New York and Company

So this is old news BUT it is still important that I share.

Last Tuesday, Jenny G and I went to NYC to spend lots of money and catch up on old times.

A highlight of where we went:

Pret-A-Manger

After sitting on the bus for two hours, we were naturally famished. A few blocks from Port Authority, a Pret-A-Manger awaited us. When I was England I tried eating at these every chance. When I came back home, I was very happy to find that these little sandwich places were ALL up in New York. Jen got a HUGE caesar salad and said it was the best salad she has ever had. My sandwich had avocado, crazy cheese, and pine nuts. It was top notch. Bonus Trivia: The origin of my lifestyle choice of 'no nasties' derived from a delicious soda that the store sells. Most of these stores have gigantic lunch rushes (especially the one in Rockefeller Center) so avoid it from 11:30-1:00 but also do not wait too late because a lot of them are only open for lunch! Choose wisely.

H&M

Our next stop was the well-known store H&M. I do not have much to say about it since you're all probably familiar. Everything is cheap cheap cheap and while they have piles of clothes, I usually never find anything I really like. Jen bought a boy's t-shirt there because I didn't!

Urban Outfitters

Next of course, was UO. Jen went nuts buying all sorts of things. I tried on acid wash jeans and was not impressed. The girl at the cash register could not figure out this transaction so I helped her by doing the math AND singing Hakuna Matata to her. I do not know which one worked best. Also, these two stores tend to rip off designers frequently, with H&M copying hits right off the runway and UO usually stealing from 'indie designers'.

Two Ultra-Expensive Boutiques

While in SoHo, we decided to check out two stores that I looked up before we went. Both were really expensive. The one even featured a whole little upstairs dedicated to Kate Moss' line. We were followed everywhere. Customers usually came in, went to a sales associate and told them what they were looking for. The associate then tried to help their "client" find it. It was a far cry from H&M. The second store was smaller but carried all sorts of crazy designers. I wanted to buy a cardigan by a particular one (mainly for the name as opposed to how nice it looked) but I was so shocked by the $350 price tag, I dropped it to the ground. Oops! Fashion faux pas of a different kind I suppose. **Bonus Trivia**: Henry Holland t-shirts are printed on American apparel tees. I thought that was interesting.

Paul Frank

No stop downtown is complete without a stop to the Paul Frank store! The store is always clean and the cashiers are always some sort of charming foreigner. Usually I'll buy a t-shirt or something and that's about it. A certain azn loves the store intensely. Not too much to say except that a girl could not decide what to buy for her new friend who is "transitioning" genders (girl to guy). Sadly, I had no 'no nasties' advice to give her on that subject.

Pinkberry

You've probably heard the hype about this store on the television (or the radio!). Pinkberry was zany! All the tables were filled with asians (I'm pretty sure we were in Little Korea). The actually frozen yogurt was amazing. I got mine with diced mango on top! Delicious. We popped into Starbucks to eat it, but I won't talk about it since everyone is familiar with it.

Forever 21

Jen didn't see much here, but I went nuts! There were piles of clothes at the end of the night right before closing, but I dug through them all to find the nicest flannels this side of a lesbian's trailer park.

Marc Jacobs

While it wasn't the ender to our trip, I thought it would be a good ender for this trip story. We went to every single one that was open and managed to spend a great deal of our money there (rumor has it that Jen squeaked by with only $1 left). The whole place almost needs a post for itself. It was so crowded and lots of people just grabbing everything and anything. Even the cashiers wanted to buy everything in the store.

So that's that.

Tomorrow I have to wake up early and go grocery shopping for Christmas Eve dinner and for Christmas Morning brunch.

Stay tuned for posts on that AND wrapping.