It’s that time of year — get out the candy corn, the crazy shirt in the back of your closet that can second as part of a great costume and leer at people who have better costumes than you. I still haven’t fully decided what to wear tomorrow, the big night, but for my friend’s pre-halloween party tonight, I’ll re-fashion some crazy outfit I’ve got tucked away. Some ideas — skateboarder, hippie, garden gnome sans beard.

It’s that time of year — get out the candy corn, the crazy shirt in the back of your closet that can second as part of a great costume and leer at people who have better costumes than you. I still haven’t fully decided what to wear tomorrow, the big night, but for my friend’s pre-halloween party tonight, I’ll re-fashion some crazy outfit I’ve got tucked away. Some ideas — skateboarder, hippie, garden gnome sans beard.

Walking through Central Park today, I stopped to listen to a cellist play Bach’s “Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major: I. Prelude” in the tunnel next to Bethesda terrace. It was one of those NYC magical moments.

Walking around the East Village last night, this is some of the random stuff I saw just hanging out on the street. It’s hard to see, but the horse is actually chained to the fence. After seeing this, I walked down the street a couple more blocks and saw Dennis Leary filming in front of the Whiskey Town. I guess he was filming for his show “Rescue Me” but I didn’t get confirmation about that.

Walking around the East Village last night, this is some of the random stuff I saw just hanging out on the street. It’s hard to see, but the horse is actually chained to the fence. After seeing this, I walked down the street a couple more blocks and saw Dennis Leary filming in front of the Whiskey Town. I guess he was filming for his show “Rescue Me” but I didn’t get confirmation about that.

It was one of those nights that started off banal, but ended up being one of the weirdest and most fun nights I’ve had since living in NYC. Every Friday, Eric and I plan a date night — we go out to dinner and then go dancing, watch a movie, see a show, or something very “datey”. Last Friday, we wanted to go to Turntables on the Hudson, to dance on a beach in Long Island City until the wee hours of the night. After dinner, we headed over to East 35th St. to catch the water taxi. The dock was empty, except for a couple sitting on a bench making out, but lit and the gate was open. We waited, and waited for about an hour and as a few people started to come out too to wait, but then leave, we decided to leave too. We ended up walking to Times Square, then back-tracked a bit to find a bathroom at a nearby hotel, had a drink at the hotel bar and all seemed fairly mellow until we headed back to our neighborhood. The Upper West Side is not known for it’s shenanigan-type nights out. The bars are lively, but usually filled with Columbia students or people from the neighborhood just wanting to unwind with a few drinks and laughs. I told Eric we should go to Dive 75, on 75th and Columbus for some cheap drinks and candy (they’ve got drinking glasses full of mini candy bars and chocolate kisses). I told him it’s a fairly mellow hang-out that’s very neighbor-hoody.Then the cops showed up. After about 15 minutes of drinking our pints, officers from the NYPD and NY Fire Department showed up. With the music off, and lights dimmed brighter, they didn’t ask people to leave. A bunch of us stayed and drank as if nothing was happening. The cops just walked up to the bar, looked at some paperwork, filled out some paperwork, talked amongst themselves and talked to some patrons.  Eric and I sat near the window and could see a dozen cops and about five cars outside blocking the street, literally, there was a cop car blocking the entrance to the street. It was 2AM and we had just started drinking so we stayed, we sat, we drank, we stared as the cops filled out paperwork and looked around the bar. Then two guys with black suits and ties came in. I was like, “are they FBI…what’s up?” Turned out that they were just two drunk guys wanting a drink at the bar. Really drunk and really sleazy. At this point, I was parched so we walked over to the bar to grab some water and I turned around to check on my stuff, I saw the bar back grab our napkins and put them into our pints. He was cleaning up. I was like “no, no, we were still drinking those!” And he looked at me and said, oh it’s okay, I’ll get you more. Two free drinks later, cops gone, and a few desperate guys trying to pick up on two Spanish girls sitting behind me, we decided to finally call it a night. On our way home, a homeless man asked for change from a guy in front of us. Instead of giving him changed, he pulled out a McDonald’s apple pie from his pocket which made me crack up in my drunken haze. I told Eric, “see, this is what we are missing by being home before 4AM on a Friday night, we should stay out late more often.” (photo courtesy of nymag.com)

It was one of those nights that started off banal, but ended up being one of the weirdest and most fun nights I’ve had since living in NYC. Every Friday, Eric and I plan a date night — we go out to dinner and then go dancing, watch a movie, see a show, or something very “datey”. Last Friday, we wanted to go to Turntables on the Hudson, to dance on a beach in Long Island City until the wee hours of the night. After dinner, we headed over to East 35th St. to catch the water taxi. The dock was empty, except for a couple sitting on a bench making out, but lit and the gate was open. We waited, and waited for about an hour and as a few people started to come out too to wait, but then leave, we decided to leave too.

We ended up walking to Times Square, then back-tracked a bit to find a bathroom at a nearby hotel, had a drink at the hotel bar and all seemed fairly mellow until we headed back to our neighborhood. The Upper West Side is not known for it’s shenanigan-type nights out. The bars are lively, but usually filled with Columbia students or people from the neighborhood just wanting to unwind with a few drinks and laughs. I told Eric we should go to Dive 75, on 75th and Columbus for some cheap drinks and candy (they’ve got drinking glasses full of mini candy bars and chocolate kisses). I told him it’s a fairly mellow hang-out that’s very neighbor-hoody.

Then the cops showed up. After about 15 minutes of drinking our pints, officers from the NYPD and NY Fire Department showed up. With the music off, and lights dimmed brighter, they didn’t ask people to leave. A bunch of us stayed and drank as if nothing was happening. The cops just walked up to the bar, looked at some paperwork, filled out some paperwork, talked amongst themselves and talked to some patrons.  Eric and I sat near the window and could see a dozen cops and about five cars outside blocking the street, literally, there was a cop car blocking the entrance to the street.

It was 2AM and we had just started drinking so we stayed, we sat, we drank, we stared as the cops filled out paperwork and looked around the bar. Then two guys with black suits and ties came in. I was like, “are they FBI…what’s up?” Turned out that they were just two drunk guys wanting a drink at the bar. Really drunk and really sleazy. At this point, I was parched so we walked over to the bar to grab some water and I turned around to check on my stuff, I saw the bar back grab our napkins and put them into our pints. He was cleaning up. I was like “no, no, we were still drinking those!” And he looked at me and said, oh it’s okay, I’ll get you more. Two free drinks later, cops gone, and a few desperate guys trying to pick up on two Spanish girls sitting behind me, we decided to finally call it a night.

On our way home, a homeless man asked for change from a guy in front of us. Instead of giving him changed, he pulled out a McDonald’s apple pie from his pocket which made me crack up in my drunken haze.

I told Eric, “see, this is what we are missing by being home before 4AM on a Friday night, we should stay out late more often.”

(photo courtesy of nymag.com)

Plan for today: Going to the Anna Sui for Target pop-up store in Soho. The Gossip Girl-inspired line has the frilly lace and ruffled feminine look, but with an edge. Apparently, it opened on Thursday during Fashion’s Night Out (which I missed because of a friend’s birthday gathering), so we’ll see if there’s any interesting pieces left. If not, I’ll just have to buy a couple pieces online or make my way over to Brooklyn to the Target store there. (photos courtesy of nymag.com)

Plan for today: Going to the Anna Sui for Target pop-up store in Soho. The Gossip Girl-inspired line has the frilly lace and ruffled feminine look, but with an edge. Apparently, it opened on Thursday during Fashion’s Night Out (which I missed because of a friend’s birthday gathering), so we’ll see if there’s any interesting pieces left. If not, I’ll just have to buy a couple pieces online or make my way over to Brooklyn to the Target store there.

(photos courtesy of nymag.com)