First Blates, the Guggenheim, and Vicarious Exercise

+ On Saturday morning, I treated myself to a tall glass plastic of an iced Spanish latte from Think Coffee (my new obsession) and meandered over to The Strand, New York's famous bookstore. Call me crazy in love, you guys. Expecting a visit no longer than five minutes, I spent over two hours in there going through the shelves and shelves of $1 and $2 books and falling head over heels for the smell of old, worn pages. Nothing like it in the world.
+ I keep myself away from Nordstrom Rack as much as possible because when I'm in there ... let's just say I don't really recognize myself anymore. But because I was nice and scholarly for two whole hours, I decided to let my materialistic side run free, straight into the Rack's arms. Where I happened to find a pair of J. Brand jeans for $30. You bet my none dollar left that I gleefully handed it over to the cashier and basked in her praise and envy. At this rate, I won't have enough luggage space to drag all these trophies home.

+ Then, Sunday morning (rain is falling) (not exactly), I was heading over to brunch but made a necessary detour to Levain Bakery where I picked up a double chocolate chocolate chip cookie the size of my face, a cup of skim milk because that makes all the difference, and sat myself down on a bench in the middle of Central Park. The first bout of silence I've reveled in, in about a month and a half. I sat there, stuffing my face, while watching people jog and bike and hike on by. Exercising vicariously through others is my jam, people.
What was that? You'd like a closer look?

I gotchyo back.
+ Immediately afterwards, I made my way through the Central Park maze to the East side ... except that forty minutes later, I discovered that I was at the very West side entrance I had entered forty minutes earlier.
+ A cab was hailed.
+ I met up with the loveliest Kelly from Sparkles and Shoes (my first blate!) for a scrumptious brunch at 83 1/2. Needless to say, we both inhaled our salmon eggs benedict, it was so good. After meticulously photographing away, of course, because when else do you get such an eating partner so understanding of DSLRs and angles and lighting? 

+ We strolled on over to the Guggenheim for some culturing. Except, I don't know about Kelly, but I secretly pressed the kids' version of the audio tour and decided that's that. And afterwards, I begged her to let us treat ourselves to some gelato because there's only so much worldliness a brain can handle, y'know?

Go and read Kelly's much more thorough recap. It shows that she listened and I didn't. Thanks for being such an awesome first blate, Kelly!