New York: first nights of my 30s

I'm still going to post a few pics from my trip to NY. I met up my Lil' Mondo on the town after dinner at Mercer Kitchen. As I walked down Houston, I saw the new mural by Os Gemeos which I had seen in the Times and some art blogs. It was actually quite impressive at night with the lights above. If you're up there, it looked better after dark.
Armando and I wandered about with some young male friends of his. One of them found this picture in a frame and I broke the glass and made it my own in this phone booth. I think I scared them by sticking my foot into the glass and ripping this out. I then felt like the oldest crazy broad in NY. It was kind of funny, because we ended up at Dark Room, which was one of the first bars I visited when I moved to NY in '06. The music was actually great (they played some Pet Sounds) and the little DJ guy (so familiar looking) even played This Must Be The Place for me and then the bartender gave me free drinks. Hello? Is NY getting better or am I getting better?
The next day I went shopping at Opening Ceremony and Top Shop. I had very limited funds, so I didn't really shop as much as look. Then I met up with my lovely friend Lorraine and we drank too many happy hour cocktails at this Latin place next to Odessa on Ave A.

We had an adventurous (wet) evening which took us to the penthouse bar at Hotel on Rivington, which had a spectacular view of the city. Floor to ceiling windows. More free drinks from the bartender. There are pictures up here, all of which I don't remember, and in which I remain a faceless disaster. I mean, I don't know who that girl is that I'm hugging or why we were hugging. Maybe we had the same birthday?

I ran into a friend the next day, Shawn, local rickshaw runner. You might recognize him from his former job in Coconut Grove or from his creative wardrobe. We went on a daylong mission to pick up his rickshaw from the shipping place in Brooklyn. In NY the rickshaw drivers ride bikes, but Shawn runs and drags people behind him, so he's sort of the first of his kind in Manhattan. Good luck to you, buddy!