My weekend in New York has been no less enthralling than my first day, in a large part due to the subway system. I’ve been able to travel uptown and downtown, multiple times in a day, on an unlimited-ride $7.50 “Fun Pass.” Fun pass indeed; I could easily spend $7.50 per day in gas back in Bellingham, WA and not travel nearly as far. There are also cool mosaics in the walls announcing the subway stops. This is a nice, artistic touch.

And then, there is also graffiti. Reading the graffiti on the Subway is a bit of an art, sort of like reading a palm. Today, someone had etched the words, “Doom” and “Loner” into the glass of the subway car I was in. I don’t wish to think of how long it took to etch those words into the glass (undoubtedly with a disposable Bic pen) nor would I like to run into this doom-predicting loner.

My friend Allison (that’s her, in the first picture on this post) and I headed downtown to the famous (infamous?) Canal Street where we proceeded to gorge ourselves on replica handbags. It was amazing how nice the handbags were for $35 each. We were shocked (yet not surprised) to be led into hidden panels to entire rooms full of faux handbags. At one point, a man mumbled “Prada?” on the street to us. We expressed interest in his wares. He led us down the street to a white van. He then urgently said “Quick! Quick! Get in the van!” Tempted by the allure of a genuine Prada bag at a great rate, we jumped in the van. This is when Allison turned to me and said “This is how white slavery happens.”

We got out of the van. Quickly.

It’s unclear to me if we left because we were worried about being sold to become drugged, fertile child-bearing wives in a foreign country or just because the selection of handbags was quite poor in the van.

Allison is a good enough friend that she even stood for 30 minutes at Magnolia Bakery to get cupcakes. I bought four and have eaten one. It’s good. But, not as good as homegrown Cupcake Royale.

We ended our evening on Saturday night with a wonderful showing of the musica, Wicked. Having read the book by Gregory Maguire when I was in college, I had fond memories of the storyline. The musical on Broadway did not disappoint. Wow! What an amazing show with elaborate costumes; an absolute joy to see and hear.

On Sunday, I hung out with longtime Bramble Berry customer and friend, Jen. She took me to all the great shops in town from Century 21 by the World Trade Center, to Bergdorfs, Saks Fifth Avenue and Daffys. She even hooked me up with her friend to get a makeover. For those of you wishing such a transformation, “Tony C.” at the T. LeClerc counter is phenomenal. And, he’s also really nice and entirely flattering. I left his chair feeling a bit like a princess. You can judge for yourself. “Before” is on the left and “After” is on the right (as if it wasn’t obvious).

Finally, after a long day of sight seeing, Jen and I went to Tony Award Winning “Spring Awakening.” We arrived 3 minutes late and asked for the cheapest seats in the house. The ticket agent literally sold us the last seat, in the last row. Luckily, the usher took pity on us and gave us two empty seats, in the first row of the balcony (some of the best seats in the house). It was an excellent show with very serious themes on growing up, adolesence and parental oversight.

Tomorrow is a big day with several meetings with magazine Editors to talk about soapmaking as a creative outlet for children. Thankfully, I’ll have the wonderful subway to get me around to the meetings with a minimum amount of effort. And, should I wish another cupcake for breakfast? I have three more.