NYC

i finally got my fix. i got to spend an entire 7 days in new york city! the band had their first photo shoot. they had to do "work" stuff for 2 days, but we all stayed a whole week so we could play.

that city makes me feel so alive, with it's constant people and energy swirling about me at every moment of the day. in the mornings i would wake up early with ndi and go out walking looking for a place to get breakfast. i melted watching all the mommies and daddies walking, hand-in-hand, with their little ones going to drop them off at school. i giggled watching dog owners walking their city dogs, only to let them poop in the middle of concrete and have to pick it up. i often closed my eyes and marveled at all the hundreds of thousands of sounds around me.

it was beautiful.

it was new york city.

we stayed in the hotel that the label had us in for the first 3 days, and then we moved to The London NYC, where we had a sweeeeeet deal so we could celebrate our 2 year anniversary:) the band's manager was in town most of the week and took us to dinner twice. we heart dinner with him because he knows all the best places to eat in every city. he took us to Buddakan, which i am still dreaming about. it was the best food i have had all year long! and he also took us to Megu, a sushi spot in Tribeca. yum!

little man sat in a swing (how do you say it?...swung in a swing? swang in a swing? i don't even know my grammer...) for the first time in Washington Square Park in the Village, my favorite part of Manhattan. i was a proud mama.

my first day there was a rude awakening to how different nyc is with a baby. i attempted a subway ride with my big stroller and it was disastrous. (next time i'll know to bring a cheap umbrella stroller) i was a little bit discouraged, thinking that i wouldn't get around as much as usual or have as much fun as usual. but God was so good, and did quite the opposite! i actually got to see more of NYC that i ever have before! i had always wanted to go to Brooklyn. one of their photo shoots was in williamsburg (which is like the capitol of hipsters), so i got to explore there, and then hop over to Brooklyn Heights where there is this amazing spot overlooking all of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Julie and I and the kids then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (another thing I've always wanted to do) back to Manhattan, and walked up the East River for a long time.

My Music Man and i spent a day in Meat-Packing (an area in west chelsea) that i have never been to and it was the coolest spot i've ever been to! it rivaled the Village for my favorite section of manhattan, but i think the Village still takes the cake for me. however, Meat-Packing was pretty impressive! i highly recommend it. here's a picture of the new "highline" there: we also got to spend some time in Tribeca for the first time. and then we also went to our usual spots in the village, soho, times square, 5th avenue, central park, union square, etc....

for our anniversary, he got me another Diana camera, this time with a flash, and a fish-eye lens!

so, as always, i shot our nyc trip entirely with that. (also because i broke my hand-held digital camera...well nida and i both broke it together haha!). Lomography is a form of photography that i have fallen in love with in the past two years. 

the highlight of my NYC trip:

we were walking in the Village and i caught a glimpse of the "lomography" logo. i stopped, rubbed my eyes, looked again, squealed in excitement, and proceeded to run to my wildest dream come true: a Lomography store!!!! a physical, real store, filled with everything that Lomography makes. i can't describe it, but it was the first time since childhood that i had that feeling you got when your parents took you into Toys 'R Us. it was glorious!

of course, i had to splurge and get some more things, and i took advantage of having lomography experts there to ask all my questions to....ok i am stopping myself there because i could go on forever about that! basically, it's what i've found to replace the fun of the darkroom.
so that was my trip. when music man asks me what kind of car i dream of having if we ever get super rich, i always tell him, 'i don't need a car...just a second home in manhattan!' ok, so that's like millions compared to just thousands for a car...still. that's all i want