OK another beautiful day and I am off to the Astro Diner for my coffee, and bacon & eggs (I told Lulu when we get home I am going on a HUGE diet, but it's impossible to do so here. I need to return to the land of salad and canned tuna). I LOVE eating at a NYC diner, you can eaves drop on all sorts of stuff. The family next to me at the counter were from NJ and the teenage daughter wanted to go to Soho, the mother to Saks, the son was mad that he had to get up at 8am, and the dad spent all his time on his blackberry or reading the NY Post and commenting on how skinny Bill Clinton was. On the other side of me was a plumber who was working on the building next door and oh what problems he had... Anyway, as I was eating my breakfast I opened up my complimentary copy of the NY Times only to discover I had left my reading glasses in East Hampton. Yes I had my prescription sunglasses (progressives) and my regular prescription glasses (progressives) but what I needed was my cheap-o reading glasses. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I cannot start my day without a thorough reading of the obituaries so I was a tad unsettled. The cashier told me a Duane Reade (like CVS) was a block away so I headed over there only to discover no 3.0 glasses... I asked the pharmacist what's up and he told me in New York, there was some court ruling that forbids drug stores to sell any glasses over & above a 2.75, as it would take away business from the specialized optical stores (let's blame the unions).
I visited several nearby optical stores with no luck until I entered the Shangri La of all things beauty related - Zitomers. Who knew they had a store on West 57th (I am quite familiar with the original one on Madison). I purchased the perfect pair of 3.0 reading glasses, along with a few other must have items and returned back to The London to see if lovely Lulu had finished her beauty sleep which she had.We had a big day ahead of us as we were having lunch with...Chris's MOTHER! Chris, as all of you know is Lulu's wonderful BF, and his mother and stepfather live off Union Square in NYC.
While Lulu had met Linda before, I never had, and thus was really looking forward to meeting the person who raised such a delightful son! We took a taxi to Union Square to meet her at Blue Water Grill, and discovered the farmers market across the street was selling big bunches of my favorite flowers - zinnias! We bought a bunch for Linda and joined her for a most delightful lunch, where the waiter was of course an aspiring actor who moved to NYC from Florida and is mulling over moving 
to LA to make his big break... He was cute and I thought we should take down his information for Cary who coincidentally was on an airplane at that very moment to make her big move to NYC...but since he forgot to place my turkey burger order, and seemed more interested in telling us his life's story I decided to pass. Linda and her husband are both authors, and that impressed me so much as I've always wanted to write the great American Novel, but ...well, anyway maybe some day...As
we were leaving the restaurant, Linda mentioned she was going to the 5:15pm showing of "I AM LOVE" (with Tilda Swinton) which I've been dying to see and so we said "We'll join you!". Off she went and Lulu and I returned to Broadway to check out the stores I had spotted earlier (such as ABC Carpets - a huge many storied store of 10% carpets and 90% stuff you don't need but want to have and must have) but Lulu had other ideas. I found myself heading south on Broadway as Lulu made a bee line to Kate Moss's TOP SHOP clothing & shoe store. I don't know how best to describe it, but it's along the lines of a Forever 21, but hipper? There is NOTHING in that store for a person who is larger than a size -0, so I more or less found myself a comfortable chair in the dressing room and offered commentary, all appreciated I'm sure, but totally ignored.When I lived in NYC in the dark ages (1977 - 88) this lower Broadway area was rather seedy, but now
it is where all the young people gravitate - if you are a department store lady like me you will still go to Upper East side, but if you are young & styling, you will find yourself surrounded by the 18 - 25 year olds who like the Forever 21, True Religion, Scoop, Zara, and many other stores I am totally clueless about. One store was called "Yellow Rat Bastard"...has anyone shopped there before???We headed over to East Houston and met Linda at The Landmark
(same chain as in the Westside Pavillion) where the guy behind the counter said "our popcorn was voted best in the city". (Expert as I am, I'd say that is a lofty claim, but it did persude me to order a medium size rather than the small). The movie is beautifully filmed, the setting is Milan in the winter with all kinds of snow falling on the beautiful buildings, the clothing is classic and especially Tilda's outfits are to die for in their gorgeous simplicity ( Audrey Hepburn type), but the story line is pretty unrealistic (beautiful rich lady leaves her wealthy, kind, good looking husband for a friend of her son's who is boring and scraggly, and by the way I think maybe the son is a little too interested in his friend too?...) Anyway, the movie ends with sunshine and spring flowers, and a good deal of x-rated you know what. We walked
back towards Union Square as the sun set, and passed by tables upon tables of men playing chess. I made Lulu stop at Fishs Eddy, a really fun store full of "sturdyware" - that is sturdy dishware, tableware, mugs, plates, bowls...AND the signs posted all over the store were great for my letter collecting obsession. I bought a plate that says "Do you really need that second helping?" We ended up ordering room service (soup & salad) and I reviewed my photos, while Lulu channel-surfed through one ridiculous TV show (The Bachlorette) after another...finally she got fed up with me hollering from the next room "It's all fake - don't believe a word of it! " and we shut the lights off and called it a day.
