NY Underground shopping

Yesterday I spent the day with my Aunty D and my cousin Hannah. They came into NY for half a day to do one thing and one thing only. Shop. And not just your regular shopping.....but UNDERGROUND SHOPPING.



These two might look all innocent and nice but these two are capable of shopping where no man dare shop before! I knew that they wanted to get certain...shall we say....contraband, only to be found in NY City. I happen to know the general area where these items could be obtained (although I did have to call a female source to confirm). The first item was a bit tricky to find. I had seen them before, I looked for 30 mins up and down Canal St. to locate this rare item. I had no luck. However, the two pictured above, my flesh and blood, have noses for shopping. Straight out of the cab they were able to locate item #1 on their list



Yes. They came to NY to buy baby turtles! This is of course, not legal, for selling or purchasing. One turtle cost $10 but 4 only cost them $25....what a deal !! I am very pleased to say, out of all patrons of the underground turtle racquet, these two have the best intentions. They will bring these cute little buggers back to CT, raise them for a while in a roomy, heated tank, where they will dine on shrimps, and when large enough they will be released into a very cool and clean, coi pond on the farm. Yeah for the turtles!

The second item, found with a little more effort, I'm sure you ladies will recognize.



The coveted Louis Vuitton designer knockoff, the original can be seen here; http://www.vuitton.com/
Now, I will never understand the fascination with these bags. If you ask me, they are very ugly. I just don't see the appeal in the design, but I guess it's a women thing. These things go for hundreds if not THOUSANDS of dollars for the real thing. I have known for a long time that you could get knock-offs in Times Square and Chinatown. Wherever you see a gaggle of woman pushing eachother around waving dollar bills, or huddled close together peering into a dark bag on the ground, you can place your bet that Louis Vuitton bags are what they are after.

But....I had never needed to get one...ya know.....for real, so I was surprised when in Chinatown and we were actually LOOKING for one, that I couldn't find a damn one. How interesting I thought, that they are never around when you need one. That is.....until I heard....the voice. From a little Asian women on the side of the road comes, in a hushed almost imperceptable (not the word I'm thinking of, nor probably a real word at all) tone, "purses, desinger purses."

So I make a B-line toward the voice and I look at her and return in a quiet tone, "Louis Vuitton?" I say with a raised eyebrow. She smiled, "yes, yes, come with me." So we follow this woman half a block to a little shop with purses hanging on the wall. The woman meets another woman at the front of the open store and kind of block it off. The guy at the cash register gives a look. I repeat the password, "Louis Vuitton," he takes one more look out to the side walk, turns around......and.....opens a SECRET DOOR! Secretly, I was ammused. We step into a very hot, enclosed room, into walls covered with the bogus booty. We took our time, chose two of the new models, paid the man $110 cash, and we were done. I went to push our way out of the door and was quickly stopped by our salesperson, "no no no no, wait, wait." I stepped aside as the man walked up to the door and kind of lifted this little flap, scanning the sidewalk for possible cops. All clear. And we were off and on our way with some bags. I just find it so hilarious that this whole process and deceivery exist. Truly, only in New York!



After that we did some sunglass shopping. I bought a pair of green mirrored aviators for $5, still in Chinatown. I'm quite fond of them. Here's me wearing them later in the day in Times Square after I saw the movie, The Island, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then again I enjoy every movie with Scarlett Johanssen.



And here's just a picture of me at work today, very bored, nothing unusual here!