January, 2015

We woke up when the alarm went off and were ready in an instant. We turned our tickets in at the hostel kitchen and collected our breakfast- a bagel and an apple. We toasted our bagels, nestled our apples in safe little spots in our purses, and sat in the kitchen, all eyes on us. There we were, Allison looking like a million bucks in her aubergine coat, black high heel booties, with bling peeking out from under her dazzling scarf, and me, with my bright red lipstick, polka dot dress, and beautiful timepiece on my dainty AF wrist, sitting in the hostel kitchen surrounded by a gaggle of your typical hostel kitchen goer. We were well out of place and we loved it.

We began our walk towards grand central station, and found Starbucks on Park Ave, a few blocks from Grand Central Station. We ordered our drinks and were off. Our Starbucks cups really added to our NY glam. We ducked into Grand Central Station and my breath was taken away. How can anyone walk into this building and not look up?! It’s SO beautiful. We continued to make our way towards the “Rock”. As we walked, we imagined and talked about life would be like as a Manhattan local. Then we heard a huge thud and a guy yell. When we turned around, we saw a bike pizza delivery guy on the ground and an open taxi door. I guess being a Manhattan local isn’t all Sex and the City. We turned the corner and there was Rockefeller Centre! The tree, the skating rink, the giant building towering over us. Incredible. The tree made me feel a little weepy. The Zamboni was resurfacing the ice before the next million people went for a skate. We wandered around and took a few pictures. How beautiful.

We wondered what to do next, but then saw a man wearing a Magnolia Bakery hat. Allison said, “hey! That man is wearing a Magnolia Bakery hat!” Then we realized he was standing right outside Magnolia Bakery! Without question, we turned to the shop, opened the door, and were inside, drooling. We stood, dumbfounded at the organized chaos that was the Bakery, unsure of where to go. Again, without question, we joined the cupcake line. A man behind the counter told everyone to form an orderly line instead of crowding. We did as we were told. I was happy to abide by these line rules because I ended up with a VIP view of the cupcakes! We salivated with anticipation.

I saw the man drop a cupcake upside down on the display platter. He picked it up, but sighed when he saw the icing was all smushed. He came over to the counter again and said, “who wants a cupcake?” I put my hand up, “ME!” I said with enthusiasm! I honestly thought he meant in general. I thought he was the cupcake enthusiast man, getting everyone pumped up for the cupcakes! I thought he was just managing the line up again, telling all those who said they did want a cupcake to move into an orderly line. But that was not the question. He meant “who wants a cupcake for free because I can’t sell it because I dropped it upside down on the display platter and now it is smushed?” He handed me the smushed cupcake. For free! We ordered our red velvet and our ‘dirty blonde’ cupcakes, and two hot chocolates, because when in Rome. When we went back to retrieve our hot chocolates, the same cupcake enthusiast man came over and began chatting with us. He was thrilled to hear we were from Canada. We told him we would love to ice cupcakes and bake cakes all day. He told us to leave our resumes.
We sat on the edge of a fountain and we ate those cupcakes. Damn they were good. I love red velvet cake because it is often paired with cream cheese icing, which I love. It was only after we finished demolishing the cupcakes we realized we were sitting in front of a highly photographed fountain. We are now featured in the family photo albums of the multiple tourists who visited New York in January, 2015.