Philadelphia and NYC! (Part 2)

Sunday was a great day in the city because I got to spend it with Veronica!  We started the day in Washington Square Park at NY Dosas – a cart that’s been voted one of the 20 best in the city.  Apparently, Kumar (the owner/chef) is famous for his Special Pondicherry Masala and Special Rava Masala Dosa.  (I had absolutely no idea what “pondicherry” means and I’m pretty sure I had never heard it before last Sunday.  Wikipedia tells me is a Bombay-Mumbai — it’s a former French colony that was “colonized” as “Pondicherry” but they reverted to the city’s original name in 2006 – Puducherry.)  We both had a dosa and samosa each – they were delicious.  Definitely the best food I’ve had when sober from a cart in the USA.  (Nothing beats a drunk stop at Roppolo’s, in case you were wondering.)

We had a lovely lunch in Washington Square Park and then headed off to find Mood Fabrics.  On our way out, I think we spotted Ross the Intern from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno but I can’t be certain.  What do you think?

So, after our pseudo-celebrity sighting (if you would even consider it that), we headed over to Mood Fabrics to be Project Runway nerds for a little bit.  Yes, that’s right – we played pretend for a little bit.  We picked out fake fabrics for our fake outfits and just acted like complete goofballs for a little bit.  I did end up finding some really cool gold buttons for my purple pimp coat, so be prepared to see that this fall!

Why they only had ten pieces and those of the least memorable outfits/designers was something we couldn’t figure out.  The store is huge though – there are three floors and each one is packed with stuff!

Afterwards, Vero and I headed to The Cocoa Bar, where we enjoyed hot chocolate, wine, and cheese.  We had the most adorable waiter who knew absolutely nothing and told us “I’m not sure, let me go check!” each time we asked him anything.  We thought we’d hit the jackpot when the owner walked over with our cheese tray – surely, he could at least tell us what kind of cheese we were going to enjoy. Nope, what did we get? “Oh! I’m not sure, let me go check!”  It was really endearing, though 🙂  They came back with answers every time!  The owner was a really sweet man who used to be a film professor – among many things, he told us about his filmmaker son and his movie, The Captainist, and how he’s helping his son promote the movie.  I suggested he name a drink after the movie, and he called me a genius!  Vero, you owe me a picture of the Captainist Cappucino when it comes to be.

NYC was fun, and I’m so glad Vero is thriving there!  Can’t wait to visit again 🙂

I headed back to Philly the next morning and finally got around to doing some touristy stuff that I’ve wanted to do for awhile.  Sush, Nikhil and I headed out to LOVE Park.  Surprisingly enough, the LOVE statue is really not that big.  It does make for some great picture making opportunities – kudos to Nikhil on these two:   **CORRECTION: Susheela just informed me that she took the second photo, my bad.**

Let’s just take a moment to point out the ridiculous $5 hat that I was OBSESSED with for two days.  I even debated wearing it to work upon returning from vacation, only to decide that I would be mocked.  I still secretly love it.  Also, huge shout out to Sush for letting me borrow her coat during my entire vacation since I left mine in my car… in Austin.  Genius.

After LOVE park, we headed over to the museum where the famous Rocky scene was filmed.  I’ve got a fun video from there that Nikhil is going to create for me someday when I send him the files, so don’t hold your breath, but there might be a second video… someday.

We ended the day with an amazing restaurant – Sahara Grill.  The falafel was so good I forgot to take a picture of it before I finished the whole thing… but I did snag a great picture of Casper, er Sush and Nikhil:

It was a great day in Philadelphia – I’m looking forward to ya’ll’s move out to the ‘burbs and my new room in your new apartment.  😉

So, to reflect for just a minute – I feel so blessed to have such amazing people in my life.  I’m not sure that I’ll always be able to recall where I met each friend or all the things we’ve done together, but I can tell you that I know they are all good people.  Some might say that you can only have so many friends and the rest are acquaintances, but I don’t really see it that way.  If I like you, I consider you a friend.  It’s pretty much that easy in my head.  I love how easy it is to pickup with friends after a year of not seeing each other, or months of not talking to each other regularly – that’s the real test of a friendship to me and it’s one that I hope keeps going as well as into the future as it has in the past. =)

Goodnight blogosphere!