Terrible TV

I've always watched a lot of tv, but recently I started watching shows solely because they're set in NY. I think its really fun to be able to say "I know where that is," or "I've been there." One of the shows that I started watching is The Real Housewives of NYC. Its really terrible but kind of hilarious at the same time. I enjoy laughing at how catty these women are.

I was walking around not far from our apartment and I came upon Brass Monkey, the location for the infamous fight between two of the housewives. I was so excited I had to stop and take a picture. All John had to say was "I can't believe you watch that show!"

Memorial Day Weekend

There was a lot of stuff going on this weekend for Memorial Day and for Fleet week. In Times Square there was "On the Town" movie and free BBQ. We decided to go and since we wanted to take Rosie we walked....first mistake of the day.

We got down there and it was pretty crowed, but it always is. There was a street fair going on so we got a smoothie and sat down to wait for the festivities to begin. We waited for a while and then realized it was Sunday and the free BBQ and movie was scheduled for Monday....second mistake of the day.


By this time we were pretty hungry so we decided to head back to our apartment to put Rosie up and then go grab some brunch. On our way out of Times Square we saw the Naked Cowboy and then a ballerina. There was also a female Naked Cowgirl but I don't think they're associated. They didn't interact at all and she definitely wasn't in the same kind of shape he was.

By the end of this little outing we had walked 3 miles. I was exhausted and had to be appeased with my favorite brunch place. John doesn't like going to my brunch place because I want to go every time we get brunch, but after the trek I deserved it!

Family

I love having family in town! We just had John's family in for a couple of days and its always so much fun to play tour guide and show everyone around. The best part of this trip was all the really great food we ate. For John's brother's birthday we went to Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. It was really cool to go to a celebrity chef's restaurant and the food was great. After a lovely dinner we went to see Avenue Q on Broadway. It was funny, but it was definitely adult humor!

Another one of the really awesome restaurants we ate at was the Fatty Crab. John and I took John's brother and his girlfriend the first night they got in. They serve Malaysian style food which involves a whole lot of pork. I have to say this was the most amazing pork I have ever had. One of the dishes was a pork and watermelon salad and it was so good its one of those things all other foods will be compared to.

Besides just eating, we also went to the Top of the Rock and watched the sunset, had drinks at Terrace on the Green, hung out in Times Square, walked around the financial district, visited Ground Zero and checked out St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was a quick trip but we were able to do a lot; I just wish they could have stayed longer.

Designer Heaven!!!

I volunteered yesterday at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. I worked the booth for the ASID chapter here; I thought it would be a good way to maybe meet some other design professionals. What I didn't know was how awesome the fair would be. There were exhibits ranging from furniture, lighting, flooring, textiles, bath, kitchen, and wall coverings. The stuff they were showing was brand new and from all over the world. I was in awe!

A Week of Art

So all this week I've been helping put together an art installation and its been so hectic. It was a lot of fun meeting new people and having something to do, but it was a ton of work. Who knew putting together an art installation would make me so tired and worn out. I came home every night completely exhausted!


The installation was for a Korean designer, Lie Sang Bong. The opening was last night and we had a pretty good turn out. I think the gallery turned out really nice. I definitely had my doubts along the way but the thread curtains that were such a pain to hang ended up turning out really nice. The clothes are cool and really unique. It was pretty awesome realizing I was holding a dress that had been on a runway in Paris!

Here's the invitation for the gallery and the website for the designer is www.liesangbong.com just in case anyone wanted to check it out.

Elephants in NY!

So apparently every year when Ringling Bros. circus comes to town they walk the elephants in. They start on the east side of the island and walk all the way across 34th St to Madison Square Garden.

I thought this was super cool (yes I am a little kid). The downside is that because they close down a huge street, they do it around midnight. So for all the kids who would really enjoy seeing this, its a little late for them to stay up.

This happened to take place while my family was here for spring break but I thought it deserved its own post. Despite it being freezing and after midnight, I drug my 12 year old sister and the rest of my family out so we could wait in the cold for the elephants. I took a picture of a bus stop showing the time and temperature just so I could document how much fun this was.

Spring Break

Day 6
This was the last full day my family was here. They were so tired from all the walking we had done all week that we really didn't do much during the day. I tried to get them to go to the Bronx Zoo but they all refused to do that much walking. Instead we went to Washington Square Park and saw the arch. We walked up to Union Square Park after that and checked out the farmer's market and then did some shopping.

The only thing on their list of to do's that we hadn't done was go to the top of either the Empire State Building or the Top of the Rock. We ended up going to the Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center so that we could have a view of the Empire State Building. From there we went down to Times Square and wandered around before our final event for the trip, the Lion King on Broadway. The Lion King was awesome and definitely everyone's favorite part of the trip. It made for a really nice end to a great week with my family.

Spring Break

Day 5
Today we started out walking around in Central Park. The first picture is of Belvedere Castle which is on the second highest natural point in the city. From here you get really great views of the surrounding park.

After wandering around the park for a while we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is where the horse picture is from. Again the museum is huge and a little more than we could do with the amount of energy we had.

We made our way to midtown after the museum and stopped by Grand Central Station. We also saw St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, the NY Public Library and Bryant Park. It was another one of those days where I walked my family to death.

Spring Break

Day 4
So we got a little adventurous and decided to do all of downtown Manhattan in a day! We started with the twin towers site and wandered through St Paul's where they have lots of memorabilia from the attack. We went to Trinity Cathedral after that and then on to City Hall. From there we walked across part of the Brooklyn Bridge which was really cool and would have been a lot more fun if it wasn't freezing.

While we were walking down to take the ferry we stopped to check out the NY Stock Exchange and the Wall St bull. We finally made it to the ferry and enjoyed sitting down for the thirty minute ride. On the ride back we stood outside to take more pictures except it was so windy it was almost impossible to stand still let alone take pictures. The sad part was that it was my family's spring break and it was probably 30 degrees that day!

Spring Break

Day 3
We went to the American Museum of Natural History which is by far my favorite museum. Its huge and takes most of the day to see. We started to crash and burn before we saw everything.

After the museum we went to the flagship FAO Schwarz store for my youngest sister. They had the biggest stuffed animals you could imagine and the giant floor piano that was in "Big." The picture is of a huge toy soldier made of jelly beans.

For my middle sister we went to the Apple store, luckily right next to FAO. Its the really iconic store that is beneath a glass box, definitely a cool store to visit but we were all exhausted by that time.