STREET FAIR

One of my favorite things to do in New York is to go to street fairs.  They are a constant all over the city, where a major street is closed for several blocks, reroute get buses, ambulances, delivery trucks and everything else, so New Yorkers can come out and buy state fair food (fried pickles, anyone?),

socks and t-shirts for $5, ice cold lemonade (even though it's only about 65 degrees out) genuine machine made oriental rugs, yoga pants in wild colors, watches, smallish hand tools, Indian tablecloths and bedspreads, beauty supplies, and a few hand crafted items.  In other words, it's a big mishmash of things you want or need and mostly at low prices.  

Using the excuse that we are on California time, we didn't wake up until 11:30 this morning.  We had several things planned for the day, but due to our late start, we only went to the street fair.  We bought cell phone screen guards, steampunk jewelry, a tablecloth, hats,

sink drain cover for Martha's sink, Nutella banana crepes, skin lotion, eyebrow pencil, Hillary pin,

and forgot to get the yoga pants.  Luckily, there's one somewhere in Manhattan practically every day.  

And of course, there's always one very cool looking stylish woman anyplace you go in New York.  Here's my choice for today.  

Later we went to Trader Joe's.  Note to self:  Never on Sunday.  The line was all the way around the inside of the store.  So when we walked in, John got a hand basket and stood in the line, and I did all the shopping.  The line was about down to one third, only about a 10 minute wait, by the time I had filled up the basket.  Apparently, TJ's is the biggest attraction on the upper west side.    In this store, the single line for the 22 cash registers is usually about 20 feet long, and all along the line are the various candy and other impulse items in boxes.  On such a busy day, the boxes are all empty except for groceries other customers abandoned, probably because they didn't have enough money to buy the potatoes and the candy, so they opted for the potatoes.  The lure of TJ in NY, I think, is that most stores in Manhattan have narrow, cramped aisles, and food is quite expensive.  TJ's basically has California prices, wider aisles, and the quirky selection they are famous for.  And apparently, the only time anyone has to shops is Sunday afternoon.