Rants and Other Things: Upper West Side (30.3.12)

Upper West Side was where my whole day was spent. Brownstone buildings, dog walkers with at least 3 dogs attached to their arms, pigeons, leafless trees, cute little shops by the sidewalk, cloudless blue skies, construction workers, mail trucks, sedan cars, little streets, main avenues, huge stores. I arrived there at about 11:30 in the morning. The ride there was absolutely amazing. The yellow taxi went through Central Park, which was lined with green, lush trees and gray stone. The drive through the middle of Central Park was interesting. It seemed like we were in a valley because the road was sort of a 'level' (more like 7 feet) below the grass and the 'walls' were covered with gray stone slabs. But what was more interesting was that there were little goblin-like houses that were on the grass level. They were made of the same kind of stone that lined the 'walls' but they had pretty little flowers growing on them and vines and all that. Interesting.

After crossing Central Park, we hit the Upper West Side! The first road that we were on on the Upper West Side was Central Park South and crap, it's such a pretty tree-line road. The trees were all cherry blossom trees (the stupid ones that give me my allergies) and the flowers were all white. The buildings on the Upper West Side are almost all brownstone buildings, which are seriously such pretty buildings. We dined at this Asian food restaurant called Amber and I had Pad Thai (which I didn't finish, woops), some sushi, a good salad, miso soup and some sashimi. The restaurant was surprisingly big and very, very well decorated. It was sort of modern spiritual with some LED lights and a big Buddha in the back area.

After our scrumptious meal, we continued walking down Columbus Avenue where we stopped at several shops. Club Monaco, Theory, Burberry and Rag & Bone. We walked further down until we reached Broadway and there it was. Standing in its glorious presence: the Apple Store. It's the second one I've seen in NYC, the first on being on the East Side opposite the Plaza Hotel, and it's the first one I've walked into. Holy crap, the store was huge. Its glass panels didn't help me minimize the size. And better yet, there was a lower ground floor where all the accessories were. That trip to that Apple Store made me ponder the hardest dang ponder ever why I changed to BlackBerry... I mean, the covers for the iPhone there were AMAZING. They were SO pretty. Not to mention, they had a Keep Calm and Carry On one AND they had a nice abstract paint one. JKDSADJKALS. I have an iPod touch 4th gen. but they don't sell covers with the designs on the iPhone covers. It's so stupid. Why don't they just print the same damn design on an iPod 4 case, hm? But anyways, I bought a new cover for my iPod whereas madré bought this Marilyn Monroe case for her MacBook and an iPhone case. I left the building still pondering why the heck I changed phones and walked on to TRADER JOE'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trader Joe's is a grocery store on 72nd and Broadway and it carries one of the widest ranges of food I have ever seen. Amazing. The shelves are all lined with either organic food, self-produced (Trader Joe's brand, which is still really good) or typical American meal ingredients. I loved it there, everything was so organized and pretty looking. The drawings on the walls, the cute decorations for each section (the egg section was made to look like a chicken's nest) and everything else. They even had escalators for the firetruck red carts we wheeled around. It was a good 30 minutes spent there. Trader Joe's O's (cereal), my TV dinner, hot puppies (mini hot dogs...see the joke?), some sushi, and eggs. We hailed down a cab on Broadway and rode home, which took about 20 minutes since we were on the East Side heading to the West Side. At one point during the ride, we were at Times Square. I didn't know... My mom did mention that we were NEAR it so I didn't think much of it. Not until I stopped gazing out the side windows of this yellow taxi cab and looked ahead. There it was: Times Square. The lights were on because by the time we reached that place it was about 5:30pm and the sun was beginning to set. Holy cow, it was amazing. However, the placed was packed like sardines in a can and before I could take a quick snapshot, we took a left and Times Square was out of my sight.

The rest of my evening was rather chill. I consumed my lamb vindaloo meal whilst watching the Simpsons on Fox 5 (cherishing the amazing programs on TV here in the States) and started editing my photos. I was just jumping around sites and profiles when I realized it was 9pm and it was time for me to take my shower. After taking my shower, my lovely mother forced me to go to bed. But I didn't...now wait, don't think it was because I was a badass...it's because I started to read. HA. But I eventually started writing this post, the first two paragraphs, then I had to go to bed before mom caught me.

I have yet to ride the subway.

So....I apologize for this post being late. As if people read my blog....and as if I'm a blog people catch up with or read avidly.