Eloise gets evicted

After a stunningly beautiful day spent sprawled on the Lawn in Central Park (1010 Wins called it a "bonus day" since it was supposed to rain), my friend J(NY) and I hit the Plaza to buy some of their stuff.

Did anyone else know that they (whoever "they" may be) are gutting the Plaza and selling all the stuff? It's a total free for all. Everything from bathrobes to towels to dirty wine glasses to ramekins to lamps to all the furniture in the building. And the whole place is wide open so you can walk up to the suites overlooki ng the Park and 57th Street and just gape. (Or lean out the window, as one tourist dared me to do and I happily complied.) Needless to say, we had a field day. It was like a playful remake of The Shining, with two 30 year old chicks with slight sunburns racing from room to room in a deserted luxury hotel, trying to figure out how to pry those marble fireplaces off and get them to DC.

It was also one of the saddest spectacles you can imagine: this grande dame hotel left shivering in her knickers while all her clothes get sold piecemeal.

Other interesting finds -- the men's monogrammed slippers are of a much higher quality than the women's. We had a little snit over that. Also, the Plaza used a lot of cheap crystal, which saddened me. I'm sure the good stuff went the first day of the sale (which I hear was some time ago), but this was crap. MY stuff is better than this. Finally, we saw some folks who were obvisly sneaking into the rooms to have a last minute roll in the hay at the Plaza. Bare mattress, spray paint on the walls. Could be a crack den, but it's really the Plaza. And that's just irresistible.