the hunt is on - more escaped packages!

Oh, dear, where to begin? A cherished friend is in the hospital facing a repeat of surgery that didn't work the first time. She's been brave, gallant, unstoppable since I've known her, that is, for most of my life, and she's facing this with the calm courage that she's always had. So naturally I wanted to do - well, something! and as we all know, getting medical advice from people who love you but are not doctors (me) and are not you (the patient) can be really irritating. I decided to send a frivolous gift that might give her some smiles.

When she and I first became friends, little Magicke shops were everywhere. Even Bloomingdale's and Macy's had a corner or two. These boutiques, tended to be stocked with sandals, water pipes, craft projects made by people in far corners of the world who were probably very puzzled by the whole enterprise - and with odd things that might or might not bring luck, health, blessings, love, and better luck. Before you roll your eyes, I have a friend who has been married a long and happy time to a guy she found in Bloomingdale's. So there.

And thus I decided to send my bestie some Healing Crystals and Stones from Urban Outfitters. My stupid ankle keeps me from exploring further afield to places that might be more authentic, like, say, Stonehenge, so I clicked away and paid the silly shipping fee. In a day or so I was advised that the stuff had shipped. It went quickly enough via Lasership from somewhere in Pennsylvania to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to Lasership's depot in New York City. I assumed someone would put it on a little truck and drop it off. Wrong. It was instead scheduled to be sent to East Rutherford, New Jersey, where, as many sports fans will tell you, bad things happen (lookin' at you, NY Giants!).

Lasership of East Rutherford reported that the merch had not arrived, and then later, that the merch still had not arrived. The update instructed me "Contact shipper." Like this would help.

As directed, I telephoned UO Customer Service. I omit the small talk. The rep advised that she was not allowed to put a tracer on my purchase until 7 business days had passed since it shipped, because shipping takes that long. I referred her to the Lasership reports and gently suggested that since Lasership had already reported the package lost, waiting a week to ask if the package was lost was unlikely to be productive. She consulted her supervisor, who agreed that UO would contact Lasership within 48 hours.

To while away the slow-moving hours, I checked on a skirt that I'd ordered from Anthropologie. I wanted to try it on - although the price was startling, it looked like the kind of thing in which one could Do Magicke.  My friend Teacups has pointed out that even though the Soho Anthro is more fun, their Upper East Side  store is more conveniently located for returns. The desired skirt is web-only, so instant return-ability is a serious plus.

Except, of course, that Anthro also uses Lasership.

This is where I must ask myself - why has mere shopping become such a challenge? I'm the first female in the family who doesn't have a Lady at Bergdorf's and a Lady at Macy's and a Lady at Bloomie's. I have a bunch of phone numbers, but those phones are rarely answered. The last candidate to be my VPS at J.Crew not only couldn't locate the coat I wanted but sent me pics of coats she thought I would like, based on - well, I guess based on being able to find pictures of coats, because I had already bought one of them when it was marked down a few months earlier, and had ordered and returned the other. And why does web shopping remind me of how we used to go to the beach on the first warm spring morning as the tide was going out, and fling message-bearing coke bottles into the ocean? Actually that was more fun.

Of course I am writing this on the day I picked up the paper and learned that the exam for the NYC Cabdriver's License will no longer include New York City geography. I thought there should be a corresponding reduction in fare for (1) driver can't get the right info into the GPS; (2) driver too busy illegally using cell phone to turn on GPS; (3) passenger has to give directions because GPS has broken down. I haven't heard that the Taxi & Limousine Commission is considering any such offsets. If you come to New York and need to get somewhere, call me. I will help.

My skirt was last reported wandering in or near the marshes of northern New Jersey. Anthro didn't hold out much hope. The famous Teamsters' Union leader, one James Hoffa, is said to have disappeared in those marshes years ago. I imagine that Jimmy Hoffa's ghost is haunting the guys who Drive for Lasership without proper union credentials. I hope Jimmy can operate a GPS.

vive le beau prince! vive la belle princesse! a fairytale beginning...

Them: tired, happy, smiling, married.
Me: tired, happy, packed up and heading for airport, reflective.
This has been an amazing experience, and I still have a few of those jellybeans left, which I will save for the plane ride home.

The cameraman who's related to the nice British lady I met in New York emailed me a link to some footage of scenes from The Wedding, and if you look just behind and to the left of the tall gentleman in the stately African robes, you can glimpse the top of my fascinator:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kav0FEhtLug&feature=player_embedded


Oh, well... now for the reflective part.

In real life (no ridiculously expensive tickets, no invitation delivered by Bunny, no silly headgear), Kate has an amazing opportunity to work towards fixing many of the things that may have puzzled and hurt her as a young girl:  why are those people fighting? why do those babies on the TV look so sick and sad? why are those people so wet and tired and hungry-looking? why is that school such a tumble-down hovel? why is that woman crying? why is that factory closed? She may do this by serving on a board or on a committee, by supporting products and concepts, or by just showing up. We are all superficial creatures, and if our attention is attracted first to the cute and the pretty, if that directs our attention to the need for us to love and care for and help one another, then I say, Go for it, Kate! Today is not the end of the fairytale, today is the beginning.

high tea at Alice's Tea Cup with some young friends

continuing my project of readying self for arrival of invitation to Royal Wedding, decided to treat self to old-fashioned High Tea at Alice's Tea Cup.

The Alice's experience is best enjoyed in the company of 3- to 8-year old girls, and so I invited some young friends and their mum to join me. The older girl wore Hanna Andersen, the younger wore a very creative medley she had picked out herself (photo-shoot stylist in the making), I wore gray cashmere twinset, gray tweed pencil skirt, real pearls, sensible shoes, their mum wore described her outfit as "spillproof".
I'd been advised to make a reservation, and while reservations are nowhere near as difficult here as at, say, l'Astrance in Paris, or the American Girl Cafe on Fifth Avenue, we did not get our first choice of time. That said, however, when we arrived and identified selves, we were greeted with cries of joy (girls were thrilled, and so was I since I'd never been there before). The girls were offered Magic Fairy Dust, which turned out to be generous sprinkles of blue glitter, and pink organdie wings to help them fly upstairs to our table.

They accepted both graciously, and the hostess flew upstairs with us.
Alice's Tea Cup (there are several locations, we went to the one on the Upper East Side) is located in one of these narrow row houses that has front and back windows, but no side windows, so I was afraid it would be gloomy inside and frightening to the little girls, but not at all, it was very bright, and relentlessly cheerful. The crowd was: some family groups, some local business people having hearty lunches, and some couples (!) who apparently had decided they would not run into anyone they knew here. Of all things. Our table was set with vintage flowery china tea cups and luncheon plates for older generation, and very bright plastic ware for the young ladies. Here I will say that I decided the Alice's people know what they're doing when they got us seated immediately. Getting dressed up and getting to the restaurant is exciting enough; you don't want to then tell the hungry young that the next exciting thing we do is stand here and wait while other people get their tables.

Extremely varied and pleasing list of teas and infusions, including many suitable for the kids; each of us got her own little teapot. The High Tea consisted of a scone with preserves, choice of sandwich, and a dessert, all served up on little tiered servers. The scone was a large US-type scone (but good), the sandwiches were sandwiches, and the kids' dessert was chocolate mousse in conical bright plastic cups, topped with whipped cream and lots of different coloured sprinkles (or as Agatha Christie might say, Hundreds and Thousands?) The kids enthusiastically ate the desserts and stirred and sipped at their tea. Mum and I daintily nibbled at our sandwiches, which were quite hearty, and indeed an improvement on the classic wimpy tea sandwich.
When we left, everyone was still cheerful, and the girls were quite nice about giving back the wings. I am informed that the Magic Fairy Dust later washed out of hair and clothes with no trouble at all.