Yesterday, part deux

Alright, I've calmed down. The snow melted long ago, and though it was the main event of yesterday in my mind, there are other exciting activities about which to blog. We've quickly discovered that the old saying about how most New Yorkers live and die within a ten block radius is true, so we've decided to make mindful efforts to take advantage of other neighborhoods besides our own.

We started with a visit to Union Square and the Green/Holiday Market to get in the holiday spirit. The apples still look great, as do the brussel sprouts, which I wish I had stocked up on for the week.With a cup of hot apple cider in hand, it was a great place to watch Manhattanites pick out their trees. From Union Square, we headed over to Chelsea to finally check out the Frank Stella exhibit,which was really cool. From there, we headed to the Lower East Side to meet our friend, Justin, and to see Evan's soon-to-be new fixie! Onward to Times Square for a nanosecond to meet up with friends from out of town, then to Hell's Kitchen for drinks and dinner. Our tally at the end of the day? Including my morning sojourn to SoHo, six neighborhoods. Woohoo!

First Fall Weekend

Ahh, what a difference a day makes! One thing I've learned from being in New York for almost two months is that it's very easy to work in New York. You could literally work ALL THE TIME in New York. It is, however, much harder to live. This weekend, for the first time since I started working (and excluding last weekend in San Diego), I've had my first weekend free of my ever-so-demanding crackberry, yay! Thankfully, we were also blessed with fantastic autumnal weather. Started off the weekend with a run through Riverside Park to the 79th Street Boat Basin for a taste of the Marina in the Upper West Side.
Worked up enough of an appetite for Nova and cream cheese on an everything bagel from Absolute Bagel.Then met my friend, Eliza, for a spirited taiko performance outside our apartment in Straus Park.Picked up a new Obama button.Headed into the city to run some errands and happened upon a little flea market.Then indulged in some pretzel croissants and decadent hot chocolate from City Bakery, mmm.Oh Saturday, how I've missed you. Perhaps we'll meet again next weekend?

City Walk #1: Chelsea

A couple of weekends ago, right before Hurricane Hanna walloped us, we squeezed in a nice walk through a bit of Chelsea. I had decided to go through each one of the City Walk cards that Krissy gave me -- at least until I lose motivation. So we hopped on the 1 train, transferred at 42nd St. to N/R/W and got off at 23rd St. Station.It's a very lovely neighborhood with historic and handsome houses, cute cafes and boutiques -- very reminiscent of London and of SF's Russian Hill neighborhood. With it being fashion week, we stumbled upon models and fashionistas spilling out onto the sidewalk after a show at an Episcopal church. No pictures, unfortunately, although we did see NY Times fashion blogger, Bill Cunningham snapping away at towering gladiator heels and boney clavicles.

It was a short walk, but we fought off hunger pains (and ate vicariously for the models we'd just seen) by tucking into Billy's Bakery, where we nibbled on a peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie and a moist yellow daisy cupcake with rich vanilla buttercream frosting. Mmm. I wish I had taken more pictures, but torrential rain started rather abruptly, forcing us to find cover, coffee and crossword puzzles at Joe, which coincidentally, uses my favorite Bay Area local Blue Bottle Coffee for their drip coffee. (Insert smug SF pride here.)

Check one City Walk card off the list! (Again, this may or may not be a series of posts).