New York City

How do you reward yourself? A shopping spree? A spa day? A vacation?

I think I was privilaged to have grown up in a family that encourages traveling. I noticed that my parents have the lifestyle that they work really hard and reward themselves by taking a trip. My sister is very much the same. She saves her money up to be able to go somewhere in the world as a treat to get away from the every day life. I guess I have followed in these footsteps as well. It's funny really, pretty much every year of my life I have always gone somewhere. Whether it be as simple as going to Regina for Thanksgiving, or as extravagant as Europe, or even as relaxing as all-inclusive Mexico for Christmas, I am always going somewhere at least once a year. 

I just got home from New York a couple days ago. A lovely Langley lady came along, and we met my sister in the Big Apple. We stayed in a great little apartment on the East side. We were crazy enough to be there for USA Thanksgiving, which involved seeing the Macy's Day Parade, as well as going to Macy's at midnight for Black Friday. Now, if you haven't been to New York before, this city is already crazy and never sleeps... try going on Black Friday. I thought I might die of heat exhaustion. Regardless, I still found a few great items & shopped, literally, until I dropped. If I can give you one piece of advice, wear great shoes. Or insoles. Or whatever it takes for you to be able to walk for 20 hours a day and still be able to get out of bed the next day to do it again. The food was pretty great. Try and find the biggest slice of hot fresh pizza possible, and eat it by folding it in half. Most memorable food of the trip? Either the Red Velvet Loaf with cream cheese icing, or the bagel I had after a night of drinking the city's finest $12 cocktails.

I went to New York when I was 16 with a theatre group, where I saw tons of Broadway and did pretty much every New York tour you could. But this time was completely different. From a Make-Up artist point of view, they have some of the biggest Sephora's, SoHo is a great place to shop for beauty & trendy items (but beware, it can get pretty pricey), I had never seen an actual Benefit store before, and the department stores all carry great lines of cosmetics too.

I had a busy busy week & now it's back to realtiy. I worked the John Casablancas booth yesterday at the Career Fair and did probably 40 smokey eyes on high school girls, and a handful of SFX on some high school boys. Tomorrow it's off to Vancouver for a little intern work on a video shoot set & let's not forget about working cosmetic retail at Christmas time.

I guess I should have remembered, New York is not time off, it is not a vacation - it is a trip. You come home from New York more tired than ever and basically need a vacation from going there, or at least a good foot massage. 

xox Celina