VACAY IN THE CITY

What to do this summer on a finite budget? That’s what I’ll be thinking. Being an entrepreneur and small business owner is no easy task. It calls for long hours, plenty of work and extremely disciplined spending habits. (Certainly no easy task for me.) So, what’s a girl or guy to do when you’re absolutely excited for Summer to hit but your bank account screams…chill! Well, I’ve learned over the last several months that New York City is beyond the best place to take a stay-cation. There is an infinite list of things to do and they all can be done on a finite budget.

My first suggestion, before doing anything, is to invest more time in your PERSONAL CARE REGIMEN. We often forget to recognize how important this quality time is. Even if it’s designated to a weekend Saturday in your own bathroom. Order the bath salt scrub sample travel set and mix all four aromatic blends together. I do it all the time and the experience never fails to transport my mind to a far away island somewhere. TRUST ME…the stuff is real.

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Once you’re all bathed up and smelling scrumptious, your Big Fun in the City can begin. You won’t miss those long airport lines and the scrutinizing baggage and body check before the gate.

For instance, a few weeks ago I went on a Chelsea Gallery hop with my home-girl E and her BBFF B. (Please don’t ask what this acronym stands for cause I’m really not sure myself.) It had been quite some time since I frolicked around that part of town on the hunt for a visual head trip. There were lots of massively huge scaled art work exposing all sorts of beauty, mania, architecture and kink! There was one particular work of a chic condominium residence with a 1960′s mod facade. Each apartment window revealed an intense life scene or incident of some kind. Some sexual, several unnecessarily violent and the rest…a bit perverted. This piece was probably the one we stood in front of the longest…too many windows.

The others, however, were shear beauty, immense color, joy, sorrow and wonder. I managed to grab catalog cards for three of them. The first, Anne Neely’s exhibit, Where There’s Water, a collection of abstract landscapes.

Where There's Water

The second, Liz Markus’s Hot Nights At The Regal Beagle. This is the piece I felt sorrow for. Doesn’t her make-up look an absolute mess?? No definition, no structure…just a blotch of what seems to be a beautiful woman. Perhaps she’s happy, perhaps she’s sad. Who knows?? Oh…right…it’s hot at the regal beagle, so her make-up melted…of course.

Hot Nights At The Regal Beagle

The last, and my absolute favorite, Ruud van Empel’s Dawn, Souvenir, World, Moon. Now I must warn you. Some of the work will have you wondering if my boy Ruud has pedophilia. Empel’s work is sublime beauty and vivid nature. The children, adorable and innocent, which is what makes me wonder from where Mr. Empel pulls his inspiration. My guess is he loves children as much I do, or anyone else for that matter. NOTE: Just because an adult loves, admires and cares for young people that are not his/her own, DOES NOT make them a pedophile. Any who, take a look at his work. It’s amazingly tropical, surprisingly and probably inappropriately exotic, and will certainly transport you, if only for a brief moment.