More cupcakes, immigrants, and pasta

(transcribed from paper journal)

I'm sitting at LGA trying to block out the annoying anime audio being loudly emitted from the laptop of the kid next to me. It is a beautiful sunny morning in NYC.

Yesterday, my sister arrived from Mexico in the morning looking sunkissed and resplendent, and we ate some breakfast and visited and she passed out.

Then Shelley and I headed out to meet the glorious Iz for lunch because no visit to NY is complete without seeing her and also for another round of cupcakes at Crumbs.

I had the mini-strawberry buttercream, and it was possibly the best cupcake I've ever had. I also had a caramel cafe au lait.

We headed to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which let's face it, I dragged her to. I just felt like we should go, partly because of Tateh and Little Girl in Ragtime and since we'd be seeing Little Girl all grown up later that night as Wendla in Spring Awakening. The museum was cool but not as cool I hoped it would be. My favorite part was seeing the different layers and patterns of linoleum on the floor. Maybe I'm morbid, but I wanted to hear more about diseases and squalor and fire and less about the set-up of the garment shop in the apartment. But I'm still glad we went.

After the museum, we went back to her apartment and fetched my sister and walked over to Cola's for Italian food. I had whole wheat penne with peas, asparagus, fennel, and marinara sauce, and we had bread dipped in olive oil and white beans. We had a good talk about religion, faith, and the search for and lack thereof. I started weeping and professing my love for them. My sister had penne with giant prawns and Shelley had salmon with pink sauce. Those are two smart, deep-thinking women. Then it was time to head to the show!!!