Girl in New York City

The last 3 days were billed as "End of My Singlehood" weekend where I, laden w/ several cute but not slutty outfits and a nice-sized budget, headed to New York City to indulge in all my single person habits of shopping, eating at fun restaurants, and having a few well-made drinks. Because said habits are actually quite harmless, I doubt I will cut back on them once I'm a married woman, but let's move on.

Friday (Day 1)
My friend, Jen D., flew out with me and after checking into our hotel (4 Points by Sheraton in Chelsea), we went to grab a bite at Corner Bistro. The place was divey and the burgers were crispy and good. We decided to walk around a bit after lunch and I just have to say this: if within 60 seconds you hit a street of never-ending shops, it's God trying to tell you something. We were on Bleeker, and it was good.

Highlights that day included:

- Getting fabulous boots from Sacco

- Almost getting kicked out of DKNY for taking this photo:

- Seeing Russell Simmons at Pastis

- Seeing a professional call girl working the room at Pastis

We rounded out our evening at the rooftop bar on top of a hotel, and went home fairly early to prepare for our big purse shopping day. Amusing sight on our way back: 2 trannies doing business by Penn Station.

Saturday (Day 2)

Something needs to be said about the availability of good food in New York...no matter where you go, there's always some great little deli around the corner, or a cute cafe for quick bites.

After getting something to eat, we headed down to Canal Street, where the daily business of wheeling and dealing was well on its way. I have been here at least once a year for the last 4 years, and it always amazes me how hard people hustle on this street. We visited a few spots (shady: back of a 1989 Dodge mini-van with wood paneling), but hit the jackpot when we met Benny. Benny is a cool dude with a killer retail location. We spent hours there, and came home with serious finds! My mother, from hundreds of miles away, managed to do some damage via cellphone. Bottom line is: If you need a fab purse, Benny's the guy.

Saturday night was a weird one for the books. After having a fun sushi meal at Nobu Next Door (which is probably more fun than Nobu itself), we decided to go to a few clubs. I had done some research on places people actually go to in New York, and felt like my selections were pretty safe. Who knew they would be jammed with lines out the door? You'd think in a big club/bar scene like New York, there'd be plenty of places for people to disperse? We didn't even make it into the 1st location because the line was down an entire city block.

Our next spot was a bar called Milk & Honey, supposedly real low key. We walked through LES to get to this place, and for those people who think LES is getting cleaned up? It's not there yet. What do we find when we get to the address? A scary door with a buzzer. The next 15 minutes were hilarious, and I'll just leave it at that. Random happening: When we scurried away from the "scary door", a weird pot-bellied, unbathed asian man in a whitebeater belched ever so appropriately as we passed him.

After that, we were all getting tired (since it was after midnight). So we hailed a cab and made our way back to the 14th st area where we had a ton of fun the night before. Here's where I tell you to beware of certain waitstaff late night if you aren't drunk enough. They are rude, incompetent, and just looking to start a fight with a potential patron. I was excited about getting a drink at a certain asian themed restaurant, but we had to leave before I punched the hostess/waiter. And I'm not even a violent person.

We surveyed our surroundings at this point and realized that any decent bar/lounge/club had a line. It was awful, and I realized that I didn't prepare enough for this trip. I would never let this happen for anyone else's party that I was planning. We finally sat down at a wine bar and did our champagne toast before dragging our tired (but cute) asses back to the hotel. Though it was a crazy night, I still think that we had fun on our adventure through some of the quirky parts of Manhattan.

Sunday (Day 3)

Thank God that Sunday is a day of rest. We got up late, lumbered down to Cafeteria for food (they made us wait...what else is new?), and got to see Dylan McDermott in the flesh while eating. Then Kim S. went home and Jen & I went back to Canal Street for one last look around. I actually think we were shopped out at this point. My luggage was seriously overweight from all the new purchases, and I was mentally exhausted trying to figure out how I was going to get it all home. Plus, I had shin splints!

We got to LaGuardia and had our last celebrity sighting of the trip: Kimora Lee Simmons (soon to be ex-Simmons) and her entourage, strutting down the terminal right past us! After that, we settled in at the gate, and hours later, made it back to Chicago. I didn't even get charged for having overweight luggage. ;)

What a trip!