Pretending to be a Rich Movie Star

After spending all morning at orientation (once again!), I made plans to meet up with my friend from Vancouver, E. She's an Upper West Side resident, so she met me on her turf and showed me around!

Our fun and relaxing afternoon involved (a lot of) window shopping, browsing super expensive stores that neither of us could afford (but hey, isn't it fun to stroke a 1,500$ fur vest sometimes?) and some catching up.

The lovely E sporting a pair of vintage YSL sunglasses.

Flowershop on Columbus.

L'Occitane en Provence.

Rag and Bone, aka Cute and Unaffordable. Also the land of very intently staring sales associates.

Brooks Brothers - the lair of preppy. The wonderful store associate made my day by calling us lovely ladies all the time!

Some very nice home decor store on Broadway.

After a couple of hours, I had to split and hop on the train uptown, but the lovely day certainly woke some fashion cravings in me and I spent the evening thumbing my September issue of In-Style. None of the clothes in there were in the least bit within my price range. I personally think of that as a really great savings strategy. I can't afford them, so I don't buy them - hence, I have more money. Capiche?

Culture Shock: Snarky Commentator takes MoMA

Well lookie here, I'm on a roll. Third day in a row of doing fun stuff! Since the weather was being a little uncooperative, I decided to head indoors for some New York entertainment.

To MoMA that is! I figured if I'm ever going to start the whole I'm-living-in-New-York-going-to-museums-on-my-lunch-break-and-broadway-shows-on-random-weeknights, it might as well be now.

And I have to admit, the reason I chose MoMA was due to the ridiculously awesome souvenirs they have stocked in their Museum Store. Like I-want-to-buy-everything awesome.

But the curse of modern arts museums is that some modern arts are ... well ... kind of crappy. Now I understand that modern art is supposed to make people think beyond its physical representation and to allow meditation on more profound subjects. But seriously - sometimes, that's just a piece of bullshit.

I present to you ...

Nah, modern art usually costs millions. So this tomato-like get-up will probably set you back at least 199,999$.

Now I'm sure SOME people may find the above thought-inspiring (although guys, we know you just like to stare at boobs). But personally, I find it laughable.

Now that's not to say that there wasn't anything of value in the museum. There were some very interesting exhibitions going on, including one from a photographer tracing the bloodlines of several families ...

Not exactly art, per se, but very engaging.

... and one of inventions for a future world ...

This would be an artifical biological clock, which, taking information from a woman's banker, doctor, etc would let her know when she is prime for having children.

... and one of modern furniture (really cool too - they had this mini-apartment where everything folded together into a cube in the end!).

The last floor, which I guess is where EVERYBODY went is where the more famous painters were displayed - Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse, etc.

Wowee! Everyone and their grandma was apparently there. Note to self: put off further museum trips until the dead of winter.

In any case, there were some really nice Picasso's and even some new painters that I hadn't heard of that I really enjoyed looking at.

Umberto Boccioni, for example.

So MoMA was a success and a great practice for my snarky commentary. Since the weather had actually cleared up by then, I decided to head down Fifth Avenue, just to see more of downtown, and whaddaya know? It is indeed full of stores, just like they say. Now since I'm on a shopping hiatus (too much $$$ spent on the move and I only like to shop for summer dresses anyways), it wasn't as exciting as it could be, but at least I've scope out my route for my usual pre-Christmas shopping bonanza.

Of Mall-Trains and Potato Fields

Vancouver must be the rain capital of the world, I'm convinced. (Actually, Wikipedia says it's Cherrapunji). In any case, it's great to be here if all you want to do is watch TV (like me); but if you actually want to enjoy some of those famous outdoors-y activities, well, a lot of the times, it's a no-go.

Um, no, because it's pouring cat, dogs, and all sorts of other farmyard animals out there.

Like the cool kids that we are, Nat and I headed to our largest mall, Metrotown. It has a Winners AND a Zellers AND a Superstore AND a movie theater AND a Bay AND a Sears, and basically everything. Ah, shopping heaven.

You may have noticed that despite my proclaimed obsession with fitness, there has been precious little of anything in the way of running and/or exercising for the past few days. One of the reasons is the disgusting flood-like weather going outside. The other ... my general inner laziness. No worries, workouts will resume when I head back to Montreal. But today, I was fully prepared to do some cardio-shopping. Apparently, other people had a different idea.

Yes, there was indeed a train to take people around inside the mall. An amusement park and shopping center, all in one! And you don't even have to get up! I was prepared to wax eloquently on the decline of exercise in North America to Nat, but she was saved from that fate as my scorn/slight interest/amusement was all but forgotten as soon as I found a shoe store.

Source

As soon as I see/smell/sense shoes, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Or ... a girl in a shoe store? (that must be a metaphor all on its own now ...). But alas, my quest for the elusive perfect black boots shall continue another day. I did however cap off my day of cardio-shopping by buying some more workout clothing. Because you can never have too much neon spandex in your closet.

Of course no day would be complete without a mild disaster. Despite living in this city for oh, 11 years, we somehow managed to get lost. Apparently, one wrong turn on the freeway and you're driving through a post-apocalyptic landscape of potato fields and trash-compactor sites.

But thanks to Nat's trusty iPhone, we were iSaved and I wasn't even kicked out of the car.

Yet.