a girl's day

The wind was icy today. I could feel it through the glass of the windows in the apartment. It called for cashmere and fleece and wool.

I bundled myself from neck to toe because I couldn't find my knitted hat and was blown to Tribeca where I took a meeting with a well-known female producer and one of her directors. The woman power was great. I volunteered to help with a film festival and the opening of a hotel. I'm a Jill of all trades.

When I left the warmth of the office, I walked in triangles trying to find a place to eat. I wasn't satisfied with my most immediate options so I referenced an email from one of my food mentors and went out of my way to find Bouley Bakery. There, I stood on the tiled battleground between macarons, lemon tarts and chiffon cakes versus croissants, breads and rolls. I sided with a plain croissant, a spiced squash soup and orange juice. I carried my wooden tray to the second floor where the sun filled the room with a welcome heat. I ate my lunch and wanted to curl up on the windowsill but I know better than to lay down in public. That's for protesters.

I wanted to picket against the brisk air that made my lips hurt with cold. As I walked to the train station, I stopped to buy a hat from a Chinese man with a street stand. I chose a cream colored one that he said matched nicely with my sweater, a Ralph Lauren which I bought in the summer of 2000 at Bloomingdale's in Century City because I gasped when I walked past the mannequin that displayed it. I didn't feel as passionate about my new hat but it kept my head wicked warm.

At 3:00pm, I had an appointment with Ivan, a friend from Hawaii whom I had never really chatted with at length. Currently an apprentice at Bumble, Ivan invited me to be his model for his one day a week classroom training. He knew I desperately needed a haircut and was grateful to have him go at this raven mane.

I surprised him a package of macarons tied with a red ribbon for Valentine's Day. He surprised me with a pair of fingerless grey gloves with a cap that goes over the fingertips when necessary. I had just noticed them for the first time on a man in the subway and as serendipity and thoughtfulness would have it, they were now on my hands.

Ivan giggled and spoke while he washed and then cut my hair as his instructor periodically checked his work. He was great fun and so silly. We laughed and updated each other on our mutual friends. My haircut was gorgeous and were it not for the angry cold outside, I would have flounced up and down Madison Avenue. I put one boot onto the sidewalk outside and immediately had to cover Ivan's brilliance with my new hat. It was a perfect afternoon followed by a trip to Chelsea for dinner and dessert with Johnny, a fellow Bumble apprentice.

At Nooch, I started with agedashi tofu and a spicy tuna roll. The tofu was fantastic, fried with a coat of mochi in a briny broth with a hint of ponzu. The spicy tuna roll was perfunctory. The nori was thick and chewy and the tuna was bland. For my entree I had pad see oui gai which is a sweet flat rice noodle dish with chicken, egg and broccoli. Nooch's version also included red pepper and cilantro which were pleasant novelties for me. The dish itself was acceptable but a bit too wet.

After dinner, Ivan and I split from our group and walked to a bakery that a man recommended when he couldn't tell us where Billy's was. I'd heard of Billy's bakery before when it was written up in some magazine. I was told recently that Billy sold the bakery and became a lady. I was interested in seeing if he was still on hand to dish out the sweets and as we reached this alternate bakery destination, it turned out that it was indeed Billy's afterall.

Banana cake baking in the oven yields a smell that I would imagine to be like heaven and inhaling it is like watching angels hug. The cream cheese frosting, the small chunks of firm banana, the way your belly glows like E.T.'s finger afterwards...all elements of a perfect dessert. I also had ice box cake which is chocolate wafers layered with whipped cream. When left to lay long enough, the moisture from the whipped cream sneaks into the wafers making them soft and cakey. The effect of properly assembled wafers and whipped cream looks quite fetching. Eating a lot of this makes one look the opposite.

Before returning home, we stopped into a grocery store on 8th where Ivan danced in the aisle as I looked for bread and cheese. I taught him how to choose oranges by the look of the peel and their weight relative to the other oranges in the bin. I miss the oranges in California. The ones here have thick hard rinds and less juice. The ones here are New Yorkers.