BrandHabit

Walter & My Free Friday/Saturday

Friday is my day to just wander around.  I go to a hot yoga class, stop into DSW (which I JUST discovered!  Where have I been???)  and then later in the day I visit Water of Walter – Walter Baker. 

I tell Walter that he is my niece’s favorite designer.  
“ You KNOW Walter???” My niece exclaimed one night when I mentioned I have met him several times.
Walter is flattered and offers her a gift.  He brings out the hippest silver cropped jacket with a side zipper.   Something I could never pull off but will look fantastic on Lindsay. She is going to DIE. 

Later in the evening I meet my Cousin, and her daughter for dinner at Apizz, a long time New York favorite, hidden on the lower east side.  I have completely gone off of my food and exercise routine this week… In fact, I am busting out of my dress as I have been carbo-loading with some of the best epicurean indulgences NY has to offer.  So, for the last night I might as well indulge all the way: I order a butternut squash ravioli dish that is beyond amazing.  It’s rich, sweet and dripping in butter.  It tastes more like a dessert than a main course.   Next week I’ll get back to the healthy routine I am used to.  It’s all been worth it.

Alas, it is my final day in NYC.  I’m tired for no reason at all really.  I didn’t go out and party like a crazy person but with the travel, the time change, the cocktails with dinner every night and the carbo-loading, I needed a good long nights sleep.  I sleep in till 10 then wander out into the spitting rain to my local neighborhood coffee shop: Café Borgia.  I sit with my laptop and listen to at least 5 different languages spoken around me.  The waitress recognizes me and welcomes me back.  I feel like I am at home again in New York.  I am not here as a tourist but as someone who feels the city is my own. 

Despite my desire to be ALONE. (and to some degree I have been), I am now beginning to feel lonely and am craving the demands of my day-to-day life.   It’s time to get back to my routine:  Wake up, get my daughter out of bed, make her breakfast, make her lunch, drive her to school, work, come home, make dinner, shower, go to bed… do it again.

New York will be here for me and I’ll have my time in the city again. 

Back to life. Back to reality.

Alone in New York

I’m in New York for a business trip.  But this time I am here alone. ALONE. ALONE.  I never realized how much I would appreciate being alone before I had kids and a husband. 
Usually, I travel for business with a colleague.  But this time I am here doing an editorial suite at the Bryant Park Hotel where BrandHabit is presenting a few designers to the press.  Amy Cunha of Big Picture PR has organized the suite so all I have to do is show up at the suite tomorrow and talk to fashion editors. The rest of my time here is my own.  Don’t get me wrong:  I am not here just to wander around on vacation, but I am keeping my schedule fairly loose. 

I fly in to New York on election night on Virgin America, a hip, cool new airlines that tries to feel like a night club with purple lights, house music and hot airline stewardesses.  I am loaded for bear with magazines but stumble upon reality TV show:  Real Housewives of NYC on my personal TV.  Within minutes I’m sucked in and I watch an ENTIRE season… (oh my god. How did I do that?).  The entire time I wonder if I relate to the qualities in any of these women.  I came to one conclusion:  While I do like nice things and I am in the fashion business, and I do go to social events, I could care less about the strategic social climbing or keeping up with the Jones’s like these women do.  I also remind myself of how NOT to dress (at my age).  I posted a blog about this awhile back but hear me out again.  Once you are 40, don’t wear big bold prints, too much bling, too much cleavage (especially if you have big boobs) and don’t wear skirts above your knees without tights, unless you are a supermodel.  I’m sorry… it just looks stupid.  Check out Ramona who repeatedly embarrasses her darling daughter with her trying-to-be-young fashion choices.

Betheny (while she probably isn’t 40 yet) seems to get it right… classy, understated…

Luanne is okay most of the time and she owns her age well and Alex needs a personal stylist.