A New York State of Mind – Part 3

Hitting the streets…

 The second day I woke up late and as you can imagine (after only one day in New York) had the most wonderful, deep sleep. I’ll spare you the details of how I woke up, but know – your girl had some good sleep smack dab in the center of Times Square. Again, this was only after one day of adventuring. I was sure that the rest of the weekend would be a long one.

I obviously missed the complimentary breakfast so I decided to venture out to find my first meal of the day before roaming the streets.  After pulling together my ensemble for the long walk, I managed to brave day two of the hawk and found a little spot nearby called Aya Sushi that seated about 10 people.

It was interesting, seeing people rush in and out. They came, they ordered, they left – repeat. Across the street, there was a woman on the second floor of this beautiful building shifting the curtains to frame a gorgeous chandelier. Then inside, there was this group of ladies going on about their men problems. One was absolutely jealous of this guy’s relationship and she just kept going on and on about how he would pay her no mind. I’m sitting there like yeah girl, it’s probably because doesn’t want your thirsty behind. Sigh, chicks today I tell you. So anyway, I’m sitting in this uber-small restaurant people watching and just hearing these stories swirl all about me, while sipping my wine with my tasty sushi and texting folks. It was so cozy. I enjoyed my moment for a good hour and a half before leaving and that’s when things started to speed up a bit.

My Faux Celeb Sightings

Whitney Houston

As I walked through the whipping winds, there were merchants and drivers everywhere I turned. Everyone was on the hustle. I guess that’s honestly the New York state of mind. All I wanted to do was go to Madame Tussaud‘s and it felt like the trip took forever. After following a trail of marquees and lights, I had finally I arrived, got my ticket and instantly became like a kid in a candy store.

It was pretty amazing and if you’ve ever been to Madame Tussaud’s you’d probably recall how freakishly accurate or laughably inaccurate some of the wax figures were. This installation was no different. There were some hits and definitely some misses, but overall the museum did a good job of catching celebrities in their most iconic moments. I was super excited to see Whitney Houston and ET.

ET

What caught me off guard was how impressive the British Royal Family was. It was so good it was creepy.

I think there was about 3 or 4 floors of figures to check out. I mean, it was just so many to look at and standing right next them was definitely weird. It’s like how is it that these people are so tall or is it that I’m more of a smurf than I imagined?

The Royal Family

As I was heading out, I saw the “Spice Girls” and tried to take a picture. After some failed attempts due to photobombing, a woman hit me with the “oh I’m so sorry I’m in your way. And you know what you kind of look like Scary Spice” Insert blank stare here. I went to the gift shop and got my souvenir and left. It was so dumb I had to laugh.

Anywho I headed out back to the bustling streets of NY and in the midst of the wasp’s nest that was Times Square. It was still frozen in that beautiful kind of crazy I left when I entered the wax museum. I was overwhelmed, yet excited. I mean who would have thought New York would have me turning into a little Black Dora the Explorer? I figured, “I have a whole rest of the day left, I have to keep on adventuring.” So where would the buzzy streets take me next, right? I just so happened to wander into an artist’s paradise, naturally.

MOMA-Mia

I had heard amazing things about their art museums from a few friends and knew just the direction to head. Mind you, I’ve never done so much deep exploration in my life so MOMA aka The Museum of Modern Art would be like my own little feat.

Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria

First of all, they have this whole Free Friday Nights deal that I just happened to stumble onto. I just knew it was MTB. Then, the entry way was glorious and I was immediately met with this enormous Spider installation by artist Louise Bourgeois. I hate spiders by the way. It was INSANE.

Then there were about five floors of the most beautiful pieces of work I’ve ever seen in my life, including a classic van Gogh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen classic art presented in this way. I mean I’ve been to a couple museums but this was extravagant.

I have no clue what this piece was called, it’s just so shiny and pretty.

I know I have to go back to visit New York for the museums alone. The history is just so amazing in this city and they have all of these ridiculously wonderful collections of seemingly everything. How was I not aware? And the crazy thing is I always felt like I would hate New York if I ever visited it. Then there I was, all in love, looking at a fabulous van Gogh with shrieking school children and enthusiastic parents. I fit right in.

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night

The walk back home, after such a cool experience, was magical. I took everything all in and snapped more pictures. Can you guys  honestly believe I was out in the city for about 10 hours, all on my own, and did not get lost?! I mean, I was on a freaggin roll! I even took an alternate route so that I could get another view of the city. How is it that you can even be starstruck by dog-on buildings?! Radio City looked just like I imagined it to be and per the usual, at this point, there were people everywhere. I think it took me about twenty minutes or so to get back to the hotel but I braved the cold and walked as if it were Spring. I couldn’t rush through it, I just couldn’t. I mean how many first walks alone, at night, in New York City does a girl get? It was my first and I will never forget it.

Now on to the good stuff. There was more food! I made a pit stop back at the hotel, threw on some extra layers (so I wouldn’t catch pneumonia) and was ready to roll back out. My friend Brittany and I decided to head out to a nice dinner in true New York fashion – at a swanky Japanese restaurant named Inakaya NY. Let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING…the ambiance, the food, the cocktails. I thought I was in Sex and the City for like 2 seconds. Just like only 2, then snapped back into reality. It was a great experience, they even did like a blessing for us. I couldn’t have been happier.

We ended the night with my other buddies visiting from Houston, photographer Chris Allen and marketing chick Arnaecia Jones-Aldrige. And since the night was young, we hit Jay-Z’s The 40/40 Club. It was definitely a good time. They had two DJ’s, quality cocktails, a coat check AND we didn’t break the bank being there. I definitely recommend getting your partying tourist on there if you’re into R&B and hip-hop. We had a blast and there was lots of twirling – from me.

Now can you people see why it took so long for me to update?! It’s been quite the last two weeks, on top of this being one of the busiest days I had while in New York. There was obviously a lot to cover but I promise to tell y’all about the rest of the trip like in like the next two days. <3

-D. Wright