Now, I know we all love Missoni, but today was ridiculous with target’s site crashing from the launch of the new line.  The NYTimes claimed the site was up later in the afternoon and it was somewhat functioning, but it definitely was not.  When I finally got on the site I couldn’t even place an item in my cart.   24 hours later the target site is still completely dysfunctional.  If we didn’t have online shopping, what would the stores look like with this type of mad rush?  The ridiculous part is that by this afternoon ebay had almost 7,000 of the items listed with inflated prices.  Talk about wanting to make an extra buck.  Wow.  I hope those that were able to login to Target got some fun stuff.  I’m over it already.  We don’t have any Target stores in Manhattan, but I’ll survive.  We have plenty of other great options.
Here’s the NYTimes article.

Missoni NY Times article

EATALY on 23rd Street has been around for I would say a year now, but for some reason I didn’t make it there until this past month.  Its had great reviews and I finally went with a friend after work to have drinks.  Let me put food aside for a moment because the real shocker was the number of good looking men in such a small radius.  I said to my friend, “Did we just hit the lottery because there are never this many good looking men in one spot in NYC?”  She concurred.

The second time I visited was the same deal:  I mean, seriously good looking men in the middle of the work day.  Ladies, if you are having a bad day, go take a stroll through and you’ll be smiling by the time you leave, gauranteed.  Despite my distraction, I did pick up some groceries: fruit, olive oil, parmigiano, a baguette, etc. Each and every item I picked up was delish. Go spend your evening after work with a glass of wine there and you won’t be disappointed.  Ladies, you are going to have to compose yourself with the scenery. Five stars all round.

Update: I originally published this article in 2011 as a reflection of the 10-year anniversary of September 11, 2001. This year, as the 20th anniversary approached, my intuition kept nudging at me to find this original post from years ago. On this 20th anniversary, keep those who we lost on that tragic day and their families in your mind. I like to think that the inner voice I was hearing was all those souls up above, wanting to remind us of what is important during these challenging times!

Well, we all know what is on everyone’s mind this week. It’s unavoidable in so many ways and not just because of the media.  The way I’m dealing with it is I can’t look.  I can’t look at the articles or the pictures; it’s too upsetting.  I’m not forgetting, I just can’t look back. I don’t know if that is a bad thing or just a coping mechanism. The one thing I do know is that the three men I knew that died in the towers that day were the type that didn’t look back. They forged ahead. They were trailblazers.

The first, was my 2nd cousin, George Cain.  George was 35 years old and a New York City Fire Fighter of Ladder 7 on East 29th Street.  Minutes before he finished his shift, his company got the call to go to the towers and, of course, he went.  Because he was a 2nd cousin of mine, the memories I have of him are limited to when we had big family reunions, which usually happens about every 5 years.  I have 9 siblings and just as large an extended family, so when you get together you don’t get to speak to everyone, but you definitely see everyone and observe who they are.  I observed that George was happy and full of life. His passion for life was evident in how he lived it.  He would spend extended periods of time in Colorado each year doing what he loved: skiing. He was also training for the NYC Marathon just before he died.  He did run that marathon in spirit. My brother signed up for the NYC Marathon and ran it for him wearing a T-shirt with George’s picture on it.

The second person I knew that died that day was Mr. Peter West.  Mr. West was the father of my good friend from high school.  Of course, all of our dad’s worked hard so you had limited times that you would see your friends’ fathers, but I remember Mr. West very clearly.  Most vividly, I remember his excitement for life and positive voice.  He was very active, loved to have fun, and was extremely generous and kind.  He absolutely adored his wife and children.  I had lost touch with my friend from high school, so the last time I saw Mr. West was my junior year of college. It was Christmas time and over the holiday I was working at Nordstrom when I ran into Mr. and Mrs. West.  Sure enough, he had that same wide smile he always had when I visited their house in high school. He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald that final day.

Finally, the third person I knew was a guy from where I went to College, Loyola College.  His name was Sean.  I didn’t even remember Sean’s last name.  Like so many in New York that day, I will never forget that morning in the city. I remember walking home, uptown and then crosstown in silence just dazed, trying to process the devastation that had just occurred. I got home, turned on the TV and watched until I couldn’t look anymore.  While watching TV I was looking at all the pictures they were showing of the missing individuals and I saw his face. It was Sean’s face from College. I remembered it so clearly, always with a big smile.

Sean was the reason I chose to go to Loyola College.  I went to visit a friend from my high school who went to Loyola to decide if it was the college for me.  It was the night that I visited that I met Sean.  He actually took me out.  My friend couldn’t take me out, so she promised me her good friend Sean would take care of me and he did. He was so friendly, warm, kind, and inclusive that night that I decided with no doubt Loyola was the place for me.  His full name is Sean Lugano.  The Sean Lugano Memorial Field is dedicated to him at Loyola.  So appropriate in my mind.

Although I only knew each man that died that day briefly, they all had a common thread.  They all had infectious smiles and were absolutely full of life, but most of all, they were kind souls.

I think about how to celebrate them at this ten year marker.  I believe they would all say the same thing: “Go have a good time on us.”  Maybe we can all do that in their loving memory?  All create the intention that one night this week we are going to meet up with friends and family and celebrate and laugh exactly as they loved to do.  So, nothing sad, just all joy and kindness, like they gave to everyone’s path they crossed, whether brief or not.

Love to all those remembering those they lost.
Now go have some fun.

Let’s face it, we all have limited time to shop.  So, any great online shopping is usually the answer.  If I can’t find something running around the streets of Manhattan Onekingslane.com is my default.   I love interior design, even a little obsessive over it.  This site has great vendor items and has what they call “tastemaker sales” which are sales on items from different interior designers so you can really find unique, great quality stuff.  Happy shopping and here’s the link:

https://www.onekingslane.com

Before

For those of you that need to reupholster a couch or a chair, hopefully this post will give you some ideas or inspiration.  Last winter I finally got around to reupholstering the couch I inherited from my Grandmother.  It’s a very cool red velvet vintage couch, but I was over the red.  I’m lucky because I have access to fabrics to the Trade and therefore, the fabric options are unlimited.  I went through a few different options as to what I should reupholster it in and ended up going the conservative, neutral route.  It’s a neutral linen so I don’t have to worry about reupholstering it for a while and it’s super easy to change the entire look of it just by purchasing a new throw blanket and different color pillows depending on the seasons.  I had to tell the upholsterer to make a new cushion and to wrap the cushion heavily in down feathers.  The new cushion itself is literally 100 lbs. from all the feathers.  No joke.  It’s super comfy though.  Here it is.

After

On Sunday, it was gorgeous here in the city so I met up with a friend for brunch in Greenwich Village.  As we sat outside at our table and were devouring arugula with super fresh mozzarella and figs I was paying no attention to anyone or anything else.  Priorities, please.  My friend James interrupted my fixation and said, “It’s the funniest thing to watch the girls get out of the bus and check out the Carrie Bradshaw apartment and take the tour around the neighborhood.”  I looked up at him blankly and said, “What do you mean, there’s a bus that actually takes you on a tour of Sex and the City spots where it was filmed?”  He looked at me like I was from another planet.  “Umm, yes.”

We could see across 7th Avenue to where the bus was parked and  were almost directly across from the “PleasureChest” store where they filmed an episode.  I know I don’t need to remind anyone what that episode was about.  So, when I got home I had to look this bus stuff up and sure enough for the bargain price of $42.00 you too can go on a bus tour of Sex and the City “hot spots”.   Just in case you are as shocked as I am, here’s the link with the info.:

Sex & the City bus tours