Last Sunday my cleaning lady came which is always a pleasure, especially when she is finished and I have an ultra clean house. Apres that I drove to my glam friend's apartment and we took the train from Brooklyn into the City. We went for lunch and to the Cooper Hewitt (the NY design museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute in DC) and had decided earlier that morning to find an inexpensive lunch so we planned on the Terriyaki Boy near the museum (there used to be one near my office but it has changed to a ramen house-disappointing because the soups are based on pork broth which I cannot eat and all are filled with noodles making it too fattening). We started out on the F train but it being the weekend it switched over to the A without telling anyone and we were deep into our conversation. He looked up at 14th St to realize we were (unexpectedly) on the west side and I asked if we should get off and take the L across to the east side, which we jumped off the train to do. We, immediately changed the plan to have lunch at Republic instead-which we both love and is moderately priced. We had much fun-he had pork dumplings and the duck/noodle soup with a spicy peanutty flavored broth (YUM) and I had my absolute favorite salmon sashimi salad but deviated to a different second option-the Asian chopped salad. The salmon is flat pieces of salmon draped over julienned cucumbers, shredded mint and bean sprouts with a little chili oil and is magnificent. The chopped salad was a huge pile of celery broccoli, bean sprouts and other vegetables in a thick dressing and tofu croutons. It was good but I don't need to order it again.
We got back in the train to continue on to the Cooper Hewitt, the original plan, to see the Rodarte exhibit though while we were there we saw the rest of the museum. In a museum we both love but for different reasons we were disappointed but for the same reasons. The Rodarte portion was too small and exhibit-only 12 mannequins and all from one collection, it was not the history of Rodarte but 12 pieces of shredded, boiled, scraped, beaded, ripped silk, wool, studs-that's Rodarte for you, I guess. You don't really need much more after all, and today as I was telling my fashion friend the story he said, "Whaddya see, 12 angry sweaters?" Given, Rodarte, I thought was very clever! There was a peach section, a grey section, and a black section, which I thought were well presented though all the same but for the color. The black section which was presented in a burnt out building complete with ripped out floor boards and ashes, into which the HIGH heeled platform studded and spiked shoes were nestled. My glam friend was concerned that you couldn't see the shoes but I enjoyed the surprised of discovery as you looked through the display.
The rest of the museum was filled with the winners of the decade juried show and I was bored and annoyed by it. To see row after row of white metal stockroom shelves filled with mostly computer screens of landscape architecture in the beautiful 19th Century rooms was annoying me, nor do I have much interest in landscaping. There were some fashion designers who had won best design but frankly not enough. Ralph Rucciwon in 2003 but the dress they chose to display was, we thought a very poor display of his work, not representative of his beauty at all. My glam friend turned into my cynical friend and suggested it was the only piece that Ralph was willing to give away. C'est possible, I suppose. The museum used to be the home of Andrew Carnegie so the rooms are filled to the brim with that gorgeous 19th century robber baron style of molding-dark wood panels and carved moldings of three or four different designs between the walls the moldings and the ceilings. Row after row of the white metal stockroom shelving obliterated the architecture hurt my soul-I enjoyed what I could see of the building's architecture more than the exhibit. My glam friend was unimpressed as well as it did not compare with how much he had loved the previous show he had seen here.
Now it was about 4 and we began to think of what we wanted to do next as he wasn't meeting his boyfriend until 7 and I my husband at 6:30. Originally I had wanted to go to tea at the Mark as the hotel has recently been renovated and redecorated-having been to the dowdy version several times I am really dying to go to the hot new moderne version and Daniel Boulud is now the chef (who we love)!! But we both decided it was too expensive so we left it for another time. He quietly asked if I would walk through The Park (Central) though never really my favorite activity it was a glorious day and he promised we would just walk and look we did not have to touch any nature, that he would not force me to sit on a rock in my tan cashmere Tommy Hilfiger Collection coat and Valentino bag (my former best friend used to do that to me every once in a while but most of my friends know that I rarely dress for nature walks nor do I enjoy them). I reluctantly agreed. We walked along the reservoir enjoying each other and the sun...he started taking pictures of us (I hate having my picture taken but I have become accustomed to the joy my friend gets out them and have also begun to learn from his posing, ways to make myself look better. He has managed to get some good pictures of us).
Having walked across the park we were now stuck on the west side, and what is there to do over there? He suggested cocktails at the Mandarin Orientalwhich made me laugh since that certainly wasn't going to be any cheaper than having tea at the Mark!!!! But who am I to refuse a glamorous hotel bar with urban views of old buildings, cars, and Central Park (I'm content to look at it but don't really need to be in it). One could almost pretend we were flappers again, wearing long pearls and zoot suits as we sipped old fashioned cocktails and had a sizzling confab. I reminded him that I hadn't had dessert after lunch (I care way more about chocolate than about cocktails by the way) so we left the Mandarin Oriental lobby and walked downstairs and into the Time Warner Center part of the complex to have chocolate bouchon at Bouchon Bakery-well I had chocolate and he had a maple waffle dessert (both were wonderful). It would have been cheaper to have the Afternoon Tea at the Mark. LOL.
Do we get any credit for thinkingabout not having an expensive afternoon? Really, who are we kidding here?!??!?!? What does it really matter anyway-we are just not "save money" kind of people, we are "buy the best and most glamorous" of anything we are buying kind of people and I came to terms with that years ago-to thine own self be true. And I always am. And we had a wonderful day to show for it.
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