A New York Minute: Serene Sunday or The Day We Refused to Hurry

You'd think that when someone doesn't go to bed until a quarter after three, they'd sleep a bit later than usual, right?

Wrong.  I woke up a little after seven on Sunday morning with a killer headache.  I mean an awful headache, like someone had hit me over the head repeatedly with a slap bracelet headache.  But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep.  Briggs was completely knocked out though, so I read my NYC neighborhood book for awhile until I just couldn't keep still anymore.  So, I got up and got myself ready for the day.  Briggs starting stirring, but I told her she could keep sleeping and that I was just going to run and get us some coffee.

On my walk to Starbucks, I checked the weather: sunny and cool (which is warm compared to Northern Iowa).  Brilliant.  I did not want a repeat of Friday.  I wanted my last day in NYC to be chill and  serene.  I wanted to explore Brooklyn, but I didn't want to feel like we were racing from place to place. 

With my sunglasses firmly in place, I stepped into Starbucks and ordered some drip coffees for the both of us.  While in line I must have said something under my breath about how I couldn't understand how all these women didn't have frizzy hair (at this point, I was seriously hating my hair) because a woman said to me, "Keratin treatments.  That's why our hair doesn't frizz."

Wow.  Was it really that simple?  I looked them up on my phone and am now convinced she wasn't lying.  Just like most things, NYC was three years ahead of Iowa because everyone and their dog gets these treatments out there, but I can't find anyone who even knows how to do them here.  And I want one.  Jesi, get on it. 

Anyways, back at the hotel, Briggs was finally up and about so we started figuring out the correct route to Greenpoint, Brooklyn (we weren't going to risk having to ask for directions again) because I had a Groupon to Fred Flare I wanted to use.  The route was simple enough, but since it was Sunday and the trains don't run as often on weekends it was going to take us awhile.  Which was fine, because Briggs was totally on board with just taking it easy.

So, coffees drained, map and iPhone in hand we left for Brooklyn.

There were lots of train transfers, but now that we had learned to read the signs it wasn't difficult at all.  There was a lot of waiting, which made Briggs a bit anxious, but otherwise an easy ride.  The last transfer was at Metropolitan Ave/Grand Street where we had a bit of wait for our last train...

I wish I'd taken more photos of the stations, but I wanted to make
sure I didn't show up on subwaydouchery.com

We had to walk a couple blocks from our last stop to get there, but we finally found Fred Flare.  Fred Flare is a store known for cute and quirky home accessories and fashion (kind of a smaller scale Urban Outfitters).  Briggs and I had been to the website several times, but their only store is in Greenpoint. 

In we went, and we were surprised at how small it was.  Not a ton of selection in the store, but then again it was the end of February and they may have been trying to deplete before doing inventory for tax season.  We were both able to find some things to buy.  Briggs got her eldest step-son a harmonica and I found these (pictures from Fred Flare website):

New York Journal: to record things I want to
remember/know during and after moving.

Fossil clutch, I love the colors!

After shopping, we both were finally hungry.  I was still wanting a lox bagel, so we looked for a bagel shop.  Luckily, Brooklyn had a place where I could get one (my tourist hat had fallen off by Sunday, so I don't remember where we stopped) and it was beautiful:

Lox bagel

For some reason, my head wasn't with me, so instead of asking for a wheat bagel I said I wanted garlic.  I don't like garlic bagels.  I really don't like garlic bagels when I'm hungover.  So, even though the salmon and cream cheese were delish, I couldn't eat it because the garlic bagel was literally making me gag.  It didn't go to waste though, Briggs wrapped it up and ate it later that night in our hotel room. 

So, still hungry, we started walking around.  We both really liked Brooklyn.  I'm not joking when I say it reminds me of a more crowded downtown Des Moines.  The buildings are closer to each other, but otherwise the same.

Eventually we stumbled upon an Irish Pub that served food and went inside.  I ordered biscuits and gravy.  I didn't take a picture because it looks exactly like biscuits and gravy do in Iowa.  I ate about half (my appetite was still meager) but it was good.  Exactly the comfort food I needed.

Finally satiated, Briggs and I started wandering again.  We had no course, we had no direction, we just strolled, turning when our intuition told us to.  During the walk we (unbeknown to us at the time) meandered into Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  I only found out that we'd got there when I looked at my map later in the day at the hotel.  During our walk, I took a few pictures...

Street in Brooklyn.  Reminds me a lot of downtown Des Moines.

I thought this house was cool looking.

At one of the transfer points on the way back (the name escapes me) there were some interesting tile art:

same/sane

faith/fate.  this was opposite the same/sane art

A different transfer stop was at Union Square, and since we weren't in any hurry, I suggested we stop at The Strand again so Briggs could finally look at the rare books.  So we did just that...she went upstairs and checked those books out while I tried to find a fun book to read on our flight home.  I chose The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker.

Image Source

The book is about how the words we decide to use affect our own and others perceptions.  Yes everyone, my fun book is about psycholinguistics, if that makes me a nerd then I wear the title proudly.

I'm a geeky hott mamma! 

Briggs bought something too, but I don't remember what (what did you get?) and then we headed back to the hotel.  Where we decided we wanted a super chill evening of just hanging together while watching the Gay Superbowl (The Oscars for those of you who don't speak Gaymanish).  First things first though, we needed to clean our room and pack.  Nothing too exciting about that, but I have to say that I was super impressed that I could still fit all my things in my carry-on suitcase, even without expanding it!

We decided that we had to do something New York themed that night though, so we decided to focus on some New York food.  Can anyone think of some food that New York is famous for but I haven't mentioned?  I'll give you a minute...

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Keep thinking.
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I bet you're almost at the right answer.
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Okay, I give.  We hadn't ate any pizza or cheesecake yet!  This had to be fixed before we left Monday, so we crossed the street to grab a couple slices to eat in our room...

New York Style Cheese Pizza.  And, yes, I did fold it to eat it.

We let the pizza settle while watching the Oscar red carpet.  Oh, here's a fun NYC fact: NYC gets to have their local news anchors do their own Oscar red carpet show.  That's right, the anchors from PIX 11 in NYC were right there with the stars.  This was a little weird to me and Briggs since Iowa's anchors certainly do not get to do this, but then again, it's Iowa...

About an hour before it started, Briggs and I were ready for our cheesecake, so we headed back down to the Tick Tock Diner and each ordered a piece with some coffee to wash it down.

Cheesecake.  Nummy.

I also got bored and started taking pictures of the diner...

Briggs looks like she praying, but she's really just digesting.

The blue light was pretty, but it made everyone look like they were sick.

Tick Tock Diner

I thought the pattern in the table was fun, this is now my computer wallpaper.

Tick Tock Diner neon clock

Back in the room, we watched the Oscars and chilled out.  We decided that Anne Hathaway was awesome (its like she was hosting a party and invited all of us to join her!) and James Franco was stoned (I swear that if someone had thrown some Doritos on stage, his night would have been made).  We were both super excited that Natalie Portman won best actress and thought the kids from Staten Island singing the finale were super cute.

But then, it was time for bed, we wanted Crumbs in the morning and then we were flying home...if only we'd known how long that'd take us.

Catch-up on my trip:

• A New York Minute: Serendipitous Saturday or The Day of Happy Accidents 
• A New York Minute: Freaking Friday or the Day of Funny Discussions  
• A New York Minute: Tourist Thursday or the Day We Kept Taking Wrong Turns
• A New York Minute: Whoo Hoo Wednesday!
• A New York Minute: By the Numbers