Exploring El Barrio

In a monumental effort to avoid making a trip to Ikea to return my defunct bedside lamp, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon exploring East Harlem. I went down to E 115th and found a new grocery store that's cleaner, more spacious, and cheaper than the one I go to now. I am very excited about this. Also discovered a Duane Reade on 3rd Ave near 115th that is, again, cleaner and more spacious than the Rite Aid I was used to frequenting. All and all, a very successful afternoon for finding new places to run errands.

After a trip to said drug store to get cold meds--I woke up today feeling worse than I have been, which is impressive since I've been feeling pretty bad for about a week and a half now ugh--I was going to just go home, but I really felt like I needed some exercise despite my respiratory issues. So I decided to walk around East Harlem and see what I could see. I walked up 3rd Ave to 125th, which is basically the heart of El Barrio. It's getting more and more gentrified--there's an H&M and Old Navy now--but there's still some cool culture and stuff. The street is lined with vendors selling random shit: "authentic" shea butter from Africa, all kinds of Obama memorabilia, and MLK Jr. stuff. Apparently even though East Harlem is officially Spanish Harlem now, black people still have quite a presence. Which, of course, I couldn't be happier about.

Also, I walked in a couple random stores, including a furniture store that was having a huge closeout sale. There I saw this:

Sign reads: "KIDS' RECLINER $100"

It might just look like a normal recliner in this photo, but don't be fooled. It's kid-sized. It's the smallest, cutest recliner ever made.

In other news, what is my deal with chairs? Strange fetish? Mayhaps. Also, I'm twittering now. Follow me!

Until next time.