The New York Times: Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of

After my People/Bic For Her photo shoot I had the opportunity to meet up with Audrey of Miss Moon's Musings for some tasty adult beverages, great conversation and lots of laughs. Audrey and I met in person during my last visit to NYC so I was excited to see her again. And when I tell you Audrey gives good voice, I mean it! She has the BEST voice, it's all soothing and seductive and stuff. And her stories about her job literally had me in tears. #TeamAudrey #BrooklynInTheHouse

The night of my photo shoot I was going to walk a couple of blocks to an all night deli and I noticed something dart across my path. "A cat?" I thought as I stopped to look closer. The cat-like thing came back towards me and no, it wasn't a cat. It was a rat. A rat big enough for me to mistake it for a cat. And he just looked at me like "You in my way."

Heeeeeeeeeelllllllllll nnnnnnaaaaaaawwwwwllllllll!!!!!!!!!

I shrieked (just a little, cuz y'all know I ain't no punk) and ran back into the hotel lobby. "I just saw a rat. A big ass rat!" I screeched to the doorman. "Oh yeah? Yeah. It happens. It's New York." He shrugged and looked at me like I was a moron. "You want me to call you a cab?" "Hecks nawl, I ain't going back out there, yall got rats as big as cats up in this piece," is what I wanted to say but I just told him no as calmly as I could and went into the hotel bar instead.

Chastity over at GarnerStyle kept warning us about walking too close the trash on our previous visit to New York last September but God's Favorite Shoes and I never saw a rat the entire time that we were there and thought that she was overexaggerating.
Needless to say she was one of the first people that I thought of after the shock (and scariness) wore off!

 

(These photos were taken the morning of the photo shoot, 
Sunglasses: Target, Dress: H&M, Bag: Zara, Shoes: Marshalls)
 

There's a bakery in Soho that sells cro-nuts, a combination of a croissant and a doughnut and apparently they are all the rage. The bakery only makes 300 cro-nuts a day and people have to take a number before the bakery opens and wait in line and the maximum number that a person can order at a time is two. We tried to go the first morning that we were in New York and this is what greeted us:

This is the line.

At 8 am. BEFORE the bakery even opened! It was actually wrapped around the corner.

But on our last morning we walked near the bakery and a woman stopped us and offered us one of her cro-nuts. Sonya and I split it and it was a good, it was like a filled doughnut but the doughnut was of a heavier consistency than a regular doughnut. I don't know if it's wait in line for a couple of hours good but I'm glad that I got to sample one.

 

Scarf (on head): Thrifted

Sunglasses: Target

Top: Zara

Skirt: H&M

Denim jacket: Zara

Bag: Zara

Shoes: Converse (Journey's)

(Do y'all see my copy of A Belle in Brooklyn in my bag? Enjoyable read,

Demetria Lucas is now my friend in my head.)

We walked around for a couple of hours before it was time to check out and go to the airport and I began to feel sad. I missed New York before I had even left.  Even though La Guardia Airport's whole operating system needs an overhaul, it is so dumb. I was wondering why people were sitting on the floor like homeless folk at the airport but it's so that they would be closer to the outlets to charge their electronic devices.

We have charging stations in the Dallas airport...I'm just saying. But when in Rome.....

 

Top Left: One of my individual shots from the shoot on the review screen.
Top Right: Waiting for the train.
Bottom Left: Sonya and I with Stephen, our unofficial tour guide, he came by to see us off. Meeting him was one of the highlights of our trip! He is good people and he knows EVERYONE.
Bottom Right: One of the shots from the photo shot of the four winners.

 Now that I'm home I feel that the entire experience was so surreal, like an awesome, awesome dream that I had. I had THE best time, rat and all, New York definitely helped me get my life, I've kinda been on a high ever since. I have been very focused on things that I want to accomplish, I'm crossing  things off of my To-Do list left and right and feeling like anything is possible. I think it was just the catalyst that I needed not to limit what I want in this life.

 

"These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York

New York, New York"

~Jay Z "Empire State of Mind"