Personal Tale

To Bare Old Scars

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It’s summer again and time to unwrap the long sleeves and high necks and reveal skin. I am not averse to baring skin  – but with it come a bevy of stares and questions. Already, children in my daughter’s pre-k class are pointing at the long red scar that dissects my chest and asking what it is.

A scar, I say, or a boo boo that is healing. They look uneasy at the response, I guess because that boo boo is pretty red and jagged. It begins just below my collarbones with a nubbly mass that has formed a keloid and continues down my chest, resembling exactly what it is: a knife cut. To top it off and make it even more sensitive, the keloid has formed on top of a bump, which is a cluster of wires used to fuse my bones post surgery.

The scar is almost four years old now, and the result of emergency open-heart surgery to remove an aortic aneurysm and replace a faulty heart valve with a mechanical one. Sadly, I found out the hard way, that I am prone to keloid scars, which are not only unattractive to look at but incredibly sensitive to touch.

There are days when my 5 year-old jumps on me, thrusting her head at my chest in loving play, and I shriek in agony as she swipes my scar. Or I bump it as I open a drawer or remove jewelry, and it brings tears to my eyes from the throbbing pain. Even just being exposed to sun can be agonizing as the skin sort of dries and contracts, no matter how much sunblock I smother on it, resulting in a uncomfortable, sunburn-like itch.

Magic Solutions?

Of course, there are things you can do to minimize such scars, I’ve been told repeatedly by well-meaning friends and doctors. So, a few weeks back, I went in search of one of these magic solutions. I made an appointment with a cosmetic dermatologist on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The doctor came with a great reputation, swanky rooms and a staff of sweet, leggy blondes of indeterminate age. Sitting in the waiting room, you could feel women looking at each other wondering what each was “having done.”

I was assured the good doctor could help me out with all sorts of non-invasive treatments, including lasers and other scar-zapping devices. But nothing is ever so easy. During a consultation (ka-ching), the doctor informed me that there were indeed great solutions for my scar but first we had to deal with the keloid and the only way to do that was to inject cortisone into the swollen, angry-looking mass.

I had this exact procedure once before in 2008 when I was visiting Australia, and it was the most mind-numbingly painful thing I had ever experienced.  After some back and forth though, I agreed to give it another shot (literally!).

The doctor tossed her blonde locks reassuringly and swabbed my scar with liquid nitrogen to help freeze the location and hopefully ease the pain. It didn’t.

Scared + Scarred

I am pretty pain tolerant but the pinch of the needle sliding in and out of the scar had me clawing  the bed, knuckles white and eyes watering until I broke down into full-blown sobbing and begged her to stop. I bore two children with no medication, and this, I told the doctor, was more grueling.

The poor doctor wanted so desperately to help me; and my sobbing unnerved her. I paid my hefty bill and left the offices in a pained daze. As I walked across town toward Central Park to gather my thoughts, I kept wondering why I had put myself through the procedure again knowing how much I loathed it. I tried in vain to ring my husband, fearing that I may just pass out in front of Bergdorf Goodman and be trampled by hoardes of fanny-pack-wearing tourists.

Would I come back in three weeks or so for another treatment, the doctor had asked before I left. She wanted to see how the scar responded and hopefully take another well-intentioned jab at it. Well, three weeks is up and I am in limbo. Admittedly the scar looks a tad better and is not as sore, but can I take another round with a steroid-filled needle?

Raves, Style

Walk Towards the (Lime) Light

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When I gave up at the DVF sample sale opening day, I headed downtown along Sixth Ave, and checked out the hot new Limelight Marketplace. Inside the 163-year-old  church-turned-nightclub, the shiny new market (mall?)  is a candybox assortment of mostly high-end pop-up stores, with one of the prettiest and probably priciest “food halls” to boot. I picked up a new pair of Havaiana flip-flops at $18 but if it’s Petrossian caviar, Mariebelle chocolates or a bikini wax from J Sisters you’re after, the Limelight Marketplace has it. The marketplace is at 656 Sixth Avenue at 20th Street. It’s open Monday to Saturday 10am to 9pm, and Sundays 11am to 8pm.

Eating Out, Events

Opa! It’s Greek Festival Time Again

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It’s that time of the year again when I acknowledge my Greek heritage and schlep the family to the Sts. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in downtown Brooklyn for some fabulous food.

It’s all about the lamb and potatoes, sticky Greek baklava and kataifi and the loukoumades dripping with syrup, made by tireless Greek mothers and grandmothers lurking in our community. They work hard through this festival, feeding masses of Greeks and non-Greeks alike.

Every year, as I am noshing on lamb and missing my own mother and grandmother’s cooking, I vow to go to church more and become a part of Brooklyn’s Greek community. And then another year rolls by and so it goes. Thank goodness for the annual festival to serve as a reminder to me of where I came from – before the Australia and New York parts that is.

Oh, and if the Greek food and dancing doesn’t lure you, there are carnival rides and sideshows to captivate the kids and empty your pockets too.

The festival is at 64 Schermerhorn St. until June 13. It opens weekdays at 11am, and 1pm  Saturday until late, and Sunday 1pm to 4pm.

Events, Style

Lines, Lines + More Lines at DVF Sale

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I am not usually one to give up but the lines at the DVF sample sale did me in today.

Queueing along Fifth ...

I was about 15 shoppers away from getting through that hallowed door when the cold (yep it was cold standing in the shade all that time) and the seemingly-endless wait made me farewell the new friends I braved the line with for almost one-and-a-half hours, and head elsewhere.

I arrived right on 9am to find a line stretching along Fifth Ave. and around the corner to about half-way down 28thSt.  There were at least 200 women at that stage, all around size 2-to-4, sipping coffee, trawling the Internet and making phone calls; it was a friendly, if antsy scene as we took bets on how long it would be before we could even see the door. Some half-hour later, I made it from 28th onto the Fifth Ave. line, and then it took another 30 minutes to the front of that queue, at which point a suited young man with one arm in a sling, ushered us forward to the line outside the door. I gave it 30 minutes or so there before calling it a day.

almost there, just one more line ...

I had places to be and children to collect from school. I figured by the time I got through the bag check, looked around and possibly got on another killer line to pay, my children would be en route to a police station with child protection workers!

Will I try again? Maybe. But for now I can report that the sale seemed to be some kind of black hole, people were let in – hundreds and hundreds of them – but they came out in dribs and drabs, and some people never seemed to make it out.

Mind you, pretty much everyone coming out did have a large white bag, so there was some shopping going on. A lot of people were pulling handbags from their shopping, showing that the demand for DVF accessories was alive and well.

I’d love to give you tips on the best time to go, but frankly, I’m not sure that there is a good time. Certainly not first thing in morning when people stop-by on the way to work. And avoid bringing a large bag that will have to be checked, if you want to save time. Someone in line also suggested having cash, to cut the credit card queue.

The sale is at 260 Fifth Ave. between 28th and 29th streets. It continues Wednesday 10am to 8pm, Thursday 10am to 7pm and Friday 9am to 3pm. 

Events, Style

It’s a DVF Wrap! 75%-Off Sample Sale

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DVF's Hesta Dress in Sand Palms

I feel like a wrap dress is something everyone should have in the closet: Diane von Furstenburg’s iconic wraps are classic, easy-to-wear and and on sale this week.

Get DVF’s boldly patterned summer styles for up to 75 percent off at the sample sale beginning tomorrow, Tuesday June 8. Signature silk jersey wraps that can take you from work to a wedding, cocktails to dinner, are marked around $150, down from $325. And swim cover-ups, including bright kaftans ideal poolside or at the beach, are $100 from $250.

I’ll be scouring the racks in search of the Hesta dress pictured left, or anything similarly chic. The sale opens to the public from 9am Tuesday to 6.30pm; Wednesday 10am to 8pm, Thursday 10am to 7pm and Friday 9am to 3pm. It’s at 260 Fifth Ave., between 28th and 29th streets.

Events, Rants

BKLYN Yard Shuttered

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It is bad enough that it is crazy hot and I have been outside at my son’s Field Day since 9.30am, but now I get word that BKLYN Yard is closed for business. As quickly as I fell in love with that oasis on the stinky Gowanus Canal, it is gone.

The folk at Mean Red Productions, say last weekend – which was a bonanza with events including Score! Free Pop-Up Swap and Parked, where some of the city’s hottest food trucks gathered and fed thousands for the holiday weekend – was the finale. The landlord apparently won’t honor or even renegotiate the lease on the Carroll Street property and has told Mean Red to take their four-year vision elsewhere.

The landlord “requested that we take what we have built, and terminate all of our confirmed plans and schedule for BKLYN Yard this summer, ” Mean Read, the production, marketing and promotions company that dreamed up the yard concept, says in a posting on the BKLYN Yard web page.

They may be down, but definitely not out: “Rest assured our renegade spirit and love for pop-up spaces will come alive again this summer — very possibly with the same collaborators and programming you see on our current schedule… And very possibly even better than we had planned before,” says Mean Red.

Meantime, Doug Singer, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter’s Sunday Best series will continue on at another location, including this Sunday with DJ Koze. To find out where, keep an eye on www.sundaybestnyc.com.

Just when it looked like there was a grassy patch to loll about on through hot summer days … good luck Mean Red and keep us posted …

Eating Out

Southern-Style Seersucker Opens On Smith

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There’s yet another new restaurant on Smith Street; Seersucker has just opened its doors with a Southern menu, complete with shrimp and grits and deviled eggs.

Seersucker Opens on Smith

I was in the nail salon next door this morning when an older lady walked in shaking her head and commenting on “the names they come up with for these places … seersucker,” she bemoaned.

Seersucker, of course, is a bumpy, woven cotton, often in blue and white stripes or checks, considered a summer mainstay for gentlemen’s suits, especially in the South, where the light fabric was favored in the hot, humid months.

Nevermind the name; it’s a nice-looking place and the menu will lure anyone in need of chicken and dumplings, pickled okra or pimento cheese. Personally, I want to try to the biscuit box:  3 or 6 biscuits served with seasonal jellies, preserves and butter.

Right now, the restaurant opens at 5.30pm for dinner but there are plans afoot to serve lunch and brunch down the track. Oh, and in the tradition of all popular neighborhood spots, Seersucker takes reservations only for groups of six or larger. It does, however,  buck the trend by accepting all major credit cards.

Seersucker takes the spot of Pita Grill at 329 Smith Street, near President Street in Carroll Gardens: Phone: 718.422.0444.

Eating Out

Bagels, Pizza for 3rd Ave. Wasteland

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mmm bagelz

I am always happy to see my neck of the woods spruced up with things that will be useful to me, especially the spartan span of Third Avenue characterized by auto shops that I trek along twice a day to and from my children’s school.

Enter Tony Bagelz – the name alone makes me laugh out loud. Tony was a co-founder of Park Slope fixture La Bagel Delight on Seventh Avenue, honing his knowledge of the bagel business over the years. But as a local who seems to know everyone around, he wanted to do something for his neighborhood, and so his own bagel shop-slash-mini-mart was born.

The bagels are pretty good; the coffee is tasty; the service is super friendly and best of all for any clean freaks out there, it is nice and new and clean inside. Out back there is a large patio area with tables and umbrellas, which I can see becoming handy for local parents needing someplace to stop and feed their kids on the way home from nearby schools Rivendell and PS 372, The Children’s School.

Tony says he’s planning to install some sort of water feature outside, too.

The new spot is a stone’s throw from Crooked Tail Café but the vibe is so much cheerier, and comes complete with an ATM and last-minute necessities like milk, juice, toilet paper and Italian bread for the evening dinner, so I don’t see Crooked Tail snatching much business from Tony Bagelz.

Also on track to open very soon is a revived pizzeria on the corner of Third and Carroll streets, where Bella Maria was until a few months back before quietly pulling down the shutters and joining nearby landmark Monte’s Venetian Room, whose claim to fame was being the oldest restaurant in Brooklyn dating back to 1906.

New owners are moving into the Bella Maria digs, with a June 1stopening slated. The boys who’ve been toiling to empty the restaurant and get it ready for its new life say the place will be called Benvenuto, which means “welcome” in Italian. They also say there will be an adjoining Italian ice joint, which is going to make my daily stroll up Carroll Street a living hell each summer day as my kids beg for an ice.

Still, it will be nice to see some life back on that corner.

Tony Bagelz is at 284 Third Avenue. The new pizza spot is on the corner of Carroll and Third and Crooked Tail Cafe is at 272 Third Avenue.

Events, Raves, Style

Score! At Swap Til You Drop Pop-Up Store This Saturday

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Ever wish you could clear out all of your old, unused, unworn, unread stuff and swap it for fresh things, be it books, clothes or cool homewares: Well, get thee to BKLYN Yard this Saturday, May 29 for the next pop-up “free store” Score!

Here’s how it works: you take your old clothes, books, electronics and tsotchkes and drop them at the door, where volunteers sort them and distribute them to themed departments. Then professional curators – this time Etsy, Brooklyn hackerspace AlphaOne, vintage fashionistas Market Publique and the bookish crew from Desk Set are among the all-star curating team – pulling it all together and merchandising the unwanted items into boutique-like displays.

Then, you get to go shopping for NOTHING. And while you’re loading up on freebies, there’s music and other artsy carryings-on to keep you amused. Anything left at the end of the day gets recycled or donated to charity.

Departments this year have been expanded to include clothing for men and women, books + media, electronics, music, housewares, bikes, crafts and a kiddie corner. Start clearing out that closet, because the last two Scores! have drawn more than 1,000 people apiece.

The only catch is there is a $3 cover with RSVP here; and $5 if you don’t RSVP. But hey, think of all the stuff you can offload and the new things to take home.

Score! is on this Saturday from noon to 6pm at BKLYN Yard, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins. In case it rains, the rain date is Saturday, June 5.