My New York weekend

Despite my last post - this weekend was actually quite fun! It was very "New Yorkie". On Friday, Jo and I both had half-day at work, so we met up for lunch in the park (Central Park for non New Yorkers). I grabbed my favorite sandwich from Cosi and Jo went to Au Bon Pain. We basked in the sun until we got really hot and had to move on. Then we stopped into Barneys and Bloomingdale's to look at and try on ridiculously overpriced clothes. As you can imagine...we came home empty handed.

But that was not the case on Saturday. Jo and I headed down to SoHo (meaning "south of Houston") to do a little shopping in not-so-expensive places. Our first stop was Uni Glo, then Banana Republic, and Old Navy. By this time we were both quite famished (not to mention hot and tired) so we set off looking for a fun trendy place to eat. It's SoHo...one would think the place would be filled with trendy cafes and hidden treasures. Well, if there were any, they were hidden pretty well.

After finding ourselves dangerously close to the madness of China Town, we frustratingly turned around and walked down a different street in hopes of better luck. No such luck came. Well...that was until we found Pinkberry and Rice to Riches (which just happen to be next door to each other). And although we immediately agreed that Pinkberry was a much more appealing lunch than Rice to Riches, we couldn't help getting a nice helping of rice pudding to go before ordering our "lunch" next door.

Once we were fed and watered, we set our mark for 1st ave and the Upper East Side (what Jo lovingly referred to as "civilization"). But fortune was upon us and we stumbled across this new designers market. (Side note...for you non New Yorkers...SoHo is the "hipster" area of Manhattan and where new designers set their sights on being discovered. While the streets are dotted with main stream stores [Old Navy, Banana, etc] there are far more boutiques lining the streets with uber trendy clothes, shoes, and accessories) This little market was a way for independent designers to sell their items w/out putting up a rental fee for a store.

It was so fun to see what they had. The jewelry was really great and I bought this very cute headband (hand-made). There was also a guy selling these candles that were to die for! (Jo and I are probably going to go back next weekend to pick one up) Some of our favorite smells were lemongrass, fresh cut grass, tomato leaf, and mango. Just to give you a hint of how great these candles are...when I smelled "tomato leaf", I felt like I had been transported back into my grandma's tomato garden helping her pick ripe tomatoes. It was the most amazing smell ever!!! Needless to say, it's imperative that we get one of these prized possessions.

But my weekend didn't stop yesterday. Tomorrow my bishop is hosting a Memorial Day BBQ in his HUGE "yard" (if you can call a large area of grass and trees in the middle of an apartment complex in Manhattan a yard). It'll be lots of fun and I'm expecting great food! But for now, I'm going to go take a nap. I'm going to go see Star Trek at the IMAX in the wee hours of the morning (it will be Monday so no Sabbath Day will be broken). I can't wait to see Captain Kirk's beautiful face even larger than it was on the big screen when I first saw the movie. Awwww...swooon!!!