Checking In (And My Week Out) ...

Hello everybody! I have been super-busy with my friends visiting from France (they left Tuesday night) and then with organizing my daughter's birthday party this coming Saturday and this is the first time in almost ten days that I actually have the time to breath and sit down half an hour while I wait for a load of laundry to be done. I apologize if I haven't responded to comments or left comments on other blogs (that I kept up with, more or less, thank you Android!), I should be able to resume the normal blogging-related activities early next week.
So what I have been doing? Here is a day-by-day account of my week with out-of-towners (I will try to post outfits in another post, I didn't take pics of myself while my guests were here):

Thursday - I take my friends to the JCrew flagship store on 5th Ave. Girlfriend is unimpressed to say the least, she only buys two vintage cotton tee shirts (only after seeing that they were on promo: she initially barks at the $29.50 price tag). I show her Crewcuts for her daughters. She doen't like the style and the colors (too neon-y or too dark, she will end up buying stuff at Gymboree). They are still a bit jat-lagged so we have dinner at home with another couple of friends who speak French and we have a discussion about the imminent French Presidential election (in France everybody talks about politics and when French people get together they can't help it). Now we now how it ended.

Friday Night - We take them to one of our favorite restaurants in the city, Barbuto in the West Village/Meatpacking. They like it (impossible not to like it, the food is delicious and the place is unpretentious while being very NY). After the restaurant we check out a few clubs in the Meatpacking. We try to get into LeBain (the club of the Standard hotel) but we aren't on the list (even if my husband drops names) and we are bounced back. Let me tell you: being bounced back in your 40s is not like being bounced back in your 20s or 30s, you don't feel like the total loser anymore, you feel superior because you have a life that doesn't consist uniquely of going out. Plus, I had already seen the spectacular view up there. I think we would have gotten in if we had insisted but my husband hates the attitude so we go to another club, which is supposed to be the new hot place and where we are on the list. The club isn't open yet (too early) so we check out the restaurant and lounge where a million of New Yorkers are pressed against each other and if you are a guy and tall enough you have a very good view on every single female's boobs. Restaurant and lounge are on the second floor, club is on the third floor but you have to take another elevator to access the third floor. So after a drink we go back downstairs where there is a bouncer with a rope who lets people up. My husband tells him that we are on the list. List is at the door, he can't check, we have to call the guy who is at the front. My husband goes back and tells the guy that the gorilla wants him to confirm that we are on the list. Which list? Apparently, there are several lists, the iPad list, the printed list and some-other-device list. He finds us on the iPad list, so he calls his assistant who escorts my husband at the elevator (where we were waiting) and tells the gorilla to let us up. After all this you would think that the place is something extraordinary but when we arrive on the third floor we are let in a black cubic room that reminds me of a place where we used to have afternoon disco parties back in the 80s when I was a teen. The place is almost empty and nobody is dancing (music is terrible). My husband and my friends have a drink, then we leave and checkout the other place were we are supposed to be on the list. We are let easily into this one and the place is actually pretty cool (sort of a big grotto) but we are again too early (a private party is ending and the regular crowd isn't arrived yet). We dance a little bit but it is almost two in the morning and we have to go home and let the babysitter free. As we exit, we see that there is now a long line outside. So apparently, nobody shows up in a club before 1.30/2.  Oh well, nobody has kids either!

Saturday - my daughter is invited to a birthday party at the Soho House. For the non New Yorkers, the Soho house is a private event townhouse (there is also a hotel inside) where you have to be member or know a member to get in. They have different rooms but it is especially known for the coveted pool on the roof (it is the place where Samantha pretends to be a member after finding a membership card in the restrooms in an episode Sex and the City). It was still too cold for the pool, but the party (held in the library room) was as fun for the kids as for the grown-ups, with an open bar serving champagne and margaritas (it was Cinco de Mayo) and oysters/mini-hamburgers/fat crabs from 3 to 7. That evening we let our friends go to a restaurant without us and we went to bed at 9. Actually my husband did but I took advantage of him sleeping to watch "The skin I live in", the last movie by Almodovar. I usually like Almodovar (especially the early work) but I was afraid of watching this one after reading the reviews. It is certainly not for everyone (some scenes are very strong/violent) and it is disturbing but if you can endure it it is very rewarding, with one of the best twists ever that I didn't see coming at all, even if I knew that there was a twist. The cinematography is sublime and you can feel the direction of a very mature Almodovar. I would say that if you are a fan of Almodovar, you are going to like it. Plus, Banderas actually looks like himself.

Sunday - only sunny day during my friends stay. We decided to show them the Highline and have brunch at the Standard Grill. We are seated in an almost timely manner for NY standards and we have a decent meal (with a very yummy mimosa) but the best part (especially for my friend) was bumping into Julianne Moore in the restrooms (I have to thank my daughter because if it were for me I would never go to public or restaurant restrooms). She was next to us washing her hands at the "communal" sink where I was trying to wash my daughter's hands and she commented back in her very recognizable voice when my daughter said "this is a very big sink" (she said something very sweet like "you are right, this is REAAALLY a BIG sink").
I have to say that she looked as she had just jumped out of bed and she was wearing a simple black and white striped tee (had I my camera with me I could have snapped a picture and sent it to US magazine for their column "Stars are like us", with a caption saying "They wear stripes!") with black ristop pants. I tought of Gigi, maybe Julianne Moore is stripesick too and can't stop buying striped tees (even if this one in particular looked like it had been in her closet for a looong time). Of course my girlfriend was delighted by the unexpected encounter and we made her husband jaleous because he had missed Julian Moore (we actually also spotted Tory Burch on the UES but they had never heard of her). Definitively a story to tell friends and family back in France!
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking on the Hudson promenade (actually stopping at a playground every five minutes) until we arrived at the almost completed Freedom Tower and we collapsed on the subway that took us back.

Monday - my friends had a free day to get around the city but in the evening we had to take them out again as it was their last night in NY. Where to go, where to go? Not only it was a Monday night but it was also very drizzly, a weather that we don't have very often here. In the end I decided (I say I because my husband's idea of a fun night out was going to the neighborhood chinese restaurant) to take them to the Lower East Side, hoping that there would be something going on there. I must be the last New Yorker to check out Beauty and Essex (on Essex St) but in case you haven't, this is really a place that will make your mouth drop in amazament. For starters, you have to go through a pawn shop to access it (the entrance is like the back door of the pawn shop) and the contrast between the decor of the pawn shop and the "grandeur" of the place is astonishing. The bar and dining rooms are gorgeous and it is worth checking the place out at least for drinks but don't go only for the food (avarage and overpriced). The place was packed even if it was a Monday night and there is a lot of attitude going on, so I would go on a "quiet" evening  and not a Friday and Saturday. We spent a great night and because it was Monday it was OK to come home before midnight (babysitter appreciated too!)

It was a fun but exhausting week, and it was also good to have a break from the Creworld (new word????) I will try to do a post with my going out outfits next week. Thank you for reading, especially without pics to rest your eyes!

Have you been bounced back from a club recently? Have you been to Beauty and Essex? Have you seen "The Skin I live in"? Any other celebrity spotted wearing stripes?