An it's-frickin-cold rant & The Brooklyn Flea

I took this photo the other day while shivering on a mound of ice and praying for a supernova to warm my frostbitten body. I wish it captured the total frigidity in which it was taken, but you'll have to trust me on this one: it's cold here, y'all. When I saw this neon sign in Bed-Stuy over the weekend, I just had to laugh. This sandwich shop, cruelly named as it is, serves as a harsh reminder that summer is not in fact endless. In fact, I half believe I will never see it again. It may very well be dead.

Anyway, I hope you'll excuse my it's-frickin-cold rant. I have one about three times a day, as do most New Yorkers in the month of February. New York winters have this way of marring your outlook, forcing you to look at the world through a lens that makes everything seem evil. I heard all kinds of similarly-themed rants about the cold over the last week ranging from "Whygodwhy?!" to "When will death come?" It's normal. Don't worry about us. We'll all be fine.

Still, in the midst of the coldest weekend of the season, I still managed to discover some wonderful things. For one, my sister came into town and we ate our way through all of Brooklyn's best comfort foods. She handled the cold like a pro, by the way. My hubs and I also braved the elements together this weekend all in the name of love! You know, since it was Valentine's Day and all. I wore two pairs of leggings, three pairs of socks, a puffy coat over an oversized sweater over a regular-sized sweater over a dress over a nightgown over a tank top. And still, I was freezing. 

But regardless, to celebrate our love, we pretended it wasn't two degrees outside and ending up doing one of my favorite things...ever. We went to the Brooklyn Flea.

I've certainly mentioned this on the blog before, but it bears repeating: I LOVE rummaging through vintage stuff. I don't know why. I don't know where this desire comes from, but it is very real. I love old clothes, old dishes, old toys, old postcards, old oil paintings of semi-naked ladies, old light fixtures, old EVERYTHING. I love the smells, the textures, the history, the one-of-a-kindness of it all. It's just everything I love.

And guess what the Brooklyn Flea is full of? OLD STUFF. It's a weekly market featuring a mix of vintage finds and some really incredible (but way out of my price range) handmade items from some talented local artisans. The Flea is held in different places in Brooklyn, but for the winter, it's been held at this huge warehouse space in Crown Heights. This was my first time at this particular location, and I was in heaven. 

Usually the flea involves a lot of dreaming and less actual shopping, but this time was different. As Daniel and I wandered around the place entranced by the vastness of it all, we both found ourselves drawn to a piece of furniture. 

Meet Blanche. That's what I named this gorgeous vanity that we stumbled upon. I know you can't tell much from this picture, but she's STUNNING. She's completely adorned in mirrors, she's octagon-shaped, she's super crazy old, and I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. Daniel did too, not because he is into octagonal vanities, but more so because he knew it was exactly the kind of piece that I have been looking for.

He wanted to buy it for me as an early birthday gift, but I had some seriously major buyer's guilt. I'm curious to know if I'm the only person who has this self-proclaimed affliction. Random purchases do not exhilarate me, but rather, they fill me with a sort of inexplicable dread. Is that just me?

We talked it over and decided to take a lap around the flea. If Blanche was still there when we were done, that would be the sign that she was supposed to be a part of our home. We raced around the warehouse, remarking on items here and there while still thinking about our beloved vanity. When we returned, there stood Blanche, unmoved and untouched. It was fate.

A beautiful woman with green hair sold her to us, remarking, "I can't believe no one else has bought this today." Me neither, my green-haired friend. Me neither.*

And now this is what Blanche looks like in our home:

By the way, I realized immediately that it is crazy hard to take a picture of something covered in mirrors. A selfie ended up being the best way to go (pardon my VANITY...GET IT?!):

So anyway, guys, I'm as cold as the day is long, but I've got a gorgeous vanity named Blanche and a wonderful man by my side, so I guess it all evens out.

How was your Valentine's Day weekend?

*It has come to my attention that the beautiful girl with the green hair was actually Courtney Wagner from A&E's Storage Wars. I feel like a fool for not realizing it at the time, but ah! I love this thing even more!

Meet Me in St. Louis...Like, Seriously

So if you're mad at me right now, it's okay, you have every right to be. My last blog post made it seem like Avoiding Atrophy was about to just blow up with new posts, and as you might have noticed, that didn't super happen.

The thing is I've been out of town, and it's kept me pretty busy/distracted. Sorry for that.

But anyway, this past week I was in a most wondrous place! So wondrous, in fact, that Judy Garland once went there in a movie and sang some songs about it. If you're thinking I went to Oz, you're close, but I'm fairly certain this place isn't run by a fraudulent wizard (spoiler alert), though I'm not totally up to speed on their local government.

Via

I went to St. Louis!

And for whatever reason, I fell all kinds of in love with it. It was one of the first trips I've taken in a while, and I think I mostly loved it for the mere fact that it was just somewhere new. For as much as I love New York City, leaving it to go anywhere is like taking a breath of fresh air atop the Swiss Alps.

Anyway, here are the reasons I loved my visit to St. Louis (many of these are in respect to my current living situation, but keep in mind my deep, deep love for NYC).

1. Everything smells good. So good. Like Muffins. 

2. No traffic.

3. Pretty much everything we did was free! Holy cow. We saw a super legit production of Les Miserables -- free. We sampled a bunch of flavored liqueurs -- free. We went to a zoo where you could literally reach out and touch a penguin -- believe it or not, FREE!

I didn't pet him, but as you can tell I totally could have, and he totally would have been cool with it.

4. Every sandwich on any menu was under $10, and it was delicious.

5. Commuting anywhere took ten minutes.

6. My beautiful friend, Emily, lives there and we were practically joined at the scalp the whole time. 

By the way, this girl has a wonderful blog called Of Seeds and Thorns. You will definitely want to read it after you finish this list.

7. They brew a lot of beer there.

8. You can always find a seat on the MetroLink.

9. City Museum! This is potentially the best museum I have ever been to. It is virtually impossible to explain, but basically it's like if Jim Henson, Baz Luhrmann, Tim Burton, Picasso, and an eight-year-old boy all teamed up to make a McDonald's play place. 

10. They have a version of Little Italy called The Hill where no one screams at you to come in their restaurant.

11. My parents were there too!

12. Cheap antiques! 

I am kicking myself for not buying this glass. I'll show you more of my finds in a future post, but combined with some donations from Emily, I basically brought home enough stuff to totally redecorate our apartment.

13. It's so damn quiet there (this one ended up freaking me out at times).

14. Ted Drewes (it's a custard place, which we all know is just ice cream, but still...delicious).

Our hosts loving on some Teddy D's. 

15. Basically, you just feel like doing this all the time:

My mother, ladies and gentlemen.

Once again, when you live in New York City, going anywhere else feels like inhaling the clean air of the Swiss Alps. But truly, I don't want to live in the Swiss Alps because of bears probably and yodeling and that really boring flag they have (yeah, I said it). And I don't want to live in St. Louis right now either, but it was an absolutely wonderful place to visit, and I would go back in a heartbeat.

Just curious -- Are you from St. Louis? Yes, you. Reader. Do you live there? Have you lived there? Have you been there? What do you love about it? What do I need to see on my next visit?

Anyway, I'm back in Brooklyn. Yesterday I went to Prospect Park and ate guacamole while watching a group of guys play drums and practice Capoeira. Absence really makes the heart grow fonder. I love this town.