I Love Manhattan

As I type this entry, I realize how utterly spoiled I have been in past years concerning the internet. Dial up is so..so tedious! You have to sign on over and over again instead of just closing and opening internet explorer over and over - maybe that's not a good thing to do anyway, but it's a habit of mine. Being connected night and day with no worries of the phone ringing and kicking me off, pages loading instantly, I really took it all for granted!
Right now, I'm sitting in my cousins' Lily and Nicole's apartment in Queens. Wait, wait, I should start from the beginning. My trip started off with mom dropping me off at Brewster train station and me going to Grand Central. When I got there, my cousin Stephanie wasn't there waiting for me as I expected. I wandered around for ten minutes thinking they might've forgotten and I was in deep trouble when I walked into the main terminal and saw someone who I thought might be my aunt - an aunt who I hadn't seen in years and years. She recognized me, fortunately. Apparently my mom neglected to tell them which train I was on, so they were trying to figure out where I was. After that, we went to a restaurant called California Pizza Kitchen on 60th and 3rd. We had some very yummy fusion cuisine that we couldn't finish, of course. Then we went wandering around the city - Bloomingdales, Zara, Diesel, Williams Sonoma, A/X, all sorts of designer stores. For some reason they all looked just about the same to me and cost lots more than a shirt at Filene's would, so I stayed my hand and kept my purse shut. Then we went to La Cera - a fashion company that specializes in plus sizes - it's office is on Madison and 34th - I climbed onto the porch thingy they had and realized I could look out and see both the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings. My aunt's friend and her husband are the owners and they had just finished up a very important party the night before, so they had some very expensive and fancy leftovers that we had for dinner - paan bread with lobster salad on top, top of the line gourmet spring rolls, fruit salad with the ever exotic yellow watermelon. And then we went to the friends house to sleep over - they own a multi-million dollar home in a housing complex sort of thing right on the shores of Jersey. One reason why it cost several million dollars: from their porch, you can see the entire island of Manhattan, including the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. See a theme going on? O and another really interesting tidbit - their neighbor is a fellow called Fabulous - some hip hop star or other. Steph and I walked by his house on the way to another neighbor's house to return a food processor. He has some very impressive cars. O, and here's something funny: Fabulous's house doesn't have the view that Steph's friend does.
I woke up this morning at the bright and early hour of 10:30. We decided to skip breakfast and head on out. Our first stop was the Japanese town at Edgewater. That's where my shopping spree happened - $70 at Shiseido, I wanted to try their cleanser things. Then $30 in total for four rice bowls, four soup bowls, four soup spoons and four tea cups! The savings were ...orgasmic almost. I'm happily all set for college, though, that's for sure. Then we went and picked up my other aunt, Lily's mom, from her painting class in Flushing, and we all drove into Manhattan and had lunch at Spice in Soho. It was sort of kind of an asian fusion place. It used to be super duper popular because all the waiters were models, and then it became less so when they started hiring "normal good looking men." Whatever. They have interesting bathrooms, sliding fogged glass doors, so you can see a silhouette of a person doing their private business...Then we walked further into Soho and went to the Prada Store - I explored and drooled over the glory that is Rem Koolhaas. It wasn't quite what I imagined it to be - the rest of it, that is. The main entrance was extremely interesting though. I asked an employee, just to make sure, who designed the store and he replied "Ram Koolhaas, ma'am." Ram? Maybe it was just his accent. Then we went accross the street and had expensive coffee and pastries at Dean & Delucca. When we were leaving, I turned around and saw a gorgeous man who actually winked at me! (Melting in the memory...*sigh) O yes, I should mention that because of the sheer volume of people in Manhattan and the fact that many are there for the express purpose of being fashionable and advancing their careers, the perfect looking men are just all over the place. Ahem, well, anyway, Lily, out of class, joined us as we continued our shopping journey. We went to other design related places like Moss and MoMA. Very very fun. Then we went to a lot of shoe stores (I still think shoes are all ugly), Banana Republic, J. Crew, etc. and looked around. Stephanie bought herself a lovely little black dress, half price at Banana Republic. Then we ended our day at Utrecht where I helped myself to art supplies that are much cheaper than they are at the CMU art store. O, and then we drove to Flushing and got groceries and now, here I am, at my cousins' place, stuffed on Arby's and getting sleepy. My uncle will be picking me up tomorrow, so I should go to bed. Good night, everybody, and I Love Manhattan!