phone photo ops -This plate did feature a Spinach & Goat Cheese Omelette, Italian home fries, a zesty side salad and toast. I have dubbed it the second best in the city to ...

City Walk #16 - The Great White Way and Times Square
2008-04-13 23:38:00
Card no. 21 - photosThe Great White Way makes its best impression after dark, when teenagers heading for the Virgin Megastore brush shoulders with theatergoers racing for an 8 P.M. curtain.Begin at Broadway and West 50th Street (1 train to 50th Street).If you've got small children in tow, hold them tight as you head south from West 50th Street, following the flashing neon past a series of forgettable emporiums toward the world-famous point, just above West 43rd Street, where Broadway slices across Seventh Avenue and continues its angled trajectory south. Any child over six will immediately announce that this is not a square at all, but, depending on how you slice it, either a triangle or an elongated X. On the narrow island that ends at West 42nd Street, in the middle of a fiercely churning river of taxis and jaywalking pedestrians, stands One Times Square , successor to the New York Times tower that gave the neighborhood its name when it was completed in 1904. A mirrors ball has dr...
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Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #16
2008-04-13 23:30:00
Today's route: The Great White Way and Times SquareForgettable emporiumsLooking south from 48th StreetBroadwayLooking north from 46th StreetWhere the New Year's Eve ball dropsLooking west on 42nd StreetNew Victory TheaterMadame Tussaud'sRipley's Believe it or Not!Port Authority Bus TerminalTheater RowWest Bank Cafe
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Phone Photo Ops - Harlem Blooms
2008-04-13 02:45:00
My God. New York City is beautiful in the Spring.The day did start out like this ...... But turned into this ...Hands On New York volunteers painting, raking and plantingin St. Nicholas Park in Harlem ... And ended like this.
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Search-Term Saturday: I Don't Know
2008-04-12 22:13:00
According to Site Meter, someone in British Columbia found my blog last Monday by typing the following into the Google search engine:"how the fuck do new yorkers afford manhattan?"The referring URL brought them to my blog, which was unlikely to provide them with any answers because ... I DON'T KNOW.
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Phone Photo Ops - From This Week
2008-04-12 02:56:00
Walking through the East Village with coworkersto Tuesday's Happy HourFlowers in Harlem on ThursdayBroadway Blossoms in Hamilton Heights today
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"Things I Love" Thursdays - WeeWorld
2008-04-11 00:58:00
My boss is obsessed with the AIM WeeMee. Yes, the 40-year old Senior Vice President. Her WeeMee dances in a disco. So is our Director of Advertising Operations. His WeeMee is underwater and when he types "shark," a shark swims up and bites off his head. Our Digital Brand Manager's WeeMee has on a sunhat and is holding a chocolate bar, a red bag and a "Hillary" sign. The WeeMee of our Digital Advertising Director in Chicago is naked with three little leaves in all the right places, wearing a gold dollar-sign chain and carrying a pina colada and a sword. Mine is in outer space, wearing a basketball jersey (#23 for Terrence) and holding a "Vote for Colbert 2008" sign and carrying an "I am not a Plastic Bag" grocery bag. All the things I love in the WeeWorld. If I type "alien," an alien tears out of her little tummy, she shrieks and then dies for a second.I [re-]designed it yesterday after weeks of my boss telling me that I needed to update my WeeMee, who was decked out in (RED) gear a...
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