On tuesday i had to work until 4:00 or so, but then I took the train into manhattan to meet Renee. First we went to St. Thomas Church for evensong.... The St. Thomas Boy's and Men's choir is one of the most famous and prestigious choirs in the world, and it was absolutely beautiful. We snuck out half way through (a little hard to sneak out of church when you are sitting in the front row, but we managed), so we could make it to Tiffany's before it closed. I had no idea of the sheer scope of it. 6 different floors. My personal favorite was floor 2, DIAMONDS. I almost couldn't breathe. There was a lot of sparkle and a lot of... sparkle. The whole place was decorated for the holidays so even more beautiful than usual. Renee went up to one of the sales people in the Men's lounge (yes, there is a men's lounge, lest the men looking for engagement rings become overwhelmed and need to sit down on a mohair couch in a room with wood so polished you can see your reflection) for a shopping bag and so I now have a large Tiffany' s bag... we used it to carry our empty water bottles and the wrapper from a croissant. Probably the only people in NYC to be using our Tiffany's bag as a trash receptacle. Trash or not, I still carried it around prominently for the remainder of the evening. Good thing, because the next place we went practically required you to be carrying a shopping bag from Tiffany's or Cartier or some other place where you can buy something for the same price that you can acquire a small island.
Renee took me to the Plaza and we had dinner there. Oh my goodness, I was bowled over by luxury. We had the most delicious potato and Creme fraiche flatbread pizza and some steamed milk.
I then went home, but my friend Liya from Midd is staying with me for couple nights and she had arrived last night, so we went out for a late bite to eat and then we returned home and watched TV for a few hours and didn't get to bed until 2:30 or so.
This morning I gave Liya a little tour around Greenpoint/Williamsburg and we went shopping (hooray for the Salvation Army. New blazer and two new shirts, fifteen buckaroos). Had some Pad Thai for lunch at this vegan place that was pretty delish despite the fact that it was vegan.
Then I met Renee again in Manhattan and we started another day of NYC festivity. First we had an early dinner at Le Pain Quotidien, a little organic food chain that has these really good tartines and things. Then Renee surprised me! She had planned for us to go to the Upper West Side to watch the balloons be inflated for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow! The line stretched for blocks and blocks, there were thousands of people and it was absolutely crazy. We waited in line for almost an hour, and then Renee approached this policeman and said we were with Entertainment Weekly (one of her friends had some sort of connection there) and so he let us in the VIP section and we got to skip the rest of the line and view the floats going up at our leisure with the rest of the fifth avenue folk. When we got to the end of that block we wanted to cross over to 81st street to see the rest of them, but the guards weren't quite as gullible and said we would have to wait in line again to get there. But Renee was having none of that (I highly recommend doing NYC with Renee) and she approached this police officer and said that we were VIPs who had lost our passes or something and he was like "oh, let me escort you".... so for the rest of the evening Roger was our private police escort. We got to cross all the police barriers and cut through all the lines. Pretty great. The blurry picture of me and a policeman is me and Roger. We were laughing because he definitely did not have the authority to just become an escort, but he was such a Barney Fife, he loved the idea that we were asking him for help and he wanted to be so important and like the guy that saves the day. He kept going on his radio and being like "Sarge, over and out, checking in with the station," and things like that. He probably wasn't even talking to anyone. He also kept using hand motions and signals and saying things like "hang close, hang close".... as if getting seperate from him would be the worst thing that ever happened to us. It was kind of hilarious... but I did a bit of flirting and he gave me his card and said that he was the guard at CNN studios and anytime I wanted a private tour I should just call him. So yay for Roger, he was pretty great.
The floats themselves were absolutely amazing. So huge... bigger than you would imagine. I will never watch the Thanksgiving parade in the same way again. It was amazing, it was such an insider NYC experience.
Then we went to Magnolia bakery and got cupcakes. afterwards, we got gelato at this Israeli gelato place. i had tiramisu and chocolate whiskey brownie gelato, both of which were delicious and more.
Also, Renee took me to a vintage shop and I got this adorable vintage wool riding jacket. i am wearing it tomorrow to Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Caroline's. I will be missing all of you very very muchly. I love you all to pieces. Happy Thanksgiving! xox
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