Wherein I Contemplate Birthdays

A lot of things have been happening lately–tons of new projects, intermittently sick kids, snow days, and….I had a big birthday.

Thank god that’s over with. There’s a phenomenon called “anticipatory nausea” in oncology: people who are undergoing chemotherapy start throwing up on the way to their appointment to receive chemo, because they know how it’s going to make them feel. Same way with this birthday. This entire year I’ve been stressing out about how frigging old I was going to be.

Well, it turns out it doesn’t matter! The day came and went and I had a lovely week. Boozy lunch with the girls. A weekend of solitude to contemplate my emerging wrinkles. And an upcoming fabulous Caribbean getaway with friends.

Have you ever taken a retrospective of your life to figure out how you ended up where you are? Me either, because like most people I sometimes like to bitch and complain about what I haven’t done or what I don’t have. But I made a point of doing it for this birthday.

Upper West Side Contender For “Hot ‘Hood of 2011″

15 Central Park West

The January/February edition of Manhattan magazine just arrived this week. As I was flipping past features on $150 hair conditioner, I landed on an article entitled, “Hot ‘Hoods of 2011.” The number one contender listed? Yes, the Upper West Side.

As I started reading, I got more and more uncomfortable. The article is set up with a “goal”, “the game plan”, and “next year expect” sections for each neighborhood. Our goal as a neighborhood, according to Manhattan? “Stop being a poorer, less interesting version of the Upper East Side.” Um. What?

Poorer, maybe. Less interesting? HAHAHAHA! They may have more museums and better shopping on the UES, but I can assure you, the residents are hardly more interesting. Good lord. And we have Riverside Park. And Zabar’s.  And Fairway. (OK, I’m not sure I’m supporting my argument very well here. )

Then it goes on about the old money loving the Apthorp and crazy money loving 15 CPW. Yeah, $10,000/square foot apartments really make a neighborhood hot.

Finally, it talks about the celebs moving here. Apparently Sting, A-Rod, and Denzel Washington live at 15 CPW. Of course Madonna lives up here, too. SJP is still scouting apartments on the UWS. And I did not know this, but Lady Gaga is a partner in Vince & Eddie’s (70 W. 68th St, nr. Columbus).

If all this equals “hot”, I’d rather be lukewarm.

Read the full article here.

Floorplan for penthouse at 15 CPW

Drunk Shopping on the Upper West Side

Racked NY has a weekly feature on their site called  ”Drunk Shopping” where they highlight a place you can have brunch and drink, then do serious damage to your credit card while your judgment is impaired after having too many all-you-can-drink mimosas.

This week’s was a guest post by Laura, who highlighted the Upper West Side as a destination. She starts off at the sangria bar at Calle Ocho (446 Columbus b/w 81st and 82nd) and hits such places as the Housing Works Thrift Shop (306 Columbus b/w 74th and 75th) and my all-time favorite beauty emporium, Space NK (211 Columbus, at 70th). Check out her tour here.

Cheers to you, Laura, and well done!