Brunch & Bike - Date with Katie

Meet Katie!

Since I've got two bikes in my possession right now, I was really happy to make the most of it and invite my friend Katie on a bike & brunch date. Katie is an awesome friend who is also from Arkansas who is also here in NYC trying to live the dream. We both went to the same tiny college and we met through a sorority connection. Katie is younger than me and were not at college at the same time at all, but we always have a lot to talk about.

I had to put the Linus's seat almost all the way down. She's 5'1" I think. The first time I took off on it after this low-seat placement, I had a panic moment thinking my seat was stolen. It was there. Just low-low.



This date was partly a lesson in biking. We took it easy and went up the East Side path to Harlem. Red Rooster was our destination. It's probably my favorite brunch spot. Marcus Samuelson was there. He had on so much cool gear and is a tiny little dude. He is fancy and special. He was the chef of the Obama's first State Dinner and Obama had a fundraiser at Red Rooster. I totally care.

We had drinks, brunch + truffle oil fries + dessert. That is apple cinnamon sorbet.


Then I was like "Can we go to Target?!" And Katie went along with that and kept me straight. I only bought one item astray from my list. We're a good team.



We talked about shoes & outfits that are good for biking, safety concerns, bike accessories, helmets, sunglasses, baskets, carabiners, locks, etc.    
We rode in the street a little bit. We mostly used the river side path.

I recommend people looking to start biking start with small little errands or small, local trips like this, until they're more familiar and comfortable and have their accessory game down pat.

I'm so glad we did this and I'm so glad she agreed to being posted-up on this ol' blog :)



Katie went with around with me on Fashion's Night Out two years ago and we saw Christina H. and we got snapped by a Patrick McMullan photographer. Good night! 

Time's Up Moonlight Ride is All That

I just got home from the Times Up NYC Moonlight Ride and I loved it!
It occurs the first Friday night starting at 10pm of every month.
I've been trying to not-have something to do but have failed for several months now. I'm so glad we did it!

Malaika got this cape from a seller on Etsy. It's beautiful! And so is she and I had so much fun, I'm glad she didn't let me punk out and get in my bed at 8pm like I could have/would have.

If you're looking for a cape, she and I recommend this one.  I'm really in a mood where I want to buy made in USA things or thrifted items. I'm trying to not-buy disposable, cheap, made in china shit clothes.

Sidenote: I asked the head designer at my company what she thought of a certain local chain in NYC and she said "Slutty garbage."  Deadpan comments like that thrill me.

If you're not good at seeing in the dark- You need to get some sick lights or maybe don't do this because it was quite dark sometimes and you just had to trust that you weren't about to be bumped off your ass.

Great thing about it - It's a real treat to be able to ride on the paths in Central Park in the middle of the night. At first I felt like a rebellious schoolgirl riding on the walking paths where bicycle riding is forbidden and not to mention- rude.

But at night when no one is there it's sweet.

Our first stop happened shortly into the ride. This is Wollman rink and it's probably a good idea because I bet you a dollar it's way less popular than Rockefeller's or Bryant Park's.


I'm really glad about my outfit-

I was perfectly prepared for the temps and the terrain. There are terrain situations - wear sneakers! This is my tough-ass-bitch leather motorcycle jacket I bought over the summer from a real motorcycle supply place. It's finally cool enough to wear it. I got an American Apparel hoodie (heathered brown) to wear under it and beef it up a little.

Me and Malaika gossipped and chatted the entire ride and felt bad that we were probably bothering everyone but I hope we were OK and I hope we didn't seem too silly. We were dressed quite differently from everyone else. There was a majority of reflective safety vests, like utilitarian ones.

Overall- I loved this ride. We were dazzled almost immediately and maintained excitement and loveliness/romance about the city at night. I hope I can do it several more times and get some friends and my punk-ass playstation playing husband to do it too!

We stopped just a few times. I kind of expected more stopping, hanging out-type socializing. At this stop at the northern end of The Great Lawn, there were some astronomers who let us peep through their telescopes. That was fun and nice of them.


Suggestion: I think lights should be required or strongly recommended on this ride. (Lights are the Law anyway) -Not to light your way, but to make you visible to others. I came up real close on a slower person who had no lights in the beginning.

Safe coincidence: Only 1 person was not wearing a helmet in our group of about 20 riders.

Me at the end! I had a scarf wrapped around my head/ears to protect ears from wind.

I also had to zip my chest-plate up. The wind was cool and fierce on the way home. Sometimes the wind is pushing against me and it feels like I can't move forward and I laugh nervously in those times sometimes.

Also- I got these Ski glove at the K-Mart. Thank goodness I had them!


I rode home at almost midnight up a desolate Madison Avenue.


When I got home at Midnight I was hungry mungry! Thanks to Malaika for a very nice Friday night bike date and thanks to Time's Up for being such a nice organization. I was so happy when they got a shout-out on Rachel Maddow tonight for the generator bikes down at Occupy Wall Street.

No- I have not yet been to OWS because I'm scared the police will beat me up. 

School Nite Bike Date Scrapbook

Sunday I had a little bike date planned for me and Matt/husband. 

I had 4 places I wanted/needed to go:
1. Fishs Eddy for Todd Oldham + Charley Harper 
2. The Nicola Formicetti Pop-Up shop
3. Eat dinner somewhere - anywhere?!
4. 9/11 10th anniversary Tribute Cabaret Show 

The first restaurant I picked out was closed or out of business - hard to tell the diff. 
Matt swore he knew of someplace close - he's looking on his phone... 

The 2nd choice place that I cam up with was ClOSED! 
We went into a random place not worth discussing not good or terrible

We were both losing our minds at Fishs Eddy - It's amazing! 
Matt is getting to this extra-secure place where he can say things like "We have to bring my Mom here" 

We finally got down to Nicola's pop-up shop and it was freaking closed for the day! 

We rode over to Highline Ballroom for the Cabaret show. I love going to these mix-group entertainment shows
because I always - ALWAYS- learn about a new person or group that I should follow and seek-out future shows. 
This night was a hit in my mind. It was a beautiful and fun tribute. 

We rode home using the West Side Greenway, of course. 

Bed time! It's hard on us old folks going out on a school nite.

Is it a bike date if you only go one place?

Thursday night I had the first-time experience of biking in a Peter Pan collar. It flew up and tickled my neck all the way downtown to the Wild Project on East 3rd street.

We saw a great show put on by Amber Smith and Bridgette Everett. This was our 2nd Bridgette show in about a week. I'm a proud fan. Their show was called "Fuck! We love our Cuntry!" and they did country songs. We loved it. Bridgette threw cans of beer into the audience.

I had to take Matt a casual shirt again. He had an undershirt or a dress shirt, so I brought him an in-between shirt.


And this was my outfit - his visibility through American Apparel hot pink corduroy shorts.


These little vans were a great purchase. They're called Hemp Palisades, and they are fantastic little bike or NYC walking around shoes.

Peter pan collar shirt with hearts as polka dots from H&M the other day. American Apparel Unisex West Coast Corduroy shorts in Deep Pink. Neon! Pink L.A.M.B. bag in the bike basket. Bern Watts helmet as usual. 

How We Do Summer Streets

Two Summer Streets Saturdays down - only one to go - and it appears that we just ride downtown, meet-up with my #BikeNYC friends, hang out, take pics then ride off to get something delicious to eat, go home.

Dmitry took the best couple-photo of us. Ooh la la!

See all of his Summer Streets portraits on Flickr.  

We bailed out of the protection of Summer Streets to use the broke-down bike lane on Grand Street going to Doughut Plant.

I got a tip from Sharon's NYC Taught Me blog. She's mostly dealing with children- but I think like a 7 year old girl, so her advice helps me. 


We passed 4 different flavors back and forth to each other like maniacs and shared a Thai iced tea. 

GET READY FOR SOME CRUNKNESS BECAUSE AFTER DOUGHNUTS WE GOT SNO-BALLS! 

I've had Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls four times this week. I met the sweet little owner and we swapped southern-accent-love for one another. I did not tell her I've had four sno-balls this week. 

Matt went nuts and got ice cream inside his shave-ice/sno-ball! He had root beer & ice cream flavors with real ice cream tucked inside. Dopeness. 

We felt sick as hell from all the sugar, but we had to get our ill-selves home for an emergency nap and Summer Streets turn back into danger alleys at 1pm so we used the West Side Greenway of Love to get home. 

Next weekend is going to go down a lot like this too. Yaaay SummerTime! 


I suffered so many snowy, wintry bike rides...


Like this 24º commute and this snowy New Year's Eve spin around the city.

PartyHardee's Bike Style

Let's talk about Matt, my husband, @PartyHardee (not very active) on twitter.


He wears a shirt, tie and dress pants, dress shoes every day for work but he commutes in casual outfits like this:


But Friday I heard about a show- Radio Happy Hour - and he wasn't prepared so I had to bring him a shirt to put on outside.


I'm REALLY GLAD I told him to take some extra shoes on Friday. He rides his bike in his black socks and dress shoes and gives me a sartorial anxiety attack. He put his TOMS in his backpack, thank goodness!
So he ended up like this on Friday night and that was fine. We went to the show at Le Poisson Rouge, which is pretty casual but you could be a little fancy and then we got Sno-Balls. (My 3rd this week!)

Friday late-night Matt.

I have a very thoughtful co-worker who picked these up for me in Ohio at a store called Ollie's for $1.79 per package/set of 2.


And this was the first night I knew I would be out in real darkness and had fun using them. I could have crashed checking them out.

Yeeee! Fun!!!

And who cares but this is what I wore to work on Friday. I got these new vans hot pink sneakers to replace a pair of my fake keds. I felt very athletic on my commute in these sneakers if that makes sense. I'm definitely more passive and slow when I have on crazy shoes.


Friday night I put on some casual stuff and Matt gives all of this business the finger. :)

-But he's jealous of my new bike lights. They don't fit on presta valves. 

Bike Shop - Levi's Commuter Line Event

Sunday afternoon we went to the Levi's Bike Shop event.

Matt's back in town, so I had a date!


I loved that they had a flag. Flags + Bikes = FUN!

This is the rarely photographed no-make-up face. But I did work on my self-tan Saturday night!


This gentleman gave Matt's bike a sweet little tune-up and re-did his grip-tape on his handlebars. Free!
The green bike was something fancy on display by Oregon Manifest.

 I loved the colorful bike action. I wasn't the only one with pink tires. 


Susie of Velojoy was there wearing the Commuter Line jeans and rocking her Transportation Alternatives tote. 

I officially joined Trans. Alt. Saturday during Summer Streets.

I'm wondering what I'm going to do with these patches. 

I got 3 designs.



After fresh grip-tape was applied, we went to get sno-balls from Imperial Woodpecker.
Yes, I had this 2 days in a row. I love summertime!

Matt had Mojito + Key Lime Pie flavor and I had Banana + Coconut Cream. 

Doom'sDate Bike Date for Simply Bike

Another bicycle date in NYC posted last week on Simply Bike in case you missed it. 

New York City has been the epicenter for May 21st as Doom's Day fanatics getting out their message. My husband and I had a weekend all to ourselves, so I decided it would be a perfect time to have a fantastical, self-indulgent date night for just the two of us- just in case!

If it really was the apocalypse, I knew bicycles would be the smartest mode of transportation around the city (though they already are in my opinion.)

I got a tip about a restaurant in our neighborhood from the Lady Gaga sale on Gilt. Dorrian's Red Hand has a reputation for great burgers, and what else would make a better last meal than a fat, juicy burger?


The weather was great all day, but it began to pour while we were ordering in the restaurant. Thankfully, we ordered a pitcher, burgers, and took our time catching up on some gossip. My husband is a fun gossip companion!

Our bikes got drenched in the downpour. I carry a bandana in rainy times whether I'm on bike or foot, simply to keep my hands dry.


Matt, who was wearing one of his vintage skinny ties, also discussed the importance of tucking-in your necktie while you ride on your bicycle. And here he is crossing through a deserted Central Park right after the rain.


We got to the Upper West Side and as we were getting on the West Side Greenway I noticed this statue of Elanor Roosevelt and needed to be photographed near her... in my Rapture-Red dress!


This is basically our route from our neighborhood on the Upper East Side, down to our next stop- The Duane Park supper club in TriBeCa. (About 7.5mi each way.)


It's great to have the West Side Greenway. It's like a bike superhighway and it's really nice and comfortable to ride on it instead of the streets.


I'm a hopelessly devoted fan of The World's Most Famous Drag King Murray Hill, so we went to check out his current show at Duane Park.


There were sexy singers and fancy burlesque performers. Murray often introduces Dita Von Teese, and has appeared on Bored to Death.

Duane Park was fancy, intimate and small and I always love whatever entertainment Murray Hill is hosting. I'm also very flattered that I get a little love and affection from him!

I'm cheesing so hard! I swear I'm not drunk! But I did have 2 fancy cocktails there - A Pom Pom and something with vanilla vodka and a mini-marshmallow garnish! LadyDrinks for a LadyBiker!

I love biking in this cape; it's not only very fun to wear, but I think it's great for bike visibility!


I just think this is a funny picture of us. We were relieved to get out of traffic, as we were near the Holland Tunnel, it was a little nerve-wracking!

We were happy to be back on the greenway.

This is our final pic of the night's festivities.


The rapture didn't get us after all, but bike-date fever is running through my veins!