I haven’t been doing a lot of “fun” things lately. Correction, I haven’t been doing a lot of fun things besides working on the blog. I’ve been very inspired and motivated lately, I have a bunch of post outlines written that just need to be fleshed out when I get an outfit shot for it…and some that are just titles to remind me of an idea I had for a post. And I’m feeling so excited about all my upcoming ideas! But the net of it all is that I haven’t been getting out much. Like with people. 

I don’t know about other cities, but in NY a new trend is “interactive/augmented reality experiences.” They’re mostly pop-ups, lasting just a short time…several days to several months…and they’re usually pretty pricey. Things like The World of Ice Cream or Tomatoland or 29 Rooms. They’re full of “Instagramable Moments,” and you see pictures of people having fun (or at least curated) experiences all over the internet. I’m all for a fun photo opp, but I usually skip because of the ticket prices ($46 seems to be the norm). So when I saw a FREE one, I jumped on tickets for me and a friend.

It was called Showfields. It turns out that it (which is quite brilliant, really) is actually a shopping experience, with separate shoppable opportunities of things you would normally only be able to purchase online. But here you can see, try, smell them and leave with your new purchase and no shipping charge. The reason this is not just a STORE, is that the 3-story space was also filled with experiences and photo opps. People take cute pics in the candy room or the pink room or with the scarf-wearing antelope…and they post them on IG, FB, etc. OTHER people see ALL! THE! FUN! and they want to go there, too…and when they show up for their scheduled 30-minute session (so nothing is ever overcrowded, keeping you from enjoying the experience as much as possible), they also see all the products for sale. It’s just a different way of marketing. They give John Q. Public some fun things to do and in turn, he advertises their wares on his social platforms. Pretty genius, if you ask me.

We started out by riding the elevator up to the 3rd floor, where we wandered through cubicles showing off cute planners, vintage records, dog bandanas, beautiful handbags and more. Then our small group met in front of an all-white bookcase where our guide opened a secret door and we entered a small area with a tube slide (you know those things at playgrounds?), which we used to slide down from the 3rd floor to the 2nd. THIS WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER.

EVER.

On the second floor we took selfies with a new brand of cell phone, controlled scrolling digital artwork, scrubbed away some dead skin on our hands with a vegan skin scrub, helped the “chef” wash dishes with a scrubby sponge that tells you when it’s time to throw it out, and tasted a 100% all-juice, nothing added, powdered juice blend for juicing on the go.

Back on the first floor we stopped into the cafe where I had some kind of blue latte (I forget what the flavor was, and honestly it looked better than it tasted, but…I always like to try the thing I’ve never tasted…and sometimes you win that game and sometimes you lose).

It was definitely an interesting experience, and hey, FREE.

Then we walked 17.3 miles to a lunch place named Jane (after my cat) where we had a lovely brunch and I got a free second Mimosa for mysterious reasons, but hey…FREE. On the way back we stopped into an interesting-looking architectural salvage and antique shop where I coveted giant gilt-framed mirrors, drippy goo-gah crystal chandeliers, and cool old metal animal-head-shaped hooks.

By the time we got back to the car I was exhausted and feeling a little crampy again. But we talked and laughed a lot all day and overall had a really fun, good day.

AND IT WAS ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE.

When I got home, I got straight into bed which I never do, and promptly fell asleep. I woke up three hours later, gripped with pain. My several-year-old, large kidney stone was on the move and had gotten stuck. I’ve actually been feeling crampy and achey there for a couple weeks but it hadn’t progressed to PAIN until Sunday night. When I woke up the pain already had a pretty good hold…and prescription drugs can never catch up (for me, anyway) once the pain has already really started. You’ve got to take pain-killers BEFORE there’s pain. Cuz THAT makes sense. I took two painkillers but it was too late.

Anyway, after seven hours of writhing around in pain, trying to find the least painful position (SPOILER ALERT: there IS no painless position when you have a stuck kidney stone), and a LOT of pain vomiting, I couldn’t take it anymore and at 3am, called 911 for an ambulance. I’ve never done that before and I felt stupid. EMTs and ambulances are for real EMERGENCIES…not me and my dopey kidney stones. But I wasn’t going to wake up my landlords at 3am or call a friend at that hour…and I’ve had the experience before of telling a taxi (pre-Uber) I needed to go to the emergency room and they were like Not in MY Taxi and refused to get me. So…ambulance.

At the ER I got the nectar of the gods: morphine (though I have to say this was my LEAST magical experience with morphine – I feel like they’re making ALL pain killers weaker and weaker…AND giving you less and less). But eventually it took hold and I got some peace. Pee’d in a cup, had a cat scan, tried to doze in-between people coming in to wake and poke and prod me. Apparently I also have a UTI, for which I’ve had no symptoms, so who knew. They set me free just before 8am. I called an Uber to get me and when I got home, I got in my car to pick up my plethora of prescriptions and easy comfort food from the market.

The rest of the day is a blur of trying to read, napping on the sofa, cream of chicken soup and phone calls from people checking up on me. I’ve been taking the pain killers every four hours at the instruction of the ER doctor…but I’m afraid to go to sleep tonight. I think I’ll set my alarm to wake me in time to take the next pill. I don’t want to wake up again already having lost the pain battle.

I have an appointment with my urologist on Friday and hopefully we can fix this little problem.

So. That was my exciting 3-day weekend.

The End.

What I Wore: