Happy Chinese New Year

Happy New Year! Or rather, gong xi fa cai!!! Today we welcome the year of the water dragon. Mindy and I spent a good part of our day in Chinatown yesterday wandering around looking at ang pao and all the little toys, dresses and heng heng items to bring wealth and good fortune in the new year. We ate dim sum at oriental garden on elizabeth st. where we were seated at a large round table with another couple and an old woman and a young white boy who spoke impeccable Chinese. after dim sum we wandered up Bowery a bit after I stopped for a few moments to draw the entrance to the manhattan bridge.

We ended up at uniqlo and bought some great and affordable basics and then stopped in to muji for some notebooks I hope to turn into something i can sell.

Then we went to kee's chocolates on Thompson. We read many reviews about this place and since it is just a couple of blocks from where we were staying we decided that it would be our chocolate for the trip (mindy and I always try to find a local chocolate shop when we go places). Her speciality is a creme brûlée truffle. You had to eat it in one bite so the liquid creme center didn't run down your chest. Oh lord was it good. Once you break the dark chocolate shell the sweet creme pours into your mouth, then as you swallow it the bitter dark chocolate begins to melt playing nicely off the sweet. Delicious delicious delicious.

after chocolate we walked back to the apartment and watched the end of the first football game. Then we were growing hungry again and decided to walk up greenwich ave to the meatball shop for an easy dinner. We ordered similar dishes, mindy had root beer I had real beer and we sat in the window watching the people pass by on the street.

After dinner we walked to the IFC theater on 6th ave and bought tickets for the 10:10 The City Dark show. While we waited, we went to Grom for some gelato: yum yum. Then we walked back to the theater and went in and found our seats. The 20 seat theater was mostly empty, just two other couples. As the lights came down to start the show the couple to mindy's right became increasingly annoying, talking and playing with their phones with her head in his lap. The guy behind us kept kicking our chairs. What the hell!? We were apparently in douche bag theater. Either way the show was great and I recommend it to everyone. It is about how electric light effects not just the night sky but human biology and animal habitats and migration. In other words we need the dark and we are losing it to "progress."

After the show we walked back down bleeker st. to the apartment. I checked to see who won the NFC championship game. Too bad SF, I really wanted y'all to win. Then we began packing up our shit to come back to Indiana.

We fly back to Indiana in a few short hours after our little trip to NYC. We covered several museums, a soho graffiti scavenger hunt, some research, Chinese New Year, a bit of shopping and a whole lot of eating. we love NYC but are looking forward to being home and hanging out with our big gray and white cat.