In the vintage mood

saturday was leisurely spent wandering in the east village and soho in the search of a perfect vintage store.

we walked out of our building quite late and made our way downtown by foot.  walking apparently our favorite way of transportation...especially after hours of sitting next to the computer.

5th avenue was our road...

we took some pictures of the windows at bergdorf goodman

(burlesque-looking girls)

and saks fifth avenue... (i loved those ice-cream chairs) 

we passed madison square park 

 and festive shake shack 

i thought i could find some nice frames at the  artist supply store, but found only a cat

that was nice enough to let her pet.

we found really good stuff at gramercy furniture store (we will come back once moved to our new apartment in summer)

cute little couple in one of the vintage stores...

 a hidden bookstore

we checked several recommended vintage shops in the east village and our favorite became tokio 7 located on e. 7th street. that shop scored many amazing designers and boasted great selection of vintage dresses, shoes, shirts, sweaters, coats, vintage jewelry, bags and so on. askhad was trying on jackets and totally liked one from dior, which was a bit tight on his back. disappointment!

unfortunately i didn't make any pictures inside since was quite  busy myself looking through expansive racks of dresses and shelves full of shoes.  we came late and had only twenty-thirty minutes since the store was already closing
... surely we will come back again...


we stopped at a nearby coffee shop for some late evening cappuccino and were enjoying the music played there. shazam could not identify any of the songs... as we've  learned later -barista played his own  music. you can find  him on soundcloud.com if search for brightfuture. i really hope that his music future will be bright...

The week in recap...

this and previous week were somewhat busy for  us...

we had some fun time nevertheless.

we went to metropolitan opera to see faust in modern interpretation...

we went out to recently opened "upscale" russian restaurant/lounge in the west village, called "onegin"and saw a burlesque show

i ran a lot in central park, sometimes askhad joined me too

i did yoga at sonicyoga studio 

our review course for internal medicine boards  which called "awesome review" also started this week. me and my colleagues spend five hours twice a week listening to lectures. so far we got two sessions on hematology and rheumatology and have more to come. i can say i really like this course. 

we went to equinox sport club for a trial with askhad, i ran on a treadmill and did some yoga on my own- my usual routine.  running on the treadmill can be boring, especially long-distance, but the weather outside was pretty crappy-rain, wind, cold.

pigeon pose

 akina also was a lucky girl cause we took her to a dog run on several occasions

 she enjoys socializing with other dogs a lot...

Staying active!

i always loved exercising. physical education at school was o-kay  for the most part, but i  really hated running though.  instead i preferred something fancier like dancing.  in the end of secondary school  i ‘ve got this  videotaped  workout of cindy crawford  from my mom’s friend  and  could not get enough of it- i  liked everything from music, accompanying lunges  to revlon’s makeup commercials with gorgeous cindy, wearing red lipstick in between workout sets.

during my first two years of medical school i  didn't have much time to exercise but surely was dancing my butt off  at the nearby dancing club ( where my  girlfriends and sisters would go 2-3 or more times per week).  we stayed quite late and surprisingly went to school in the morning without much trouble.

where those times???

someday my mom decided that we need to have fun sundays aka waking up early in the morning (the only one day off from med school when I did not have to wake up after night spent in the night club on saturday) and go to far -located gym to play volleyball with some random people. mom lured me with the opportunity to play tennis there as well so i could not resist her pleas to join her. luckily on our third or fourth  visit we met a nicest person ever, she was a step-aerobic  trainer and invited us to join her class. i totally fell in love with her step class and was such a  dedicated student that after year and a half of those workouts decided to  become a step trainer myself and got some formal education. 

i was lucky again to meet another amazing girl who was leading “belly dance” class in  the former sport school  not far from my home and i  joined her to teach my own classes which were a mix of belly dance, aerobics, strength training and stretch, (yes, that was quite a mix!). it started slowly with 3-4 clients in the room expanding to the full house thanks to popularity wave of belly dancing in our city.

in the matter of a few month i was roaming around astrakhan after med school wards to teach my  signature aerobic/belly dance classes and  fulfilling my love for dance. at some point i was involved with 5 -6 different locations-  little aerobic studios were popping up like mushrooms after the rain.  i was getting great work outs myself and was getting paid very well,  double win! 

Snowing in New York!

today we finally got some snow in new york. a real-real snow, that covered up streets, cars, benches, trees.  not that i am particularly happy with that weather , but it started feeling a little bit more like a winter here. messy streets are inevitable though, snow already is turning into grey water-ish substance under the action of  ice- melting particles that are generously thrown on the streets and waterproof rain-boots are the best option for roaming around the city.

 it was really fun to watch how our little shiba-inu akina got all excited  about the snow as we walked outside.  

akina was jumping all around- so it was really hard to capture her, unless you hold her tight.

and who does not like a run in the snow?

streets  already started to look messy...

but park looked amazing... covered in the snow

akina always behaves like a truly hunting dog...ready to run after squirrels and birds...

Salad a day...

Today is the day off for me and it started of a very energizing run in central park. i ran the  whole outer loop- as usual.
surprisingly i don't get bored with the same route over and over again. i think it's because i quite often change the time i go for a run (morning vs evening)- and central park scenery never seize to amaze me, especially in the daytime.
also good music on the playlist is crucial!!!!
it was freezing outside today, i came back with rosy cheeks, feeling really good and...hungry.

i love salads for lunch and sometimes for dinner. you can get creative with your salad as you wish- mix, add and substitute ingredients, play with the dressings.
salads, you know, never get boring. you can make them light, you can make them savory and protein- packed, low-fat, no-fat, yes- (healthy) fat,  make it completely raw. i can continue on and on, singing my  ode to salad.

so today i  tossed together cabbage, carrots, spinach, avocado, sprouts, bell pepper, tomatoes, radishes, and raw pumpkin seeds dressed with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice for a healthy meal. 

 Here is my "Healthy and Energizing Cabbage'n Avocado Salad"

Cabbage and carrot slaw first 

 then add up  sprouted red lentils and carbanzo beans (can be easily substituted with canned or cooked garbanzo beans)

of, course- avocado- always present in my salads (great source of healthy fat)

tomatoes- yes please!

 radishes to add some vitamins and pretty colors

red bell peppers

 and tons of spinach or any other green leaves you wish to substitute

add some pumpkin seeds to garnish

mix it up! add salt, pepper according to your taste buds,
as well as a bit of olive oil and may be lemon juice-all  as 
you wish 

and  enjoy your vitamin-packed salad!

what you will need for the " Healthy and Energizing Salad":
-  spinach (or any other green leaves) one-three cups
-  one small white cabbage or half of medium
-  two medium carrots
- one bell pepper
-  one avocado
- garbanzo beans (chickpeas- canned or sprouted) 1/3 -1/2 cups
- one-two medium tomatoes
- one bunch of radishes
- salt, pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil with a bit of lemon juice for dressing (if desired)
- pumpkin or sunflower seeds to garnish

Metropolitan museum date

it was quite a cold and windy day yesterday in new york.

so instead of skating in the park we decided to spent some quality time in museum. we have not been in metropolitan since summer (our last check was alexander mcqueen exhibition)

metropolitan, no doubt, amazing museum, boasting great collections of art but for me hermitage in sankt-petersburg still remains the most breathtaking  and beautiful museum in the world , i felt almost  homesick when i made comparison between two of them.

we headed to the new exhibition featuring the renaissance portrait from donatello to bellini, unfortunately photography was prohibited there so we couldn't take any pictures.

source- wikipedia
i was completely mesmerized by the  portrait of a young woman by boticelli. 

we also checked the collection of islamic art- metropolitan museum of art houses one of the largest and comprehensive collections in the world.

for a man that's a masterpiece of art



just a small glimpse on amazing collection....

we stayed until museum started to close for the evening - which is pretty late- 9pm. twice a week museum stays open until 9 pm - fridays and saturdays making it a perfect place for a date

it occurs to me that we should make museum night outs more frequently -especially when the weather  is against long walks outside.