Tag Archive: Shopping


Riding the bus

Yesterday I rode the bus, it is an event that happens with sufficient infrequency to be noteworthy. It would never have happened if I knew how to cook sausage in a non-stick pan. I suppose I could blame that on my mother, since she had a cast-iron skillet and taught me how to cook sausage and eggs in that instead of a non-stick pan. Or maybe I could blame it on the fact that I now eat chicken or turkey sausage and there is not as much fat draining out into the pan. The fact remains that I ruined my pan cooking sausage in it and when I told Em I wanted to buy a cast-iron skillet she suggested going to Home Goods after the game yesterday.

20130816-023001.jpgWe took the B train from Yankee Stadium to 103rd, from there we walked to Home Goods, where I found a small cast-iron skillet, mission accomplished! I also saw these green Ramekins which I had to have. They are oven safe to 500°F (260°C) and also microwave, blowtorch and dishwasher safe, except I don’t have any of those. Really! I don’t have a blowtorch, never needed one. Em said they would not be a frivolous purchase because I would make baked eggs in them. I was thinking they would be good for single servings of baked Macaroni and cheese myself, or for heating up macaroni and cheese since I don’t have a microwave. Then we stopped at Model’s for socks, which they didn’t have. After that we went to eat Mexican food.

Em was ready to walk to Grand Central, I was ready to go home, but we were on the west side and I didn’t want to walk across the park since I always get lost walking across the park. Don’t ask and don’t judge. Also I was carrying this heavy cast-iron pan, 4 green Ramekins and 3 yellow bananas. And my knee hurt. That was when I got on the bus. If you’ve been reading this blog you may know that I hate the bus more than the train. Even when a friend tells me, “If you take the bus from church it will drop you right by your apartment.” I will still walk the two blocks to the Green Train and then walk the two blocks back to 2nd Ave. The Crosstown bus is not that bad. However once I got off the crosstown bus I walked up 2nd Avenue home. Which is how I ended up with a bottle of Aleve (that I needed) and a bottle of shampoo (that I didn’t really need but Ricky’s sucked me in).

While riding the bus I was struck by the thought that public transportation in NYC represents the diversity of the city. At one stop a man got on wearing a pale suit and straw Fedora (a different type of hat I would have said he was a southern gentleman), followed by a woman wearing a skirt and shirt (not quite pulled together businesswoman attire, looking pissed off, I wonder if the southern gentleman made a chauvinist comment to her), then a middle aged man wearing shorts and a Mets shirt (EWWW!), a teenage boy was next (he might have been with Mr. Met). There was also this ancient woman with hair down her back that looked like one big dreadlock (please don’t sit too close to me).

At least it was better than the subway ride to the stadium when I saw two women not wearing bras that should have been. One had on one of those strapless dresses that are cute if you’re not a DD cup, the other woman was wearing a white racerback tank top. My eyes, please my eyes hurt after that.

Advertisement

Blurry day

One day last week I went to work without putting my contacts in. I noticed something was wrong when I was standing on the subway platform and couldn’t read the signs. Don’t ask me how I got from my apartment to the subway without noticing nothing was in focus, apparently my brain was in a fog and my legs were on autopilot. After all the subway is always in the same place.

Going shopping after work was an adventure and I discovered advantages and disadvantages to shopping without glasses. The disadvantage was not being able to see down the aisles and having to walk down each one to find canned black beans. The advantage was being able to read the labels without putting on my reading glasses.

The next day I went out and took some pictures and video. The pictures are on Flickr and the videos are on my YouTube Channel.

Then the Wednesday after the storm a noreaster blew through with nasty biting wind and snow. I know because I was out in it shopping. I am a tough New Yorker (Translation: Stupid). First I went to the yarn store to get yarn for the shawl I’m making for one of the bridesmaids in my best friend’s daughter’s wedding. I was wearing my gray down coat and it got soaked, it is not exactly waterproof. Besides the coat getting soaked, my jeans and every other part that was exposed got soaked too. I came home to change, but I didn’t want to put on my other winter coat, since I would need a coat the next day. The e-mail we got about cold stress, which I at first by cold they meant virus but they were talking working outside in cold temperatures, said dress in layers. I put on my long underwear, a sweatshirt and over that my coaches jacket, which has a fleece lining and is waterproof. It’s not designed for really cold weather, but with the layers it worked out fine. So I then ventured out again, this time for ….. a new coat to replace my gray coat.

The next Sunday (4 days later) when I went to church I wore a summer dress with a cotton sweater, tights and dress shoes. Last night I was back to wearing a coat. Winter in New York. No wonder I now have sniffles and a sore throat.

New hat

The other day I told a friend about a hat I had made. She didn’t seem to understand what I was saying so I decided to show her.

Problem was, when I went to find it, I couldn’t. I asked Gwen if I had left it with her. She didn’t have it. I looked through all my boxes and bins. No brown beret. It was upsetting. Not only could I not show my friend, I had no hat to wear to church this winter.

Since Em was coming to the City today, I decided to go to TJ Maxx to look for another hat and found this one. Tigger said he thought it looked good on me, Em said it was nicer then the other one. So now I can be styling with my new hat.

What did I do today?

Today I went to work, yesterday I stayed home sick, either a cold (which is what I truly think it was) or bad allergies. So for most of the I lounged around in bed, had a lazy day. When I got hungry I realized I had to go out because there is very little food in my apartment. Of course I wanted Mac N Cheese, which meant that first I had to go to a store to buy a pan so I could make dinner. While I was there I picked up some other things I need. Then to the grocery store, and I bought all the boxes of gluten-free mac-n-cheese (well what if they stop carrying it?). When I got home I made some and ate it (not all, I put some away for lunches). Then I turned the game on to watch the Yankees lose (well I didn’t want to watch them lose, but that’s what happened).

Work was going fine, Jean came in and asked if I had heard anything about lay-offs. Noooooo, I really wasn’t thinking about lay-offs. Apparently people were notified by e-mail, I don’t know if that is even legal. 16 from my department. 1 from our Region. Not me, I have avoided detection by the powers that be once again. The big boss invited everyone to happy hour, or as she changed it to after the everything that happened, “Solidarity Hour”. I wasn’t going to go because it was raining, then it stopped and so I went. Had a relatively nice time (I mean it was work people, not my usual crowd). On the way I stopped at the Asian restaurant on the corner and got some spring rolls and steamed dumplings. Pretty good I thought.

Since yesterday was the last game of the regular season and tomorrow starts the ALDS tonight I updated my page of Yankee Records, check it out if you get a chance.

That’s all, says she.

My very first post

From my new apartment that is. I know I have posted before about my apartment, but this is me sitting on my new couch/bed looking at the rest of my stuff (but not all my stuff, forgot things in the old place still). All my furniture is here, mostly new, a few old small things I wanted to keep. I am pretty happy with how things are right now.

Of course now I have to go out and do some more shopping. at least now when I’m done, I don’t have a long ride back home.

Aftermath of a fall

This past Wednesday I fell (yes I am getting as many posts out of this as I can. You will soon be as sick of this as I am of the snow) and Thursday I went to see my doctor. Nothing broken, everything seems to be normal. He tells me to take Tylenol® for the pain and to take it easy. No problem right?

One would think that someone as lazy as me would have no trouble with the second part of those directions would you? After the visit I went to get something to eat. Then I decided, that since I was near Walmart I would see if they had any Splenda® Flavors for Coffee or Special K® Protein Water powder. They are not in many stores and I have had a hard time finding them. In fact I was going to write a blog post about the fact that things I really like I can’t find anymore.

Where was I? Oh yes, so anyway, there I was walking through Walmart with this gigantic bruise on my butt, with all the other sore spots, mainly on my right side. It felt like the right side of my body was shorter then the left side, that I was tipping over to the right like the leaning tower of Pisa(O.K. I don’t know which way it leans, just work with me here). I kept expecting people to stare at me like I was some kind of a freak. The whole time I was dragging myself along, I thought, “Why are you doing this? You’re supposed to be home taking it easy!” So I left Walmart, but not before I got a text asking if I could get Tigger from work. Sure no problem! To use up the time until I had to get him, I went to ShopRite and started walking around there. Yep, still leaning, still expecting to fall over at any minute, still wondering why no one was staring at me. Maybe they were, behind my back ….

>Retail Therapy

>There are probably some people who will say I shouldn’t be talking about ‘retail therapy’ on Martin Luther King, Jr’s Day, however, if not for this day, I would not have been able to engage in this therapy. I would have had to go to work and who knows how the day would have ended.

Em had her nail appointment and I had no idea what I should do. Since I had been looking for boots online I decided I would see what I could find in the city. Here’s what I did, I signed into ‘Yelp’ and looked for shoe stores. Then I looked for one that was close and had 1 dollar sign. I found Bonito Shoes on 6th Avenue near 38th Street. I didn’t check the reviews, I was looking for cheap. Every pair of boots was $40. I bought two pairs because the pair I was looking at online was $80. However, when I got home I discovered that one of the pairs was the wrong size, so tomorrow I have to go back to the store. I also got a little blister on my foot since I wore one pair all day.

Em had a groupon, but she decided she didn’t want to walk all the way up to where the restaurant was, so we just walked about until we found a nice little restaurant, publike place. It was called Papillon; 22 E. 54th St; New York, NY 10022. It had your standard burgers and salads and suchlike fare. Plus the best pumpernickel rolls you could ever hope to have, anywhere.

After that we went to ‘5th Avenue Chocolatiere’, which for some strange reason is on 3rd Avenue, not 5th. Em wanted to get chocolates for people at her office, she kept saying she was going to buy the peanut butter and coconut chocolates. I asked her for the chocolate gun and handcuffs. I had to settle for a chocolate covered pretzel with mini M&M’s on it.

It was a good day, a day that got worse when I saw the wrong size shoes, then got better when I saw an e-mail from my friend, “Darling we are alright.”

Happiness.

>Pictures this time

>Saturday Em and I were back in the city for our bi-weekly trip. This time I remembered my camera so I have pictures to post.

First we wandered through Bryant Park’s Holiday shops. Lots of cool and pretty stuff.

There was a sign that said, “Snap a pic and post on Facebook.” So I did, if you look on my Facebook you’ll see it. Then I realized they meant for you to post on THEIR Facebook. Oops.

Then we went to Sabrina’s so Em could get her nails done, we were surprised, the scaffolding around their building is gone. Amy said it had been up for two years. Looks so different, but you can see the sign in their window now.

The trees have lost their leaves.

Ashley said this place has some amazing artists. It is on St. Marks Place which is where the restaurant we were going to is.

Our next stop was Kaia House, ‘organic skin, body, baby, men, hair, make-up, pet. Click on the picture to go to their website. I bought some eye cream. It is fabulous.

Then we went to see Ashley at Maria Tash on Broadway in NoHo. If you click on the picture and then zoom it, you can see the sign for her store at the very bottom. After stopping at Starbucks and waiting ‘forevah’ for a latte, I was there. Of course Em was already there, waiting and pissed cause my phone battery was dead so she couldn’t yell at me.

Then we headed up Broadway to GCT. Did some shopping on the way, we both had coupons. She got a skirt and I got a pair of jeans at the Gap.

It was a long tiring but fun day.

>Branching out

>

Em made her nail appointment for Monday because D left for Florida on Sunday. I left work to meet up with her. On the way to meet her I stopped at Sephora, I got a set of eyeliner pencils in cool colors. After the nail appointment we went down to see Ashley. I took the subway since I was wearing my dress boots and Em walked. I got there before Em and decided to replace on my studs with a ring. I got black gold with cubic zirconium.

After that we went for dinner at a ‘fast food pasta place’ Hello Pasta. I got gluten-free pasta with sauce with sausage and peas. It was very good. Em says, if she lived near there she would eat there all the time. After dinner we went to another place Em had a groupon for called Flute. Read my review here. Then we headed back to Grand Central Terminal.

My feet hurt so bad, I am wearing my sneakers today and feet still hurt.