An Apology (But Blame The Parents)

Firstly, sorry for getting all behind and suddenly dropping off a cliff (in metaphorical blog terms, rather than actual death and tragedy rebel Without A Cause terms). My family arrived and I have suddenly turned into acting tourguide so everything got a bit hectic. So, as ever, you can blame the parents. Just like in Rebel Without a Cause! omg the connections are just coming in so thick and fast; you'll just never guess what we did last night. Actually, I'm afraid you'll have to wait to find out because if I start at the end and then just hop about in time for a bit until I have said everything there is to say about my last days in NY, it might get a bit confusing, and although you're all bright and can definitely cope, I never fully understood Doctor Who so I would get totally lost and feel like I'm floating in a very disorganised and unstructured mess and start repeating things. Which would clearly be awful because a) I can't deal with that amount of chaos (my need for routine again, can definitely blame the parents for that one) and would get all anxious and b) anyone who is using valuable time to read my partly nonsensical ramblings on New York would definitely not appreciate repetition and it would be highly dull and c) catching up might actually take, like, four weeks anyway because I have done so much and there is so much to talk about and so much to catch up on that repetition would make it take, like, four months. And no one wants that. Aaaaand in four months time who knows what I'll be doing or where I'll be and I will probably want to be focusing on that. So to recap; no jumping about in time, Doctor Who style.

So. Where were we??

Oh yes, that was it.
I'd been given my new silk romper and was uber excited to trry it on.
After the designer had left I got back to work, doing some planning for the min Editorial Awards Harper's are entering, getting together all the hard copies and electronic copies that were needed for each category and entry.
I did more of my sad 'last time' rituals. Whenever I go anywhere I get really attached to it and have to, like, say goodbye to my toilet.
I took some photos of my view but I doubt it will do it justice. Standing there, on the 25th floor of Hearst Tower, overlooking the Manhattan skyline on my last day, I felt suddenly empowered. I had been shit scared two weeks ago, and yet here I was, alive. In fact, more than alive; I had totally owned it. The whole experience had been incredible and I had done it and, I think, done it well. I gave myself a pat on the back (in my head. I had, thus far, managed to keep my total insanity hidden from view of the Harper's office and appeared quite sane. I did not intend to ruin that at the last moment).

Amazingly, a hurricane was predicted for that afternoon. Lisa was, she informed me, terrified. hurricanes are not regular occurrences in New York City and I too was not looking forward to that. I'd felt that I was actually inside the eye of the storm whilst the thunder had raged and the lightening struck on Monday (twenty five floors is high up) so I'm imagining that a hurricane at that height would have been scarier. There was mass hysteria. Hurricane-alert was a new fave excuse to do no work.

My last task at Harper's was back with the archives. Me and the archives became bessies. I had another huge list from a woman called Hanna of issues I needed to pull and helped her sort them and take them to her office on the 18th floor. I also made friends with an intern shadowing a scary looking lady in blood red shoes. Typical me to achieve that on the last day.

Then, saving the best till last, Lisa took me on a massive tour of the Harper's office. We saw the production team and the art department and the stylists and the make up artists and the beauty department and the birth place of all the features and a tall beautiful girl with short dark hair cropped close to her face who looked like Audrey Hepburn and was wearing zebra print trousers being photographed. We saw girls pulling out clothes from rails of choice and lying them on the floor to piece together outfits, a feature on denim and diamonds (big next season: you heard it here first folks), hundreds of hats, a wall dedicated to Manolo's, an entire section of floor space devoted to the red soles of Louboutin, belts, gloves, even some fur coats and a cupboard for beauty products bigger than my kitchen. Lisa also got the heads of each department to explain to me what they do and how they do it and show me what they were working on, which was so interesting and quite exciting. I loved seeing the ideas for a feature based on the statues on fifth avenue take shape and develop, and it's so cool to think that it will appear as a fully fledged feature in a few months time, but that I've already seen it. I'm in the know, me, what can I say. I also saw how much putting together the magazine is like piecing together a puzzle. My head hurt a little bit afterwards. But ohh it was so exciting, I loved it!! I felt so like I was actually a part of the magazine and I was all like, ooh I think I can see myself here, in this environment, as a career. Certainly, the features and editorial is something I would love to do, although I am aware that I'll have to do soooo much work to be able to do anything like that.
I do think it's unfair the way the fashion magazine industry is portrayed; it's run by smart, intelligent individuals who have to work hard and think hard. It's not about matching a bag to a coat and it's not run by shallow people obsessed with clothes and being thin and it isn't like 'The Devil Wears Prada'. *Rant over* Ahem. Sorry about that, I'll sit back down now...

My tour ended at 4.45 on the dot and I was suddenly like waaaa this means I'm leaving for the last time! I wouldn't tell Lisa I'd see her tomorrow and I'd never hurtle down the 25 floors so fast that my tummy flipped again. It was all very emosh. No really.
Lisa gave me a card and an absurdly heavy wrapped present and a hug, which was sweet. I logged off and shut down my jazzy Mac a final time and, taking a quick snap of the huge 'Bazaar' emblazoned on the imposing glass door of the equally imposing office in which I had just spent two weeks, left Hearst Tower.

I couldn't believe it was all over and that I had actually done that and that it had gone so horribly fast. I'm an emotional wreck (trust me, that is not exaggeration) so it will come as no surprise to those who know me that, as I headed for my daily post work frappe, I had tears emptying themselves down my cheek. They were neither happy tears nor sad tears, just a complete well-of-emotion-tears.

Always good to be in touch with your emotions, I find.
Yes that includes when watching the Pampers ad. You can probably blame the parents for that too, actually.

It's Tough But Someone's Gotta Do It

On Tuesday Lisa sent me on errand. I had to take some weird like bit of paper (it might have been about people getting paid. I do not know) to a building on West 37th Street at Fifth Avenue. Hearst Tower is on West 57th at Eighth Avenue. It was an hour round trip, although I was walking quite slowly because it was quite hot and there was lots of interesting stuff to look at, like the Yayoi Kusama spotted Louis Vuitton store. In fact, I walked all the way down Fifth Avenue (which, now that I think about it, may have been a bit of a long way round and so may have also added to the journey time) and ahhh it was amazing. All the designer shops, all the beautiful window displays, all the people being whisked out of said stores and into waiting cars who just exuded money. Lots and lots of money. Economic crisis what now?

My favourite window had just one beautiful dress in it. It was flapper style, with white feathers forming the skirt, and from the drop waist up it was made of hundreds of tiny pearls. It was gorgeous and for a moment I had to stop and stare and then remind myself that it's rude to leave one's mouth open like that. It was exactly what I had imagined my prom dress to look like and almost found (and thank God I didn't found it! I love the dress I wore to our leavers ball, but I wouldn't have been able to wear it knowing that my fantasy dress existed in actuality and was horribly, horribly out of my price range).

It was such a great excursion; sipping smoothie in the sunshine as I wandered around New York is a really poor excuse for work. 

That afternoon I did more archive stuff and admin-y bits and pieces. I love sitting with the art department folk; all the pictures are stunning and the girls look gorgeous and those shoes are simply diviiine. I've also seen the editing first hand. I know we've all been told it but it's true; those long legs we're all so jel of? Yeah, they're fake. 

Perfection really doesn't exist. So that was a nice confidence boost.

There was also a raffle which, sadly, I wasn't involved in, but basically it consisted of the staff getting designer bags. Lots and lots of designer bags. Amber, who sits behind me, won the most expensive item; a huge cream leather Louis Vuitton affair which caused a little frisson of envy to pass through the office. She promptly emptied everything out of her old bag and didn't put it down for the rest of the day. 

Side note: I wore my new Mango silk coral dress with cut out back. Tres Chic. 

Rain and Roz go to the Zoo.

We woke up gloriously late after our night of live music and disrupted subways.

I once again headed to Central Park - how can I resist its charm when it's just thirty seconds from my door and the weather is so glorious?! - and sat in the dappled shade listening to the jazz of two buskers. A little girl and her dad danced in front of them.

There is a lot of dancing in this crazy city.

The endless stream of cyclists, runners, skaters and even the occasional horse and cart swept along below me.

I read a book and applied suntan lotion. It was perfect. Again.

And THEN we went to Central Park Zoo. Jump up and down in excitement on my behalf y'all! I certainly know one person who will be very jealous.

There was a bit of a queue, but we were determined to go, so we stuck it out, and it really didn't take very long. Plus, the price of an adult ticket is only $12, which we were very pleasantly surprised by.

It's actually quite small and there are no lions. NO LIONS. However, I got over this when I saw the polar bear. omg excitement. It was huge and much yellower than I expected and very sleepy. The snow leopard turned into The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Snow Leopard which, don't panic, is a lot less dramatic than it sounds; we couldn't see it, there were some grumpy children and one growling fat man threatening to sue but it hadn't actually escaped. The penguins smelt very fishy but waddle in such self important manner that I just find them hilarious. The red faced and red bottomed baboons were so funny and human like that we watched them for hours, as they fought and played and groomed. The reptile house and bug world was seriously creepy, although the giant green frog and inflated toad made me wish other people were here already and every single furry animal and fluffy face made me miss my dog, despite not actually looking anything like the old fat border terrier he is. The sea lion show was very clever, with Frisbee throwing, ball catching, somersault practising sea lions reigniting my childhood ambition of being a zoo keeper all over again. I thiiink you might need, like, a PHD in biology but a Biology AS Level is basically the same, right...?

After we'd seen all the animals and watched the sea lion show, we sat in front of their pool on the steps in the centre of the zoo, surrounded by the trees of Central Park, the beautiful apartments of Fifth Avenue and the skyscrapers of the city. We could even see Hearst tower, probably my very floor, from where we sat watching the sea lions gracefully swim through the water and emerge, jumping onto the rocks, showing off as they splashed and clapped.

We got really into the sea lions actually, clapping along with the toddlers every time that they leaped out of the water. We learnt all about the difference between them and seals (unlike seals they have external ear flaps and their front flippers can support their body weight. Total fact of the day right there. Aren't you glad you bothered reading this just for that titbit of information?? Impress all your friends with your sea lion knowledge!) and practically started naming them.

At that point we decided to make a move back to the park.

So we returned to our fave place in NYC; Central Park and did some more lounging, people watching, outfit critiquing, polite head shaking when approached by beggars/a man selling his poetry in the afternoon sun.

We made plans for the upcoming week, in order to squeeze the most out of our remaining time in New York.

Oh if you could hear our plans...

I'll fill you in as we do them, don't you worry!