Fancy Food On The Cheap.

I invited my former neighbor Dean to the East Side for dessert at Brasserie Les Halles last evening.

"Oh, honey, I hate the East Side. But for you, I'll go there."

So we met up at the restaurant after work and disappointed our waiter by ordering one salad and one dessert. I asked him, though, if Executive Chef Anthony Bourdain actually comes in to work everyday still. Of course, no, he only appears occasionally.

(Bourdain is best known for his anti-Emeril attitude, his Food Network show "A Cook's Tour" and his books, including "Kitchen Confidential", a hiliarious read for anyone who's ever worked in food service, or a horror story for those who haven't.) Chef Bourdain is my favorite culinary personality. If a chef can be described so, he's totally rock 'n' roll. He would've reamed me for eating a McDonald's cheeseburger before going to his restaurant, but hey, I had to eat before attacking the expensive stuff. I can't afford much of that!

One day and counting.

Tapiocafragalisticexpealadocious.

Last evening I went to Chinatown after work. My efforts to again find the fabulous scarves with flames on them was delayed because of an "incident" on the 6 at Canal Street. (No worries, I didn't read anything about any deaths or whatnot in the paper this morning.) But my shopping was cut short of precious time as my train sat between stations. It always comforting to know you can't get out of the train if the need should arise.

After I switched over the the W and made it to Chinatown, I ran a couple blocks off Canal and Broadway, but no scarves with flames made themselves known to me. So I moved on the the Fay Da Bakery for a slice of Japanese cheesecake and some Bubble Tea. Or Boba. Or whatever you want to call it. It's the funky-colored drink with the funky giant black tapioca pearls in it. Bobafind.com is a friendly website with good descriptions of what comprises this drink. I suppose I'll never have this drink again after I'm back to Nashville. Although, there's something about chewing up those squishy tapiocas that leaves me a bit light-headed. I actually love tapioca pudding. Maybe the Bubble Tea is just a new concept for my brain, taste and texture buds to understand.

Then I ran around Union Square. Literally. Then back to the UWS where I picked up some dinner and went home. Three-and-a-half days and counting.

Trying To Get It All Out Of My System.

It was a full New York weekend, since, unless a knight-in-shining-armor comes along, or I win the lottery this week, it's my last week here! (BTW, Macy's offered me $11.00 an hour to do visual at Herald Square. I couldn't live as far out as the trains will go on $11.00 an hour! But, I'll have to let the visual manager take that up with HR. She said she knew it wouldn't be enough. But, then again, some dumb kid from FIT will take the job for less I'm sure. Say hello to your college debt and a 500-bedroom convertible apartment, sucker!)

Anyway, Sunday was the City Bakery's Hot Chocolate Festival. They shipped in snow, put down faux ice for skating, and gave away hot chocolate and marshmallows at their shop near Union Square. The homemade marshmallows were toasted over a grill (see pics). And that was good, because the square blobs just tasted like bread dough when they were raw. Something about toasting them actually made them marshmallow-like in flavor. Unfortunately the chocolate needed a dash of vanilla or something to curb the sugary but not sweet cocoa flavor. Leave it to Lillian and me to deconstruct everything from Petco store windows to the city's "best hot chocolate." I will concede, the sugared danish was tasty. Flaky baked pastry crust soaked in sugar water is a good idea to me!

Saturday, I spent the day shopping on Soho. Oh, how I'll miss shopping in Soho! I visited an outrageously expensive Frenchy chocolate shop called Vosges. I ordered a Cappuccino Bomb - a cappuccino with my choice of chocolate truffle dropped into the mug. I selected a Gatsby: dark chocolate combined with bubbly Joseph Perrier Champagne & dressed with a tear of a red rose petal. IT WAS GOOD! (And that's just how it should be for $6.50.) If anyone would like to send me over a Gatsby + Daisy box of Valentine's chocolates, you can for just $25 - $40! I prefer the latter. It's more bang for your buck! I can provide a mailing address by request.

Sloppy Joe/Dirty Jane had been marked on my calendar for some time now. But it was a disappointment and ironically, because of my distaste for its name, Yellow Rat Bastard was a veritable gold mine of apparel treasures! And of course, Daffy's is my favorite of all. One Daffy's is better than TJ Maxx, Ross, Marshall's and Value City combined. Dare I utter such words...

Interesting.

This left-/right-brained test has defined me as thus:

Amy, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to "catch up" with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can "size up" situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to "lose touch" with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you "learn from experience" and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the "larger whole."

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. You can "see where you want to go" and even be able to "tell yourself," but find that you are "fighting yourself" at the darndest times.

It sounds about right, actually. Although, I've always thought I was decidedly right-brained. Now, what I do with this enlightening information, heaven only knows...