Today was glorious. Miraculous! Beautiful! Gorgeous! Unbelievable, even!

The people that swarmed the streets soaking up the sunshine seemed equal parts elated and befuddled. Many people were eager to jump into this premature Spring with both feet, donning short flowery dresses, sandals or shorts. Then there were the people walking around in coats and scarves, sweating and looking utterly perplexed at the sudden 20 degree rise in temperature. But everyone seemed happy with this little preview of warmer days to come.

I went out during lunch to feel the sunshine on my face and see where my feet took me. It felt almost wrong to walk outside with nothing but a cardigan over my t-shirt. Is this even allowed?! I’d forgotten that there are indeed large stretches of time, months in fact, when the air outside is warm enough that you don’t have to layer up to protect yourself before stepping out the door. Funny how seasons do that to you; how quickly we forget! Today I am grateful for the changing seasons, so I can appreciate each season in stark contrast with the others.

Turned out my feet took me to the Urban Outfitters around the corner on 60th and 3rd. This particular store has a fond place in my heart and will always bring back memories.

When I was 18 my parents brought me to NYC for the first time. We rode into the city across the Queensboro Bridge in a town car, my face pressed to the window trying to take it all in; the skyline, the buildings, the people, the pigeons. My dad was explaining the basic geography of the city to me, telling me that we’d be passing Central Park soon, and then we’d head down to Times Square and our hotel. A weekend of shopping and exploring and good food stretched before us. The possibilities were endless. Then I saw it.

“Urban Outfitters!!” I exclaimed. “We have to go there while we’re here.” And as the car whizzed by and Urban disappeared, we added it to our list of shopping destinations for the weekend.

Throughout the rest of the weekend, as we shopped and ate and explored, in the back of our minds was our search for Urban Outfitters. We were not familiar enough with the layout of the city to know or remember exactly where we were when I spotted the store. We asked around, but no one seemed to be able to tell us where it was. This was before the days of smart phones (how did we ever survive without smart phones?!), which would’ve made finding it a snap. It was quite frustrating, and I was sure that we would leave New York without having visited the store.

At the end of our trip we went to lunch at Serendipity, and what should we find as we walked around the corner but the very Urban Outfitters I had spotted from the car on the first day! It seemed very serendipitous at the time, and I shopped through that store triumphant, hugging my funky new purchases to my chest in glee.

So now every time I visit that store location I am reminded of my first trip to NYC and our tireless search for the Urban Outfitters. And I am grateful for my iPhone. Because seriously, how did I ever survive without it?!

Anyway. Today there were sales! Cardigans marked down from $48 to $13! It was fantastic.

I chatted with my mom on the phone as I rifled through the sale racks, checking price tags. She and my dad and brother are in Arizona this weekend visiting my other brother and his wife and baby. And she told me that the weather in Arizona is 67 degrees and sunny, which means that it was as warm here today as it was in Arizona! That is something to celebrate. Because Arizona has some seriously lovely weather this time of year.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be chilly again. But we’ve had that first taste of Spring, and that’s enough to carry us through these last weeks of winter, that promise of sunshine and warmer days ahead.