Long Island Weekend

We took a quick weekend trip to Long Island to celebrate Mordecai's dad's X0th birthday. I basically ate and slept all weekend, which were kind of exhausting activities, but of course, in a good way. No matter how often I travel, and how far away or nearby I go, it appears that I never pack well. But at the last minute, I decided to take my DSLR (but forgot to remove the relatively compact but dense G9 from my suitcase), and this turned out to be a smart move because we visited the north shore after receiving only residual effects of the weird winter storm that passed through the east coast. I've decided that I need to either see a skyscraper or set foot into Target while I'm away from home; we didn't go to the city this time, but thankfully, Commack has Targets, and one of them even has Mordecai's giraffe-loving former substitute teacher browsing the cleaning product aisle!

In other news: I'm falling in love with the iPad2; baseball is over (farewell Tigers/baseball post on TBOB still planned); I'm waiting until I can drink ginger ale again with baseball award announcements; I don't know why it's so hard to come up with a prospectus; I'm inspired by Aoyama Thelma (in bed by 10PM) and Crystal Kay (in bed by 9:30PM!) to sleep and rise early; I ran into Dr. Chrucky, the reason why I am studying philosophy, and he is as eccentric as ever; and I'm looking forward to the holidays. But most of all, why is it so hard to come up with the prospectus, even when you're told you won't follow it?!

City Folk

CTA







Lincoln Park Whole Foods/NYC

New York, continued

I forgot to finish posting about New York. I had another moment of success at Zara, this time in SoHo. At Old Orchard's Zara here a couple of months ago, I tried on this gray dress but they didn't have it in my size. It's kind of blobby, or maybe "bohemian" is the more flattering term. Though a bit battered from sale frenzies, it was in my size and marked down, so it is now in my possession. I don't really have anywhere to go with such a dress, but at least I have something on standby.

We met up with Nate and Corinne and went to Han Bat, a Korean restaurant. This is probably like the fifth time I've been there. As usual, I got the bibimba in the hot stone bowl (dol sot bibimba/ishiyaki bibimba/石焼ビビンバ).

I let the rice char a little too much before mixing it all up.

We went to the Natural History Museum afterwards, which is sort of like Chicago's Field Museum. As a child, I have to say that the Field Museum was one of my least favorite places to go to in Chicago "for fun." Thankfully, the Natural History Museum has more space and stuff. There is a strong element of creepiness to the museum and its collection (I'm convinced it's haunted), but if it's better than the Field Museum? Can't camplain (sic).

Clockwise from top: Capybara (Lucy!), big blue whale, baby dinosaurs, the elusive coelacanth (at least in Animal Crossing)

Near the museum on the Upper Something Side, I scoped out some real estate; an apartment in this building below will do for an extra home. Surely I have enough saved up for this wanty item.

Before heading back to New Jersey and Long Island, we stopped for three-star coffee.

This place had character. There was a French academic next to us flipping through some paper with lots of footnotes, talking in a heavy accent with a student or colleague. Our waiter looked eternally angry, but I'm sure that's just how his face is. They also slice muffins in half and toast them! When we left, I was taking pictures of the interior and caught the attention of a customer who asked us if we were students and were looking for a tutor.

The "tutor" and Nate's toasted blueberry muffin


The waiter warrants a closeup; this is why I persisted in taking photos inside, unaware of crazy customer potential.

Sadly this time around in NYC, there were no run-ins with nitrolicious, the Sartorialist, happy blog (!!!), Phoebe, or Jenni. Maybe next time! There is never enough time to play in the city.

Shoppings in New York

I have been looking forward to shopping in New York. First there was a trip to Roosevelt Field, a gigantic mall on Long Island in Nassau County. I'm a proud shopper of Woodfield Mall out in Schaumburg, so I was curious to compare and contrast the 8th and 9th largest U.S. malls, respectively.

Man scoping out the parking situation...he will later make a crazy turn out of his spot (Camry behind him) to get in that line on the left, causing the Audi in the back to get pissed off and not let him in, making us wait for four cars to pass by before we can continue on to get blocked by a parked taxi and then go around the lot to get in a different line to get out of the single exit for this parking structure.

For better or for worse, there is little documentation of this trip. It consisted mostly of navigating through densely populated crowds, since it was the day after Christmas. Roosevelt Field feels much more cramped than Woodfield, too, so that added to the chaotic atmosphere. Later, we spent an hour and a half in the parking lot waiting to get out. I have never seen such an inefficient parking exit in my life; I'm pretty sure that Woodfield can get bad, but I don't think it'd take over an hour to get back on the expressway. However, I got a sweater on sale at Club Monaco and a purple and gray striped shirt on sale at Zara (first success since 2005 in Paris!), so I can't camplain (sic).

Today, we went to Manhattan, mostly downtown. Who knew there was an Ippudo in New York?! This past summer, I was told that Ippudo was famous in Japan and was taken to one in the Queen's Tower of Yokohama. Reunited!

Corner of 4th Ave & 10th St--Ippudo is on the first floor of the building with the wood-y facade


Left: Shiromaru from Yokohama; Right: Shiromaru from NYC

Ippudo is known for their tonkotsu soup, which is a tasty pork-based broth. I was surprised to see that the NYC location was kind of posh, with dim lighting (hence the difference in color between the two photos?), fancy murals, mirrors, and couches. There were a number of Japanese customers, including families and at least one businessman with a suitcase next to him. I'm certain there were more Japanese people in Ippudo than there are in the entire Chicagoland area. Anyway, that's a good sign that the ramen is good, which it most certainly was.

We moved on to Uniqlo and Muji, where I got down to business. Inspired by Phoebe and Gwyneth Paltrow, I got a pencil skirt more or less on impulse, though I did try it on. I also got black skinny jeans and "Warm Up" herringbone-patterened tights. To my surprise, the skirt was $30 less than I expected. Score! At Muji, I got a planner, small-ish notebooks, a purple pen, and socks made of recycled plastic.

Ozawa Seiji!? Or just a cool Japanese man!?

I really like the boutique-y part of SoHo, along Prince and Spring streets between the subway station and Broadway. I've become familiar with the area over time more than other parts of Manhattan--we met with Jenni there last year, and in previous years we've scoped out the Bape store and bumbled about. This year, the most remarkable difference was that I heard a lot of French, German, and other European languages I was unable to identify. It seems like they were often confused about where they were, thus getting in my way, but nonetheless generally happy that the dollar is pathetic.

Before heading back to Long Island, we stopped at the JJ Hat Center, which Sean recommended, not too far from Penn Station. It looks like they only carry men's hats, but hats are hats and gender doesn't really matter. A nice, enthusiastic and hat-knowledgable man helped me out. I ended up with a beret, and am currently sitting on whether or not to get the Bowler/Derby hat. What kind of statement would one make by wearing such an ostentatious hat? There is one other hat store I'm eyeing, so we'll see about that on Monday.

Also, can I just say that 0% to 4.25% tax on clothes is insane? Why didn't I notice this before? It kind of doesn't make sense, but again--can't camplain (sic)!

To be continued.

Christmas '08

Above, I am wearing some Christmas presents (Nike pullover, Coach bag, Frye boots), and sitting in front of my dad's (32" Aquos with a functional remote control). Lately, I have been experimenting with the curling iron. I was aiming to look like Japanese women in their 20's, like Aoyama Thelma, but my hair is too short and I'm probably curling in the wrong direction. As a result, I get a 40's style, or old-lady-style hairdo, as my mom called it.

Later that day, we left Chicago for Long Island.

We flew directly east from Midway, so this is Chicago from a southern perspective. Chicago's grid is pretty awesome at night from this view.

Chanel Mobile Art in NYC

One interesting thing about the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit that I hadn't really thought about is that since it's mobile, the reception will differ not just from person to person but from city to city. It's up in Central Park of New York now, and the NYTimes gave their verdict on the structure and its contents. Mr. Nicolai Ouroussoff seemed to be quite disappointed.

I just have to say, I don't know why you'd expect social responsibility from Chanel or Karl Lagerfeld. I was just thankful I didn't pay to see this building or go into it (I did have to wait in line, but "time is money" didn't apply last summer). I mean, this is coming from a brand that just raised their bag prices by 20%, and from a man who does stuff like this. Perhaps Mr. Ouroussoff enjoyed the last piece on the tour, which was Yoko Ono's wishing tree. You are asked to write your wish on a slip of paper and tie it to one of the tree branches. If one smells bullshit, this is the place to start breathing through your mouth. But I waved the stench away and wrote, "A Chanel 2.55 flapbag!!!" Which was what all of this was about, not "idealistic causes." Maybe I just had a different perspective of the exhibit in Japan, where consumerism is embraced, not shunned?